Note K — ON THE LATE, OR DEBASED, GOTHIC BUILDINGS OF OXFORD. From the Reign of Elizabeth to the end of the Seventeenth Century.

From this arose the popular, but erroneous belief that the candidates were compelled to walk an hour in the Pig-market, in order to allow the tradesmen to whom they were indebted to recognise them, and obtain payment of their debts, it being a rule that no candidate against whom an action for debt is pending in the University court, can receive a degree. But though the belief was not correct, it was until a comparatively recent period the custom for tradesmen to attend at those times for the purpose mentioned.