11(5 SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



between two of the fellows, and a similar, though not appa- 

 rently so bitter, a dispute between the warden and some of 

 the seniors. The cause of the former quarrel is not evident, 

 though the complaint is universal, and the inconvenience is 

 seriously felt. It would seem that one of the disputants com- 

 plains that the other has greater favour shewn him in his 

 commons (habet uberius) ; and it is averred that the other has 

 been the object of " mortal threats " from his unfriend. In 

 the last scrutiny, the witness to these cc mortal threats" is 

 himself corrected by the man in whose defence he had given 

 testimony, for he is charged with an exceedingly irregular 

 expression, that, namely, of having said that the reputation 

 of some among the fellows was blackened, (famse quaedam 

 sociorum sunt denigratae.) 



The warden, on the other hand, is blamed for absenting 

 himself from the business of the college, for favouritism, and 

 for negligence, since the debts of the college are not collected, 

 nor legal process taken against defaulters, nor sufficient care 

 taken of the securities given for loans made by the society c . 

 In particular, the bailiff of the Elham estate, whose chief 

 business was to collect tithe from the impropriate rectory, was 

 a defaulter to a serious extent. The annual roll of the official 

 at this estate confirms the charge, for he is in debt to the 

 society to an amount of not much less than ^62. But one 

 of the fellows is compromised, for he is debited in more than 

 j^7 of receipts from this estate, for which he has given neither 

 account nor security. The defaulting fellow, who seems to 

 have trespassed on the goodnature or patience of the warden, 

 is ultimately reported as having called the warden by his 

 Christian name, and is therefore censured for irreverence. 



In accordance with a statute of the college, the accounts of 

 the society were audited by a board of five, some of whom 

 were to be junior fellows. It appears that those who were 

 appointed declined to serve. The remedy suggested by most 



c It is observable, by the way, that the college was constantly lending money, and 

 frequently suffers from the bad faith of borrowers. 



