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 THE AMERICAN STUDENT 
 
 AND THE 
 
 RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS 
 
 •M 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY 
 
 A Manual of Information 
 
 B\ 
 
 CHARLES L. WILLIAMS, A. M. 
 
 Professor in Denison University 
 
 PRICE 25 CENTS 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1903. B\ 
 
 THE SPRAGUE PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 DETROIT. MICH. 
 

THE AMERICAN STUDENT 
 
 AND THE 
 
 RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS 
 
 AT 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY 
 
 A Manual of Information 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES L. WILLIAMS, A. M. 
 
 Professor in Denison University 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1905. BY 
 
 THE SPRAGUE PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 DETROIT. MICH. 
 

 ^^" u^^^,? 
 
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 -¥\ 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 '4' 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Founder of the Scholarships and His Purpose — The City of 
 Oxford — A Venerable Institution — Origin and Growth of the 
 University. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The University and the Colleges — The University Idea at Oxford — 
 The Government of the Institution — The Officials of the Univer- 
 sity — Residence — Term-keeping, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Examinations — Passmen and Honormen — The Honor Schools- 
 Firsts and Double-firsts — Graduation. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The College Buildings — The Chapels — The Halls— College Officials- 
 Classes of Undergraduates — Where and How the Students 
 Live — Chapel Attendance — The Tutors — Localisms and College 
 Slang. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Athletic Sports and Other Diversions — The Moral Atmosphere of 
 Oxford — Expenses — Dissimilarities among the Colleges — College 
 Spirit. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Conservatism of Oxford — Defects in the Oxford System of 
 Education— Special Advantages of the Rhodes Scholar. 
 
Oxford from Magdalen Tower. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 What appears in the following pages was gathered, for the most 
 part, during a seven weeks' visit at Oxford, England, in the summer 
 of 1908 for the purpose of finding out all I could in that time about 
 the famous University located there. In my search for information 
 I was treated with the utmost courtesy by the many persons — 
 professors, undergraduates and citizens — to whom I made known 
 the object of my visit. My thanks are especially due Mr. J. Gilbert 
 Wiblin, B. A. of Jesus College for many kindly suggestions and for 
 an account of the more important doings at Oxford in recent months. 
 
 Like all others who desire to become acquainted with Oxford 
 University, I availed myself also of the indispensable help afforded 
 by such books as Alden's "Guide to Oxford," Wells's "Oxford and 
 Its Colleges," Brodrick's "History of the University of Oxford," 
 Gardner's "Oxford at the Cross Roads," Andrew Lang's "Oxford — 
 Historical and Picturesque Notes," Corbin's "An American at 
 Oxford," Dyer's "Oxford as It Is," "The Student's Handbook to 
 Oxford University," "The University Calendar" and "The Exam- 
 ination Statutes." 
 
 It would, of course, be presumptuous for me to suppose that 
 in this pamphlet there are no errors of any kind; because the 
 "Oxford System," being so anomalous, is very puzzling to us Ameri- 
 cans and because the more than twenty colleges differ from one 
 another in many respects though having much in common. This, 
 however, may be said with truth, that the author of this pamphlet 
 has tried to make it a manual of reliable information for the use 
 of those American youth who may aspire to become Rhodes Scholars 
 at Oxford. 
 
 Granville, Ohio, November, 1904. 
 
 C. L. W. 
 
 158601 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 A Fine Opportunity. 
 
 There are worse things in this world than money, the rheuma- 
 tism, for example; and almost any one can do without rheumatism 
 better than he can without money. 
 
 This is particularly true of a young- man who wishes to go 
 through some one of our better American colleges and then take a 
 course of study in Europe. If he can do this, he had better do it; 
 because it will broaden his mind very much. It will also enable 
 him to appreciate more fully the greatness of our own country, for 
 there can be no question that in many respects we of the United 
 States are by far the most important nation in all the world. 
 
 By the will of Mr. Cecil J. Rhodes of South Africa, who died 
 on March 26th, 1902, a number of scholarships at Oxford University, 
 England, are offered to young men of satisfactory character and 
 ability in the United States. A young man who is so fortunate as 
 to win one of these Rhodes Scholarships, as they are called, may 
 study at Oxford for a long time and may have more than enough 
 money to support him in the utmost comfort, if he is not extravagant 
 in his tastes. He will have also a fine opportunity to become 
 acquainted with the English people, who are so really great in 
 many ways that for him to know them well, cannot fail to form a 
 valuable part of his education. 
 
 Mr. Cecil John Rhodes. 
 
 Whatever may be our opinion as to Mr. Rhodes, we must admit 
 that in many respects he was a very remarkable man. In his 
 personal character he was not perfect, to be sure. No man is that, 
 and if we meet one who thinks himself perfect, we had better not 
 have much to do with him or we shall be sorry for it. In carrying 
 out some of his bold and gigantic enterprises Mr. Rhodes may have 
 been unscrupulous sometimes. Be that as it may, there was a 
 good side to him. He was one of those men, like the great Lord 
 Bacon, who have a complex character and about whom it takes 
 history a long time to tell the truth or, at least, the whole truth. 
 
 Some men have no foresight, nor hindsight either, for that 
 matter. They cannot see a thing until they feel it, which they do 
 by running into it and bruising themselves. Mr. Rhodes, however, 
 was not a man of that kind. He was farseeing. He possessed 
 wonderful shrewdness, pluck and force. He was a man of nerve 
 and of action. He had a way of bringing things to pass. He 
 conquered difficulties that would have disheartened most men. He 
 began his career in poor health and without any money worth 
 speaking of, but before his death he had made a fortune amounting 
 to more than $25,000,000 and gained for himself the name of 
 "Empire-builder." 
 
 Purpose of the Scholarships. 
 
 Mr, Rhodes was an Englishman to the backbone. He loved 
 England intensely. He had the greatest faith in her institutions 
 and wished to see them extended still farther in the world. He 
 cherished the largest hopes for the future of the Anglo-Saxon race, 
 
 6 
 
College Barges on the Isis. 
 
 of which the United States and England are the most powerful 
 representatives. He believed that it would be to the advantage of 
 the whole world if all the peoples that speak the English language 
 should come into closer union and should have the chief voice in 
 directing the affairs of the world. 
 
 The donor of these scholarships wished that the United States 
 might know England better and be more in sympathy with her, and 
 he thought this end would be promoted if a body of choice young 
 men from our country should become students at Oxford University, 
 of which he was an alumnus. Accordingly, he made provision in 
 his will that a number of scholarships at this famous institution in 
 England should be offered to students in the United States. 
 
 Here is something which it is worth while for our wide-awake 
 youth to consider, for the reason that each of these scholarships is 
 worth $1,500 a year and may be held for three years. "One scholar 
 will be chosen for each state and territory to which scholarships 
 are assigned. * * * Scholars must be unmarried, must be 
 citizens of the United States and must be between nineteen and 
 twenty-five years of age. * * * j^. has been decided that all 
 scholars shall have reached at least the end of their Sophomore or 
 second year at some recognized degree-granting university or college 
 of the United States." So reads the memorandum which was sent 
 out by Mr. F. J. Wylie of Oxford, the courteous agent there of the 
 Rhodes Trustees. 
 
 In his will Mr. Rhodes directs that, in addition to meeting the 
 requirements mentioned above, the candidate for one of these 
 scholarships must have shown himself interested and successful in 
 outdoor sports, such as cricket and football. He must have shown 
 himself possessed of such manly virtues as truthfulness, courage, 
 self-control, unselfishness, devotion to duty and sympathy for the 
 
weak and unprotected. Moreover, lie must have displayed among 
 his fellow-students the gift of personal magnetism and a capacity 
 for leadership. No mere bookworm need apply. None but those 
 who are healthy in body and mind will be accepted. 
 
 Examinations are to be held in each of the United States at 
 convenient centers for the purpose of testing the fitness of candi- 
 dates to pursue a course of study at Oxford. These examinations 
 were conducted for the first time last spring, and those who were 
 chosen to be Scholars were expected to begin their work at Oxford 
 in October. 
 
 The City of Oxford. 
 
 Oxford, the seat of this University, is a city in the southern- 
 central part of England and about forty-five miles northwest of 
 London. The most of it lies between the rivers Cherwell and 
 Thames, the latter of which at this point is called the Isis. Oxford 
 Is situated in a valley which is beautiful to the eye but which, as 
 we may believe very easily, is not found to be the most healthful 
 by some on account of the malaria. 
 
 It is a city of 50,000 inhabitants. It is without any extensive 
 manufacturing industries. There are no great factories with their 
 tall chimneys breathing out smoke and cinders. The closest atten- 
 tion is paid to sanitary matters. The streets are kept in the finest 
 condition, and the police regulations are well nigh perfect, as they 
 generally are in England. Any one with a taste for the beauties of 
 nature can scarcely fail to be charmed by the neat hedges, liand- 
 some lawns and rows of generous shade trees which he sees as he 
 goes about the city during the spring and summer. There are 
 scores upon scores of buildings that are very imposing in appear- 
 ance. There are churches and churches, many of which are mag- 
 nificent within and without. Oxford is a city famous for its towers 
 and spires and, looked at from a distance, it presents a sight that 
 is very enjoyable. 
 
 Oxford is an admirable place for a great institution of learning. 
 It is free from the distractions of a great city. It is quiet and 
 restful, especially to those who have been living in some centre of 
 business activity, where all is bustle and where everybody is rushing 
 forward as if pursued by some wild animal. But although Oxford 
 is quiet and restful, it is not a sleepy place. Its intellectual atmos- 
 phere is highly conducive to study and to the fruitful pursuit of 
 knowledge. 
 
 Of course, the University is the principal thing in the city of 
 Oxford. With its wealth and its hundreds of teachers, and with its 
 thousands of students, its influence is felt everywhere in the city, 
 in social circles, in the churches, among the business people and 
 among the laboring classes. If asked what was the chief industry 
 of Sheffield, we should say, "The manufacture of cutlery." If asked 
 what was the chief industry of Oxford, we should reply, "The 
 making of scholars." 
 
 To be sure, now and then, as in all other schools of learning, a 
 fool is made and, labeled "B. A.," is turned loose upon society, or 
 rather, now and then one comes forth showing that he has fully 
 improved the opportunities offered him for developing the fool- 
 potentiality with which he was born. The knowledge this blooming 
 B. A, has gained, does not seem to have agreed with him. The 
 University, however, is not to be blamed for this. 
 
 8 
 
High Street, looking West. St. Mary's and Queen's Colleges on Right, 
 and University College on Left. 
 
 Besides the University with its twenty-one colleges, there are 
 at Oxford several other educational institutions, that are more or 
 less closely connected with the University. Of these Somerville 
 College for young women is worthy of special mention. There are 
 also others that have no official connection with the University, 
 such as Mansfield College, controlled by the Congregationalists, and 
 Manchester College, under the direction of the Unitarians. We 
 speak of Brooklyn as the City of Churches, and we may speak of 
 Oxford as the City of Schools. 
 
 A Venerable Institution, 
 
 Oxford is a very old university, the oldest in England, Cam- 
 bridge, its illustrious rival, being somewhat younger. Harvard, the 
 earliest of our American colleges, was founded more than two 
 centuries and a half ago. We think of it as venerable and it is, 
 but Oxford had been a popular seat of learning four hundred years 
 before Harvard began its distinguished career in 1636. 
 
 The visitor finds at Oxford a good deal that has survived from 
 the distant past, a good deal to interest him if he has a taste for 
 antiquity. Some of the buildings are more or less modern, but 
 others are very old and a fev/ bear the marks of extreme age. In 
 the chapel of the college that goes by the name of Christ Church 
 one may see remains of an earlier chapel, built there in 1289. Some 
 parts of the buildings that belong to Merton College, the oldest in 
 Oxford, date back to the latter part of the thirteenth century, two 
 hundred years before Columbus came to America. New College, 
 which was established toward the close of the fourteenth century 
 and which has been "New" ever since, has dormitories that have 
 
 9 
 
remained almost the same as they were when first occupied by 
 students in 1386. The kitchen at Christ Church has not been 
 changed to any great extent since it was erected by Cardinal Wolsey 
 in the early part of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The older structures at Oxford, of course, show the effects that 
 time has had upon them. When a man is advanced in years he is 
 likely to turn gray, but many of these older buildings have been so 
 affected by the English climate that they have turned almost black. 
 Some of the stone walls have a mottled appearance on the outside, 
 because the discolored surface has crumbled off in places close to 
 one another. This, of course, mars their attractiveness very much. 
 Besides, it costs a large sum of money every year to keep these 
 structures old. They have to be repaired frequently or they would 
 tumble down and become m_ere heaps of stone. 
 
 These, however, are not the only objects of interest to persons 
 fond of what is very old. In the Ashmolean Museum there are such 
 relics of the far away past as a jewel that belonged to Alfred the 
 Great. Oriel College has a drinking cup which is said to have been 
 presented to the college by Edward II, In the chapel of New College 
 one may see the richly ornamented crosier that belonged to William 
 of Wykeham, the founder of the college. In the library of Merton 
 College are books chained to the shelves as was done hundreds of 
 years ago. 
 
 There are some customs that have been handed down from the 
 Middle Ages or from a period a little later. At Queen's College the 
 students are called to dinner by the blowing of a trumpet instead 
 of by the chiming of a bell, the usual signal for dinner in the Oxford 
 colleges. To notify the students of the University that they should 
 repair to their respective colleges for the night, the bell in the tower 
 of Christ Church has struck 101 times at 9 o'clock every night, 
 except one, since May 29, 1684. In short, a person with antiquarian 
 tastes will find much to delight him in the libraries, in the museums 
 and elsewhere in Oxford. 
 
 Origin and Growth of the University. 
 
 What we do not know with certainty about the beginning of 
 Oxford University would fill a very large book. We cannot put our 
 hands upon a sufficient number of historical facts to justify us in 
 speaking with positiveness as to the time and manner of its origin. 
 For a long time it was generally believed and stated with confidence 
 that this institution had been founded by Alfred the Great in the 
 ninth century, but there is no sure foundation for this belief. No 
 one knows the exact year when Oxford became a university with 
 a charter of its own, with the right of self-government and with 
 a chancellor at its head. 
 
 We do know, however, that in the early part of the twelfth 
 century the town of Oxford was a center of learning, that many 
 schools were there, that they were under the fostering care of the 
 Church, and that out of these schools in some way grew Oxford 
 University; and we may be reasonably certain that this took place 
 at some time in the early part of the thirteenth century. 
 
 It is clear enough that the University for some time after it 
 began its existence had all it could do to maintain its independence. 
 Its income was small and its buildings were few. The students 
 were given to fighting among themselves, and they had bloody con- 
 
 10 
 
Old Clarendon Press and the Sheldonian Theatre. The Theatre is the 
 Building with a Cupola. 
 
 flicts with the citizens of Oxford. But as time passed on, the 
 University acquired special privileges, received gifts of money and 
 was thus able to enlarge its equipment for the work it wished to 
 do. It gained a better control over its students, and having the 
 favor of the King it achieved complete supremacy in the town of 
 Oxford. 
 
 The number of students rapidly increased until, in the early part 
 of the fourteenth century there may have been so many as three 
 thousand, but there certainly could not have been thirty thousand 
 at that time, as was stated by the Archbishop of Armagh in 1357. 
 The Archbishop was, no doubt, a good man, but he must have mixed 
 a good deal of imagination with his memory. Oxford could not have 
 housed that many students in those days. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The University and the Colleges. 
 
 At first the University existed by itself. There were no colleges. 
 They came later. The first of these was Merton, which was founded 
 by the great Walter de Merton in 1264. It possessed ample buildings 
 and funds of its own. It had the right of self-government and 
 became the model after which the later colleges at Oxford were 
 constituted. Before the end of the fourteenth century there were 
 seven colleges at Oxford — Merton, University, Balliol, Exeter, Oriel, 
 
 11 
 
Queen's and New. Three more were added in the next century — 
 Lincoln, All Souls and Magdalen. In the sixteenth century six 
 were established — Brasenose, Corpus Christi, Christ Church, Trinity, 
 St. John's and Jesus. These were joined by two more in the seven- 
 teenth century — Wadham and Pembroke. Another two appeared in 
 the eighteenth — Worcester and Hertford. Keble, the youngest of 
 them all and somewhat unlike the others in its constitution, began 
 its career in 1870. 
 
 Before the colleges became a, part of it, the University had 
 everything to itself. Its importance was supreme, but as the colleges 
 with their fine buildings, their large endowments and their right of 
 self-government became more numerous and extended their influ- 
 ence, the importance of the University as such became relatively 
 small and this it continued to be for centuries. The colleges became 
 almost everything. 
 
 There can be no question, however, that the introduction and 
 the development of the college idea was an excellent thing for 
 Oxford University. Before the colleges were established, there were 
 no satisfactory accommodations for the students, and so they were 
 obliged to live out in town, where they had many temptations to 
 irregular and even lawless conduct. But within the walls of the 
 colleges they were better cared for, their morals were looked after 
 more closely, and they were compelled to give greater attention to 
 their studies. Stricter discipline was maintained throughout the 
 University and more satisfactory work was done. 
 
 During the last few decades, the importance of the University, 
 as distinct from that of the colleges, has been greatly extended, and 
 that, too, at their expense. Their monopoly has been broken and yet 
 the college idea is very strong in Oxford at the present time. It 
 manifests itself in many ways. There is a good deal of rivalry 
 among the colleges and so there is much college spirit. 
 
 Oxford University, of course, has had its depressions and its 
 exaltations. In a degree by no means small it has reflected many 
 of the changes through which England has passed in the last six 
 hundred and fifty years. During the fierce conflicts between the 
 Roman Catholics and the Protestants in the sixteenth century Eng- 
 land suffered greatly; so did Oxford. During the later years of 
 Elizabeth, England was prosperous; so was Oxford. For siding with 
 the King and with the Established Church during the Civil War 
 Oxford was on the verge of ruin for a time. During the eighteenth 
 century the University as a seat of learning and as a centre of intel- 
 lectual activity was woefully deficient. The spirit of true scholar- 
 ship was practically extinct. For a hundred years Oxford enrolled 
 among its students shamefullj'' few who rose to distinction in the 
 field of English letters, and of these very few seem to have had any 
 great respect for the University. 
 
 But with the beginning of the nineteenth century Oxford began 
 to awake. She had to or be buried. Before that time she had 
 opposed all reform. She had been dominated by the conservatism 
 which has its eyes in the back of its head, but during the first half 
 of the last century she yielded little by little, though reluctantly, 
 to the demands of the liberalism which had arisen in England. The 
 work of reform, commenced by a few members of the University, 
 Avas greatly extended by the British Parliament. For a long time no 
 Roman Catholic had been able to gain admission to the University. 
 That restriction was removed. No one could be matriculated unless 
 he signed the Thirty-nine articles of the Church of England. That 
 restriction was done away with. As a result of these and other 
 
 12 
 

 
 k 
 
 
 Martyrs' Memorial. Balliol College, and St. Mary Magdalen Church. 
 
 radical changes Oxford University, since the beginning- of the nine- 
 teenth century, has become almost another and, of course, a vastly 
 better institution. 
 
 It is often supposed that Oxford University is enormously 
 wealthy. It owns a great deal of property, to be sure, but much of 
 this is farm land, which, owing to the agricultural depression in 
 England, yields only a small return. The annual income of the 
 University is about $365,000, which represents the interest from 
 trust funds and investments, the fees from students and the profits 
 of the University Press, but the expenses of the University are very 
 heavy. It has a large number of salaried oflScers, professors, lec- 
 turers and teachers. It has libraries and museums to maintain but 
 it does not have among its benefactors such men as Mr, Carnegie 
 and Mr. Rockefeller. 
 
 Accordingly, we are not surprised that the University is all the 
 time pleading poverty, and complaining that from lack of money it 
 is unable to make such additions to its equipment as it greatly 
 needs. 
 
 The University Idea at Oxford. 
 
 In its organization and in its system of government Oxford dif- 
 fers from our older American Universities, such as Harvard and 
 Yale and from those that are younger, such as Johns Hopkins and 
 Chicago. We have nothing just like it and perhaps we are just as 
 well off as if we had. When an American, who is fairlj^ familiar 
 with the educational institutions of the United States, looks into 
 the University system established at Oxford, he is at first inclined 
 
 13 
 
to ask why it is called a system at all. It seems a perfect chaos, 
 and he is tempted to think that those who devised it must have 
 been endowed with a special genius for complicating matters. The 
 relations between the University and the colleges are extremely 
 complex. 
 
 Oxford University is a great corporation that comprises a num- 
 ber of smaller corporations called colleges. It is invested with cer- 
 tain powers and privileges possessed by no one of the colleges. 
 
 The University makes its own laws and chooses its own officers. 
 It has its own buildings, which, by the way, are surprisingly few. 
 It has its own institutions, such as the Bodleian Library and the 
 Ashmolean Museum. It has its own resources, which it manages as 
 it thinks best. It supports a corps of professors and lecturers. It 
 offers scholarships and prizes, which are distinct from those offered 
 by the colleges. It exacts from all students the payment of cer- 
 tain fees. It may bring 1o trial and punish any student for civil or 
 criminal offenses. Like Cambridge it has had the right since the 
 reign of James I to have two representatives in the House of Com- 
 mons. It may nominate candidates to certain livings in the Church 
 of England. It alone possesses the right to confer degrees and 
 decide who are worthy to receive them. 
 
 Unlike the great Universities in Germany and elsewhere on 
 the Continent, Oxford dees not receive a single penny from the State 
 for its support, and yet, self-governing as it is, Oxford is not en- 
 tirely independent of the British Government. More than once 
 the House of Commons has legislated for the correction of abuses 
 in the University. In 1877 Parliament passed a bill which aimed to 
 strengthen the University as distinct from the colleges, and which 
 for this purpose, required them to devote a part of their income to 
 the uses of the University. 
 
 The University, then, has prerogatives that are many and great. 
 Still, without its colleges, it would be very much like an apple tree 
 without any limbs for apples to grow on. The most of those that 
 belong to the University belong also to the colleges. Each col- 
 lege is a corporate body with a charter, giving it certain rights and 
 privileges. It has its own buildings, funds, officers and staff of 
 instructors. It offers scholarships for competition; it has at its 
 disposal a number of livings in the Established Church. It decides 
 whom it shall admit as students, it requires them to pay certain 
 fees and observe rules which it may lay down as supplementary to 
 those of the University. 
 
 It is natural to ask if an arrangement so complicated as this 
 does not lead to much discussion, some concussion and to an occa- 
 sional explosion. How can the University and a college get along 
 together without friction and without infringing upon each other's 
 authority? When two boys are on the back of the same horse at 
 the same time, it is clear enough that one of them must ride in 
 front. At Oxford the University rides in front. It is the central 
 government. It is supreme. 
 
 The relation between the University and the colleges is some- 
 what like that between our government at Washington and our state 
 governments. The colleges at Oxford have rights with which the 
 University does not interfere; it has rights upon which they do 
 not trespass. The most of the instruction received by the great 
 majority of the students is given within the colleges to which they 
 belong, and yet no college has the power to confer a degree. That 
 can be done only by the University. It is the business of the Uni- 
 versity and of it alone to make out the course of study which a 
 
 14 
 
young man must pursue in order to be graduated. It is the chief 
 business of the colleges to prepare their students for the examina- 
 tions which the University holds, and which it requires all stu- 
 dents to pass before it will give them a degree. 
 
 The University has officers charged with the duty of preserving 
 order within its precincts, but these officers cannot lay the weight 
 of their hand upon a student if he is disorderly within the college 
 to which he belongs. Their authority stops at the college gate. The 
 University provides lectures for those who are members of col- 
 leges as well as for others, but it cannot compel a college student 
 to attend these lectures if he does not wish to do so, for he may 
 prefer to receive all his instruction within his college. 
 
 In short, the University and the college have much in common. 
 Each makes concessions and grants privileges to the other. As be- 
 tween the two, however, the University has the right of way. It 
 holds the reins. 
 
 Besides the twenty-one colleges at Oxford, there are a few 
 smaller societies that are a part of the University. There is St. 
 Edmund Hall, the only survivor at Oxford of the medieval halls, of 
 which in the years long gone there was a large number. St. Ed- 
 mund Hall differs from all the older colleges in that it is very 
 much smaller, has no Fellows and is not incorporated. Its Principal 
 is nominated by Queen's College and some day it will be merged 
 into that college wholly or in part. There are also five Private 
 Halls, each under the direction of a Master and licensed by the 
 University. These are of recent origin and are small concerns. 
 They are not incorporated and have no Fellows but their students, 
 like those of St. Edmund Hall, have all the privileges of the Uni- 
 versity and are eligible to all its degrees. 
 In order to prevent the colleges from 
 having undue influence in the University, 
 there was formed in 1868, under its direc- 
 tion, a body of undergraduates who are 
 not connected with any of the colleges and 
 who for this reason are called Non-colleg- 
 iate Students. There have been in all 
 about 3,000 of these since 1868. They 
 have rooms. They are under the direction 
 of officers appointed by the University, 
 
 alen Tower and College, Oxford. 
 15 
 
and they have all the privileges and are eligible to all the honors 
 of the University. 
 
 The Government of the University. 
 
 The government of Oxford is in the hands of what is called 
 Convocation, a body of about 6,000 men. These are Oxford gradu- 
 ates and are all those Masters of Arts, Doctors of Civil Law, Doctors 
 of Medicine and Doctors of Divinity, who pay to the University a 
 yearly fee of $5.00 and who keep their names on the books of their 
 colleges. 
 
 Of course, the most of these m.en do not live in Oxford and so 
 there is a smaller body called the Congregation of the University 
 of Oxford. This is composed of the Heads of Colleges or College 
 Presidents, as we should say, the Professors, certain other ex-officio 
 members and those members of Convocation who have resided in 
 Oxford a certain specified time. 
 
 There is another and still smaller body, known as the Heb- 
 domedal Council, consisting of the Chancellor of the University, the 
 Vice Chancellor, the ex-Vice Chancellor, for one year after his retire- 
 ment from the office of Vice Chancellor, the two Proctors and 
 eighteen members chosen by the Congregation. Those thus chosen 
 are six of the College Presidents, six Professors and six who have 
 been members of Convocation five years. 
 
 These are the three legislative bodies of the University. It 
 Is the exclusive right of the Hebdomedal Council to initiate all legis- 
 lation. No man, no body of men, can make a proposal to Convoca- 
 tion without first securing the approval of the Council. It is the 
 prerogative of the Congregation to modify, adopt or reject any 
 measure submitted to it by the Council. The measure then goes 
 to Convocation, where it is either rejected or adopted without 
 amendment. 
 
 Convocation has other powers to exercise. It chooses the two 
 men who represent the University in the House of Commons. With- 
 out its approval no petition can be made to Parliament by any per- 
 sons in the University. Without its consent the seal of the Uni- 
 versity cannot be put upon any document. It alone has the power 
 to confer honorary degrees. 
 
 There is a body that has a part to perform in the conferring 
 of ordinary degrees, such as B. A., upon those who, by passing the 
 University examination have been judged by the University to be 
 worthy of degrees. This body igi called the Ancient House of the 
 Congregation and consists of the College Presidents, the University 
 Examiners, the Professors and a number of others. What this 
 House does, however, is a mere matter of form because the Uni- 
 versity has already by its examinations decided who are entitled 
 to receive degrees. 
 
 The Officials of the University. 
 
 The chief executive officer of the University is the Chancellor. 
 He is always some man of royal birth or some distinguished mem- 
 ber of the nobility, like the late Marquis of Salisbury, who held the 
 office for many years before his death, or like the present Chancellor, 
 the Right Honorable Viscount Goschen. The Chancellor is elected 
 by Convocation and for life. He does not reside in Oxford, how- 
 
 16 
 
Addison's Walk, Magdalen College. 
 
 ever, and is seldom seen there. His power is for the most part 
 delegated by him to his deputy, the Vice Chancellor, who, at present, 
 is the Rev. W. W. Merry, D. D., Rector of Lincoln College. 
 
 The Vice Chancellor, the acting head of the University, is nomi- 
 nated every year by the Chancellor from among the College Presi- 
 dents. It is customary for him to be renominated three times ana 
 to hold office four years. He is invested with great authority and 
 his responsibilities are heavy. He is charged with the general 
 oversight of the University. It is his duty to preserve order and to 
 see that the laws of the University are carried out. He is a civil 
 magistrate, too, a justice of the peace, even though he be a clergy- 
 man. He has a court called the Vice Chancellor's Court, before 
 which offending students are brought. In civil cases it is in his 
 power to imprison a member of the University who has been proven 
 guilty. He may also in some cases prosecute those who have com- 
 mitted criminal offenses. In many things, moreover, he is a law 
 unto himself. 
 
 The authority of the Vice Chancellor is not confined to the 
 University alone: it extends into the City of Oxford. He may order 
 objectionable women to leave the city and they will have to go. 
 Within Oxford and for miles around it no public entertainment, such 
 as one by a theatrical company, can be given, except with the Vice 
 Chancellor's permission. If students are arrested on the streets 
 of Oxford by one of the city policemen for disorderly conduct, they 
 may, if they ask for it, be tried in the Vice Chancellor's Court in- 
 stead of in the city police court. 
 
 In the discharge of his duties the Vice Chancellor has the as- 
 sistance of several lesser officials. Of these the Senior Proctors, 
 two in number, and graduates of the University, are very important. 
 They are elected every year by the colleges in rotation and they are 
 
 17 
 
charged with the duty of seeing to it that discipline is enforced 
 throughout the "University. They have, however, other duties to 
 perform. 
 
 They are assisted by four Junior Proctors and by a number of 
 petty officials that bear the unamiable name of "Bull Dogs." Much 
 of what the Proctors have to do in the way of ferreting out mischief 
 and preserving order is, of course, unpleasant to them as well as 
 to those whom they detect in acts of disorder. It would require, 
 I should think, a peculiar combination of qualities to make a Proc- 
 tor entirely proficient in the discharge of his official duties and 
 at the same time an object of passionate and universal affection 
 among the students. 
 
 There are also several standing committees appointed by Convo- 
 cation. These are called Delegacies, and the members, Delegates, 
 because in conjunction with the Vice Chancellor they are delegated 
 to exercise administrative power. 
 
 Residence Within the University. 
 
 In the city of Oxford, in just about the centre of it, there is a 
 place which is full of historic interest. It is where four of the prin- 
 cipal streets — Queen, High, Cornmarket and St. Aldates — form a 
 junction. This open space is known as Carfax. On the northwest 
 corner stands a tower of great antiquity. Carfax bears a very 
 important relation to Oxford University in respect to what is called 
 "residence within the University." 
 
 To reside in the University does not, of necessity, mean to live 
 in one of its buildings, nor on its grounds, nor in one of its col- 
 leges, but it means living as a member of it. somewhere "within 
 a mile and a half of Carfax/' somewhere within the circle of which 
 Carfax is the centre. So exacting are the University authorities in 
 this matter that if a student roomed and boarded ten feet outside 
 this circle, he would not be considered a resident of the University 
 in the official sense. How it would be if he were staying up in the 
 air more than a mile and a half above Carfax I must confess myself 
 unable to say. 
 
 Term Keeping. 
 
 The academic year at Oxford is divided into four terms. The 
 first Is Michaelmas term, which extends from October 10 to De- 
 cember 17. Hilary, sometimes called also Lent, term begins Janu- 
 ary 14 and continues to the Saturday before Palm Sunday, which 
 is the Sunday just before Easter. Michaelmas and Hilary are the 
 two long terms. 
 
 Easter term extends from the Wednesday after Easter to the 
 Friday before Whit Sunday, which is the seventh Sunday after 
 Easter. Trinity term begins the Saturday before Whit Sunday and 
 ends on the Saturday following the first Tuesday in July but it is 
 generally extended to the end of July. Easter and Trinity are the 
 two short terms and although the latter begins the day after the 
 former ends, they are regarded as two terms. 
 
 "Keeping a term" means residing "within the University" as a 
 member of it during a term, Residence within the University for 
 at least twelve terms is required of every candidate for the degree 
 of B. A, So far as the University is concerned, he may be credited 
 
 18 
 
Oriel College Quadrangle. 
 
 with four terms of residence if he keeps two of them in one year 
 and two some other year. The University does not require him to 
 l^eep his terms continuously. 
 
 Furthermore, it is not absolutely necessary for him to reside 
 all the weeks in each of the terms. If he lives within the University 
 six weeks in each of the two long terms and three weeks in each 
 of the two short terms or eighteen weeks in all, he is considered 
 to have been in residence four terms. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Examinations. 
 
 What must a young man do in order to be graduated froni 
 Oxford University and receive from it the degree of B. A., that is, 
 Bachelor of Arts? He must gain admission to some one of the 
 colleges, some one of the halls or to the body of non-collegiate stu- 
 dents; he must reside 'Svithin the University" twelve terms from 
 the date of his matriculation, which means about three years; he 
 must pay to the University certain fees and, most important of all, 
 he must pass the three examinations held by the University. 
 
 The first of these examinations is called Responsions, a term 
 which has come down from the Middle Ages and which may sound 
 rather strange to us Americans. Responsions are simply a written 
 examination in certain specified subjects. Among Oxford students 
 they go also by the name of "Smalls," for they are small as com- 
 pared with the last of the three examinations. Responsions are held 
 four times a year. The subjects for examination are mathematics, 
 
 19 
 
Latin and Greek. No English, no science, no French, no German 
 is required. 
 
 The candidate must have tlie whole of arithmetic. He must 
 pass in algebra up to quadratic equations or in the first two books 
 of Euclid's Elements- He must pass in Latin Grammar, Greek 
 Grammar and Latin Prose Composition. He must be examined in 
 some one book chosen by himself from some one of six Greek auth- 
 ors, and in some one book chosen by himself from some one of five 
 Latin authors. 
 
 In order that there be, no misunderstanding of this important* 
 matter, perhaps I had better quote from the Examination Statutes 
 of Oxford University just what they have to say in regard to this 
 last part of Responsions: 
 
 "Any of the following portions of the undermentioned authors 
 will be accepted as a book: De7nosthenes: (1) Philippics 1-111 
 and Olynthiacs 1-111; or (2) De Corona. Euripides, any two of the 
 following plays: Hecuba, Medea, Alcestis, Bacchae. Homer: (1) 
 niad, 1-5 or 2-6; or (2) Odyssey, 1-5 or 2-6. Plato: Apology and 
 Crito. Sophocles: Antigone and Ajax. Xenophon: Anabasis, 1-4 
 or 2-5. Caesar: De Bello Gailieo, 1-4. Cioero: (1) Philippics 1, 2; 
 or (2) In Catilinam 1-4, and In Verrem Actio I; or (3) Pro Murena 
 and Pro Lege Manilla; or (4) De Senectute and De Amicitia. 
 Horace: (1) Odes 1-4; or (2) Satires; or (3) Epistles. Livy: 
 Books 5 and 6. Virgil: (1) the Bucolics, with books 1-3 of the 
 Aeneid; or (2) the Georgics; or (3) the Aeneid, books 1-5 or 2-6." 
 
 In this connection it deserves to be said that those American 
 students who pass the examination held in this country for the 
 purpose of testing their fitness to pursue a course of study at 
 Oxford and who are chosen Rhodes Scholars will be excused from 
 Responsions when they take up their residence in Oxford. 
 
 Supposing that a young man has passed Responsions, what is 
 his standing? Is he a member of the University? Not by that 
 simply, strange as it may seem to us. Before he can be a member 
 of the University, the greater body, he must be admitted to some 
 one of the lesser bodies, that is, to some college or some hall or to 
 the body of non-collegiate students. How is that to be done? By 
 complying with the requirements laid down by the one of these 
 lesser bodies he wishes to enter, for each of these organizations has 
 the right to decide whom it shall admit. 
 
 What are these requirements? They vary with the different 
 bodies, being much harder in some than in others. St. Edmund 
 Hall, which is very easy to enter, will accept a student v/ithout any 
 formal examination, even if he has not passed Responsions. If he 
 is through Responsions, he may be admitted to the body of non- 
 collegiate students without any further examination. For the same 
 reason he may be matriculated at some of the colleges because they 
 regard Responsions as equivalent to their entrance examination. 
 Balliol and a few other colleges, however, will not admit him until 
 he has been duly tested in certain studies additional to those he 
 had in Responsions. 
 
 After he has become a member of a college or hall or the body 
 of non-collegiate students, the University will make him one of its 
 members without further question. A young man is admitted to 
 membership in the University not by passing Responsions but by 
 obtaining membership in one of the lesser bodies that are a part 
 of the University. Responsions are prerequisite to the other Uni- 
 versity examinations but they are not prerequsite to matriculation 
 in the University. 
 
 20 
 
Magdalen College. 
 
 The University will admit to membership without regard to 
 nationality or religious creed. One sees in Oxford a great many stu- 
 dents from India and other parts of Asia. An applicant for admis- 
 sion may not be willing to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles 
 of the Established Church, he may be a heathen, but if he is ot 
 good moral character and of sufficient attainments in scholarship, 
 there is not a degree in the gift of the University to which he is 
 not eligible, except those in theology. These are conferred on none 
 who are not members of the'* Established Church of England. 
 
 Every college in Oxford prefers that the student pass Respon- 
 sions before he comes to it for admission. He may do this and 
 he ought by all means to do so, because then he will be free to pre- 
 pare himself for the second test which the University requires 
 This comes in the middle of his second year and is called the First 
 Public Examination or Moderations or "Mods" for short. After 
 he has passed this examination, he may go on to the third and final 
 test to which he must submit. This is known as the Second Public 
 Examination or "Greats," and may be taken at the end of the 
 third year. 
 
 Passmen and Honormen. 
 
 There are said to be more than four thousand ways of gaining 
 the degree of B. A. at Oxford. Those young men v/ho are candi- 
 dates for this degree are divided into two classes — Passmen and 
 Honormen or Classmen, as they are called at Oxford. A Passman 
 is one who does the smallest amount of work required for the 
 degree of B. A. If he completes this work, he simply passes. He 
 receives his B. A. and that is all. He does not obtain any honors 
 with it. He has far less to do than have the Honormen, who aim 
 
 21 
 
to take honors along with their B. A., and if he has come from a 
 good preparatory school, where he was thoroughly drilled i.n Latin 
 and Greek, he may complete his course with comparatively little 
 effort. The University provides for the Passman courses of lec- 
 tures which are distinguished from those it provides for Honormen. 
 
 In the First Public Examination the Passman submits to a 
 written test in the elements of logic or the elements of algebra and 
 geometry; in Latin prose composition; in three books, one Latin 
 and two Greek or two Latin and one Greek, chosen by himself from 
 eight Greek authors and eight Latin authors. He is also required 
 to translate passages in Latin and Greek not specially prepared. 
 Like all other candidates for B. A. at Oxford he must pass an 
 examination in certain portions of the English Bible. If he objects 
 to this for reasons of conscience, he may substitute an examination 
 in some such work as the "Phaedo" of Plato, which, by the way, 
 is very much harder than the required portions of the Bible. 
 
 In the Second Public Examination the Passman has a large 
 number and a great variety of subjects from which to choose — 
 Latin, Greek, modern languages, ancient and modern history, nat- 
 ural science and the elements of religious knowledge. These are 
 put into four groups of which he must choose three. If he passes 
 satisfactorily and if he has resided in Oxford as a member of the 
 University for twelve terms, he may receive the degree of B. A. 
 
 A good many undergraduates are Passmen from necessity. They 
 are obliged to do some kind of outside work in order that they 
 may meet their expenses at the University, and so they do not have 
 the time to do the larger amount of study required for B. A. with 
 honors. Others are Passmen because they do not care to confine 
 themselves exclusively to the studies prescribed by the University, 
 These young men do not waste their time but read along lines that 
 are congenial to them and that are highly valuable in point of gen- 
 eral culture. 
 
 Still others are Passmen because they are not burdened with 
 fondness for hard work. Much study is a weariness to their flesh. 
 They prefer to spend most of their time in sporting or loafing. Their 
 chief aim is merely to get through and be able to write B. A. 
 after their name, which they are pretty apt to do in season and 
 out of season. They hope to shine in fashionable circles but they 
 can scarcely be classed among the "utilities" of the most sensible 
 society. 
 
 Far different is it with the Honormen or Classmen. Among 
 these are found, of course, the great majority of the most brilliant 
 and industrious students of the University. Of these it is hardly 
 necessary to say there is a very large number at Oxford. Some of 
 the colleges — Balliol, New and University — require all their under- 
 graduates to work for honors. They do not wish to have mere Pass- 
 men within their walls. 
 
 The Honor Schools. 
 
 Undergraduates may become Honormen in the First Public 
 Examination. This means, of course, that their examinations will 
 be harder than that of mere Passmen. In the Second Public Exam- 
 ination, which is the final one, they may attain distinction in the 
 Final Honor Schools, an honor school being an examination for the 
 attainment of honors in a certain class of studies. There is such a 
 school or examination in each of the following subjects: Li.terae 
 
 22 
 
■MlilMlliili i i i i Mi iiii'i i n iii iiiin i i iiiw miii i ii i ii mii m 
 
 Cloister and Tower, Magdalen College. 
 
 Himianiores or "Lit Hum" as the students call it, Mathematics, Nat- 
 ural Science, Jurisprudence, Modern History, Theology, Oriental 
 Studies and English Language and Literature, eight in all. 
 
 The last of these was the last to be established, which was done 
 so late as 1896, and even yet among the undergraduates it has 
 nothing like the extended and cordial recognition to which it is 
 entitled. Although the University has had among its professors 
 such noted scholars in English as John Earle, comparatively few 
 students enter this Honor School. 
 
 Strange as it may seem to us Am^ericans, the Honor School in 
 Natural Science at Oxford is generally unpopular. The more re- 
 cently developed sciences are ignored by the great majority of the 
 students. To the School of Science has been given the unfragrant 
 nanae of "stinks," and so little is such a study as chemistry thought 
 of that the chemical laboratories are called "stink siiops." The 
 equipment of the colleges for teaching science, as a rule, is shame- 
 fully poor, while the facilities of the University for giving instruc- 
 tion in electricity and other such important studies are almost 
 pitiably meagre, at least, as compared with the splendid facilities in 
 many of our American schools and colleges. One reason for this 
 condition of things, as the Vice Chancellor said in public last sum- 
 mer, is that the University is without the money to strengthen this 
 department as he and many others associated with him would very 
 much like to do. 
 
 One of the very best Honor Schools is that in modern history, 
 which includes the history of England, general European history, 
 special historical subjects, political science and political economy. 
 The importance and the popularity of this Honor School are suf- 
 ficiently indicated by the fact that every year it attracts about one 
 hundred and twentv students. 
 
 23 
 
The Honor School which is the oldest and the most highly 
 regarded is the Final Classical School or the School of Literae 
 Humaniores. In the Oxford vernacular it goes by the name of 
 "Greats," for it is great in more ways than one. A large proportion 
 of those who compete for honors in the final examinations are to 
 be found in this School, and they would rather reach distinction in 
 this than in any other. 
 
 To prepare for this examination involves the hardest work and 
 engages the energies of the ablest undergraduates. It is the School 
 in which the fullest reverence is paid to the ancient classics. It 
 includes the Latin and the Greek languages, the histories of ancient 
 Greece and Rome, logic, together with the outlines of moral and 
 political philosophy. 
 
 The written examination usually lasts five and a half hours a 
 day for six days. The examiners lay very great stress upon the 
 English the candidate employs in expressing himself and so he has 
 every inducement to prepare himself especially in this matter. He 
 must have not only a thorough knowledge of what he is examined 
 in but also the ability to tell in good English what he knows. If he 
 is unable to do this, he cannot receive the highest nor the next to 
 the highest honors. About three weeks after the written examina- 
 tion the candidate presents himself for a viva voce or oral examina- 
 tion. This may vary in length from a few minutes to an hour or 
 more according as the examiners think necessary. 
 
 Firsts and Double Firsts. 
 
 The names of those candidates who in this verj^ severe testing 
 of their knowledge have shown unusual proficiency in scholarship 
 are put into four classes according to relative merit. This is why 
 they are called Classmen in distinction from, m.ere Passmen. Those 
 students whose names appear in the first or highest class are said 
 to have won a "first class" or a "first" in Literae Humaniores. In 
 the first class there may be twenty-five or more. The names of 
 those in each of the four classes are arranged, not according to 
 grades but alphabetically, and are so published. What candidate 
 did better than all others is not stated. He is merely one of sev- 
 eral "firsts." 
 
 A candidate for honors may enter more than one Final Honor 
 School and if he wins a "first" in this also, he is called a "double 
 first." This is the honor won at Oxford by Mr. Gladstone, the great 
 English statesman. From half a dozen to a dozen of "double firsts" 
 are awarded every year. One who has taken two "firsts" in his 
 Final or Second Public Examination may have taken two "firsts" 
 in his First Public Examination, in which case we should consider 
 him pretty liberally supplied with "firsts." Moreover, in Oxford the 
 standing of a college in point of scholarship is determined by the 
 number of "firsts" it takes in proportion to the whole number of 
 students it has. 
 
 The regulations at Oxford for the award of honors are very strict 
 and do not offer any encouragement to indolence. If an undergrad- 
 uate wishes to take the degree of B, A. with honors in one Final 
 Honor School, he must do so in four years and if he desires to win 
 a "double first" he is required to do it in five years. He cannot stay 
 there ten or twelve years in continuous study for these honors. He 
 must be up and doing. 
 
 The examination-system of which so much is made at Oxford, 
 excellent as it is in many respects, is not without an element of 
 
 24 
 
Worcester College. 
 
 unfairness. Let me specify. The candidate for B. A. with honors 
 has vastly more work to do than mere Passmen have, and yet there 
 is nothing in his degree to indicate this. It would seem, therefore, 
 as if in justice there ought to be for him some degree higher than 
 B. A., which Passmen as well as he receive. Such, however, is 
 not the case and many Classmen complain of this, as they surely 
 have good reason for doing. 
 
 Graduation. 
 
 About six hundred of the thirty-five hundred students there are 
 graduated every year. The ways of Oxford in the matter of con- 
 ferring degrees are different from ours. With us this is usually done 
 on Commencement Day at the end of the college year, when those 
 who have completed their course receive diplomas or "sheep skins," 
 as we sometimes hear them called. In Oxford degrees are conferred 
 in the Sheldonian Theatre at the beginning and end of every term 
 and on certain other days in the year. The Latin language is used 
 in the ceremony. Those who are given the degree of B. A. do not 
 receive a diploma but they may get from the Registrar of the Uni- 
 versity a certificate stating that they have been admitted to this 
 degree. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The College Buildings. 
 
 Each of the colleges, which, by the way, are the centers of 
 greatest interest in Oxford, has its own buildings and it does what 
 
 25 
 
it pleases with them. These are always of stone. Usually they are 
 not very high and are arranged on the sides of quadrangles. Some 
 of the college walls are almost entirely covered with beautiful ivy 
 or some other creeper. I-q many of the dormitory windows or just 
 outside them the students have boxes filled with rich soil, out of 
 which during the spring and summer in the coaxing English cli- 
 mate grow flowers of the most brilliant colors. 
 
 Many of the college buildings present a very attractive appear- 
 ance but a few of them with their thick walls and narrow windows 
 look like old prisons. They are without lavatories or any of the 
 modern conveniences for heating and lighting. To a person on the 
 outside they look as if they might be damp and gloomy enough 
 within. Instead of iron or wooden fences to help enclose vacant 
 spaces one often sees stone walls, very high and thick, as if they 
 were meant to resist a siege. 1 should think them quite sufficient 
 to prevent an ordinary student from leaving or from entering the 
 college grounds except by the authorized way of the college gate. 
 Still, young men have been drawn over walls higher than these by 
 some object of attraction on the other side. 
 
 Some of the quadrangles at Oxford are very delightful. This is 
 true particularly of the spacious one at Christ Church with its 
 grass so neatly kept and velvet-like. Our sense of beauty is charmed 
 by the loveliness of the gardens at Wadham, New, Worcester and 
 St. John's. To the lover of nature and art there is no more en- 
 chanting place in all Oxford than Magdalen College with its elms, 
 its lawns, its shaded walks, its deerpark, its impressive buildings, 
 and with its tower so lofty, so finely pinnacled and rich in quiet 
 splendor. 
 
 There are some things that we are as certain to find in every 
 Oxford college as we are to find green leaves on a live cherry tree 
 in the month of June. There is the kitchen, which explains itself, 
 as do the Library and Lecture rooms. The Buttery is where butter, 
 cheese, milk and other provisions are kept for the use of the stu- 
 dents and others that belong to the college. Here is stored also 
 the beer, for the reader must know that every college at Oxford fur- 
 nishes its students with beer. The Senior Common Room is where 
 the President, the Professors and other college graduates, as we 
 should call them, are wont to meet for the purpose of spending a 
 pleasant hour in conversation, drinking and smoking: while the 
 Junior Common Room is the place in which the undergraduates 
 meet for a similar purpose. 
 
 The Chapels. 
 
 As every college was founded to promote religion as well as 
 learning, it has a chapel. In its construction this is adapted to the 
 religious service prescribed by the Church of England, for no other 
 service would be permitted. 
 
 Some of these college chapels are rich in histor'c associations 
 and others, in addition to this, are marvels of architectural beauty. 
 Accordingly, they are quite as interesting to visitors as almost any 
 other places in Oxford. .lust inside the entrance to T.,incoln College 
 Chapel is the very pulpit in which the celebrated John Wesley 
 preached during his connection with the college as chaplain. Any 
 one with a taste for interior decorations will, if possible, go to see 
 the fine statues in the Chapel of All Souls and the handsome west 
 window of New College Chapel. But the most magnificent chapel in 
 
 26 
 
Stairway in the Hall of Christ Church. 
 
 All Souls College Chapel. 
 
 27 
 
 Oh THE "^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
Oxford is the one that belongs to Keble College. It was erected at 
 a cost of more than $300,000. The surpassing beauty of its interior 
 attracts a great many persons as does also Mr. Holman Hunt's fam- 
 ous picture, "The Ught of the World," which is there and which 
 is owned by the college. 
 
 The Halls. 
 
 Every college has also a hall or, as we should say, a dining hall, 
 where the members of the college take their dinner at seven o'clock. 
 The tables are large and have a most substantial look. Hard and 
 heavy benches, instead of chairs, are used for seating the students. 
 At one end of the hall on a raised platform stands a table, the High 
 Table, as it is called, where the President of the college, the mem- 
 bers of the Faculty and other college graduates sit while dining in 
 the hall. The walls are usually hung with portraits of persons 
 who are remembered with gratitude for their service to the college, 
 the University or the nation. 
 
 Some of these halls are much more attractive than others. Wad- 
 ham has a very fine one. The one at Oriel is greatly admired for 
 its exterior and for the ceiling of oak that adorns its interior. By 
 far the largest and most imposing hall at Oxford, however, is the 
 one at Christ Church. It is reached by a stairway with an elegant 
 stone ceiling. It is full of historic interest and is especially rich in 
 its collection of portraits. 
 
 College Officials. 
 
 The system of government employed in a college at Oxford 
 differs very much from that which is generally found in our Ameri- 
 can colleges. Many customs handed down from the Middle Ages 
 are still observed there. The Oxford methods of instruction are 
 unlike ours, and undergraduate life there within the college walls 
 might seem rather unattractive to one having the freedom that is 
 allowed undergraduates in our larger and wealthier universities like 
 Harvard. 
 
 First of all in the government of a college at Oxford is the 
 Head. In some colleges he has the title of President; in some, 
 W^Lrden; in some, Master: in some. Principal; in others, Rector; in 
 still others. Provost, while in one, Christ Church, he is called Dean. 
 He may or he may not be a clergyman. He always lives on the col- 
 lege grounds, occupying either a house built expressly for him or a 
 set of rooms in one of the large college buildings. Thus he is a very 
 near man. He is the chief executive but he may also do consider- 
 able teaching. He usually receives a salary that with us would be 
 regarded as rather large. At Magdalen the stipend of the President 
 is $10,000 a year; while at Worcester the Provost is paid $3,500, 
 which is the smallest sum received by the Head of a college at 
 Oxford. 
 
 The success of a college depends, of course, very largely upon 
 the kind of man the Head is known to be. If he is a fine scholar, if 
 he is tactful, if he is forceful and if he surrounds himself with able 
 teachers, he is very likely to make his college a power in the 
 University. The leading position of Balliol at Oxford for the last 
 fifty years and more, has been due more than anything else to the 
 fact that it has had as its Masters such men as the late Dr. Jowett, 
 
 28 
 
Somerville College (for Women). 
 
 the eminent translator of Plato, and such teachers of philosophy as 
 the late T. H. Green. 
 
 The Head is elected by a body of men who are usually called 
 Fellows and who are associated with him in the government of the 
 college. They are elected from among those graduates who are 
 especially promising and who have distinguished themselves in some 
 line of study. To one who gains it a Fellowship brings a great deal 
 of honor and certain important privileges. Besides, it entitles him 
 to share in the income of the college to the extent of $1,000 a year. 
 
 Most of the colleges have from eight to fifteen Fellows. Mag- 
 dalen has thirty, while All Souls is made up almost entirely of Fel- 
 lows engaged in special studies. 
 
 Some of the Fellows do not live on the college grounds and 
 do not render the college any service in the way of teaching. Oth- 
 ers are Tutors, have rooms in the college and for the teaching witir' 
 the other work they do, receive ac^^itional compensation. Ever:/ 
 college is required to have at least one Chaplain Fellow, whose dut- 
 ies, of course, are religious in their character. Moreover, all the 
 Oxford colleges have a number of Honorary Fellows, who are gen- 
 erally men of more or less celebrity and who reside elsewhere than 
 at Oxford. They receive no stipend from the college and have no 
 part in the government of it. 
 
 A college, of course, has other officials than those already men- 
 tioned. It has its Lecturers. The Bursar is the one who attends 
 to the college accounts, hires the servants and has many kindred 
 duties to perform. He is a very important man. The Dean, who 
 has among the undergraduates the suggestive name of the "dagger," 
 is the one before whom they are summoned if they have violated 
 college rules and have been found out. He reproves them, but if 
 their offence be of sufficient gravity, they may be sent away from 
 college by the Head and the Fellows. 
 
 Classes of Undergraduates. 
 
 Undergraduates at Oxford are not divided sharply into Fresh- 
 men, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors, as the custom is with us. 
 A Freshman there is one who has just come to college or who has 
 
 29 
 
been in it less than a year, while the word "Senior" is applied to 
 those who have been undergraduates three years or more. 
 
 Next below the Fellows are those undergraduates who have a 
 share in the income of the college and who are generally called 
 Scholars and Exhibitioners, the former ranking a little higher than 
 the latter. Scholarships and Exhibitions, as they are styled, are 
 awarded only after a competitive examination held by the college. 
 As a general thing a scholar receives about $400 a year and has 
 certain privileges besides. There are, however, in some colleges 
 Scholarships worth more in money than this. An Exhibitioner, as a 
 rule, receives less in money and has fewer privileges than a Scholar. 
 Then come the undergraduates that bear the name of Commoners. 
 These receive no stipend from the college but enjoy most of its 
 prfvileges, in common with other undergraduates, by paying for 
 them. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the members of a college are those who par- 
 ticipate in its income — the Head, the Fellows, the Scholars, and 
 Exhibitioners. As a general rule, however, the college is thought 
 of as including not only these but the Commoners and even its 
 graduates who no longer live in Oxford. 
 
 Where and How Undergraduates Live. 
 
 Some of the students live in college and some out in town. 
 Those in the college buildings room alone and they each have two 
 or three rooms. As a general rule, the furniture is owned by the 
 college and is rented to the occupant. He is expected, however, to 
 furnish his own sheets, pillow cases, table cloths, knives, forks, 
 spoons and other such belongings. The undergraduate has capable 
 servants to care for his room and minister to his comfort. One of 
 these, who is called a "scout," serves four or five undergraduates 
 who happen to room near one another. He awakes them in the 
 morning, attends to their fire in the winter, brings them their break- 
 fast and never forgets to take the perquisities he is entitled to by 
 college custom. 
 
 After an undergraduate has lived in college two years, he is 
 usually required to move into town and live there the rest of his 
 course. This is done to give the new students the moral, social and 
 other advantages of life within the college walls, it being supposed 
 that he has duly profited by these advantages during the two years 
 he has had them. He may not, however, room in town where he 
 pleases unless he pleases to room in some place approved by the 
 University. In the city of Oxford are hundreds upon hundreds of 
 persons who keep boarding houses for the accommodation of the 
 students. These houses are licensed by the University and are 
 called "licensed lodging houses." Their sanitary condition is care- 
 fully looked after by the University authorities. The persons in 
 charge of these houses must be of the best moral character and 
 they are required to send to the University every week a written 
 report, giving, among other things, the names of their student-board- 
 ers who have come to their rooms after ten o'clock at night or have 
 gone out after that hour. 
 
 Students at Oxford have four meals a day — breakfast right after 
 chapel, which is at eight; lunch at one, tea at four and dinner at 
 seven. In the dining hall of the college its members while taking 
 their dinner there are seated according to their rank. The Head, 
 the Fellov/s, and other graduate members of the college sit at the 
 
 30 
 
West Window, New College Chapel, Oxford. 
 
 High Table on a raised platform, as I said awhile ago. The Scholars 
 sit by themselves at a table which has the first rank on the unraised 
 floor of the hall. The Exhibitioners, too, sit by themselves and 
 their table is the next in rank. The Commoners dine at the re- 
 maining tables. Other meals are usually served to the students in 
 their rooms. 
 
 A student living in a college is not charged so much a Aveek 
 for board, but only for what he orders. He is supplied with beer, 
 and in some colleges with wine also. What he orders for his meals 
 is put upon his college bills. These are rendered every week but 
 are not paid until the end of the term. 
 
 Chapel Attendance. 
 
 In Oxford a great deal of attention is paid to religion or at least 
 to the forms of religion. In the city there are more than twenty 
 places of worship in which the service is that required by the 
 Church of England, and in the majority of which, by the way, there 
 is far more sympathy with ritualism than with evangelicism. One 
 of these, St. Mary-the-Virgin's Church, more commonly called 
 St. Mary's, is the University Church. Here on Sundays during term 
 time sermons are delivered before the members of the University. 
 In the college chapels religious services are conducted every Sunday 
 and every w^eek day morning except on Saturday, when there are 
 no college exercises. 
 
 As a rule undergraduates are expected to attend these chapel 
 services. In some of the colleges those undergraduates who have 
 conscientious scruples against doing this are allowed to substitute 
 what is called attendance at roll call. They meet in some place in 
 the college other than the chapel and merely answer to their names 
 when called by some official who has the matter in charge. Every 
 student unless excused must attend chapel or roll call six times 
 a week or he may be required to wait a term before he is permitted 
 to graduate. The music in ?ome of these chapel exercises is often 
 excellent but the rest of the service is more or less formal and 
 spiritless. 
 
 Every member of a college, in certain places and at certain 
 times, wears a cap and gown, which by some distinctive mark shows 
 
 31 
 
whether he is a Commoner, a Scho]f!^r,»a Bachelor of Arts or a Mas- 
 ter of Arts. If an undergraduate is found without his cap and 
 gown when he is required by college la\y to have them, he is liable 
 
 to be fined. '•' 
 
 ) \^-r ' ' 
 
 The Tutors. ^.. ' ; 
 
 The methods of instruction in* a college at Oxford 'differ from 
 ours in many respects. As soon aa ^ jCAing man enters a college 
 there, he is placed under the personal supervision of Tutors, who 
 are members of the college, and he remfiins under them all through 
 his course. He is not one of a large class meeting their instructors 
 for the purposes of recitation every* day or a certain number of 
 times every week, but he meets his Tutors face to face once .or twice 
 a week by regular appointment, reports on the work he has done, is 
 questioned upon it and receives aavice as to what he should do next. 
 He is required to write frequent essays and submit them for criti- 
 cism. 
 
 The Tutor imparts formal instruction by means of lectures. 
 It is his chief business to prepare his students for the two prin- 
 cipal examinations which the University requires all young men to 
 pass before it will give them the degree of B. A. In our colleges 
 those who teach a student are the ones that examine him, but this 
 is not the way at Oxford. The Tutors and other instructors do the 
 teaching but the University does the examining. The Oxford Tutor 
 is supposed to be entirely familiar with the ground over which his 
 students must go in order to pass these examinations. If he under- 
 stands his work, and if he does it as he ought, he watches, directs 
 and stimulates his students, and his reputation as a Tutor is deter- 
 mined by the rank they reach in the University examination. 
 
 In our colleges students are usually examined at the end of 
 the term in all the studies they have had during the term, but that 
 is not done at Oxford. It ought to be said, however, that in most 
 colleges informal examinations called "collections" are held at 
 certain times during the year, but these are not so much for the 
 purpose of testing proficiency in scholarship as for ascertaining how 
 the student has conducted himself in reference to such matters as 
 chapel attendance. 
 
 In this connection it may be said that during the summer vaca- 
 tion, which is called the "long vacation" most of the undergradu- 
 ates do more studying than they do while the University is in ses- 
 sion. Moreover, in some of the colleges at collections just after 
 the opening of Michaelmas term, it is the custom to question under- 
 graduates pretty sharply as to the reading they have done during 
 the summer vacation. 
 
 The undergraduate who has rooms in college .s likely to be 
 looked after pretty sharply by the Dean and the Tutors, especially 
 if he is inclined to be disorderly, neglectful of his work or extrava- 
 gant in the expenditure of money. He is not allowed to play on a 
 musical instrument of any kind except during certain hours of the 
 day. He is required to be within the college gate by a certain hour 
 in the evening, and he is not permitted to leave the college grounds 
 in the evening without permission. All this resembles very much 
 the government and discipline that we find in our American board- 
 mg schools, where the Principal and the teachers, living under the 
 same roof with their pupils, keep a watchful eye upon all their 
 movements. 
 
 32 
 
Christ Church Cathedral. 
 
 Keble College Chapel — the Finest in Oxford. 
 
 33 
 
Localisms and College Slang. 
 
 Some of our American ways appear odd to the English and 
 surely some of theirs appear odd enough to us. They and we use 
 the same language but we may often wonder on what principle they 
 pronounce some of their proper names. When we hear them speak 
 the word "Keswick," we should suppose it was spelled "Kez-ick." 
 "Cholmondeley" is "chum-ly" and "Beauchamp" is "beech-am." At 
 Oxford we hear pronunciations that strike us at first as rather pe- 
 culiar. "Balliol" is "bayl-yel," and, strangest of all, "Magdalen" is 
 "maud-lin." 
 
 The visitor at Oxford hears many words that are unused by us 
 as well as words that are employed in a sense unfamiliar to us. 
 "Oxonian" is the name given to a student at Oxford to distinguish 
 him from one at Cambridge, who is called a "Cantab." A "don" is 
 a Tutor or Fellow. A "sconce" is a fine. "Battels" means the same 
 as "bills" with us. To "reside" or "be in residence" is to live in 
 Oxford as a student of the University. To "migrate" is to leave one 
 college and become a member of another. The word "school," 
 which is generally used in the plural, may mean one of three things 
 — the group of studies in which an undergraduate is working for 
 honors, the examination he undergoes in order to win honors or the 
 place where the examination is held. If a young man is studyin.;? 
 to take honors, he is said to "read" for honors, and a college, like 
 Corpus Christi, where the undergraduates, as a rule, study hard, 
 is called a "good reading" college. 
 
 In all our American colleges there are slang words and phrases, 
 which have sprung up as naturally as do weeds in a vegetable gar- 
 den. A few years ago at Princeton if a student made a very excel- 
 lent recitation, he was said to "tear his shirt." To "cheese" a thing 
 was to stop doing it. 
 
 Oxford also has its slang expressions. Trousers are often called 
 "bags." A "pub" is a public place like a restaurant. A "reputter" 
 is a reputation. An "ekker" is an exercise. "Diggings" are the 
 licensed lodging houses in which many of the students live. To be 
 "buffy" is to be intoxicated. Examiners "plough" a student when 
 they refuse to pass him. To "rag" a person is to have fun at his 
 expense, as in hazing him, for example. "Keeping a dirty roller" 
 means reporting at 8 a. m. for roll call in sleeping costume, ulster 
 and boots — a breach of good order to which a student is easily 
 tempted if he is over fond of his bed in the morning. "Howlers" 
 are mistakes in examination papers so serious that they are sup- 
 posed to make the examiner howl with pain or rage as he sees 
 them. The Vice Chancellor of the University is, of course, a man 
 widely known for virtue, but he is often spoken of as "The Vice" 
 by undergraduates while talking among themselves. 
 
 The ordinary way of making slang words in some of the col- 
 leges is to drop off the last syllable of a word, double the final con- 
 sonant of the remainder and then add "er." According to this rule, 
 "breakfast" becomes "brek-ker" and "bed-room" "bedder." This 
 reminds me of the way an alleged philologist is said to have derived 
 "Italy" from "Latium." "Take 'Latium.' " said he, "cut off 'um,' turn 
 around what is left and add 'y' to it." 
 
 34 
 
Garden Front, St. John's College. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Athletic Sports and Other Diversions. 
 
 If an American visits Oxford while the University is in session, 
 and If he takes a stroll along "the High" or "the Broad," which are 
 streets where students are frequently to be seen, he can scarcely 
 fail to note thfe healthy look so many of them have. Their complex- 
 ion is usually very fair, their movements are graceful and their 
 bearing is manly. This is due chiefly to the fact that they so freely 
 indulge their fondness for outdoor sports. The English climate 
 invites them to this for it is without those extremes of heat and 
 cold from which we often suffer. Twilight there lasts far longer than 
 it does with us. The desire to be out of doors is instinctive with 
 the typical Englishman. There are no gymnasiums in Oxford and if 
 there were, it is probable that the average undergraduate would 
 not use them, for he would rather exercise in the open air. All out- 
 doors is his gymnasium. 
 
 We find almost every kind of athletic sport at Oxford, except 
 baseball, which nowhere in Europe is so popular as it is with us. 
 Boating has long been the leading favorite — boating on the Isis and 
 Cherwell, which to one familiar with our American rivers seem 
 nothing more than creeks and narrow ones at that. Still, the Ox- 
 ford boatman obtains rivers of pleasure on these streams, small 
 though they are. He will boat even in winter, when there is snow 
 on the ground. Golf, cricket, hockey and tennis are played a great 
 deal and so is football, which usually differs from the kind we play, 
 in that it is less rough, less dangerous and less like war. The game 
 of bowls also has its devotees. This is played on the beautiful 
 green lawns and with balls that are somewhat larger than those 
 used in croquet and are generally jveighted. 
 
 Almost every college has its boat club, its football team, and its 
 cricket eleven. It has its own contests, and a far larger proportion 
 
 35 
 
of its undergraduates take an actual part in these outdoor recrea- 
 tions than is customary in our colleges. There are also intercol- 
 legiate contests, which excite a good deal of wholesome college 
 spirit. The University teams and clubs that compete with those 
 from Cambridge and elsewhere are made up of the choicest athletes 
 to be found in the colleges. Those who are chosen to represent 
 Oxford in the inter-university contests are entitled to wear a dark 
 blue ribbon and for this reason are called "blues," a distinction 
 very highly prized at Oxford, as we may well suppose. The repu- 
 tation of a college is determined to a considerable extent by the 
 number of "blues" it has among its members. 
 
 The spirit of athletics at Oxford is not the same as it is in our 
 larger: colleges and universities. With us the desire to win a vic- 
 tory is foremost and everything is sacrificed to this end, even com.- 
 fort and health not infrequently. With us training for athletic con- 
 tests is very much harder and longer than it is at Oxford. It is 
 grim work; the element of fun is not prominent. But with the 
 Oxford undergraduate athletic sports are sports more than they 
 generally are with us. In the boat races and in the various outdoor 
 games he desires to win victories, to be sure, but what he enjoys 
 more than anything else is the fun afforded by such contests and 
 this he enjoys to the full. 
 
 Besides the many athletic clubs there are scores upon scores 
 of other clubs — musical, debating, literary, social, drinking and what 
 not. Some are confined to the colleges and some are made up of 
 members drawn from the entire body of undergraduates. Some 
 are very exclusive; others are not so much so. A large number of 
 the undergraduates derive a great deal of enjoyment from meeting 
 together in groups and reading Shakespeare. Every college has 
 at least one debating club and the University, too, has Its debating 
 societies. The oldest and most widely known club is the Oxford 
 Union, which was established in 1823. During its early history it 
 was famous for its debates, but it is more of a social than a debat- 
 ing club at the present time. It enjoys the distinction of having 
 enrolled among its members Mr., Gladstone and Lord Salisbury. 
 
 Since 1880 there has been at Oxford a growing interest in 
 dramatic exhibitions. When Dr. Jowett was Vice-Chancellor, he 
 directed the presentation of Greek plays at Balliol, of which he 
 was Master, Since then some of Shakespeare's plays have been 
 acted in Oxford by undergraduates, with the permission of the Vice 
 Chancellor. So widespread and so intense has become the interest 
 in amateur theatricals that it has been called "dramadicitis," and 
 although it is very objectionable to some Heads of colleges and 
 many others in Oxford, it continues to grow. 
 
 The Moral Atmosphere of Oxford. 
 
 To secure and maintain good order, rules and regulations are 
 laid down by the colleges and by the University. Some of these 
 may seem very petty and even ridiculous to a student who enjoys 
 the large liberty granted at Harvard, Yale or Princeton. At one of 
 the colleges a student may not bring into his room a rocking chair 
 from home or elsewhere unless he receives permission from the 
 Dean so to do. It is contrary to the laws of the University for a 
 student to keep a horse or drive a buggy or any other vehicle with- 
 out the consent of his college and the Proctors of the University. 
 While he may smoke all he pleases within his college, he is not 
 
 36 
 
allowed to do so in the streets. If he is found on the street after 
 dark without his cap and gown, he is disciplined and if without 
 leave he should spend the night away from his room, he would be 
 very harshly dealt with. 
 
 There are various forms of punishm.ent for violating the laws 
 of the University. Expulsion, of course, is the most severe. For 
 some offenses a student may be "rusticated," that is, sent away from 
 the University for a certain length of time. For som^e breaches of 
 discipline he is fined twenty-five cents, for others, more. If he 
 breaks certain rules, he is "gated," which means that he is not 
 permitted to go out of the college gate after dark for a specified 
 number of nights, and that he is fined twenty-five cents for every 
 night he is thus kept in. 
 
 Let us not suppose, however, that all these rules and regulations 
 are strictly enforced and thfit there is no disorderliness at Oxford. 
 Of rowdyism there is enoujih and to spare. Hazing is far from 
 unknown. If a tutor is unpopular, he may become the victim of 
 practical jokes at the hands of students. There is a good deal of 
 drunkenness in some of the colleges. Discipline has become quite 
 lax in recent years and students may break many rules without 
 being obliged to break off th<nr connection with the University. 
 
 From this it might seem as if Oxford were a place very unfavor- 
 able to the cultivation of sound morals. No, on the whole, it is 
 favorable to this important end. Oxford has thirty-five hundred 
 students. Of these a considerable number have more money than 
 they have of real desire for study. They are at Oxford mainly for 
 the name of being there or .'ior the purpose of having a good time 
 socially and otherwise for three or four years, and so not much 
 could be expected of them morally and intellectually. A very 
 large proportion of the unc ergraduates, however, are at Oxford 
 for serious work. If they have genuine ability and show it, 
 they will be honored in a substantial way. This they know 
 very well and so they are i idustrious. There are hundreds upon 
 hundreds of Scholars and Exliibitioners who have every inducement 
 to study and conduct themselves properly. Hundreds upon hun- 
 dreds of others are striving hard for honors in the examinations 
 and so have but little time to waste. Besides all this, the college 
 system, which may seem to us very much like that of a boarding 
 school, has a salutary influence upon a young man who is inclined 
 to be lazy or disorderly. In short, the moral forces in the University 
 and in the city of Oxford are far more numerous and far greater 
 than the- forces that promote disorder and positive immorality. 
 
 If the Rhodes Scholar is a Christian and is fond of attending 
 places of religious worship other than his college chapel, he has 
 large opportunities to do so; for the city is well supplied with 
 churches. The most of these are Anglican, as is to be expected, 
 and the service is impressive to those of this Christian faith. The 
 music is generally fine and some of the preaching is good. There 
 are also several Nonconformist churches. These are not attended 
 by the wealthy and fashionable classes; they are treated with con 
 tempt by many of the Anglican clergymen and are not highly 
 esteemed by most of those who belong to the Established Church. 
 Nevertheless, one may hear in some of these Nonconformist 
 churches much of the really best preaching that is to be heard 
 in Oxford — preaching that is characterized by freshness, manly 
 sense and genuine spiritual power. 
 
 37 
 
Expenses. 
 
 Oxford is not a very cheap place to live in. The expenses of 
 students vary according to their habits and according to the colleges 
 of which they are members. It costs much more to be at Christ 
 Church, for example, than at one of the less fashionable colleges. 
 It has been carefully estimated than an undergraduate living in 
 college and with reasonable economy can meet all his necessary 
 expenses for a year with $700.00. This will pay board, room rent. 
 University fees, tuition and "tips," of which there are not a few. 
 
 It is said, however, at Oxford with great confidence by some 
 who ought to know, that a young man, if he is a non-collegiate 
 student, may take the course of three years and receive the degree 
 of B. A. for $1,000, this sum covering all necessary expenses for 
 the three years; but I fancy he would have to keep himself pared 
 down to the quick and that he would be required to live with a 
 degree of economy scarcely conducive to comfort or convenience. 
 If I were to be a student at Oxford, I should try to be connected 
 with one of the better colleges, even though it cost much more tlian 
 it would to be a non-collegiate student. This would be far prefer- 
 able for social as well as for other important reasons. 
 
 Dissimilarities Among the Colleges. 
 
 Each college in Oxford is to a large extent independent. It has 
 its own traditions, its own history, its own list of distinguished 
 graduates. It has its own coat of arms and guards its rights with 
 scrupulous care. Although some of the colleges have joint examin- 
 ations for the award of scholarships and although they have inter- 
 collegiate courses of lectures, they are separate from one another 
 in their organization and government. There is a great deal of 
 rivalry and of jealousy among them. They each have an individu- 
 ality that is clearly marked. Their being members of the same 
 University does not make them precisely alike in spirit and purpose. 
 
 All Souls is unique. It has great wealth, handsome buildings 
 and the Codrington, which is the finest library in Oxford, but it 
 has almost no undergraduates. It is made up chiefiy of Fellows, 
 brilliant men, who are engaged in advanced studies and with whom 
 it shares nearly $30,000 of its annual income. Brasenose, which, by 
 the way, takes its name from a brass nose, the most prominent 
 feature of a head firmly fastened over the doorway opening into one 
 of the colleg'e quadrangles, enjoyed for a long time the distinction 
 of leading all other Oxford colleges in boating. Still, it has not 
 been without a large number of Classmen. Jesus College, with 
 Dr. John Rhys at its head, has always been a great favorite with 
 the Welsh. Balliol, founded by the parents of John Balliol, King 
 of Scotland, and offering to students from that country special 
 Inducements in the way of valuable scholarships, has enrolled among 
 its members a great many of Scotch descent who have risen to 
 eminence. Keble was established to promote cultured thinking 
 and Christian living. Christ Church is the largest, the most aristo- 
 cratic and one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford. 
 
 Some of the colleges are very much straitened in their financial 
 resources, because of their small endowments and because of 
 decreased rents from their landed property. Some are heavily in 
 debt and are using borrowed capital. Some are very wealthy and 
 some are not so wealthy as they seem. St. John's is now rich and 
 in the future will perhaps be the richest by far in Oxford. 
 
 38 
 
^t fp «J. 
 
 'C^'*^^*^ 
 
 The Porch of St. Mary's. 
 
There is a wide difference among the colleges as to numbers, 
 scholarship, morals and social position. A college is large if it has 
 three hundred undergraduates and small if it has less than a hun- 
 dred. In some of the colleges half of the undergraduates are 
 Scholars and Exhibitioners. A college that is accustomed to receive 
 as members young men who on account of their poor scholarship 
 are rejected by other colleges, acquires the unenviable name of 
 "sink" or "sink hole.'' If asked what colleges at Oxford were the 
 best as centers of intellectual activity and sound learning, we should 
 not be far out of the way if of the larger colleges we named Balliol, 
 New and Magdalen, and if of the smaller we gave the name of 
 Corpus Christi. 
 
 College Spirit. 
 
 Every student who is a member of a college is a member also 
 of the University, but his life is colored and shaped by the former 
 more than it is by the latter. His college is nearer to him and more 
 of a reality. In its rivalries with other colleges he has a share. Of 
 its triumphs he feels he is a partaker and he is bound to it more 
 closely than he is to the University. 
 
 It is natural for a man to love his own mother more than he 
 does his mother-in-law, even though she may be the delightful 
 mother of his delightful wife. It is also natural for a college man 
 at Oxford to love his college with a more tender love than he does 
 his University. While it is the latter that examines him and gives 
 him. his degree, it is his college that prepares him for his examina- 
 tions, develops him by its ministry of instruction and sympathizes 
 with him in his perplexities. It is in his college that the most and 
 dearest of his friendships are formed. Accordingly, his college 
 rather than his University is to him his alma mater, his fostering 
 mother. 
 
 Every college, of course, takes a peculiar delight in those of its 
 members that have risen to distinction. She feels that they belong 
 to her more than to the University. Worcester is glad to have us 
 remember that Thomas De Quincey was hers while he was in Oxford. 
 Trinity is richer in honor because she trained William Pitt, the 
 first E'arl of Chatham, and later, an equally able man in a very 
 different sphere, John Henry Newman. Jesus College may well be 
 pleased that she has in the list of her former Scholars the name 
 of the brilliant historian, J. R. Green. Corpus Christi may well 
 boast that she had so much to do with moulding the life of Thomas 
 Arnold, afterwards the illustrious Arnold of Rugby. Lincoln enjoys 
 the distinction of having trained John Morley, who has become 
 equally distinguished as statesman and man of letters. 
 
 We think none the less of New College for giving to English 
 Literature the bold and witty Sydney Smith. We think all the more 
 highly of Brasenose for giving to the pulpit P. W. Robertson of 
 Brighton, that man of wonderfully fertilizing mind, whose sermons 
 have had so great an influence upon the best preachers in the 
 United States and England. Magdalen gave Joseph Addison a 
 Scholarship, which entitled him to share in her income, and ever 
 since he rose to eminence, she has enjoyed an income of honor on 
 his account. 
 
 It has been said by an English essayist that all the genius of 
 the past is in the atmosphere we breathe at present. What a 
 living and growing college has been it is yet. In a very important 
 
 40 
 
Iffley Church, Cross, and Old Yew Tree. 
 
 sense all who have ever belonged to it belong to it still. Thoreau, 
 Emerson, Lowell and Holmes, though dead, are living in the Har- 
 vard of today. All that Hawthorne and Longfellow became after 
 their graduation at Bowdoin is a part of this admirable New Eng- 
 land college at the present time. A college is not a group of 
 buildings; it is not large endowments of money. It is a soul, 
 including all the souls that ever belonged to it. When a young man 
 joins himself to a good college, brings to it teachableness and yields 
 to it obedience, the college joins itself to him. It gives to him of its 
 instruction and inspiration all that he has the capacity to receive. 
 
 Emerson says that it is natural for us to believe in great men. 
 That is very true and equally true is it that no one ever became 
 better in any true sense unless he believed heartily in some one 
 much better than himself. It is very foolish for a person to wish 
 all his associates to be less intelligent than himself. No one ever 
 becomes a hero unless he engages a good deal in hero-worship, and 
 it will be all the more desirable if in some way he is associated 
 with the heroes he worships. For a young man to join a college 
 with distinguished professors and distinguished alumni, that he may 
 well be proud of and that he can look up to with enthusiastic admir- 
 ation, will give him fine opportunities for employing his spirit of 
 hero-worship and his spirit of emulation, with the happiest results 
 to his mind and heart. 
 
 At Oxford the undergraduate who is a member of a college 
 feels that a measure of honor is reflected upon him by the distin- 
 guished men enrolled among the members of his college. He feels 
 that in some real sense even tliose who are dead are still members 
 of the body to which he belongs, and the honest pride he takes in 
 them is helpful to him in many ways. 
 
 If we should ask an Oriel man to what college Cecil Rhodes 
 belonged, perhaps he would say very promptly and with evident 
 pleasure, "To Oriel, sir." If we should ask a Pembroke man, 'Did 
 not Dr. Samuel Johnson attend Oxford?" he would be very likely 
 to give something like this as his reply, "Yes, and he was of Pem- 
 broke, too." Possibly some Balliol men might feel a trifle indignant 
 if a person claiming to know much about Oxford should confess to 
 them his ignorance of the fact that to their college belonged Sir 
 William Hamilton, Adam Smith, Lord Chief Justice Coleridge and 
 the poets, Southey, Clough, Matthew Arnold and Swinburne. That 
 Lords Canning, Salisbury and Rosebery, Sir Robert Peel, W. E. 
 Gladstone and John Ruskin were members of Christ Church is to 
 many an undergraduate of that college a matter of greater pride 
 
 41 
 
than the fact that these illustrious men were members of Oxford 
 University. 
 
 All this means that the Rhodes Scholar from the United States, 
 as soon as he can after reaching Oxford, will be wise to connect 
 himself with one of the better colleges and thus reap all the advan- 
 tages of the college system there. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Conservatism of Oxford. 
 
 When at a railway station in England a traveler enters a com- 
 partment in a car, he finds two seats, one facing toward the head 
 of the train and the other toward the rear. Many Englishmen 
 prefer the seat that will enable them to ride with their backs to the 
 engine and with their faces toward what is continually being passed, 
 w^hile the train is in motion. A great many of the English people 
 are very conservative and they are entirely honest in this. Their 
 conservatism is in large part due to their reverence for what has 
 been proved to be true and good. They are going forward. They 
 have to do this, but they do so with their faces fixed on the past 
 rather than on the future. 
 
 They have much of the feeling that what was good enough for 
 their fathers ought to be good enough for them. No objection could 
 be made to this if the world at the present time were the same 
 as it was in the time of their fathers, but it has changed. Many 
 of the English people, however, do not seem to realize this very 
 fully. There can be no question that England has a splendid past. 
 The most of what is best in our American institutions came from 
 England originally. As Lowell once put it, the acorn from which we 
 sprang was "ripened on the British oak." But the greatness of 
 England in the past is not of itself sufficient to make her as great 
 as she might be and ought to be now. For years she has been 
 falling behind other great nations in several respects. 
 
 Summer before last at Oxford Mr. Joseph H. Choate, the 
 American Minister to England, made the opening address before 
 the Summer School, held under the auspices of the University. He 
 said that when he was thinking of a subject on which to speak, 
 someone connected with the University suggested to him that a 
 subject having to do with the Middle Ages would be very appro- 
 priate, but Mr. Choate excused himself from this on the ground that 
 the country he represented had no Middle Ages. Accordingly, he 
 spoke upon education in the United States, and a breezy as well as 
 a spicy address he made, of course. If we, of the United States, had 
 some Middle Ages and if we lived in them half the time or wor- 
 shipped them, perhaps we should be just as well off without them. 
 
 One does not have to be in Oxford very long before he observes 
 that the spirit of conservatism is very strong there. One might say 
 that it is almost fatally strong in the case of many who have large 
 influence in the University. Liberalism does not find much of a 
 paradise in Oxford. There are many forceful and progressive men 
 there, to be sure, but for all that it is very hard work to bring about 
 changes that imperatively need to be made from time to time in 
 the University. Oxford is very much set in her ways and some of 
 them are very antiquated ways, too. 
 
 42 
 
Many educators in England are of the opinion that the Oxford 
 system of education is, on the whole, very unpractical, and that it 
 is far behind the times. Some go so far as to call it a "hopeless 
 anachronism." There is very little sympathy between the Univer- 
 sity and the great industrial classes of England. There is a disposi- 
 tion in Oxford to look with a measure of contempt upon those 
 colleges and universities that have been established throughout 
 England in recent years for the purpose of keeping up with the 
 times as to instruction in the natural sciences, and for the purpose 
 of stimulating their students to do superior work in chemistry, 
 physics, biology, geology and electricity. 
 
 A very large proportion of the teachers and students at Oxford 
 set the greatest store by the Latin and the Greek. The colleges 
 are determined that no one for any reason whatever shall be 
 admitted to their privileges, as a candidate for the degree of B. A., 
 unless he has a "competent knowledge of the classics." Quite 
 recently an attempt was made to abolish Greek from the prelim- 
 inary examination of students taking mathematics and science for 
 their arts degree, but the attempt failed. It would not be easy to 
 persuade the average Oxonian that as fine and as valuable a mental 
 culture can be obtained from the study of modern subjects as from 
 the study of the ancients. Great is Aristotle at Oxford even yet. 
 
 The influence of the Established Church is very strong in the 
 University although many of the very ablest men there belong to 
 the ranks of the Dissenters. Only men in the Orders of the Anglican 
 Church can be examiners in the School of Theology, A short while 
 since a proposal was made to allow Nonconformists a place on this 
 examining board. This proposal was warmly supported by the lead- 
 ing professors in the School of Theology, who, though Anglicans, 
 are men of broad minds and large sympathies. They argued with 
 great reason that if Nonconformist theologians were competent to 
 teach men so well that they could get their first classes, which often 
 occurs, they surely were competent to examine them. The opposi- 
 tion, however, rallied their forces and in Convocation voted down 
 the proposal with a large majority. 
 
 Defects in the Oxford System of Education. 
 
 The system of education that is the most popular at Oxford is 
 not the kind to develop in the highest degree the power of original 
 and independent thinking. In this respect Oxford is inferior to the 
 great German universities and to our most progressive universities, 
 such as Johns Hopkins and Chicago. Candidates for the Oxford 
 B. A. are ranked according to the knowledge they display of certain 
 studies that have been prescribed for them by the University. If a 
 candidate has the gift of specializing, if with great ingenuity he 
 should work out some valuable idea and make a substantial con- 
 tribution to the sum of human knowledge, this might count for 
 almost nothing in his final examination. Much of the good as well 
 as all the evil of the examination system is amply manifest at 
 Oxford. 
 
 Generally speaking, the college tutor is kept so busy superin- 
 tending the work of the undergraduates committed to his care that 
 he has but little time for original investigation. Knowing, as he 
 does, the general character of the University examinations, which 
 are more or less conventional, and knowing that his reputation as 
 a tutor depends upon the rank of his pupils in these examinations, 
 
 43 
 
he advises them to do nothing that he thinks will not be of decided 
 value to them in their final test for their degree. 
 
 There are several subjects of study which are taught by the 
 University alone and not by any of the colleges; so that if under- 
 graduates desire to pursue these studies, they must do it under the 
 direction of the University. There is, however, many a University 
 professor who draws a good salary but who draws very few of the 
 undergraduates to his lecture room. A young man may receive the 
 degree of B. A. with honors and not attend a single University 
 lecture, for he may have all his instruction within his college. 
 
 Moreover, if some very able professor of the University is 
 delivering lectures upon a subject in which a candidate for the 
 degree of B. A., with honors, is particularly interested, he is not 
 encouraged by his college to attend these lectures unless they have 
 a direct bearing upon the course in which he is working for his 
 degree, and unless they are likely to be of specific value to him in 
 bis final examination. At Oxford it is considered the all-important 
 business of the undergraduate to be prepared for the Universit3'' 
 examinations, and nothing which does not contribute directly to this 
 end is thought to be worthy of his earnest attention. 
 
 Special Advantages of the Rhodes Scholar. 
 
 From what has been said it might seem as if Oxford after all 
 were not a very desirable place for study and for the acquisition 
 of culture, I certainly do not mean to convey any such impression. 
 
 Along some lines of intellectual activity Oxford presents excel- 
 lent opportunities to the American student. In the natural sciences, 
 in the modern languages and in some other subjects of study he 
 could do better elsewhere, but he would have exceptionally fine 
 advantages at Oxford in the classics of Greece and Rome, in ancient 
 history, in philosophy, mental and moral, in modern history and in 
 other departments of instruction. He would have large liberty in 
 the choice of electives. Tn research work he would have access to 
 valuable museums and libraries, chief among which is the famous 
 Bodleian Library. There are many of the University professors 
 that have a world-wide reputation for extensive and accurate schol- 
 arship, such as Dr. S. R. Driver and Dr. T. K. Cheyne. The late 
 Frederick York Powell, the eminent teacher of history, was in the 
 Oxford Faculty. Some of tiie professors are interesting and inspir- 
 ing lecturers. Although some of the college tutors are but little 
 more than juiceless pedagogues or strutting pedants, filled with the 
 conceit of knowledge, many of the tutors are very learned men. 
 stimulating teachers and most admirable counsellors of young men. 
 To be three or four years in close personal contact with a tutor who 
 is both a wide-awake instructor and a wholesome man is of the 
 very highest educational value. 
 
 It is the aim of this grand old institution to make its students 
 familiar with the best that has been thought and written and to 
 impart to them that soundness of knowledge and that breadth of 
 culture which cannot fail to enhance the value of their life work. 
 Oxford has had among its graduates very few of the great English 
 poets. Milton, Drj'den, Gray, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and 
 Tennyson were all Cambridge men, but it has produced a large 
 number of able clergymen, leaders of thought, distinguished states- 
 men, and of men otherwise prominent in the life of the English 
 nation. 
 
 44 
 
Christ Church College, West Front, Oxford. 
 
 The social advantages of life in Oxford University are neither 
 few nor unimportant. It is true that some of the undergraduates 
 and a few of the dons are afflicted with snobbery, and display a 
 good deal that is nauseating to the democratic tastes of a genuine 
 American. Still, the Rhodes Scholar from the United States may 
 find in Oxford an abundance of society that will be most congenial 
 to him and that will minister in many ways to the healthy develop- 
 ment of his social nature. He may form friendships of great value 
 to him all his life. He may be brought into personal contact with 
 choice young men not only of England but of almost every other 
 civilized nation in the world, for Oxford is very cosmopolitan. 
 
 If the Rhodes Scholar has a special fondness for the history 
 and the literature of England, he will find there much to make these 
 more real and enjoyable to him. At Oxford he will not be far 
 from everywhere else in England, for the entire country, together 
 with Wales, is less than three-fourths as large as our one state of 
 Kansas. To visit Warwick Castle will make more vivid to him 
 many historic events connected with that place, and a few days 
 in .the Lake District will intensify his appreciation of Wordsworth's 
 poetry. 
 
 It will be worth a great deal to the Rhodes Scholar to become 
 well acquainted with the institutions and the people of England. 
 The English have their faults and we have ours. They have much 
 to learn from us and we have much to learn from them. We have 
 more enterprise and more millionaires than they, but they have a 
 greater regard for law and order than we. They look upon life 
 
 45 
 
more seriously, but they derive more real enjoyment from it than 
 we. Many among us dislike them and many among them dislike 
 us, but the best cure for Anglophobia as well as Anglomania is a 
 thorough personal acquaintance with the English people themselves. 
 It is equally to their interest and to ours that we should know each 
 other well and that we should be on terms of good-will with each 
 other. 
 
 They and we have more in common than any other two of the 
 great world-powers. We speak the same language. We are proud 
 to feel that Shakespeare, Milton and Cromwell are ours as well as 
 theirs. We are natural allies and if the purpose of Mr. Rhodes in 
 offering scholarships to our young men is realized, England and the 
 United States can scarcely fail to be brought nearer together in 
 spirit even though the Atlantic continues to roll between them. 
 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 CAGE DEAC' 
 JUN 5 1953 
 
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 DEC 07 19^8 
 
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