ESL here, let's see.

I suppose that Michaelmas Term must but after a mass for Michael so after Michael's day in the calendar, and Term is something relating to a school year, so I suppose it's a specific time of the year that must mean something to english students at the time. There's reference to the Lord Chancellor, so maybe it's specific to law schools? Then it mentions it's november, so I assume Michael's Day is in October.

I also suppose that there evocations of dinosaurs because it's so muddy that it's reminiscent of a time where people thought dinosaurs lived in pic related. It's very muddy all around, people keep slidding in the mud and losing their footing.

The fog must be about the pollution of London at the time (I think it's London because it mentions Greenwhich and Kentish which I know of) since it's mentionned being in throats of pensionners and normal condensation fog doesn't make you sick.

Overall the page is to evoke a grim image of London in the mind of the reader.

Then we're back to the chancellery, so the story must definitively revolve about characters involved in the justice system.

Now I read the latest reply to the thread which says the students were supposed to translate or explain every single sentence which I haven't done, and I'm too lazy to redo all that's written above.