"In my last letter to you, I mentioned a few of the _Statutum ests_ of
'_Tit._ XIV.' of the Oxford Statutes; and I now come to consider '_Tit._
XV.' of the same amusing work, premising that I shall confine my remarks
to this _Tit._, as it would be a task of insufferable weariness--and
one, I suppose, which like the discovery of the source of the Nile, no
philanthropist would ever live to carry out--to attempt to explore the
twenty-one _Tits._, which, with their _appendices_ branches, run through
that immense tract of paper intended for the use of the academic youth
(_in usum juventutis academicaæ_). But I may remark, _en passant_, as
our 'lively neighbours' say--(I don't know French, _Mr. Punch_, but I
like to quote it occasionally, as it shows refinement and education, and
that you read the _Morning Post_, and all that sort of thing)--I may
remark, that for the Vice-Chancellor to drive twenty-one of these
_Tits._ in hand, and keep them well together, must be no ordinary act of
JEHU-ism; and I think it would have added greatly to the effect of the
late Commemoration, if they had put out illustrated posters, that the
new Chancellor, 'acknowledged by the Press to be the premier jockey of
the day, and without a Peer in the Westminster Circle,' would make his
'first public entrance into Oxford, driving TWENTY-ONE TITS IN HAND!'
after which would, of course, follow 'the performances in the Theatre,'
with 'the drolleries of the Caucasian Clown,' and 'the laughable farce
of _The Phenomenon in a Doctor's gown.'_ I think something might have
been made of that; but the hint may perhaps be taken against the next
opportunity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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