He was _bene natus_, in the sense of being
related to the right man, the founder; and in those days he need
be only very _modice doctus_ indeed in order to qualify himself for
admission to the enjoyment of his kinsman's benefactions. Still he
must have been orderly and well-conducted in his ways; and this he
would also seem to have been, from the fact of his having passed
through his University course without any apparent break or hitch, and
having been admitted to his Bachelor's degree after no more than the
normal period of residence. The only remark which, in the Memoir, he
vouchsafes to bestow upon his academical career is, that "'twas there
that I commenced a friendship with Mr. H----, which has been lasting
on both sides;" and it may, perhaps, be said that this _was_, from one
point of view, the most important event of his Cambridge life. For Mr.
H---- was John Hall, afterwards John Hall Stevenson, the "Eugenius" of
_Tristram Shandy_, the master of Skelton Castle, at which Sterne was,
throughout life, to be a frequent and most familiar visitor; and,
unfortunately, also a person whose later reputation, both as a man and
a writer, became such as seriously to compromise the not very robust
respectability of his clerical comrade.
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