AFTEE DINNER 247 



PAULO POST-PRANDIALS ; 



OR, 



Only some little Stories after Hall. 



When the wine had gone round two or three times, and talk was no 

 longer in spate, chapel broke up the assembly, and, prayers done, 

 each man went to his rooms and read. But, said the old Master, all 

 that was of the past. Dinner was now much later, and after it men 

 just had a " cup o' corfee and a cigawette," and then, if they had 

 nothing better to do, " Vey went to ve featre." They were in too 

 digestive and sleepy a condition for work. Both " corfee " and 

 " cigawettes " were, from the speaker's tone and expression, marked 

 symptoms of decadence. 



The whole discourse, by the way, started from a case he had just 

 come across of a man whose excuse for cutting his coach was that he 

 had been to the theatre. 



No, he continued, men did not drink wine now ; at least, they 

 kept no stock. They had wine when they gave a dinner, but, 

 tem'pora ! mores ! it was ordered in for the occasion, and the 

 consumers being unseasoned and the wine bubbly, very little went 

 to their heads. He always knew when men gave dinners, because 

 when he was tutor they used to come and ask leave. 



" And I used to say, ' What do you want to give a dinner for ? ' 

 and they'd say they were coming of age or something ; and I'd say, 

 ' Let me see ! Didn't you come of age last term ? Never mind, you 

 can have your dinner ; but wemember you mustn't come of age again 

 till next term ! ' " 



Dr. Latham, by the way, was an ardent oarsman, rowing regularly 

 at five in the Ancient Mariners, and he was always keen to secure 

 men who showed promise of oarsmanship rather than horsemansliip. 

 There is, or was in my young days, an apocryphal tradition ^ to the 

 effect that he always looked a candidate for admission over with 

 special regard for his legs. If the candidate seemed likely to shape 

 well, and would promise to " wow " and not " wide," hopes would be 



1 My authority was one "Box" Davies, a Welshman, who was up at the Hall in 

 the early eighties, and with me afterwards at St. George's Hospital. Where he got 

 it from J don't know. 



