246 THE TEINITY TOOT BEAGLES 



sound a maxim as has come from the mouth of any sage, but it 

 cannot be literally followed by the young, as they are not free so to 

 do ; for wherever members of the Uni\ersity in statu pupillari may 

 dine, their elders insist that they shall return within their College 

 gates, or lodging-house doors, by midnight, so that, however pot- 

 valiantly they may sing, 



" "We won't go home till morning," 



they seldom put the threat into execution (an they did there would 

 be serious consequences) ; and once having slept elsewhere there is 

 not much point in returning to the banquet hall for breakfast — 

 indeed there have been occasions when it could hardly have been 

 tidied up in time. This of course relates to those prehistoric ages 

 in which our Founder gave his definition of a gentleman as "One 

 who behaves as such even when he is drunk," and one cannot suppose 

 that a T.F. Beagler ever transgressed that rule. Since then one 

 Master has introduced lime-juice as a festive cordial, and on one 

 occasion twelve running huntsmen broached but one bottle of 

 champagne, and even then there was a glass or so left over for the 

 waiters ! 



But in those earlier days, as Lord Ernest St. Maur shows, even 

 sporting undergraduates did not dine out of Hall nearly so freely as 

 is now the case. In those days the dinner was earlier, and men used 

 to " wine " after Hall in their rooms, just as their more conservative 

 seniors still do in Combination Eoom. 



I remember once hearing the late Master of Trinity Hall, Dr. 

 " Ben " Latham's, account of the change. He was paying calls, and 

 so was I, and he began discoursing to his hostess on the degeneracy 

 of the modern undergraduate who " dwank no wine " ! When he was 

 young dinner in Hall was much earlier, say five o'clock ; and after- 

 wards, when the High Table adjourned in state to the Combination 

 Pioom, juniors would also forgather in each other's quarters for their 

 wine and dessert. They did not, said Dr. Latham, drink excessively, 

 ])ut — "we talked a gweat deal." The manner of the thing must 

 have heeii much like the illustration on the cover of a pulilication, 

 long out of print, called 



