Nuts to crack; or Quips, quirks, anecdote and facete of Oxford and Cambridge ScholarsGooch, Richard
History
Nuts to crack; or Quips, quirks, anecdote and facete of Oxford and Cambridge Scholars
Gooch, Richard
University of Cambridge -- Anecdotes; University of Oxford -- Anecdotes
Once passing a whole day at some game of which he was fond, he became
so absorbed in its progress, that he denied himself time to eat, in
the usual way, and ordered a slice of beef between two pieces of
toasted bread, which he masticated without quitting his game; and that
sort of refreshment has ever since borne the designation of _a
Sandwich_. Parkes, in his Musical Memoirs, gives him the credit of
LAPSUS LINGUÆ.
It happened, he says, that during a feast given to his lordship by the
Corporation of Worcester, when he was First Lord of the Admiralty, a
servant let fall a dish with a boiled neat's tongue, as he was
bringing it to table. The Mayor expressing his concern to his
lordship, "Never mind," said he, "it's only a _lapsus linguæ_!" which
Witty saying creating a great deal of mirth, one of the Aldermen
present, at a dinner he gave soon after, instructed his servant to
throw down a roast leg of mutton, that he too might have his joke.
This was done; "Never mind," he exclaimed to his friends, "it's only a
_lapsus linguæ_." The company stared, but he begun a roaring laugh,
_solus_. Finding nobody joined therein, he stopped his mirth, saying,
that when Lord Sandwich said it, every body laughed, and he saw no
reason why they should not laugh at him. This sally had the desired
effect, and the company, one and all, actually shook their sides, and
our host was satisfied.
* * * * *
OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE LOYALTY.
In 1717, George I. and his ministers had contrived to make themselves
so unpopular, that the badges of the disaffected, oaken boughs, were
publicly worn on the 29th of May, and white roses on the birth-day
of the Pretender, the 10th of June. Oxford, and especially the
university, manifested such strong feelings, that it was deemed
expedient to send a military force there: Cambridge, more inclined to
the Whig principles of the court and government, was at the same time
complimented with a present of books. Upon this occasion, Dr. Trapp,
the celebrated Oxford poet and divine, wrote the following epigram:--
Our royal master saw, with heedful eyes,
The wants of his two universities:
Troops he to Oxford sent, as knowing why
That learned body wanted loyalty;
But books to Cambridge gave, as well discerning
How that right loyal body wanted learning.
Cambridge, as may be well supposed, was not backward in retorting:
and an able champion she found in her equally celebrated scholar,
physician, and benefactor, Sir William Blowne (founder of a
scholarship and the three gold medals called after his name,) who
replied to Dr. Trapp in the following quaternion:--
The king to Oxford sent a troop of horse,
For Tories know no argument but force:
With equal grace, to Cambridge books he sent,
For Whigs allow no force but argument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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