twelve o'clock
Mr. Plumb began by being very pleased , and the evening ended in what local newspapers call `` harmony , '' which is the most polite way of saying that any one sang who liked and that the discord was something terrible . I sang a solo , the first and last time I have ever done such a thing , but I was rapturously applauded by an audience who were more kind and thirsty than critical . My song was `` Tom Bowling , '' at least Ward said it was more like `` Tom Bowling '' than anything else . At half-past ten Bunny Langham had not come , and by some means or other it was necessary that we should reach Oxford before twelve o'clock . Dennison suggested that we should have a `` go-as-you-please '' contest back to St. Cuthbert 's , but Collier was not disposed to enter for a race in which he was bound to be last , and told us that if we were fools enough to go seven miles in an hour and a half , he would trouble us to rout up some don when we got back to college and say that he had been taken seriously unwell in Burlington , but hoped to be better in the morning . A man , who called himself a veterinary surgeon , but was described by Mr. Plumb as a cow-doctor , said he would give Collier a certificate of ill-health ; I do not remember from what disease he was supposed to be suffering . The idea , however , of rushing seven miles as hard as we could was crushed by Lambert , who was in a kind of `` coach and four '' mood and very abusive .