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Primaque libato s11mmo tenus attigit ore.
Tum Bitiie dedit increpitana: ille impiger hauait
Spumantem pateram, et pleno
se
proluit auro.
Post alii proceres.
It has been the custom from time imme–
morial, at the civic feasts in Oxford, for the
Grace Cup
to
be introduced before the re–
moval of the cloth, when the Mayor receives
the Cup standing ; his right and left hand
guests also rise from their seat.'I while he
gives the toast, which, since the Reforma–
tion, bas been, " Church and King." The
Cup is then handed round the table, no one
presuming
to
apply his lips to it until two
persons have risen from their seat.'I.
The
origin of this custom is ascribed by our
antiquaries to the practice of the Danes
heretofore in England, who frequently used
to stab or cut the throats of the natives
while they were drinking, the persons
stand–
ing being sureties that the one holding the
cup should come to no harm while
par–
taking of
it.