Rowlandson's Oxford

Serv

orge Whitefield-College exercises-Running errands

ate Undergraduates. Under a fourth heading, which constitutes a small subdivision all by itself, I may place the working-men Undergraduates-the members of Ruskin Hall. Georgian Underg

anywhere else in the world. The erudition, classical learning, and brilliance of the Dons passed all belief. Nowhere on earth was there gathered together a body of men wit

fill the stomachs of their hungry progeny, left Oxford outside their calculations when discussing the prospective education of their children. Oxford was

vals of performing menial tasks for the gentlemen commoners. They cleaned boots, fetched and carried, and were the servants of anybody who chose to order them about. Having no money they slept in coal-holes, cupboards under the stairs, and a

greater ambition than their antecedents showed. They are no longer content to snatch education in the intervals of earning their keep. Ruskin Hall has been built for their especial benefit. There they may win scholarships to their heart's content. Their kinship with the humble servitor lies in the fact that they do their own meni

century records is contained in a comedy entitled "An Act at O

n their shoes and make out their exercises." His "fortune," which was "soon told," consisted apparently of "two Raggs call'd shirts, a dog's eared Grammer, and a piece of Ovid de Tristibus." For having materially assisted his master, a Smart, to win the hand an

tery-and wrote a poem on his own doleful condition. Its title is "Servitour," and it was printed by "H. Hills in B

Pouch of Sh

ocks, with

es seem'd E

Sweat, the En

splendent C

s thin, and s

Light, you'd sc

nd Breast con

n Obtuse

Latitude

o greasy w

seen it you

ars old when

fringed as i

and Brittan

like more M

pt out like ripe

r Galligas

s Music as

Stockins w

Band, one w

y and procure game and capons, ribs of beef, and other succulent dainties for some gentleman commoner's dinner, while for himself there was nothing but "Poor sc

Dirt and Co

d there with

let's se

ke not, 't

ggy be

windows wit

o keep out No

broken foo

hreveliou

gether Auth

s Iliad, to

us'd was

ved to stop

Glass, Dark-La

irerr, Penkni

ngs which I c

Stools, and s

urnisht out

aused by their hard lot, for they frequently invited Whitefield to join them "in their excess of riot," and looked upon him as a weird and extraordinary creature for his persist

ds before applied to, recommended me to the Master of Pembroke College. Another friend took up ten pounds upon bond (which I have s

to me. For many of the servitors being sick at my first coming up, by diligent and ready attendance I ingratiat

profits of my place, and some presents made me by my kind tutor, for almost th

ending their substance in extravagant living, and thereby entirely

ny claims to superior godliness made his employers, for some reason, acutely annoyed. "I daily underwent some contempt at college," he wrote, "so

to find out who was in-the majority of them being at that hour, doubtless, discussing punch and claret in the Mitre or Tu

exercises he wr

but feeling something give me a violent inward check, I entered my study, and continued instant in prayer, waiting the event. For this my tutor fined me half a crown. The next week Satan served me in like manner again; but having now got more strength, and perceiving no inward check, I went into the Hall. My name being call'd, I stood up, and told my tutor I could not make a theme. I think he fined me a second time; but, imagining that I would no

l services of a like nature, the servitors jumped at the opportunity of earning odd pence

rave Proctor

boots alon

course and wi

name, sets

t done, if

s barber ha

go-between w

tor in col

ese labours s

o purse some p

ations, and interleave them with references to save time." As, however, servitors were not admitted within the sacred precincts of the Bodleian, transcription was necessarily limited. This was a cause of great lamentation and outcry at the time from the men, because they were compelled to do the work themselves, and from the servitors

er I

Queen's

tly, or under cover of darkness. It is on record that Shenstone, who was a commoner of Pembroke, visited Jago a servitor, a friend of his, in strict private because of this popular prejudice. When Erasmus was at Qu

Aubrey describes Willis, the servitor of Dr Iles, Canon of Christ Church, as studying in his blue li

yne, son of a clergyman, and grandson of the Town Clerk of Oxford, who was drawer at the King's Head Tavern of

eys who were to change the whole state of religion in England, and himself a very stirring person, to whom we shall have occasion subsequently to allude. He was the son of an ejected and starving non-conformist minister, and when at the age of sixteen he walked to Oxford and entered himself as a servitor at Exeter, his whole worldly wealth amoun

work of the place. Why should they? Their poverty at Oxford was in no way different from that in which they lived previously

is brother was a trooper. It was only through the kindheartedness of a patron that Bishop Robinson became the servitor of Sir James Astrey at Brasenose. He was afterwards appointed to a Fellowship at Oriel, was sent as an envoy to Sweden, and be

a son who has achieved such fam