A conversation now ensuing between a gentleman commoner, whom the party designated Pontius Pilate{23} and Tom Echo, relative to the comparative merits of their hunters, afforded me an opportunity of surveying the _larium_ of my friend; the entrance to which was through a short passage, that served the varied purposes of an ante-room or vestibule, and a scout's pantry and boot-closet. On the right was the sleeping-room, and at the foot of a neat French bed I could perceive the wine bin, surrounded by a regiment of _dead men_{24} who had, no doubt, departed this life like heroes in some battle of Bacchanalian sculls. The principal chamber, the very _penetrale_ of the Muses, was about six yards square, and low, with a rich carved oaken wainscoting, reaching to the ceiling; the monastic gloom being materially increased by two narrow loopholes, intended for windows, but scarcely yielding sufficient light to enable the student to read his _Scapula or Lexicon_{25} with the advantage of a meridian sun: the fire-place was immensely wide, emblematical, no doubt, of the capacious stomachs of the good fathers and fellows, the ancient inhabitants of this _sanctum_; but the most singularly-striking characteristic was the modern decorations, introduced by the present occupant. 23 A quaint cognomen applied to him from the rapidity with which he boasted of repeating the Nicene Creed,--i.e. offering a bet that no would give any man as far as "Pontius Pilate," and beat him before he got to the "resurrection of the dead." 24 Dead Men--Empty bottles. 25 Scapula, Hederic, and Lexicon, the principal Dictionaries in use for studying Greek. ~136~~ Over the fire-place hung a caricature portrait of a well-known Bachelor of Arts, drinking at the _Pierian spring, versus_ gulping down the contents of a Pembroke _overman_,{26} sketched by the facetious pencil of the humorist, Rowlandson. [Illustration: page136] ECCE SIGNUM. I could not help laughing to observe on the one side of this jolly personage a portrait of the little female Giovanni Vestris, under which some wag had inscribed, "_A Mistress of Hearts_," and on the other a full-length of Jackson the pugilist, with this motto--"A striking likeness of a fancy lecturer." 26 An Herman--At Pembroke, a large silver tankard, holding two quarts and half a pint, so called from the donor, Mr. George Overman. The late John Hudson, the college tonsor and _common room man_,{*} was famous for having several times, for trifling wagers, drank a full overman of strong beer off at a draught. A Tun, another vessel in use at Pembroke, is a half pint silver cup. A Whistler, a silver pint tankard also in use there, was the gift of Mr. Anthony Whistler, a cotemporary with Shenstone. * Common room man, a servant who is entirely employed in attending upon the members of the common room.