ds on the east
side of the Cherwell, and is the first object of interest to catch the
eye of the traveller who enters the city from the London Road. This
college was the scene of many Christmas festivities in the olden time,
when it was the custom of the several colleges to elect a "Christmas
Lord, or Lord of Misrule, styled in the registers _Rex Fabarum_ and
_Rex Regni Fabarum_; which custom continued till the Reformation of
Religion, and then that producing Puritanism, and Puritanism
Presbytery, the profession of it looked upon such laudable and
ingenious customs as Popish, diabolical and anti-Christian."[46]
Queen's College, Oxford (whose members have from time immemorial been
daily summoned to dine in hall by sound of trumpet, instead of by
bell as elsewhere), is noted for its ancient Christmas ceremony of
ushering in the boar's head with the singing of the famous carol--

"_Caput afri differo
Reddens laudes Domino._
The boar's head in hand bring I,
With garlands gay and rosemary,
I pray you all sing merrily
_Qui estis in convivio_."

Tradition says that this old custom commemorates the deliverance of a
student of the college, who, while walking in the country, studying
Aristotle, was attacked by a wild boar from Shotover Forest, whereupon
he crammed the philosopher down the throat of the savage, and thus
escaped from its tusks.

[Illustration: MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD.]

Warton[47] mentions that, "in an original draught of the Statutes of
Trinity College, at Cambridge, founded in 1546, one of the chapters is
entitled _De Praefecto Ludorum qui Imperator dicitur_, under whose
direction and authority Latin Comedies and Tragedies are to be
exhibited in the hall at Christmas. With regard to the peculiar
business and office of Imperator it is ordered that one of the Masters
of Arts shall be placed over the juniors, every Christmas, for the
regulation of their games and diversions at that season of festivity.
At the same time, he is to govern the whole society in the hall and
chapel, as a republic committed to his special charge by a set of laws
which he is to frame in Latin and Greek verse. His sovereignty is to
last during the twelve days of Christmas, and he is to exercise the
same power on Candlemas." His fee amounted to forty shillings. Similar
customs were observed at other colleges during Christmastide. In a
subsequent chapter of this work will be found an account of a grand
exhibitio