2/0 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



appreciate them, Instead of to such a set of old women as 



were recently judging at , when they ought to have 



been in bed. 



Alas for our poor feeble humanity ! — two hours later Mr 

 Irascible, finding no prize-card on his boxes, denounces 

 Mr T. as an ignorant humbug, or knows for a fact that 

 he is in vile collusion with the principal winners of the 

 day — reminding me, in his swift transition from praise 

 to condemnation, from love to hate, of a ludicrous Oxford 

 scene. 



Tom Perrin kept livery-stables, and in those stables the 

 stoutest of wheelers and the liveliest of leaders for our 

 tandems and fours-in-hand. Unhappily for Tom, all driv- 

 ing in exteiiso was strictly forbidden, and he came, in conse- 

 quence, to frequent collisions with our potent, grave, and 

 reverend Dons. Upon the occasion to which I refer, he 

 had been summoned to appear before the Vice-Chancellor, 

 Doctor MacBride, then Principal of Magdalen Hall ; and as 

 the offence was flagrant, and his previous convictions were 

 numerous, he was specially anxious to obtain an acquittal. 

 He presented himself in deep mourning, and wore the ex- 

 pression of a simple, modest citizen, who really didn't know 

 what a tandem was. He placed a pile of ancient tomes by 



