Rugby Days. 69 



dieted for manslaughter. For many days he 

 knew no peace, and took it as a personal 

 insult when a sporting Fellow Commoner — 

 who figures in that well-known picture, ' Her- 

 ring's Steeple Chase Cracks ' — gravely re- 

 quested his opinion, conjointly with that of 

 the Senior Dean, during dinner in Hall, as to 

 whether he ' should finally stand on Cother- 

 stone for the Derby.' The 'participation in 

 such a disgraceful scene by the children of 

 parental Granta ' (as one of the Dons re- 

 marked) led to a crusade against pugilism in 

 Cambridge, and no more Sambo Suttons and 

 ' Deaf Burkes ' were found enjoying suppers 

 in College or opening sparring-rooms. It 

 transpired that Sambo had wheedled several 

 Undergraduates into standing part of his 

 stake for a match in which he cut up as 

 soft as a Cambridge 'butter-yard.' At last 

 the University promulgated its ukase against 

 'professors of the fistic art,' and Cambridge 

 no longer remained the favourite haunt of 

 ' Deaf Burkes.' That worthy's conversation, 

 it must be admitted, was remarkably droll 

 and dry, and although he was guiltless of 

 spelling and incapable of reading, his head 



