Here Coleridge Patteson came to reside in the Michaelmas term of 1845; beginning with another attempt for the scholarship, in which he was again unsuccessful, being bracketed immediately after the fourth with another Etonian, namely, Mr. Hornby, the future head-master, His friend, Edmund Bastard, several of his relations, and numerous friends had preceded him; and he wrote to his sister Fanny:—­

’You cannot think what a nice set of acquaintance I am gradually slipping into.  Palmer and myself take regular familiar walks; and Riddell, another fellow who is the pet of the College, came up the other evening and sat with me, and I breakfast with them, and dine, &c.  The only inconvenience attaching itself to such a number of men is, that I have to give several parties, and as I meant to get them over before Lent, I have been coining out rather strong in that line lately, as the pastry-cook’s bill for desserts will show in good time.

’I have been asked to play cricket in the University eleven, and have declined, though not without a little struggle, but cricket here, especially to play in such matches as against Cambridge, &c., entails almost necessarily idleness and expense.’

The struggle was hardly a little one to a youth whose fame in the cricket field stood so high, and who was never happy or healthy without strong bodily exercise.  Nor had he outgrown his taste for this particular sport.  Professor Edwin Palmer (alluded to above) describes him as at this time ’a thorough public schoolboy, with a full capacity for enjoying undergraduate society and undergraduate amusements, though with so fond a recollection of Eton that to some of us he hardly seemed to appreciate Oxford sufficiently.’

Again, Mr. Roundell (his late adversary at Lord’s) says:  ’He was a reluctant and half-interested sojourner was ever looking back to the playing-fields of Eton, or forward to the more congenial sphere of a country parish.’  So it was his prime pleasure and glory that he thus denied himself, though not with total abstinence, for he played occasionally.  I remember hearing of a match at Ottery, where he was one of an eleven of Coleridge kith and kin against the rest of Devon.  His reputation in the field was such that, many years later, when he chanced to be at Melbourne at the same time with the champion English eleven, one of the most noted professional cricketers, meeting him in the street, addressed him confidentially, ’I know, sir, the Bishop of Melbourne does not approve of cricket for clergymen in public, but if you would meet me in private at five o’clock to-morrow morning, and let me give you a few balls, it would be a great satisfaction!’

Some resolution thus was required to prevent cricket from becoming a tyrant, as so often befalls those whose skill renders them valuable.  Tennis became Coley’s chief recreation, enabling him to work off his superfluous energy at the expense of far less time than cricket matches require, and in this, as in everything active, he soon excelled.