ger heaven_,{54} there's
not a kinder hearted soul in Christendom than Mrs. Peake: Dr. Wall says
that he thinks she has saved more gentlemen's lives in this university
by good nursing and sending them niceties, than all the material
medicals put together. You'll excuse me, sir, but as you are fresh, take
care to avoid the _gulls_{55}; they fly about here in large flocks, I
assure you, and do no little mischief at times." "I never understood
that gulls were birds of prey," said I.--"Only in Oxford, sir; and here,
I assure you, they bite like hawks, and pick many a poor young gentleman
as bare before his three years are expired, as the crows would a dead
sheep upon a common. Every thing depends upon your obtaining an honest
scout, and that's a sort of _haro ravis_ (I think they call the bird)
here." Suppressing my laughter at my host's Latinity, I thought this
a fair opportunity to make some inquiries relative to this important
officer in a college establishment.

"I suppose you know most of these ambassadors of the togati belonging to
the different colleges'?" "I think I do, sir," said Peake, "if you mean
the scouts; but I never heard them called by that name before. If
you are of Christ Church, I should recommend Dick Cook, or, as he is
generally called, Gentleman Cook, as the most finished, spritely, honest
fellow of the whole. Dick's a trump, and no telegraph,--up to every
frisk, and down to every move of the domini, thorough bred, and no want
of courage?"

54 AEager haven--laid up in the depot of invalids.

55 Gulls--knowing ones who are always on the look out for
freshmen.

~145~~ "But not having the honour of being entered there, I cannot avail
myself of Dick's services: pray tell me, who is there at Brazennose that
a young fellow can make a confidant of?" "Why, the very best old fellow
in the world,--nothing like him in Oxford,--rather aged, to be sure, but
a good one to go, and a rum one to look at;--I have known Mark Supple
these fifty years, and never heard a gentleman give him a bad word:
shall I send for him, sir? he's the very man to put you _up to a thing
or two_, and finish you off in prime style." "In the morning, I'll
see him, and if he answers your recommendation, engage with him: "for,
thought I, such a man will be very essential, if it is only to act as
interpreter to a young novice like myself.

The conversation now turned to sporting varieties, by which I discovered
mine host