The University is a corporate body, under the style of "The Chancellor,
Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford." It includes nineteen
Colleges and five Halls, each of which is a corporate body, governed by its
own head and statutes respectively.
The business of the University, as such, is carried on in the two Houses of
Convocation and of Congregation; the first being the House of Lords, and the
other, which includes all of and above the rank of Masters of Arts, the House
of Commons.
The Chancellor--elected by Convocation, for life--never, according to
etiquette, sets his foot in the University, excepting on occasions of his
installation, or when accompanying Royal visitors. He nominates as his
representative a Vice Chancellor from the heads of colleges, annually, in
turn, each of whom holds his office for four years.
The Vice Chancellor is the individual who may occasionally be seen walking
about in state, preceded by a number of beadles carrying maces, or, as they
are profanely called, "pokers."
The two proctors are next in authority to the Vice Chancellor. Their costume
is a full dress gown, with velvet sleeves, and band-encircled neck. They are
assisted by two deputies, or pro-proctors, who have a strip of velvet on each
side of the gown front, and wear bands. The proctors have certain
legislative powers; but are most conspicuous as a detective police force,
supported by "bulldogs," i.e., constables. A proctor is regarded by an
undergraduate, especially by a fast man, with the same affection that a
costermonger looks on a policeman. In the evenings, it is their duty to
prowl round, and search, if necessary, any house within three miles, for so
far does their authority extend. The dread of the proctor compels tandem
drivers to send their leaders a distance out of town; and many an excited
youth, on the day of a neighbouring steeplechase, is stopped, when driving
out of the city, with--"Your name, sir, and of what college?"
"Lord R. Christchurch."
"Go back to your rooms, my lord, and call on me in an hour at Worcester."
The members of the University are divided into those who are on the
foundation and those who are not. Those on the foundation are the dean,
president, master, warden, according to the charter of the College; the
fellows, scholars, called demies at Magdalene, and post-masters at Merton;
chaplains, bible-clerks, servitors, at Christchurch and Jesus. The
qualifications for these advantages vary; but leading colleges--Oriel and
Balliol--have set an example likely to be followed of throwing fellowships and
scholarships open to the competition of the whole university, so that the
best man may win. The disadvantage of the system lies in the fact, that
having won, the incentives are all in the direction of idleness.
The degree was formerly obtained by passing first through a preliminary
examination termed a "little go," and afterwards through the "great go." The
latter, successfully performed, entitles, at choice, to the title of B.A.
(Bachelor of Arts), or S.C.L. (Student of Civil Law). With time and money,
the degrees of M.A. or B.C.L., and eventually D.C.L., may be obtained,
without farther examination. But very recently an intermediate examination
has been imposed.
A candidate for a degree in music has only to perform an exercise previously
approved by the professor of music in the music schools.
Doctors of Divinity and Masters of Arts wear a stuff gown, with two long
sleeves, terminating in a semicircle. The full dress of Doctors of Divinity
is scarlet, with sleeves of black velvet--pink silk for Doctors of Law and
Medicine.
Bachelors wear a black stuff gown, with long sleeves tapering to a point, and
buttoned at the elbow; noblemen undergraduates a black silk gown, with full
sleeves, "couped" at the elbows, and a velvet cap with gold tassel; scholars
the same shaped gown, of a common stuff, with ordinary cloth cap; gentlemen
commoners a silk gown with plaited sleeves, and velvet cap; if commoners, a
plain black gown without sleeves, which is so hideous that they generally
carry it on their arm.
The expense of maintaining a son at the University may be fixed at from 200
pounds, as a minimum, to 300 pounds a-year; the latter being the utmost
needful. But a fool may spend any amount, and get nothing for it. The
fashion of drinking has gone out to a great extent; and the present race of
undergraduates are not more random and extravagant than any set of young men
of the same age and number would be if thrown together for two or three
years.
At the same time, it is not the place to which a father to whom economy is an
object should send a son, least of all one previously educated on the milk
and water stay-at-home principle.
As a general rule, it is not among the nobility, and sons of the wealthy
gentry, that much excess is found to prevail; but among those who at the
University find themselves for the first time without control, with money and
with credit at command.
In a summer or autumnal visit, Christchurch Meadow, and some of the many
beautiful walks round Oxford, should be sought out and visited alone; on such
occasions, on no account be tormented with one of the abominable parrot-like
guides. These horrid fellows consider it their duty to chatter. We have
often thought that a dumb guide, with a book for answering questions, would
make a great success.
In winter, when the flooded meadows are frozen over, those who love to see an
army of first-class skaters will find an Oxford day ticket well worth the
money--youth, health, strength, grace, and manly beauty, in hundreds, cutting
round and round, with less of drawback from the admixture of a squalid mob
than in any other locality.
And then again in the hunting season, take the ugliest road out of Oxford, by
the seven bridges, because there you may see farthest along the straight
highway from the crown of the bridges, and number the ingenuous youth as on
hunters they pace, or in hack or in dogcart or tandem they dash along to the
"Meet." Arrived there, if the fox does get away--if no ambitious youngster
heads him back--if no steeplechasing lot ride over the scent and before the
hounds, to the destruction of sport and the master's temper--why then you will
see a fiery charge at fences that will do your heart good. There is not such
raw material for cavalry in any other city in Europe, and there is no part of
our social life so entirely novel, and so well worth exhibiting to a
foreigner, as a "Meet" near Oxford, where in scarlet and in black, in hats
and in velvet caps, in top-boots and black-jacks, on twenty pound hacks and
two hundred guinea hunters, finest specimens of Young England are to be seen.
On returning, if the sport has been good, you may venture to open a chat with
a well-splashed fellow traveller on a beaten horse, but in going not--for an
Oxford man in his normal state never speaks unless he has been introduced.
The only local manufactures of Oxford, except gentlemen, are boots, leather-
breeches, and boats; these last in great perfection. The regattas and
rowing-matches on the Isis are very exciting affairs. From the narrowness of
the stream, they are rather chases than races; the winners cannot pass, but
must pursue and bump their competitors. The many silent, solitary wherries,
urged by vigorous skilful arms, give, on a summer evening, a pleasing life to
river-side walks, although that graceful flower, the pretty pink bonnet and
parasol, peculiar to the waters of Richmond and Hampton, is not often found
growing in the Oxford wherry. Comedies, in the shape of slanging matches
with the barges, are less frequent than formerly, and melodramatic fistic
combats still less frequent.
But old boatmen still love to relate to their peaceable and admiring pupils
how that pocket Hercules, the Honourable S--- C---, now a pious clergyman,
had a single combat with a saucy six foot bargee, "all alone by they two
selves," bunged up both his eyes, and left him all but dead to time, ignorant
then, and for months after, of the name of his victor.
Oxford sometimes contends with Cambridge on neutral waters in an eight-oared
cutter match, but is generally defeated, for a very characteristic
reason--Cambridge picks a crew of the best men from the whole University;
Oxford, more exclusive, gives a preference to certain colleges over men.
Christchurch, Magdalene, and a few others, will take the lead in all
arrangements, and will not, if they can help it, admit oarsmen from the
unfashionable colleges of Jesus, Lincoln, or Worcester!
It is worth knowing that in the long vacation, commencing on July 6, there is
no place like Oxford for purchasing good dogs and useful horses. Oxford
hacks have long been famous, and not without reason. Nothing slow would be
of any use, whether for saddle or harness; and although the proportion of
high-priced sound unblemished animals may be small, the number of quick
runners is large. There is an establishment in Holywell Street which is
quite one of the Oxford sights. There, early in winter mornings, more than a
hundred stalls are to be found, full of blood cattle, in tip-top condition,
and on summer afternoons no barracks of a cavalry regiment changing quarters
are more busy.
We must not leave Oxford without visiting Blenheim, the monument of one of
our greatest captains and statesmen, with whom, perhaps, in genius and
fortune, none can rank except Clive and Wellington. Blenheim should be seen
when the leaves are on the trees. The House is only open between eleven
o'clock and one. The better plan is to hire a conveyance, of which there are
plenty and excellent to be had in the city, at reasonable charges. When we
remember this splendid pile--voted by acclamation, but paid for by grudging
and insufficient instalments by the English Parliament--was finished under the
superintendence of that beautiful fiery termagant, Sarah Duchess of
Marlborough, who was at once the plague and the delight of the great Duke's
life, every stone and every tree must be viewed with interest. We should
advise you, before passing a day at Blenheim, to refresh your memory with the
correspondence of the age of Queen Anne and her successors, including Swift,
Bolingbroke, Pope, and Walpole; not forgetting the letters of Duchess Sarah
herself, and Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature," for the history of the
building of Blenheim, and how the Duchess worried the unfortunate architect,
Vanbrugh.
Blenheim contains a large number of first class paintings, including an
altar-piece by Raffaelle, several good Titians, a very fine collection of
Rubens, choice specimens of Vandyke and Sir Joshua Reynolds. After returning
to Bletchley our next halt is at Wolverton station.