see so much royal favour bestowed on Oxford. When James visited the
University in 1641, a Cambridge wit produced a remarkable epigram.
For some mysterious reason the playful fancies of the sister
University have never been greatly admired at Oxford, where the brisk
air, men flatter themselves, breeds nimbler humours. Here is part of
the Cantab's epigram:


"To Oxenford the King has gone,
With all his mighty peers,
That hath in peace maintained us,
These five or six long years."


The poem maunders on for half a dozen lines, and "loses itself in the
sands," like the River Rhine, without coming to any particular point
or conclusion. How much more lively is the Oxford couplet on the
King, who, being bored by some amateur theatricals, twice or thrice
made as if he would leave the hall, where men failed dismally to
entertain him.


"The King himself did offer,"--"What, I pray?"
"He offered twice or thrice--to go away!"


As a result of the example of the Court, the students began to wear
love-locks. In Elizabeth's time, when men wore their hair "no longer
than their ears," long locks had been a mark, says Wood, of
"swaggerers." Drinking and gambling were now very fashionable,