He
bought "mountain wine, very old and good," and had his crest engraved
on his teaspoons, that everything might be handsome about him. When
he treated the Masters of Arts in Oriel Hall they ate a hundred
pounds weight of biscuits--not, we trust, without marmalade. "A bowl
of rum-punch from Horsman's" cost half a crown. Fancy a jolly
Proctor sending out for bowls of rum-punch, and that in April! Eggs
cost a penny each, and "three oranges and a mouse-trap" ninepence.
White, a generous man, gave the Vice-Chancellor "seven pounds of
double-refined white sugar." I like to fancy my learned friend, the
Proctor, going to the present Vice-Chancellor's with a donation of
white sugar! Manners have certainly changed in the direction of
severity. "Share of the expense for Mr. Butcher's release" came to
ten and sixpence. What had Mr. Butcher been doing? The Proctor went
"to Blenheim with Nan," and it cost him fifteen and sixpence.
Perhaps she was one of the "Oxford Toasts" of a contemporary satire.
Strawberries were fourpence a basket on the ninth of June; and on
November 6, White lost one shilling "at cards, in common room." He
went from Selborne to Oxford, "in a post-chaise with Jenny Croke";
and he gave Jenny a "round Chinaturene." Tea cost eight shillings a
pound in 1752, while rum-punch was but half a crown a bowl. White's
highest terminal battels were but 12 pounds, though he was a
hospitable man, and would readily treat the other Proctor to a bowl
of punch.
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