and from the carrying of cross-bows and
'Bombardarum' (_necnon ab omni apparatu et gestatione Bombardarum, et
arcubalistarum; sive etiam accipitrum usu ad aucupium_). Now, I am aware
that the old noble sport of hawking is being revived, because I take in
_The Field_ (for, of course, I look upon myself as a 'country
gentleman,' and do everything that country gentlemen ought to do), and
in _The Field_ I sometimes read about it; and I suppose the Oxford
gentlemen are assisting in the revival. But, in the name of wonder, _Mr.
Punch_, what _can_ be meant by 'Bombardarum?' Has it anything to do with
your Austrian friend 'BOMBA?' Or does it mean that the young men must
not carry about mortars for the discharge of bombs, or battering-rams,
or some 'bombarding' implement 'of that ilk?' But no. 'Town and Gown'
disturbances can never need such warlike preparations as these. I
suppose I must write to your facetious contemporary _Notes and Queries_,
and ask what 'Bombardarum' really does mean; for no Latin Dictionary
that I have access to is able to inform me. Really, _Mr. Punch_, my LORD
CHANCELLOR DERBY ought to publish either a translation of the Statutes
of his University or a dictionary of these 'Oxford mixture' phrases,
'_canino Anglico Latine reddita_:' for how can young men be expected to
obey Statutes which are made up of words of which the meaning can only
be conjectured? And if, _Mr. Punch_, you take up the cudgels for the
Oxford Statutes, and tell me that they are thus purposely framed, and
after the fashion of the Statutes of the country, I beg to observe that
the seat of learning ought to be stuffed with other stuff than that
which fills the woolsack, and that the framers of its laws should not be
like the noble and versatile Lord of the Upper House, to whom we might
say, in the words of COLERIDGE:--

"'You can utter, with a solemn gesture,
Oracular sentences of deep no-meaning,
Wear a quaint garment, make mysterious antics!'[4]

"The statutes next call upon the matriculating candidate to swear that
he will keep aloof from all rope-dancers and actors, and from the
strifes and shows of--gladiators! (_Item quod, intra Universitatem
Oxoniensem aut Praecinctum, absque speciali venia Vice-Cancellarii, nec
Funambuli nec Histriones, qui quaestus causa in Scenam prodeunt, nec
Gladiatorum certamina sive spectacula permittantur; nec Academici eisdem
intersint._) Good gracious, _Mr. Punch_! is this the nineteenth
c