I made very little acquaintance with the men there; but I do not think there were many, though no doubt some, black sheep among them. There was another hall in the university at that time famous for the “fastness” of its inmates. But the “shadiness” of Magdalen Hall was of a different kind. There were many middle-aged men there--_ci-devant_ officers in the army, who had quitted their profession with the intention of entering the Church; schoolmasters, who, having begun their career in some capacity which did not require a degree, were at a later day anxious to obtain one in order to better themselves. In general, the object of all there was not education or any other object save simply a degree needed for some social or economical purpose. “Honours” were of course about as much aspired to as bishoprics! And it was the business of Mr. Jacobson, the gentle, kindly, patient, and long-suffering Vice-Principal to secure “a pass” for as many of his heterogeneous flock as possible. Of discipline there could hardly be said to have been any! When other men of the kick-over-the-traces sort told their stories of various surreptitious means of entering college at all sorts of hours, Magdalen Hall men used to say that their plan was to ring at the gate and have it opened for them! I remember upon one occasion, when I had shown myself in chapel only on the Sunday morning during an entire week, the Vice-Principal mildly remarked, “You have reduced it to a minimum, Mr. Trollope!” I suppose that in classical attainments I was much superior to any man in the place. There were many, it is true, who were never seen at lecture at all--not probably from idleness, but because they were obtaining from a private tutor a course of cramming more desperately energetic than even kindly, patient Jacobson’s elementary lectures could supply. For me the _res angusta domi_ forbade all idea of employing a private tutor. But as for a “pass” degree, I was just as capable of taking it when I left Winchester (with the exception of logic, and what was called “divinity”) as when I did take it; and as regards logic, I was sufficiently capable when I left Whately’s hands. If my “divinity” examination had consisted of as searching an inquiry into my knowledge of the contents of the Old Testament as was required from many men, I should infallibly have been “plucked.” But, as it chanced, it consisted solely of construing two verses of the New Testament. I remember that the examiner had been hammering away at the man next before me for an inordinate time, and as I construed my Greek Testament glibly enough, he was glad to make up for lost time.