Part 21 (1/2)
So Mr. Verdant Green, reluctantly, it must be confessed, suffered himself to be persuaded to join that section of the Gown which was to be placed under the leaders.h.i.+p of the redoubted Pet; while little Mr.
Bouncer, who had gone up into Mr. Sloe's rooms, and had vainly endeavoured to persuade that gentleman to join in the forthcoming ~melee~, returned with an undergraduate's gown, and forthwith invested the Pet with it.
”I don't mind this 'ere mortar-board, sir,” remarked the professor of the n.o.ble art of self-defence, as he pointed to the academical cap which surmounted his head, ”I don't mind the mortar-board, sir; but I shall never be able to do nothink with this 'ere toggery on my shudders. I couldn't use my mawleys no how!” And the Pet ill.u.s.trated his remark in a professional manner, by sparring at an imaginary opponent in a feeble and unscientific fas.h.i.+on.
[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 145]
”But you can tie the tail-curtain round your shoulders - like this!”
said Mr. Fosbrooke, as he twisted his own gown tightly round him.
But the Pet had taken a decided objection to the drapery: ”The costume would interfere with the action,” as Mr. Foote remarked, ”and the management of a train requires great practice.”
”You see, sir,” said the Pet, ”I ain't used to the feel of it, and I couldn't go to business properly, or give a straight nosender no how.
But the mortar-board ain't of so much consekvence.” So a compromise was made; and it was agreed that the Pet was to wear the academicals until he had arrived at the scene of action, where he could then pocket the gown, and resume it on any alarm of the Proctor's approach.
”Here, Giglamps, old feller! get a priming of fighting-powder!” said little Mr. Bouncer to our hero, as the party were on the point of sallying forth; ”it'll make you hit out from your shoulder like a steam-engine with the chill off.” And, as Mr. Bouncer whispered to Charles Larkyns,
”So he kept his spirits up By pouring spirits down,”
Verdant - who felt extremely nervous, either from excitement or from fear, or from a pleasing mixture of both sensations-drank off a deep draught of something which was evidently not drawn from Nature's spring or the college pump; for it first took away his breath, and made his eyes water; and it next made him cough, and endeavour to choke himself; and it then made his face flush, and caused him to declare that ”the first sn.o.b who 'sulted him should have a sound whopping”.
”Brayvo, Giglamps!” cried little Mr. Bouncer, as he patted him on the shoulder; ”come along! You're the right sort of fellow for a Town and Gown, after all!”
CHAPTER IV.
MR. VERDANT GREEN DISCOVERS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TOWN AND GOWN.
IT was ten minutes past nine, and Tom,* with a sonorous voice, was ordering all College gates to be shut, when the wine party, which had just left Mr. Bouncer's room, pa.s.sed round the corner of St. Mary's, and dashed across the High. The Town and Gown had already begun.
--- * The great bell of Christ Church. It tolls 101 times each evening at ten minutes past nine o'clock (there being 101 students on the foundation) and marks the time for the closing of the college gates.
”Tom” is one of the lions of Oxford. It formerly belonged to Oseney Abbey, and weighs about 17,000 pounds, being more than double the weight of the great bell of St. Paul's.
[146 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]
As usual, the Town had taken the initiative; and, in a dense body, had made their customary sweep of the High Street, driving all before them. After this gallant exploit had been accomplished to the entire satisfaction of the oppidans, the Town had separated into two or three portions, which had betaken themselves to the most probable fighting points, and had gone where glory waited them, thirsting for the blood, or, at any rate, for the b.l.o.o.d.y noses of the gowned aristocrats. Woe betide the luckless gownsman, who, on such an occasion, ventures abroad without an escort, or trusts to his own una.s.sisted powers to defend himself! He is forthwith pounced upon by some score of valiant Townsmen, who are on the watch for these favourable opportunities for a display of their personal prowess, and he may consider himself very fortunate if he is able to get back to his College with nothing worse than black eyes and bruises. It is so seldom that the members of the Oxford sn.o.bocracy have the privilege afforded them of using their fists on the faces and persons of the members of the Oxford aristocracy, that when they ~do~ get the chance, they are unwilling to let it slip through their fingers.
Dark tales have, indeed, been told, of solitary and unoffending undergraduates having, on such occasions, not only received a severe handling from those same fingers, but also having been afterwards, through their agency, bound by their own leading strings to the rails of the Radcliffe, and there left ignominiously to struggle, and shout for a.s.sistance. And darker tales still have been told of luckless Gownsmen having been borne ”leg and wing” fas.h.i.+on to the very banks of the Isis, and there ducked, amidst the jeers and taunts of their persecutors. But such tales as these are of too dreadful a nature for the conversation of Gownsmen, and are very properly believed to be myths scandalously propagated by the Town.
The crescent moon shone down on Mr. Bouncer's party, and gave ample light
To light ~them~ on ~their~ prey.
A noise and shouting, - which quickly made our hero's Bob-Acreish resolutions ooze out at his fingers' ends, - was heard coming from the direction of Oriel Street; and a small knot of Gownsmen, who had been cut off from a larger body, appeared, manfully retreating with their faces to the foe, fighting as they fell back, but driven by superior numbers up the narrow street, by St. Mary's Hall, and past the side of Spiers's shop into the High Street.
”Gown to the rescue!” shouted Mr. Blades as he dashed across the street; ”come on, Pet! here we are in the thick of it, just in the nick of time!” and, closely followed by Charles Larkyns, Mr.
Fosbrooke, Mr. Smalls, Mr. Bouncer, Mr. Flexible
[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 147]