had arrived at, and was answered Henley.-"Stony Henley, sir," said our
driver: "you might have discovered that by the _bit of a shake_ we just
now experienced. I'll bet a _bullfinch_{1} that you know the place well
enough, my young master, before you've been two terms at Oxford."

1 A sovereign.

~115~~

This familiarity of style struck me as deserving reprehension; but I
reflected this classic Jehu was perhaps licensed by the light-hearted
sons of _Alma Mater_ in these liberties of speech. Suspending therefore
my indignation, I proceeded,--"And why so?" said I inquisitively:--"Why
I know when I was an under graduate{2} of ----, where my father
was principal, I used to keep a good _prad_ here for a bolt to the
village,{3} and then I had a fresh hack always on the road to help me
back to chapel prayers."{4} The nonchalance of the speaker, and the
easy indifference with which he alluded to his former situation in life,
struck me with astonishment, and created a curiosity to know more of his
adventures; he had, I found, brought himself to his present degradation
by a passion for gaming and driving, which had usurped every just
and moral feeling. His father, I have since learned, felt his conduct
deeply, and had been dead some time. His venerable mother having
advanced him all her remaining property, was now reduced to a dependence
upon the benevolence of a few liberal-minded Oxford friends, and this
son of the once celebrated head of--------college was now so lost
to every sense of shame that he preferred the Oxford road to exhibit
himself on in his new character of a {university whip}.

2 The circumstances here narrated are unfortunately too
notorious to require further explanation: the character,
drawn from the life, forms the vignette to this chapter.

3 A cant phrase for a stolen run to the metropolis. No
unusual circumstance with a gay Oxonian, some of whom have
been known to ride the same horse the whole distance and
back again after prayers, and before daylight the next
morning.

4 When (to use the Oxford phrase) a man is confined to
chapel, or compelled to attend chapel prayers, it is a
dangerous risk to be missing,--a severe imposition and
sometimes rustication is sure to be the penalty.

~116~~ Immediately behind me on the roof of the vehicle sat a
rosy-looking little gentleman, the rotundity of whose figure proclaimed
him a man of some