On the left of the picture is the enclosing wall of the Sheldonian Theatre, with its startlingly picturesque thermes. A flight of semicircular steps leads to an entrance between two of them. In the first bay of the wall, seen through the palisade fence, is the old Ashmolean Museum, and farther on is a glimpse of Exeter College. The spire is that of the College Chapel. By the large tree standing near the Church of St. Mary Magdalen are the buildings of Balliol College, and nearer to the spectator is the entrance to Trinity College and Kettle Hall. Some of the houses to the right of the picture are fair specimens of eighteenth-century domestic architecture. Two or three bicycles are shown, and the time is early noon.] attempt to discourage them; “so now they may be sots by authority.” The disorder was winked at because it increased the “natural stupidity” of the Balliol men of the day. But the attitude of the University towards humour two centuries ago was a wily mixture of patronage and ferocity. The _terræ filius_ was only not official in his reckless bombardment of order and authority at the annual University Act. It was as though a jackdaw should be invited to church. He and his companion (for they hunted in couples) were chosen, as regularly as proctors, by election; and to become _terræ filius_ must have been the blue riband of the wilder sort of University wits. Year after year pairs of _terræ filii_ fired their random shots at great and small, always with audacity, sometimes with the utmost scurrility; and year after year one or both of the pair suffered expulsion, or, like Addison’s father, public humiliation, for their scandalous and opprobrious words, which no doubt earned the gratitude of irresponsible juniors. It was long a common recreation, a recreation only, to go on the river in a boat, and to row or be rowed to some place of meditation or festivity, or to go with music and wine upon the Isis to Godstow Bridge or Sandford-- And there Beckley provides accustom’d fare Of eels, and perch, and brown beefsteak.