Aspects Of Modern Oxford

CONTENTS


I--OF DONS AND COLLEGES
II--OF UNDERGRADUATES
III--OF SIGHTSEERS
IV--OF EXAMINATIONS
V--UNIVERSITY JOURNALISM
VI--THE UNIVERSITY AS SEEN FROM OUTSIDE.
VII--DIARY OF A DON
VIII--THE UNIVERSITY AS A PLACE OF LEARNED LEISURE.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


In Cornmarket Street. _By T. H. Crawford_ . . . . . . . . .
_Frontispiece_

In Christchurch Cathedral. _By J. H. Lorimer_

New College, Oxford. _By E. Stamp_

Corpus Christi College. _By J. H. Lorimer_

Smoking-Room at the Union. _By T. H. Crawford_

Cricket in the Parks. _By L. Speed_

Waiting for the Cox. _By L. Speed_

Ringoal in New College. _By L. Speed_

Golf at Oxford. The Plateau Hole And Arnold’s Tree. _By L. Speed_

Commemoration: Outside the Sheldonian Theatre. _By T. H. Crawford_

In College Rooms. _By T. H. Crawford_

A Ball at Christchurch. _By T. H. Crawford_

The Deer Park, Magdalen College, Oxford. _By J. H. Lorimer_

In Convocation: Conferring a Degree. _By E. Stamp_

A Lecture-Room in Magdalen College. _By E. Stamp_

The Library, Merton College. _By E. Stamp_

Reading the Newdigate. _By T. H. Crawford_

A Dance at St. John’s. _By T. H. Crawford_

The Radcliffe. _By E. Stamp_

In the Bodleian. _By E. Stamp_

Sailing on the Upper River. _By L. Speed_

Porch of St. Mary’s. _By J. Pennell_

In Exeter College Chapel. _By E. Stamp_

Parsons’ Pleasure. _By L. Speed_

Fencing. _By L. Speed_

Lawn Tennis at Oxford. _By L. Speed_

Bowls in New College Garden. _By L. Speed_

Coaching the Eight. _By J. H. Lorimer_

Evening on the River. _By E. Stamp_




ASPECTS OF MODERN OXFORD




I--OF DONS AND COLLEGES


’We ain’t no thin red heroes, nor we ain’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barracks, most remarkable like you.’
_Rudyard Kipling_.

Fellows of Colleges who travel on the continent of Europe have, from
time to time, experienced the almost insuperable difficulty of
explaining to the more or less intelligent foreigner their own reason of
existence, and that of the establishment to which they are privileged to
belong. It is all the worse if your neighbour at the _table d’hôte_ is
acquainted with the Universities of his own country, for these offer no
parallel at all, and to attempt to illustrate by means of them is not
only futile but misleading. Define any college according to the general
scheme indicated by its founder; when you have made the situation as
intelligible as a limited knowledge of French or German will allow, the
inquirer will conclude that ’_also_ it is a monastic institution,’ and
that you are wearing a hair shirt under your tourist tweeds. Try to
disabuse him of this impression by pointing out that colleges do not
compel to celibacy, and are intended mainly for the instruction of
youth, and your Continental will go away with the conviction that an
English University is composed of a conglomeration of public schools.
If he tries to get further information from the conversation of a casual
undergraduate, it will appear that a _Ruderverein_ on the Danube offers
most points of comparison.

Fellows themselves fare no better, and are left in an--if
possible--darker obscurity. That they are in some way connected with
education is tolerably obvious, but the particular nature of the
connexion is unexplained. Having thoroughly confused the subject by
showing inconclusively that you are neither a monk, nor a schoolmaster,
nor a _Privat Docent_, you probably acquiesce from sheer weariness in
the title of _Professor_, which, perhaps, is as convenient as any other;
and, after all, _Professoren_ are very different from Professors. But
all this does nothing to elucidate the nature of a College. To do this
abroad is nearly as hard as to define the function of a University in
England.