Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/261

223 in 1622, "where he remained about three years, when he went a travelling beyond the seas."

Professor Max Müller described a dinner given to Thackeray at St. John's, and the impression the novelist made upon the three or four men present. He was then writing " Esmond," and " from his treasures of wit and sarcasm," said Max Miiller, "he poured out anecdote after anecdote, he used plenty of vinegar and cayenne pepper, but there was always a flavor of kindness and good-nature, even in his most cutting remarks."

Thackeray did not send Esmond to Oxford. He matriculated his hero at Trinity, in the rival University town. "I go to Cambridge," says Harry, "and do but little good there."

Arthur Pendennis, created before Esmond, went, it will be remembered, to St. Boniface's College in "Oxbridge," where he attended classical and mathematical lectures with tolerable assiduity; and was annoyed by certain vulgar young men, who did not even wear straps to their trowsers, but who beat him completely in the lecture room! "Oxbridge," like "Camford," is a literary composite picture of the two great Seats of Learning.