Laudator Temporis Acti

James Pycroft, Oxford Memories: A Retrospect After Fifty Years, Vol. II (London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1886), pp. 17-18:

A young æsthete had his room wrecked. His furniture and his china, his peacock feathers and his other tomfooleries had been reduced to ruin. It is urged on the other hand that he had so far forgotten himself as to speak disrespectfully of the college boat, and that his punishment was justly deserved. "The controversy," says a writer of the day, "is a very pretty one and up to this moment it is being most acrimoniously carried on, and on the whole the oarsmen, blunt and soldier-like as is their diction, are getting the best of the dispute. The Æsthetes abuse them as Bœotians, and call them brutal, stupid, and ill-educated. To this the Athletes reply, with some promptitude, that there are more boating men to be found in the First class than any furnished by the æsthetic contingent, and one of their number goes so far as to make a very uncomplimentary remark of another kind. The sarcasm is one upon which we need not dwell, but it seems that the Æsthetes have gone rather out of their way to provoke it. Amidst all the coarseness and roughness of Oxford there runs a wholesome and manly dislike of everything that is sickly, mean, and effeminate, and there is also a tendency to associate effeminacy with other failings. The suspicion is on the whole not unfounded, and young men who are fond of feathers, fans, and crockery had perhaps better seek some other place than an Oxford college for the gratification of their peculiar tastes."

Hat tip: Alan Crease.