The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

176
The HigJiland MontJily.
drinking was study, and proficiency therein gave the title
to degrees. Even for admission there was a theme
required, which consisted in drinking a particular glass to
every friend and acquaintance one had in the world, with
one more. Without these thirty-nine or more articles
being duly swallowed, the candidate was relentlessly
excluded. On being accepted, a wreath was conferred,
and Master James Hay, by virtue of the authority resting
in him under the rules of the foundation, addressed the
neoph}'te." Here is part of the Fornmla Lmtreavi Can-
didatis Dandi In Collegia Biitterensi
:
—
" Postatem do tibique
Compotandi, bibendique,
Ac summa pocula implendi,
Et haustus exhauriendi,
Cujusve sint capacitates,
E rotundis aut quadratis.
In signum ut manumittaris,
Adornet caput hie galerus.
Quod tibi felix sit faustumque,
Obnixe comprecor multumque."
But no specimen of the wit of this " fluid University," as
Dr Chalmers, calls it,^ is equal to a Catalogns Libroritm in
BihliotJieccB Butterensis, to all external appearance a dry list
of learned books, while in reality comprising the whole para-
phernalia of a tavern. Among the works are :—Maximilian
Malt-Kist, De principiis liquidoriivi ; Bucket's Hydro-
staticks ; Findlay Fireside,/?^ cirailari poadonim fuotu ;
Barnabas Eeer-Glass, De lavando guttiire ; Constantinus
Chopinus, De philosophicis bibendi legibus, 12 tom. The
reputation of this ancient " Collegium'' survives in the
familiar nickname, " Buttery Willie Collie," which urchins
still flin"" at the red-gowned student, as he wends his way
through the Spittal of Old Aberdeen.
In the preparation of these brief notes, I have, of
course, been indebted mainly to the Fasti Aberdonenses,
edited by the late Cosmo Innes for the Spalding Club. A
1 Domestic Annals of Scotland, III., pp. 230-33.