With reference to the University of Cambridge, Eng., Bristed remarks:  “The Fellows, who form the general body from which the other college officers are chosen, consist of those four or five Bachelor Scholars in each year who pass the best examination in classics, mathematics, and metaphysics.  This examination being a severe one, and only the last of many trials which they have gone through, the inference is allowable that they are the most learned of the College graduates.  They have a handsome income, whether resident or not; but if resident, enjoy the additional advantages of a well-spread table for nothing, and good rooms at a very low price.  The only conditions of retaining their Fellowships are, that they take orders after a certain time and remain unmarried.  Of those who do not fill college offices, some occupy themselves with private pupils; others, who have property of their own, prefer to live a life of literary leisure, like some of their predecessors, the monks of old.  The eight oldest Fellows at any time in residence, together with the Master, have the government of the college vested in them.”—­Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 16.

For some remarks on the word Fellow, see under the title COLLEGE.

FELLOW-COMMONER.  In the University of Cambridge, England, Fellow-Commoners are generally the younger sons of the nobility, or young men of fortune, and have the privilege of dining at the Fellows’ table, whence the appellation originated.

“Fellow-Commoners,” says Bristed, “are ‘young men of fortune,’ as the Cambridge Calendar and Cambridge Guide have it, who, in consideration of their paying twice as much for everything as anybody else, are allowed the privilege of sitting at the Fellows’ table in hall, and in their seats at chapel; of wearing a gown with gold or silver lace, and a velvet cap with a metallic tassel; of having the first choice of rooms; and as is generally believed, and believed not without reason, of getting off with a less number of chapels per week.  Among them are included the Honorables not eldest sons,—­only these wear a hat instead of the velvet cap, and are thence popularly known as Hat Fellow-Commoners.”—­Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 13.

A Fellow-Commoner at Cambridge is equivalent to an Oxford Gentleman-Commoner, and is in all respects similar to what in private schools and seminaries is called a parlor boarder.  A fuller account of this, the first rank at the University, will be found in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1795, p. 20, and in the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, p. 50.

“Fellow-Commoners have been nicknamed ‘Empty Bottles’!  They have been called, likewise, ‘Useless Members’!  ’The licensed Sons of Ignorance.’”—­Gradus ad Cantab.

The Fellow-Commoners, alias empty bottles, (not so called because they’ve let out anything during the examination,) are then presented.—­Alma Mater, Vol.  II. p. 101.