Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/147

 studts.” From the same source we find that “Jonathan Gatliffe, aged about sixteen years,” deposed in 1685 that “he was invited by Mr. Wainwright [class of 1686] to eating a turkye in his chamber, and it was after supper time in Colledge…Also he sayth that the next morning after it was reported the missing of Mrs. Danforth’s turkeys. Gen. Greele’s boy told him that he saw feathers both of turkies & geese in Mr. Wainwright’s Chamber.” In 1723 the Overseers reported the distressing fact that “freshmen, as well as others, are seen in great numbers going into town [that is, Harvard Square] on Sabbath mornings to provide breakfasts.” Seven years later a new form of evasion is revealed by the vote: “‘None shall receive their [dinner] Commons out of Hall, except in case of sickness or some weighty occasion.”

Before the middle of the eighteenth century a fresh phase of the difficulty was presented by the overgrown state of the College. The “Laws” of 1734 accordingly allowed undergraduates who were lucky enough to have