This England

eer courtesy of Lincoln, as a form of apology for
refusing to help their student in the past.
Also on Ascension Day in Oxford at Lincoln
College nine senior students go up to the roof of
the front quad and hurl down hot pennies that were
heated in the oven to children from local schools
waiting below. In the past, the coins were red hot
beforehand, and were supposed to be a lesson in
discouraging greed. Thankfully these days children
are allowed to pick up the pennies to boost their
pocket money!
Over at Cambridge the fellows of St. John’s
College are the only people outside the Royal
Family legally allowed to eat unmarked mute
swans. Swan traps were originally built into the
walls of the college alongside the river, but these
are no longer used. The Crown (the British
monarch) retains the right to ownership of all unmarked
mute swans in open water, but the Queen only exercises
her ownership on certain stretches of the Thames and its
surrounding tributaries. This ownership is shared with the
Vintners’ and Dyers’ Companies, who were granted rights of
ownership by the Crown in the 15th century, and was extended
to the college via ancient Royalist ties. Such is how some dons
feast themselves!
As for student drinking, “Pennying” is one
of the most bizarre and carefully thought out
drinking games on record. Invented at Oxford
by both the dons and students during the 14th
century, the aim of the game was to slip a penny
into someone’s drink without their noticing.
If you succeed, the person is said to have been
“pennied” and has to down their drink in one. Once
“pennied”, the pennier is asked what the date on
the coin is. If they can’t answer correctly, they too
have to down their drink. If you penny a drink that
has already been pennied, you have to down the drink
you pennied. A cunning way of getting a free drink!
On the subject of free drinks, in the 1960s a law student,
when revising for his final exams, discovered a statute that
required the university to supply him, daily and free of
charge, with two or three pints of ale in the months prior to
his exams. The university governors acquiesced, and he was
duly given two pints of beer a day. On the day of the exams,
as he was about to enter the exam hall, he was stopped by the
New Court, St. John’s College, Cambridge.
JEFFERY WHITELAW
invigilators and asked to write out a cheque for the cost of the
beer, because he was not wearing a sword (a serious offence in
the 15th century when the by-law was drafted).
When it comes to exams, the two universities even have
their own specialised vocabulary. At Oxford, your “battles”
(Tudor-Stuart) were (and still are) your college bills; if you
didn’t get to an exam you “ploughed” (1853) it; and academic
“nudity” was the appearance in public without a cap or gown.
At Cambridge, in Victorian times, a “brute” was one who
had not matriculated and a “sophister” (1574) was an
undergraduate in his second or third year. In both
places a “whiffler” (c.1785) was one who examined
candidates for degrees.
And then for qualifications there is “sub fusc”.
It is compulsory dress at certain events in Oxford,
so if you ever see students walking around in long
gowns, that’s sub fusc. It’s actually very complicated,
as the dress varies quite a bit depending on what degree you
are taking (i.e. BA, MA etc.), as well as whether you have
a scholarship. The essentials are black suit, white shirt and
white bow tie for men, and women
must wear black skirt, black tie
and white shirt, although as of
2012 at Oxford, men and women
can wear either gender’s sub fusc.
Gowns are of differing lengths
with differing silk trims according
to their status. “Commoners” for
The Bodleian Library in Oxford whose main entrance (left) is known as
the Tower of the Five Orders because it is ornamented with the columns
of each of the five orders of classical architecture: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic,
Corinthian and Composite.
ANDRIA MASSEY
Right: The characteristic robe of a Doctor of Philosophy.
THIS ENGLAND, Winter, 2017 2016 29