Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/192

158, and it puts on record one of the customs of the place—"When dinner is ended here, as at Pembroke, the table is struck, by the Senior Fellow, three times with a trencher. These strokes summon the butler, who enters in his book what each Fellow has had of the buttery supplies. The grace-cup is then handed round, and another stroke of the trencher summons the Bible-clerk to say grace."

Wade describes, in a foot-note, the curious observance in ancient days of what was called "Merton Black Night," which was "a species of diversion observed when the Dean kept the Bachelors at disputation until twelve at night. It consisted in breaking open the buttery and kitchen doors, rifling them of their stores, and making merry with the spoil." When Deans and Bachelors so diverted themselves and made merry, what could be expected of the students, who, by the Founder, were so kindly and so thoughtfully placed under the careful charge of the Bachelors and Deans in question?

Mr. Anthony Wood has preserved some accounts of Merton hazing, in his days (about 1647–1650), in which the traditional horse-play sometimes took serious forms. On All Saints' Eve, and on other Eves, and Saints' Days, up to Christmas, as well as on Shrove Tuesdays, the freshmen, in