"Care was taken," says Wood, "that formalities in public assemblies should be used, which, through negligence, were now, and sometime before, left off. That the wearing of boots and spurs also be prohibited, 'a fashion' (as our Chancellor saith in his letters) rather befitting the liberties of the Inns of Court than the strictness of an academical life, which fashion is not only usurped by the younger sort, but by the Masters of Arts, who preposterously assume that part of the Doctor's formalities which adviseth them to ryde _ad prædicandum Evangelium_, but in these days implying nothing else but _animum deserendi studium_." It was therefore ordered, "that no person that wears a gown wear boots; if a graduate, he was to forfeit 2_s._ 6_d._ for the first time of wearing them, after order was given to the contrary; for the second time 5_s._, and so toties quoties. And if an UNDERGRADUATE, WHIPPING, Or other punishment, according to the will of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors, for every time he wore them." And in 1608, when ARCHBISHOP BANCROFT Became Chancellor of Oxford, he decreed amongst other things, "that indecency of attire be left off, and academical habits be used in public assemblies, being now more remissly looked to than in former times. Also, that no occasion of offence be given, long hair was not to be worn; for whereas in the reign of Queen Elizabeth few or none wore their hair longer than their ears (for they that did so were accounted by the graver and elder sort swaggerers and ruffians,) now it was common even among scholars, who were to be examples of modesty, gravity, and decency." * * * * * WAKEFIELD'S EPIGRAM ON THE FLYING BARBER OF CAMBRIDGE, Which his college friend, Dyer, has given in his Supplement, under the head "SERIA LUDO," with the happy, original motto-- With serious truths we mix a little fun, And now and then we treat you with a pun. The subject of the epigram, he says (the original of which Mr. W. sent to a friend,) "was Mr. Foster, formerly of Cambridge, who, on account of his rapidity in conversation, in walking, and more particularly in the exercise of his profession, was called (by the Cantabs) _the Flying Barber_. He was a great oddity, and gave birth to many a piece of fun in the university:-- Tonsor ego: vultus radendo spumcus albet, Mappa subest, ardet culter, et unda tepet. Quam versat gladium cito dextra, novacula levis, Mox tua tam celeri strinxerit ora manu. Cedite, Romani Tonsores, cedite Graii; Tonsorem regio non habet ulla parem. Imberbes Grantam, barbati accedite Grantam; Illa polit mentes; et polit illa genas. * * * * * THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ.