to Brazenose, in 1817. There he is said to have led a wild life, although not altogether an idle one. Cards and dice were fashionable among the undergraduates in those days, and Barham had the great luck to lose, on the occasion of his single gambling venture, much more than he could afford to pay. His guardian refused to advance the money, as a trustee; but he loaned it, as a friend. Thus the debt of honor was paid, and the lesson was never forgotten. The man who begins by winning at poker, or in stocks, is not apt to learn his lesson until it is too late for his friends or guardians to come to his relief.
Some idea of the length of the nights in Brazenose, in Barham's time, is given in the biography by his son, who preserves the legend that the future creator of Thomas Ingoldsby, when asked by a tutor to account for his continuous absence from chapel, explained that the hour was too late for him. He was a man of regular habits, he said; he usually retired at four or five o'clock A. M.; and he found himself utterly unfit for work all day if he sat up until chapel time—which was seven in the morning!
Frederick W. Robertson entered Brazenose in 1837, where he gained the friendship of John Ruskin, and worked hard, without achieving any particular distinction.
