Meanwhile, copies of
the ballad were distributed among the students, who sang it under
the very nose of Mr. Jumble, to the tune of "A Cobbler there
was" etc.; and the triumph of our hero was complete. Neither was
his whole time devoted to the riotous extravagancies of youth. He
enjoyed many lucid intervals, during which he contracted a more
intimate acquaintance with the classics, applied himself to the
reading of history, improved his taste for painting and music,
in which he made some progress; and, above all things, cultivated
the study of natural philosophy. It was generally after a course
of close attention to some of these arts and sciences, that his
disposition broke out into those irregularities and wild sallies
of a luxuriant imagination, for which he became so remarkable; and
he was perhaps the only young man in Oxford who, at the same time,
maintained an intimate and friendly intercourse with the most
unthinking, as well as the most sedate students at the university.
It is not to be supposed that a young man of Peregrine's vanity,
inexperience, and profusion, could suit his expense to his allowance,
liberal as it was--for he was not one of those fortunate people who
are born economists, and knew not the art of withholding his purse
when he saw his companion in difficulty.
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