ways very decent to me, and when
he heard that Ward, Dennison, Collier, Lambert and I were going to
finish the evening at The Reindeer he asked me to come home in the
brake, but that gibe of Dennison's was heavy upon me and I had
determined to stick to my promise and do whatever came my way. I did
not expect that the evening was going to be anything but a rowdy one,
for when Lambert did undertake a thing he went at it most zealously.
First of all he got Ward to wire and ask Bunny Langham to drive over
about ten o'clock and fetch us all back, and then he asked four or five
of the most comical people in the Burtington team to come to The
Reindeer after dinner and help at a smoking concert. All of the
Burtington team came and a number of their friends, in fact I should
think that nearly all the labourers in the village were entertained by
us during the evening. Mr. Plumb began by being very pleased, and the
evening ended in what local newspapers call "harmony," which is the
most polite way of saying that any one sang who liked and that the
discord was something terrible. I sang a solo, the first and last time
I have ever done such a thing, but I was rapturously applauded by an
audience who were more kind and thirsty than critical. My song was
"Tom Bowling," at least Ward said it was more like "Tom Bowling" than
anything else.

At half-past ten Bunny Langham had not come, and by some means or other
it was necessary that we should reach Oxford before twelve o'clock.
Dennison suggested that we should have a "go-as-you-please" contest
back to St. Cuthbert's, but Collier was not disposed to enter for a
race in which he was bound to be last, and told us that if we were
fools enough to go seven miles in an hour and a half, he would trouble
us to rout up some don when we got back to college and say that he had
been taken seriously unwell in Burlington, but hoped to be better in
the morning. A man, who called himself a veterinary surgeon, but was
described by Mr. Plumb as a cow-doctor, said he would give Collier a
certificate of ill-health; I do not remember from what disease he was
supposed to be suffering. The idea, however, of rushing seven miles as
hard as we could was crushed by Lambert, who was in a kind of "coach
and four" mood and very abusive. He secured Mr. Plumb and having
pushed him into a corner stated that he required a pair of horses and a
wagonette, but Mr. Plumb was not in a condition to be addressed in
te