midnight
This only son and heir Mr Glowry had christened Scythrop , from the name of a maternal ancestor , who had hanged himself one rainy day in a fit of _ toedium vitae _ , and had been eulogised by a coroner 's jury in the comprehensive phrase of _ felo de se _ ; on which account , Mr Glowry held his memory in high honour , and made a punchbowl of his skull . When Scythrop grew up , he was sent , as usual , to a public school , where a little learning was painfully beaten into him , and from thence to the university , where it was carefully taken out of him ; and he was sent home like a well-threshed ear of corn , with nothing in his head : having finished his education to the high satisfaction of the master and fellows of his college , who had , in testimony of their approbation , presented him with a silver fish-slice , on which his name figured at the head of a laudatory inscription in some semi-barbarous dialect of Anglo-Saxonised Latin . His fellow-students , however , who drove tandem and random in great perfection , and were connoisseurs in good inns , had taught him to drink deep ere he departed . He had passed much of his time with these choice spirits , and had seen the rays of the midnight lamp tremble on many a lengthening file of empty bottles . He passed his vacations sometimes at Nightmare Abbey , sometimes in London , at the house of his uncle , Mr Hilary , a very cheerful and elastic gentleman , who had married the sister of the melancholy Mr Glowry . The company that frequented his house was the gayest of the gay . Scythrop danced with the ladies and drank with the gentlemen , and was pronounced by both a very accomplished charming fellow , and an honour to the university .