my energies for the Classical, I required very careful handling by an experienced coach, whereas the head and tutor of our party was a Bachelor of the present year, a high Wrangler himself, but with no practice as yet in the art of communicating information to others. Reading parties do not confine themselves to England or the Island of Great Britain. Sometimes they have been known to go as far as Dresden. We had decided to fix ourselves at some small town in France, and finally pitched upon Dinan in Brittany. Sometimes a party is of considerable size; when a crack tutor goes on one, which is not often, he takes his whole team with him, and not unfrequently a Classical and Mathematical Bachelor join their pupils. We were but a small lot; tutor and all only numbering five. A day was fixed for meeting at Dinan, the shortest route to which place was by Southampton, but having a desire to visit the picturesque old town of Rouen, I crossed at Folkstone, and traversed 'the whole width of Normandy and Brittany. The pas sage through the latter province is not one of my most enchanting reminiscenses of travel-the Diligences going five miles an hour exclusive of stoppages, and the country as uninteresting as if it had been made by one of “nature's journeymen." With delusive hopes of enjoying the scenery I had taken my place en banquette, and travelled like one of the very people, breakfasting in cellars with the conductor on three sous' worth of cafe au lait, or rather lait au cafe; gossipping with an English pilot who had somehow got out of his element thus far into the bowels of the land, but who spoke the language better than many of his more refined countrymen; falling asleep at night on the rough seats of the imperial, and putting my feet into the hats of ruffianly commis-voya geurs, who on awaking poured upon me a profusion of

oaths, which I received with a composure that immediately procured me the reputation of being an Englishman, fortunately for me perhaps, as their respect for le boxe restrained them from proceeding beyond verbal hostilities. But with all this I was obliged to fall back on a pocket Homer before reaching Dinan. For the first time I began to read the Odyssey through from the beginning. It had for me all the interest of an old Romance, and forcibly recalled the boyish ardor with which I originally perused Robinson Crusoe. It may be supposed that I did not get it up very accurately, having neither Buttmann's Lexilogus, nor Liddell and Scott's Lexicon at hand. All the doubtful words and passages I met with now, and during the succeeding month in Jersey, I marked for future reference and looked them out in a heap on my return to Cambridge-a wholesale process productive of anything but accurate knowledge, as I found to my cost in the Tripos. But of this I thought little at the time. The book had a perfect charm for me, and when we arrived at Dinan I woke up from it and thought of the coming Mathematics with a shudder.

But at Dinan there was no more trace of our party than if the earth had swallowed them up. As the hotels of the town were not numerous, and the whole place easily run over, I could soon satisfy myself of this without applying to that ordinary substitute for Providence in a Continental town, the Police. However, I waited for two or three days, the environs being rather pretty, and then, in a great puzzle, proceeded to St. Malo (which dirty little town, by the way, contains, or at least did contain then, one of the best hotels in Europe), and there took boat for Southampton. There was an hour's landing at Jersey. I went on shore with an offi

cer; we played two games at billiards, had returned on board, and the boat was just going to start, when my coach suddenly laid hands on me, and hurriedly stated there was no time for a long explanation-how they had found it so dirty at St. Malo that they never went on to Dinan at all, and Jersey being a very nice place, they had determined to stay there. Jersey was just the place where I did not want to stay, having heard much of its abundant opportunities for idleness. But the whole thing passed in a moment, and before I could well open my mouth, I found myself and luggage on shore. In going ten steps we met a very pretty woman, soon another, then I saw a third in a shop; and one reason for staying at Jersey which had not been assigned flashed upon me.

The little island is emphatically a place for female beauty; I doubt if any spot on earth can claim a superiority to it in this respect. Nor is it deficient in other comforts and embellishments of life. Being very important to England in case of war with France, it is sedulously petted. Its inhabitants then enjoyed the benefits of free trade and protection together, actually selling the corn which they raised at protection prices in England, and importing corn for their own consumption, duty free, from the Continent. French wines, and gloves, and silks, they have without duty at French prices. The temperature of the island is very pleasant and equable all the year round; its scenery is necessarily on a small scale—the longest diameter of Jersey being but twelve miles-but it is exceedingly pretty. There are good saddle-horses to be hired, a phenomenon existing in few parts of the world. In short, it is a particularly nice little spot for a man of leisure to enjoy himself in, and one of the very worst for a man professing to study

to pursue his studies in. The principal occupation of the inhabitants appears to be playing billiards, a practice which they are not backward to inculcate on strangers. The prettiness of the scenery and cheapness of the excellent hacks tempts one to be in the saddle half the day; the balmy and enervating air invites to early repose. It was a lucky thing for me that, before the end of a month, I quarreled with my coach, which gave me a good excuse for leaving the party and the island; otherwise I should have come out a featherless biped indeed from the Degree Examination.

ΟΝ

SAWDUST PUDDING WITH BALLAD SAUCE.

Πολύστονον δέ κληδόν ̓ ἀρμόζων ἅμα

Μαθήματ ̓ ἦν γὰρ ξύμμετρος παθήμασιν.

Μαθηματογονία.

N returning to Cambridge, near the end of July, I was fortunate enough to find a place in the team of a capital tutor, a Small-College man who had but six pupils, all going out this time, and five of them "low men." My sojourn at Jersey had only brought me through Algebra once more, and now, beginning with Plane Trigonometry, I resolutely encountered that nightmare of most classical men, the preparation for the Mathematical Tripos.

When the Classical Tripos was instituted (which was so lately as 1824), it was thought fit to impose as a condition on the candidates for it that they should previously "take Mathematical Honors," a phrase somewhat facetiously applied in their case, as it meant for most of them obtaining a place among the Junior Optimés, or lowest class. The idea of this restriction was probably suggested by the previously existing one in reference to the Chancellor's Medals, the candidates for which were required to be Senior Optimés. Thus the Mathematical Tripos became, in fact, at the same time a test of merit for the Mathematicians and a pass examination for the Classical men, since none of the latter cared anything about being one place or twenty places higher or lower among the Junior Optimés; indeed, being a Senior Op