ant of
rest, and near a tremulous step and heavy half-closed eye was observed,
pacing across the marble floor, with hand pressed to his _os frontis_,
as if a thousand odd and sickly fantasies inhabited that chamber of the
muses. Now two friends might be seen, supporting a third, whose ghastly
aspect bespoke him fresh in the sacred mysteries of college parties and
of Bacchus; but who had, nevertheless, undergone a tolerable seasoning
on the previous night. There a jolly Nimrod, who had just cleared the
college walls, and reached his rooms time enough to cover his hunting
frock and boots with his academicals, was seen racing along, to 'scape
the _prick bill's_ report, with his round hunting cap in his hand, in
lieu of the square tufted trencher of the schools. Night-caps thrown off
in the entry--shoes and stockings tied in the aisle--a red slipper and
the black jockey boot decorating one pair of legs was no uncommon sight;
while on every side rushed forward the anxious group with gowns on one
arm, or trailing after them, or loosely thrown around the shoulders to
escape tribulation, with here and there a sentimental-looking personage
of portly habit and solemn gait moving slowly on, filled up the motley
picture. The prayers were, indeed, brief, and ~271~~hurried through with
a rapidity that, I dare say, is never complained of by the _togati_;
but is certainly little calculated to impress the youthful mind with any
serious respect for these relics of monkish custom, which, after all,
must be considered more in the light of a punishment for those who are
compelled to attend than any necessary or instructive service connected
with the true interests of orthodoxy. In a quarter of an hour the whole
group had dispersed to their respective rooms, and within the five
minutes next ensuing, I should suppose, the greater part were again
comfortably deposited beneath their bedclothes, snoozing away the time
till ten or twelve, to make up for these inroads on the slumbers of the
previous night. A few hours spent in my friend's rooms, lolling on the
sofa, while the scout prepared breakfast, and Tom decorated his person,
brought the awful hour of the morning, when all who had taken any very
conspicuous share in the events of the previous night were likely to
hear of their misdoings, and receive a summons to appear before the
vice-chancellor in the Divinity school, better known by the name
of _Golgotha_, or the place of skulls, (see Plate);