"
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}.
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