The eight Students at the bottom of the list that is to say, the eight
who had been nominated last--had to mark, by pricking on weekly papers
called "the Bills," the attendance at morning and evening chapel. They
were allowed to arrange this duty among themselves, and, if it was
neglected, they were all punished. This long-defunct custom explains
an entry in Lewis Carroll's Diary for October 15, 1853, "Found I had
got the prickbills two hundred lines apiece, by not pricking in in the
morning," which, I must confess, mystified me exceedingly at first.
Another reference to College impositions occurs further on in his
Diary, at a time when he was a Lecturer: "Spoke to the Dean about
F--, who has brought an imposition which his tutor declares is not
his own writing, after being expressly told to write it himself."

The following is an extract from his father's letter of
congratulation, on his being nominated for the Studentship:--

My dearest Charles,--The feelings of thankfulness and
delight with which I have read your letter just received, I
must leave to _your conception_; for they are, I assure
you, beyond _my expression_; and your affectionate
heart will derive no small addition of joy from thinking of
the joy which you have occasioned to me, and to all the
circle of your home. I say "_you_ have occasioned,"
because, grateful as I am to my old friend Dr. Pusey for
what he has done, I cannot desire stronger evidence than his
own words of the fact that you have _won_, and well
won, this honour for _yourself_, and that it is
bestowed as a matter of _justice_ to _you_, and
not of _kindness_ to _me_. You will be interested
in reading extracts from his two letters to me--the first
written three years ago in answer to one from me, in which I
distinctly told him that I neither asked nor expected that
he should serve me in this matter, unless my son should
fairly reach the standard of merit by which these
appointments were regulated. In reply he says--

"I thank you for the way in which you put the application to
me. I have now, for nearly twenty years, not given a
Studentship to any friend of my own, unless there was no
very eligible person in the College. I have passed by or
declined the sons of those to whom I was personally indebted
for kindness. I can only say that I shall have _very
great_ pleasure, if circumstan