endeavoured to convert, and even "writ a Letter to Mrs. Bracegirdle,
giving her great encomiums (as having himself been often to see plays
acted whilst they continued here) upon account of her excellent
qualifications, and persuading her to give over this loose way of
living, and betake herself to such a kind of life as was more
innocent, and would gain her more credit." The Professor's advice
was wasted on "Bracegirdle the brown."

Politics were naturally much discussed in these doubtful years, when
the Stuarts, it was thought, had still a chance to win their own
again. In 1706, Tom says, "The great health now is "The Cube of
Three," which is the number 27, i.e. the number of the protesting
Lords." The University was most devoted, as far as drinking toasts
constitutes loyalty. In Hearne's common-place book is carefully
copied out this "Scotch Health to K. J.":


"He's o'er the seas and far awa',
He's o'er the seas and far awa';
Altho' his back be at the wa'
We'll drink his health that's far awa'."


The words live, and ring strangely out of that dusty past. The song
survives the throne, and sounds pathetically, somehow, as one has
heard it chanted, in days as dead as the year 1711, at suppers that
seem as ancient almost as the festivities of Thomas Hearne. It is
not unpleasant to remember that the people who sang could also fight,
and spilt their blood as well as their "edifying port." If the
Southern "honest men" had possessed hearts for anything but tippling,