lay were of Trinity College; Milton was of Christ's,
Gray of Pembroke, Wordsworth of St. John's, and Coleridge of Jesus.
There is an amusing anecdote of Byron current in the university, which I
do not remember to have seen in print. The roof of the library of
Trinity College is surmounted by three figures in stone, representing
Faith, Hope, and Charity. These figures are accessible only from the
window of a particular room in Neville's Court, which was occupied by
Byron during his residence at college. The adventurer after getting out
of this window has to climb a perpendicular wall, sustaining himself by
a frail leaden spout. He has then to traverse the sloping roof of a long
range of buildings, by moving carefully on his hands and knees, at the
imminent risk of being precipitated fifty feet into the court beneath.
When the library is gained, a stone parapet has to be crossed, a bare
glance at which sends a thrill through the spectator who surveys it from
below. This feat Byron performed one Sunday morning, while the heads of
the dons and dignitaries were yet buried in their pillows, 'full of the
foolishest dreams.' He had abstracted three surplices from the college
chapel, which he bore with him along the dangerous route I have
described. When the bell, at eight o'clock, rung out its deep-toned
summons to the usual morning devotions, and the fellows and
undergraduates hurried on their way to the chapel, they were startled to
behold Faith, Hope, and Charity clad in surplices which reached in snowy
folds to their feet, while their heads were surmounted, helmet-wise,
with bedchamber waterewers. An inquiry was instituted by the indignant
college authorities. A few select friends knew, and the rest of the
college guessed, that Byron was the author of the outrage, but it was
never brought home to him. No undergraduate beholds these statues now
without a hearty laugh.

When I was at Cambridge, the poet's statue by Thorwaldsen had just been
rescued from the cellar of the London custom house, where it had lain
for years amongst rubbish of all kinds, because the bigots of
Westminster Abbey would not permit it to be erected in the Poet's Corner
of that edifice. Dr. Whewell, much to his honor, though he is no
admirer of Byron's poetry, procured it for the library of the college,
where the poet was educated.

Many college anecdotes are related of Coleridge in Gilman's unfinished
life of him. (When will it be finished?) These, tho