Tedious brief tales of Granta and Gramarye — John Shaqi
Tedious brief tales of Granta and GramaryeGray, Arthur
General
Tedious brief tales of Granta and Gramarye
Gray, Arthur
Ghost stories, English; Jesus College (University of Cambridge) -- Fiction; Short stories, English
5. The Senior Corporeal Everlasting, not being the President, shall be
the Secretary of the Society, and in this Book of Minutes shall record
its transactions, the date at which any Everlasting shall cease to
be Corporeal, and all fines due to the Society. And when such Senior
Everlasting shall cease to be Corporeal he shall, either in person or
by some sure hand, deliver this Book of Minutes to him who shall be
next Senior and at the time Corporeal, and he shall in like manner
record the transactions therein and transmit it to the next Senior. The
neglect of these provisions shall be visited by the President with fine
or punishment according to his discretion.
6. On the second day of November in every year, being the Feast of All
Souls, at ten o’clock _post meridiem_, the Everlastings shall meet
at supper in the place of residence of that Corporeal member of the
Society to whom it shall fall in order of rotation to entertain them,
and they shall all subscribe in this Book of Minutes their names and
present place of abode.
7. It shall be the obligation of every Everlasting to be present at the
yearly entertainment of the Society, and none shall allege for excuse
that he has not been invited thereto. If any Everlasting shall fail
to attend the yearly meeting, or in his turn shall fail to provide
entertainment for the Society, he shall be mulcted at the discretion of
the President.
8. Nevertheless, if in any year, in the month of October and not less
than seven days before the Feast of All Souls, the major part of the
Society, that is to say, four at the least, shall meet and record in
writing in these Minutes that it is their desire that no entertainment
be given in that year, then, notwithstanding the two rules last
rehearsed, there shall be no entertainment in that year, and no
Everlasting shall be mulcted on the ground of his absence.”
The rest of the rules are either too profane or too puerile to be
quoted here. They indicate the extraordinary levity with which the
members entered on their preposterous obligations. In particular, to
the omission of any regulation as to the transmission of the Minute
Book after the last Everlasting ceased to be “Corporeal,” we owe the
accident that it fell into the hands of one who was not a member of the
society, and the consequent preservation of its contents to the present
day.
Low as was the standard of morals in all classes of the University in
the first half of the eighteenth century, the flagrant defiance of
public decorum by the members of the Everlasting Society brought upon
it the stern censure of the authorities, and after a few years it was
practically dissolved and its members banished from the University.
Charles Bellasis, for instance, was obliged to leave the college,
and, though he retained his fellowship, he remained absent from it
for nearly twenty years. But the minutes of the society reveal a more
terrible reason for its virtual extinction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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