10 in the morning
Down the centre of this room ran a large green-baize-covered table , on the one side of which were some eight or ten miserable beings who were then undergoing examination , and were supplied with pens , ink , blotting-pad , and large sheets of thin `` scribble-paper , '' on which they were struggling to impress their ideas ; or else had a book set before them , -LSB- AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 113 -RSB- out of which they were construing , or being racked with questions that touched now on one subject and now on another , like a bee among flowers . The large table was liberally supplied with all the apparatus and instruments of torture ; and on the other side of it sat the three examiners , as dreadful and <VG113-1.JPG> formidable as the terrible three of Venice . At the upper end of the room was a chair of state for the Vice-Chancellor , whenever he deigned to personally superintend the torture ; to the right and left of which accommodation was provided for other victims . On the right hand of the room was a small open <VG113-2.JPG> gallery of two seats -LRB- like those seen in infant schools -RRB- ; and here , from 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon , with only the interval of a quarter of an hour for luncheon , Mr. Verdant Green was compelled to sit and watch the proceedings , his perseverance being attested to by a certificate which he received as a reward for his meritorious conduct . If this `` sitting in the schools '' * was established as an ~ in terrorem ~ form for the spectators , it undoubtedly generally had the desired effect ; and what with the misery of sitting through a whole day on a hard bench with nothing to do , and the agony of seeing your fellow-creatures plucked , and having visions of the same prospective fate for yourself , the day on which the sitting takes place is -- * This form has been abolished -LRB- 1853 -RRB- under the new regulations . - = - -LSB- 114 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN -RSB- usually regarded as one of those which , `` if ` twere done , ` twere well it should be done quickly . '' As an appropriate sequel to this proceeding , Mr. Verdant Green attended the interesting ceremony of conferring degrees ; where he discovered that the apparently insane promenade of the proctor gave rise to the name bestowed on -LRB- what Mr. Larkyns called -RRB- the equally insane custom of `` plucking . ''