45, sketched from the life.

~241~~

resting his back against the defunct Grecian. A diminutive little
cripple, Johnny Holloway, was sleeping between his legs, upon whose head
Tom had fixed a wig of immense size, crowned with an opera hat and a
fox's tail for a feather. "Now to bury the dead," said Eglantine; "let
in the lads, Mark." "Now we shall have a little sport, old fellows,"
said Echo: "come, Transit, where are your paints and brushes?" In a
minute the whole party were most industriously engaged in disfiguring
the objects around us by painting their faces, some to resemble
tattooing, while others were decorated with black eyes, huge mustachios,
and different embellishments, until it would have been impossible for
friend or relation to have recognised any one of their visages. This
ceremony being completed, old Mark introduced a new collection of
worthies, who had been previously instructed for the sport; these were,
I found, no other than the well-known Oxford _cads_, Marston Will,
Tom Webb, Harry Bell, and Dick Rymal,{29} all out and outers, as Echo
reported, for a spree with the gown, who had been regaled at some
neighbouring public house by Eglantine, to be in readiness for the
wind-up of his eccentric entertainment; to the pious care of these
worthies were consigned the strange-looking mortals who surrounded
us. The plan was, I found, to carry them out quietly between two men,
deposit them in a cart which they had in waiting, and having taken them
to the water-side, place them in a barge and send them drifting down the
water in the night to Iffley, where their consternation on recovering
the next morning and strange appearance would be sure to create a source
of merriment both for the city and university. The instructions were
most punctually obeyed, and the amusement the freak afterwards afforded
the good people of Oxford will not very

29 Well-known sporting cads, who are always ready to do a
good turn for the _togati_, either for sport or spree.

~242~~quickly be forgotten. Thus ended the spread--and now having taken
more than my usual quantity of wine, and being withal fatigued by the
varied amusements of the evening, I would fain have retired to rest: but
this, I found, would be contrary to good fellowship, and not at all in
accordance with _college principles_. "We must have a spree" said Echo,
"by way of finish, the rum ones are all shipped off safely by this
time--suppose we introduce Bl