cal of some
gentleman-commoner hung up as a trophy by the town raff. Broken windows
and shutters torn from their hinges, and missiles of every description
covering the ground, from the terrific Scotch paving-pebble torn up
from the roads, to the spokes of coach-wheels, and the oaken batons, and
fragments of lanterns belonging to the town watch, skirts of coats,
and caps, and remnants of _togas_ both silken and worsted, bespoke the
quality of the heroes of the fray; while here and there a poor terrified
wretch was exposing his addle head to the mildews of the night-damp,
fearing a revival of the contest, or anxiously watching the return of
husband, brother, father, or son.{3}

3 This picture of an Oxford row is not, as the general
reader might imagine, the mere fiction of the novelist, but
the true description of a contest which occurred some few
years since; the leading features of which will be (although
the names have been, except in one or two instances,
studiously suppressed) easily recognised by many of the
present sons of Alma Mater who shared in the perils and
glory of the battle. To those who are strangers to the
sacred city, and these casual effervescences of juvenile
spirit, the admirable graphic view of the scene by my friend
Bob Transit (see plate) will convey a very correct idea.

To the credit of the more respectable and wealthy class of
Oxford citizens it should be told, they are now too sensible
of their own interest, and, besides, too well-informed to
mix with these civil disturbances; the lower orders,
therefore, finding themselves unequal to the contest without
their support, submit to the _togati_; and thus the civil
wars that have raged in Oxford with very little interruption
from the days of Alfred seem for the present extinguished.

~259~~

On our arrival at the Mitre, poor Mrs. Peake, half frightened to death,
was up and busy in administering to the sufferers various consolatory
draughts composed of bishop, and flesh and blood{4} and _rumbooze_;
while the chambermaids, and Peake, and the waiters were flying about
the house with warm water, and basins, and towels, to the relief of
the numerous applicants, who all seemed anxious to wash away the dirty
remembrances of the disgusting scene.

Hitherto I had been so busily engaged in defending myself and preserving
my friends, that I had not a moment f