Comeuppance

Though it is far from any mountain, Oxford University is a pretty good place to study climbing. The gates of all colleges are locked at midnight, so for generations night-foundered students have made a practice of climbing in over the college walls. Rasher spirits, who like night climbing for night climbing's sake, have attacked the spiky heights of Oxford's 73-ft. Martyrs' Memorial,* and left it capped with proofs of their prowess--on several occasions, a chamberpot. Last week, two members of Oxford's Mountaineering Club who had tackled the spire got a sharp comeuppance.

At 2 a.m., using Alpinists' gear--hook, rope and nylon sling--they reached the top safely, but cracked off a piece of the spire on the way down. The crash brought a policeman. Oxford's long-suffering town fathers found the two guilty of "public mischief," but postponed sentence, "to see what [the students] will do in the way of compensation."

* Commemorating the burning of Protestant Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley in 1555, of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1556.

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