The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

174 ^ ^^^ Highland Monthly.
not mislead me, the victuals really deserved all the eloquence
the bursars could command. For breakfast there were
white bread and oat-bread " for saps," eggs, salmon,
haddocks, and unlimited quantities of milk and ale ;
dinner
usually consisted of a plentiful supply of broth, fish, flesh,
and fowl ; while, at supper, even the hungriest of appetites
might reasonably be satisfied with bread, lamb, chops, eggs,
salmon, milk, ale, and partans. Conversation was freely
permitted at table on subjects Jionestis, J7icundis, tciilibus,
but never in the " vulgar tongue."
The recreation allowed the students, while varied enough
to satisfy even the requirements of to-day, was very much
a matter of routine. They had to attend and leave off
every game at sound of the bell. Three times a week,
weather permitting, one of the masters escorted them to
play on the links between dinner-time and four o'clock,
and back again to the College. While thus engaged, they
wore caps and cloaks instead of the usual gowns and hats.
Golf and shinty and football were favourite games. In the
latter case, the Bajans, or junior students, enjoyed the
doubtful privilege of providing balls for all the other classes.
Archery, too, was practised, within the College precincts
probably, as we read of " neighbours " complaining from
time to time of arrows going over the College walls. Some
of my readers may be surprised to learn that among indoor
amusements billiards (or, bulliards, as it was called) held a
prominent place. It was under the especial patronage of
the Senatus, who supplied the necessary appliances in a
room of what is now known as Cromwell's ^ Tower !
Betting was strictly prohibited, and so were all games --
Indi illiberales—such as dice, which " feed the lust for
money, and give more room to chance than industry."
Punishments were in vogue to an extent that we can
scarcely realise nowadays. They differed in severity
^ Under the name of biles or bylis, the game of billiards is supposed by many
good authorities to have been played in Scotland as early as the fifteenth
century.