OXFORD DAYS; OR, HOW ROSS GOT HIS DEGREE. BY A RESIDENT M.A. London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1879. [_All rights reserved._] LONDON: GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN’S SQUARE. PREFACE. “Oxford Days” is not shaped on the lines of either _Verdant Green_ or _Tom Brown at Oxford_. Its purpose, rather, is to furnish a practical guide to all the features of University life; but it has been thought that, by adopting the narrative form, the dry bones of a handbook may be made to live. _Oxford_, 1879. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. GONE TO OXFORD 1 CHAPTER II. AN OXFORD SUNDAY 23 CHAPTER III. THE FRESHMAN’S TERM 39 CHAPTER IV. THE EIGHTS 51 CHAPTER V. THE LONG VACATION 68 CHAPTER VI. “THE FLYING TERMS” 77 CHAPTER VII. A READING PARTY 88 CHAPTER VIII. IN THE THICK OF IT 120 CHAPTER IX. THE CLOSE 139 CHAPTER X. GOWN AT LAST 149 OXFORD DAYS; OR, HOW ROSS GOT HIS DEGREE. CHAPTER I. GONE TO OXFORD. There was a long discussion between the Vicar of Porchester and Mr. Ross, the lawyer, as they walked together after evening service to the vicarage. Frank Ross was just eighteen, the eldest of six brothers. He was still at school, but it was time for him to go to the University. Oxford had been chosen--not from any notion of superiority to Cambridge, but simply because of school and home associations. The difficulty was the choice of a college. The vicar--a well-to-do bachelor--an old Eton and Christ-Church man, advised his own college. But Mr. Ross was frightened. “Christ-Church” to him had ever been a terror, and meant waste of time and money, in the shape of cards, drink, and horse-flesh; and all the vicar’s eloquence could not shake his unfounded prejudice. The result of the discussion was that Mr. Ross decided to write to a friend at Oxford, settled there as a “coach;” and also to Mr. Rickards, a country doctor, with a family larger even than his own. The doctor’s answer was as follows:-- “DEAR ROSS,--My boy is going to Brasenose: at least, he goes up in May to try for a close scholarship. I can give you no advice, as I know nothing about the place. I sent him to the Hereford Cathedral School by a fluke some years ago; and as there are scholarships and exhibitions from the school to Brasenose, I am saved the difficulty of choosing a college. “Yours truly,