Quakers' and Anabaptists' meeting-houses down. The heads of houses
have represented that it was begun by the Whiggs." Probably the
heads of houses reasoned on a priori principles when they arrived at
this remarkable conclusion.

In consequence of the honesty, frankness, and consistency of his
opinions, Mr. Hearne ran his head in danger when King George came to
the throne, which has ever since been happily settled in the
possession of the Hanoverian line. A Mr. Urry, a Non-juror, had to
warn him, saying, "Do you not know that they have a mind to hang you
if they can, and that you have many enemies who are very ready to do
it?" In spite of this, Hearne, in his diaries, still calls George I.
the Duke of Brunswick, and the Whigs, "that fanatical crew." John,
Duke of Marlborough, he styles "that villain the Duke." We have had
enough, perhaps, of Oxford politics, which were not much more
prejudiced in the days of the Duke than in those of Mr. Gladstone.
Hearne's allusions to the contemporary state of buildings and of
college manners are often rather instructive. In All Souls the Whigs
had a feast on the day of King Charles's martyrdom. They had a
dinner dressed of woodcock, "whose heads they cut off, in contempt of
the memory of the blessed martyr." These men were "low Churchmen,
more shame to them." The All Souls men had already given up the
custom of wandering about the College on the night of January 14th,
with sticks and poles, in quest of the mallard. That "swopping"
bird, still justly respected, was thought, for many ages, to linger
in the college of which he is the protector. But now all hope of
recovering him alive is lost, and it is reserved for the excavator of
the future to marvel over the fossil bones of the "swopping, swopping
mallard."