University painters – Gipsy fêtes and rural balls – Wilton’s Oxonian tale of love and jealousy – Supper on Hampstead Heath – Vestry politics – Charms of a night-storm.

It was not the object of all our college visitors to have their fortunes told: many of them, who were fond of drawing, brought their portfolios, and would have spent whole days in sketching our tents, and our donkeys, or in taking portraits of such individuals among us as struck their fancy. Others came to admire the dark eyes and raven hair of our girls; and Wilton’s Mary was in this respect a general favourite. The latter order of visitors frequently got up a rural entertainment, or, as it might be called, a fête, ¹⁵⁸ with great life and spirit; for they not only brought with them wine and brandy, but frequently a profusion of cold provisions, with dainties of every description; and to keep the spirit of fun alive, they always either had a hired musician, or some one of themselves played the violin or the flute; and a dance was struck up on the green, to assist in the digestion of the good things that had been devoured there.