The
Constitutional Party was then the name which the Whigs took to
themselves, though, thanks to the advance of civilisation, the Tories
have fallen back upon the same. The Conservative undergraduates
attacked the club, sallying forth from their Jacobite stronghold in
Brasenose (as seen in our illustration), where the "silly statue," as
Hearne calls it, was about that time erected. The Whigs took refuge
in Oriel, the Tories assaulted the gates, and an Oriel man, firing
out of his window, wounded a gownsman of Brasenose. The Tories,
"under terror of this dangerous and unexpected resistance, retreated
from Oriel." Yet such was the academic strength of the Jacobites and
the Churchmen, that a Freethinker, or a "Constitutioner," could
scarcely take his degree.
Terrae Filius, who lashes the dons for covetousness, greed,
dissipation, rudeness, and stupidity, often corroborates the
Puritan's report about the bad manners of the undergraduates. Yet
Oxford, then as now, did not lack her exquisites, and her admirers of
the fair. Terrae Filius thus describes a "smart," as these dandies
were called--Mr. Frippery:
"He is one of those who come in their academical undress, every
morning between ten and eleven, to Lyne's Coffee-house; after which
he takes a turn or two upon the park, or under Merton Wall, whilst
the dull REGULARS are at dinner in their hall, according to statute;
about one he dines alone in his chamber upon a boiled chicken or some
pettitoes; after which he allows himself an hour at least to dress
in, to make his afternoon's appearance at Lyne's; from whence he
adjourns to Hamilton's about five; from whence (after strutting about
the room for a while, and drinking a dram of citron), he goes to
chapel, to show how genteelly he dresses, and how well he can chaunt.
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