Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850 by Various
page 58 of 71 (81%)
page 58 of 71 (81%)
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p. 306.).--A circumstantial account of the tucking of freshmen, as
practised in Exeter College, oxford, in 1636, is given in Mr. Martyn's _Life of the First Lord Shaftesbury_, vol. i. p. 42. "On a particular day, the senior under-graduates, in the evening, called the freshmen to the fire, and made them hold out their chins; whilst one of the seniors, with the nail of his thumb (which was left long for that purpose), grated off all the skin from the lip to the chin, and then obliged him to drink a beer-glass of water and salt." Lord Shaftesbury was a freshman at Exeter in 1636; and the story told by his biographer is, that he organised a resistance among his fellow freshmen to the practice, and that a row took place in the college hall, which led to the interference of the master, Dr. Prideaux, and to the abolition of the practice in Exeter College. The custom is there said to have been of great antiquity in the college. The authority cited by Mr. Martyn for the story is a Mr. Stringer, who was a confidential friend of Lord Shaftesbury's, and made collections for a Life of him; and it probably comes from Lord Shaftesbury himself. C. _Byron and Tacitus_.--Although Byron is, by our school rules, a forbidden author, I sometimes contrive to indulge myself in reading his works by stealth. Among the passages that have struck my (boyish) fancy is the couplet in "_The Bride of Abydos_" (line 912),-- |
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