George Whitfield entered as a servitor, November, 1732. An old schoolfellow, himself a Pembroke servitor, happened to visit Whitfield’s mother, who kept a hostelry in Gloucester, and told her how he had not only discharged his College expenses for the term, but had received a penny. At this the good ale-wife cried out, “That will do for my son. Will you go to Oxford, George?” “With all my heart,” he replied. He tells us that at College he was solicited to join in excess of riot with several who lay in the same room; but God gave him grace to withstand them. His tutor was kind, but when he joined Wesley’s small set he met with harshness from the Master, who frequently chid him and even threatened to expel him. “I had no sooner received the Sacrament publickly on a week-day at St. Mary’s, but I was set up as a mark for all the polite students that knew me to shoot at. … I daily underwent some contempt from the collegians. Some have thrown dirt at me, and others took away their pay from me.” Johnson told Boswell that he was at Pembroke with Whitfield, and “knew him before he began to be better than other people” (smiling). But they cannot have been in residence together, nor can Whitfield have been “chevied” by Johnson to the accompaniment of candlestick and pan.
To the pictures of Pembroke life supplied by Graves and Whitfield, Dr. Birkbeck Hill adds a sketch of a gentleman commoner of this time. Mr. Erasmus Philipps, of Picton Castle, (afterwards fifth baronet), entered in 1720. He is a youth of fashion, but not, as he would probably be in the present day, a dunce and a fool. He attends the races on Port Mead, where the running of Lord Tracey’s mare Whimsey, the swiftest galloper in England, brings to his mind the description in Job. He goes to see a foot-race between tailors for geese, and another day to see a great cock-match in Holywell between the Earl of Plymouth and the town cocks, which beat his lordship. He attends the ball at the “Angel”—a guinea touch—and gives a private ball in honour of the fair Miss Brigandine. He writes an Essay on Friendship set him by his tutor, who the same evening goes with the young man to Godstow by water with some others, taking music and wine. Or he attends a poetical club at the “Tuns,” with Mr. Tristram,[333] another of the Fellows, drinks Gallician wine there, and is entertained with two masterly fables of Dr. Evans’ composition. Pembrokians meet at the “Tuns” to motto, epigrammatize, etc. Mr. Philipps has literary tastes and attends the Encaenia, not to make a poor noise, but to criticize the Proctor’s oration. He presents a curious book to the Bodleian, and Mr. Prior’s works in folio to the Pembroke library. He cultivates the society of men of learning and taste, among them an Arabic scholar from Damascus. “On leaving Pembroke he presented one of the scholars with his key of the garden, for which he had on entrance paid ten shillings, treated the whole College in the Common Room, and then took up his Caution money (£10) from the bursar and lodged it with the Master for the use of Pembroke College.”
When Graves went to All Souls as Fellow (which many Pembroke students of law did), his friend Blackstone went with him. Sir William Blackstone, the great jurist, entered in 1738, aged fifteen. He is buried at Wallingford.
Westminster Abbey has received the ashes of at least four members of this House, viz. Francis Beaumont and his brother Sir John, Pym the parliamentarian, and Johnson the champion of authority. Pym’s body was cast out at the Restoration.
Nisi Dominus aedificaverit Domum in vanum laboraverunt qui aedificant eam.