Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/166

132 long knife, battle-axe, dagger or other warlike implement.

It will be remembered that Mr. Verdant Green, who is always cropping up in Oxford, once met the Illiterati at the Carfax, when he saw, and felt, and, by the aid of his friends, conquered. There is still preserved a touching picture of the great Giglamps, with brown paper and vinegar upon his lacerated forehead, celebrating at The Roebuck this victory over the Townsmen, assisted in his paeans by Mr. Bouncer, Mr. Flexable Shanks, Mr. Charles Larkyns, and last but by no means least, by the Putney Pet, a Professional Prize Fighter imported from London for the occasion; who was smuggled, in cap and gown, into the affray, to the great surprise and discomfiture of the civic enemy. Verily, times are changed. But there were giants in those days! The Town and Gown Row, like certain other things in Oxford, good and bad, is now, happily for Gown and for Town, a thing of the past.

Lincoln, in the early years of its career, was rather severe in its rules in regard to the language of its students; and we are told that one John Taverner, in 1652, was fined thirteen shillings and four pence "for swearing two oaths, as did appear upon testimony." Unfortunately there is no record of what John said!