If you go down for five shillings to
look at the 'College Youths,' you may see one sneaking down the court
without a tassel to his cap; another with a gold or silver fringe to his
velvet trencher; a third lad with a master's gown and hat, walking at
ease over the sacred College grass-plats, which common men must not
tread on.
He may do it because he is a nobleman. Because a lad is a lord, the
University gives him a degree at the end of two years which another is
seven in acquiring. Because he is a lord, he has no call to go through
an examination. Any man who has not been to College and back for
five shillings, would not believe in such distinctions in a place of
education, so absurd and monstrous do they seem to be.
The lads with gold and silver lace are sons of rich gentlemen and
called Fellow Commoners; they are privileged to feed better than the
pensioners, and to have wine with their victuals, which the latter can
only get in their rooms.
The unlucky boys who have no tassels to their caps, are called
sizars--SERVITORS at Oxford--(a very pretty and gentlemanlike title).
A distinction is made in their clothes because they are poor; for which
reason they wear a badge of poverty, and are not allowed to take their
meals with their fellow-students.
When this wicked and shameful distinction was set up, it was of a piece
with all the rest--a part of the brutal, unchristian, blundering feudal
system.
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