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THE BEEF-STEAK CLUB 151
in any one of us was that which had been given us in childhood.
It is'llot easy to explain how we escsped all contact
with the two great teachers of England (Lightfoot and
Westcott), but so it certainly was.
The moral tone of the college was what might have been
expected. Some of us were grievously perplexed at hearing
at least three dons in responsible positions spoken of as
often the worse for liquor. Among the steady-going
typical old heads of colleges and tutors, the undisguised
appreciation of good wine struck us as a little out of date.•
Disgusting orgies were still kept up by a handful of young
fools who kept the Beef-steak Club going ; and an old
Cantab country gentleman who sent his son to Eton in
1888 boasted that his college-Magdalene-had been one
of the best in the university, " with three or four members
of the Beef-steak I" The clubs had no purpose or meaning,
except drunkenness at stated intervals.
Moreover, there was a large ingredient of the jeunesse
dorle, called the " Jesus Lane lot," who lived in lodgings
in that locality and spent not some, but the whole, of their
time in roystering. Some of them rode, some played
games ; but the majority were addicted to Bacchanalian
orgies and gambling in different degrees of excess, and not
one of them made any attempt whatever to do any honest
reading for his degree. As far as I can learn, these were
direct descendants of the old port-wine drinking squires,
common all over the country in 1840 and not quite extinct
in 1880. I doubt if a Bingle instance of such a type could
be found in either university to-day, so astonishing has
been' the change.
• A ....,....kable figure waa "Ben Latham," the Haater of Trinity Hall.
After he publiabed hio illuminating and wholly edifying P!Uior p..,,........,
hio lldvioe waa 1011ght by oome of the minority of fathen who were really
omrioiD about the - prlncipleo of oonduot being taught to their IIOD.II
omd ooe of them ...........tJy uked •• Beo" wba\ parting lldvioe should ba
sivatohiollld(Mheooooigned blm tothedootor'afatberly.....,)! •• Well,"
llllid Ben olowly, taldDg a plnoh of muft. " \ell blm. whatever he doeo. not
to b1q hio tohwry •• c.mbridp." Whether aoourata or not, the otory
ill-1M tho atmaopbon of the timeo. ·