Ernest and his friends used to consider themselves marvels of economy for
getting on with so little money, but the greater number of dwellers in
the labyrinth would have considered one-half of their expenditure to be
an exceeding measure of affluence, and so doubtless any domestic tyranny
which had been experienced by Ernest was a small thing to what the
average Johnian sizar had had to put up with.
A few would at once emerge on its being found after their first
examination that they were likely to be ornaments to the college; these
would win valuable scholarships that enabled them to live in some degree
of comfort, and would amalgamate with the more studious of those who were
in a better social position, but even these, with few exceptions, were
long in shaking off the uncouthness they brought with them to the
University, nor would their origin cease to be easily recognisable till
they had become dons and tutors. I have seen some of these men attain
high position in the world of politics or science, and yet still retain a
look of labyrinth and Johnian sizarship.
Unprepossessing then, in feature, gait and manners, unkempt and
ill-dressed beyond what can be easily described, these poor fellows
formed a class apart, whose thoughts and ways were not as the thoughts
and ways of Ernest and his friends, and it was among them that Simeonism
chiefly flourished.
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