Gown was certainly mingling very freely with Town in Oxford’s Four Candles pub on Saturday. Wave after wave of first-year students, complete with bow-ties, mortar boards and – yes – gowns, passed through its doors following their matriculation. A tough business matriculation; as with the christenings referred to by Oscar Wilde in The Importance, candidates need to be sure their constitution can stand it. A chap from Pembroke College I met at the bar said he had had to present himself that morning at the Sheldonian Theatre at 9.30am. Truly punishing!

The Four Candles, a well-run, good-value Wetherspoon’s place which truly appeals to all types, is one of a number of Oxford pubs I have visited with great enjoyment in the past week (and OK, no cracks about my visiting any pub with great enjoyment). As pubs shrink in number, the ones that remain get better.

The Cape of Good Hope, at the Plain, another boozer where Town and Gown mingle happily, if at a rather lower age level, is going great guns under new landlord Richard. Just around the corner in St Clements, The Port Mahon – one of the handsomest pubs in the city, which I feared lost for ever – has reopened under business partners Nick Bassett and Joe Hill (pictured). They aim to cater for the same sort of eclectic mix of customers they have been attracting for the past two years to the Fir Tree, in Iffley Road. (They will be running both pubs in tandem.) Music fans will be pleased to learn that they intend to revitalise the upstairs music room, where many bands from the flourishing local scene have played in the past. First up is Smilex, on October 30.