Rhodes paid his Oxford bedder in uncut diamonds. That's what it looks like, anyway. Cecil John Rhodes (who the Tabex Encyclopedia Zimbabwe 1987 diplomatically refers to as a "businessman and politician" though any mention of his name in Zimbabwe today provokes a hiss of horror from the authorities) went up to Oriel in 1873 after he'd made his fortune in Kimberley, South Africa. According to a paper by G.N. Clark*, a former provost of Oriel, Rhodes' college bedder (scout) William Hodge claimed Rhodes used no cheque book. Instead, he financed himself by selling uncut diamonds "which he carried, after the manner of diamond traders, in screws of paper distributed among his various pockets." Apparently Hodge begged him to stop, worried that he'd be blamed if one of the diamonds went missing. "He begged in vain," wrote Clark.
*Cecil Rhodes and His College, G.N.Clark, Heritage Publication No.2, 1982, History Society of Zimbabwe.
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