meals.—Wallis.

BIBLE CLERK. In the University of Oxford, the Bible clerks are required to attend the service of the chapel, and to deliver in a list of the absent undergraduates to the officer appointed to enforce the discipline of the institution. Their duties are different in different colleges.—Oxford Guide.

A Bible clerk has seldom too many friends in the
University.—Blackwood's Mag., Vol. LX., Eng. ed., p. 312.

In the University of Cambridge, Eng., "a very ancient scholarship, so called because the student who was promoted to that office was enjoined to read the Bible at meal-times."—Gradus ad Cantab.

BIENNIAL EXAMINATION. At Yale College, in addition to the public examinations of the classes at the close of each term, on the studies of the term, private examinations are also held twice in the college course, at the close of the Sophomore and Senior years, on the studies of the two preceding years. The latter are called biennial.—Yale Coll. Cat.

"The Biennial," remarks the writer of the preface to the Songs of Yale, "is an examination occurring twice during the course,—at the close of the Sophomore and of the Senior years,—in all the studies pursued during the two years previous. It was established in 1850."—Ed. 1853, p. 4.

The system of examinations has been made more rigid, especially by the introduction of biennials.—Centennial Anniversary of the Linonian Soc., Yale Coll., 1853, p. 70.

  Faculty of College got together one night,
    To have a little congratulation,
  For they'd put their heads together and hatched out a load,
    And called it "Bien. Examination."
    Presentation Day Songs, June 14, 1854.

BIG-WIG. In the English universities, the higher dignitaries among the officers are often spoken of as the big-wigs.

Thus having anticipated the approbation of all, whether Freshman, Sophomore, Bachelor, or Big-Wig, our next care is the choice of a patron.—Pref. to Grad. ad Cantab.

BISHOP. At Cambridge, Eng., this beverage is compounded of port-wine mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons and cloves.—Gradus ad Cantab.

  We'll pass round the Bishop, the spice-breathing cup.
    Will. Sentinel's Poems.

BITCH. Among the students of the University of Cambridge, Eng., a common name for tea.

The reading man gives no swell parties, runs very little into debt, takes his cup of bitch at night, and goes quietly to bed. —Grad. ad Cantab., p. 131.

With the Queens-men it is not unusual to issue an "At home" Tea and Vespers, alias bitch and hymns.—Ibid., Dedication.

BITCH. At Cambridge, Eng., to take or drink a dish of tea.

I followed, and, having "bitched" (that is, taken a dish of tea) arranged my books and boxes.—Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 30.

I dined, wined, or bitched with a Medallist or Senior Wrangler. —Ibid., Vol. II. p. 218.

A young man, who performs with great dexterity the honors of the tea-table, is, if complimented at all, said to be "an excellent bitch."—Gradus ad Cantab., p. 18.

BLACK BOOK. In the English universities, a gloomy volume containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the University of Göttingen, the expulsion of students is recorded on a blackboard.—Gradus ad Cantab.

Sirrah, I'll have you put in the black book, rusticated, expelled.—Miller's Humors of Oxford, Act II. Sc. I.

All had reason to fear that their names were down in the proctor's black book.—Collegian's Guide, p. 277.

So irksome and borish did I ever find this early rising, spite of the health it promised, that I was constantly in the black book of the dean.—Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 32.

BLACK-HOOD HOUSE. See SENATE.

BLACK RIDING. At the College of South Carolina, it has until within a few years been customary for the students, disguised and painted black, to ride across the college-yard at midnight, on horseback, with vociferations and the sound of horns. Black riding is recognized by the laws of the College as a very high offence, punishable with expulsion.

BLEACH. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to bleach who preferred to be spiritually rather than bodily present at morning prayers.

  'T is sweet Commencement parts to reach,
  But, oh! 'tis doubly sweet to bleach.
    Harvardiana, Vol. III. p. 123.

BLOOD. A hot spark; a man of spirit; a rake. A word long in use among collegians and by writers who described them.

With some rakes from Boston and a few College bloods, I got very drunk.—Monthly Anthology, Boston, 1804, Vol. I. p. 154.