Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/95

67 and of genius, are sometimes as full of pranks as are the men of ordinary mental calibre and of more lowly social status.

For it is gravely reported that when the basin of the fountain of Christ Church was cleaned out in 1835, it was found to be literally paved with brass knockers, broken fragments of sign-boards, and various other external ornaments and devices. What was done to the pavors is not stated, but several Oxford students who were caught in the act of stealing knockers at Northampton, in the same year, were called upon to pay court expenses, to write an apology in the local paper, and to donate twenty pounds to the Lunatic Asylum. The Lunatic Asylum, in that connection, is good!

One of the most notable of all the actions of the undergraduates of Christ Church, but one to be avoided in present-day Seats of Learning, was performed on a very cold winter's night some years ago. Out of wet snow and stones dug from the streets, mortared by water taken from the fountain, and freezing as it was applied, was made a solid, impregnable gate to the entrance of the Hall; which gate shut out Dean and Chapter from morning chapel, and left the students to remain undisturbed in their beds until late in the afternoon.

Mr. Wade, in his "Walks in Oxford," says that