Cambridge Pieces

[It should be explained that Tom Bridges was a gyp at St. John’s College, during Butler’s residence at Cambridge.]

We now come to the most eventful period in Mr. Bridges’ life:  we mean the time when he was elected to the shoe-black scholarship, compared with which all his previous honours sank into insignificance.

Mr. Bridges had long been desirous of becoming a candidate for this distinction, but, until the death of Mr. Leader, no vacancy having occurred among the scholars, he had as yet had no opportunity of going in for it.  The income to be derived from it was not inconsiderable, and as it led to the porter fellowship the mere pecuniary value was not to be despised, but thirst of fame and the desire of a more public position were the chief inducements to a man of Mr. Bridges’ temperament, in which ambition and patriotism formed so prominent a part.  Latin, however, was not Mr. Bridges’ forte; he excelled rather in the higher branches of arithmetic and the abstruse sciences.  His attainments, however, in the dead languages were beyond those of most of his contemporaries, as the letter he sent to the Master and Seniors will abundantly prove.  It was chiefly owing to the great reverence for genius shown by Dr. Tatham that these letters have been preserved to us, as that excellent man, considering that no circumstance connected with Mr. Bridges’ celebrity could be justly consigned to oblivion, rescued these valuable relics from the Bedmaker, as she was on the point of using them to light the fire.  By him they were presented to the author of this memoir, who now for the first time lays them before the public.  The first was to the Master himself, and ran as follows:-

Reverende Sir,

Possum bene blackere shoas, et locus shoe-blackissis vacuus est.  Makee me shoeblackum si hoc tibi placeat, precor te, quia desidero hoc locum.

Your very humble servant,
THOMASUS BRIDGESSUS.

We subjoin Mr. Bridges’ autograph.  The reader will be astonished to perceive its resemblance to that of Napoleon I, with whom he was very intimate, and with anecdotes of whom he used very frequently to amuse his masters.  We add that of Napoleon.