President and sole member, he said, of some seventeen undergraduate social and literary societies

[Thomas] Earp had set himself the task of keeping the Oxford tradition alive through the dead years - as president and sole member, he said, of some seventeen undergraduate social and literary societies. In 1919, still in residence, he handed over the minute-books to the returning university. Most of the societies were then re-formed.

R. Graves, Goodbye to all that (1929), 203-4

Cricket ... wasted the most time in the best part of the year

[Nevill] shared my dislike of school traditions, and decided compulsory games were the worst. Of these we considered cricket the most objectionable, because it wasted the most time in the best part of the year. Nevill suggested a campaign in favour of lawn-tennis. We were not seriously devoted to tennis, but found it our handiest weapon against cricket - the game, we wrote, in which the selfishness of the few did not excuse the boredom of the many.

R. Graves, Goodbye to all that (1929), 51