Fellows' Guest Night in college is still a very formal affair, and one of the last bastions of indulgence in these recessive times. The college specialities – Brasenose fondue, Magdalen venison, Christ Church wild fowl, and so on – are less in evidence now, but you can count on several well-lubricated courses followed by adjournment for desert – fruit and sweetmeats, port and Madeira. Some colleges seat you next to someone other than your host at this point, in order to enrich the mixture of conversation – a mixed blessing! Finally, everyone sinks into armchairs for coffee, and (if you can take it) further 'spiritual' refreshment. At New College, since they circulate the port by means of a small horseshoe-shaped railway, it seems likely that they sink earlier than most.

In Eights Week, the college boat clubs race in 'divisions' which start at roughly half-hour intervals, the bottom division, starting about midday, and the first (top) division around 6.00pm. Thirteen crews line up at the start, with about 70 feet between the stern of one boat and the bow of the next. The idea is to bump or pass the boat in front before the crew behind catches up with you. Of course it's more fun (unofficially) to bump them with such momentum that the front of your boat rides up over the back of theirs and sinks it. Meanwhile, the sun (with luck) streams down on strawberries and cream, and it's still very much the style to seek the shade of a boater or parasol. In the past, many colleges had barges moored on the river, but the last of these, belonging to St Catherine's, settled gently on the bottom some years back, during celebrations following a particularly successful week for the college First Eight.