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OL1t XXXV. No. 47
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1924
EIGHT P
% RIDGE LIFE AS
SEEN
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Former Editor Of The Cambridge "Granta" Discusses Life And Activities On The Campus Of His Alma M
Ater
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Day Of A Cambridge Student; Ideal And Actual, From The Vantage Point Of Experience
EXplanation, Of Some Of The Terms Used By Undergraduates In England
An
By Dennys i. Smith
An undergraduate's life at Cambridge centres
around his College. His affection for it will last
throughout his life, and at his death it will be the
College and not the University which he will remem-
ber in his will.
The College buildings, rich in tradition and full
of historical associations, would of themselves be
sufficient to gain this affection; but with the added
charm of their connection with the most pleasant
form of life imaginable, he would need a hard heart
who could fail to find in this combined influence one
of those experiences which last a lifetime and which
whenever taken down from the top shelves of mem-
ory and examined anew provide a never-failing
source of inspiration.
There are eighteen Colleges in Cambridge and
two women's Colleges. They are all built in very
much the same style, although they vary in size. and
are nearly all of red brick. The ancient Jewish
historian, Josephus, wrote of two indestructable
pillars, one of brick and the other of stone, which
the sons of Seth built in Syria. On them all exist-
ing knowledge was inscribed so that there should be
no fear of its being forgotten. Old writers were
fond of comparing Oxford and Cambridge to these
two pillars. Oxford was a University of stone, Cam-
b idge of brick, and in them knowledge would be pre-
served for all time. Red brick does not sound at-
tractive, but the brick used by the old masons must
have been of a different kind from that used by the
modern bricklayer, for the result is not only attrac-
tive but imposing.
The easiest way to gain a mental picture of a
typical College would be to imagine yourself the
friend of an undergraduate eager to act as your
guide. We will assume that he has met you at the
station and has proposed, as your first introduction
to Cambridge, a tour around his College. He will
begin with the gateway, which is always a hand-
some affair, towered and decorated, not so much a
gate as an ornate opening In the mass of building
surrounding it. The little room at the side of the
gateway is known as the porter's lodge. In it dwell
a strange tribe of men who wear top hats on all
occasions. Your undergraduate guide will assure
you that the innocent Freshman always mistakes the
head porter for the head of the College, so impos-
Ing does he look; while the Dons of the College are
dressed so badly that they are mistaken for porters
and College servants and frequently requested to
see to the luggage. If you ask your friend whether
he was ever guilty of so appalling an error, he will
vehemently deny it. So would any other under-
graduate, but the legend still continues.
At night, punctually at ten o'clock, the College
gato is closed and any undergraduate returning late
has to ring up the porter, who will admit him
through a small door set in the larger one. No
doubt your friend will have .some secret method of
entry of an unorthodox kind for use in very extreme
cases, but up to twelve o'clock he will probably pre-
fer the gate. It is true that everyone who returns
after ten is fined a penny; while the criminal who
stays out after eleven is fined twopence. Some Col-
leges are more expensive and have a tariff of two
pence and fourpence. But even this latter can hard-
ly outweigh the risks of the more adventurous and
less comfortable entry. In one College there are no
"gate-fines" as they are called. Our undergraduate
will explain impressively that a fund exists for the
purpose of paying them, and will give this highly
interesting account of its origin.
An old lady was walking down the street one
evening as the clock was about to strike ten, when
she was nearly bowled over by an undergraduate
hurrying along to his College. She inquired the
reason for his haste and was told that if he could
reach College before the hour struck he would save
himself a fine. The old lady was so concerned at
the poor undergraduate having to hurry in this
way that on her death a clause was found in her
will setting aside a sum of money to pay all gate
fines in the future.
In early days a penny was a good deal more val-
uable than it is today, but even now the psycholog-
ical effect of the fine is such that most undergrad-
uates will break into a jog trot sooner than incur it.
After passing through the gateway you and your
guide will enter the first court of the College. This
will appear to you as a hollow square. Straight in
front of you will be the entrance to another court,
and on all sides will be doors. In the centre will be
grass plots. The Colleges almost without exception
consist of a number of these courts. Various reas-
ons have been given to account for this, but the
true one probably is that at the time the Colleges
were built it was the conventional form of architec-
ture. Monastery, manor, and hostelry were all built
in this woy around- a central court.-
The buildings contain the rooms of the under-
graduates and Fellows. Our undergraduate,- if he
has rooms in College, will take you with him to one
of the doorw-ys. At the loot you will see h-is name
paiiad fur the convenience of visitors, and. after
.lr. w ;ne rmirkably narrow stairs. you will
wall and will disclose his bedroom, a Lilliputian
affair just large enough for bed, wash-stand, and
chest of drawers. He may also open another door
and show you his "Gyp" room, which on examina-
tion you will discover is another name for a com-
bined pantry and larder. "Why 'Gyp' room?" you
will ask. "Because the 'Gyp' sometihes uses it."
he will reply. "And who is the 'Gyp'?" "A College
servant." "And why called 'Gyp'?" To this the
undergraduate would no doubt remark, "Haven't the
foggiest," which would be a useless answer from our
point of view. "Gyp" is either short for Gypsy,
for the earliest College servants were no doubt
Gypsy-looking folk from the Fens near by. Losses
of food and cigarettes attributed to them and their
female kinfolk, the Bedders (so called because their
chief function in making beds), may be due to
some friend who, having called in your absence, has
shown his affection by making himself thorough']y
at home.
The room looks so comfortable that you will be
.inclined to linger, but there is more still to be
seen: rooms where the undergraduate's friends
live; rooms where some famous person lodged when
an undergraduate. Your friend will possibly not be
so rash as our undergraduate. He was showing
friends around who insisted upon seeing all there
was to be seen. They were very interested in the
Dean, the name "given to the gentleman who pos-
sesses the at times none too enviable task of being
responsible for College discipline. Their friend took
them along to that part of the College where this
august person lived. "There's the Dean's window"
he said, pointing upwards; then, picking up a hand-
ful of gravel, he flung it up at the window, and
when an angry head was thrust out to see to
whom this outrage was due, turned to his friends
with the blithe remark, "And there's the Dean."
The hall, the chapel, and the library of the Col-
lege are always shown to visitors as a matter of
course. The hall is not an assembly, but a dining
hall, and so being one of the most essential parts of
the College, is frequently one of the oldest. At the
-far end; on a slightly' raised platfor'm, will be seen
one or more tables running breadth-ways. Here. at
"High Table," the Fellows of the College sit.. In
the body of the hall are other tables, ranged length-
ways, which harbor the undergraduates. On the
paneled walls will be seen paintings of the found-
ers, benefactors, and famous members of the College.
Though your undergraduate guide thoroughly
does not realize it, the chapel was at one time con-
sidered even more important than the hall. The
earliest Colleges had at first to be content with the
nearest parish church, but they all built their own
place of worship as soon as they possibly could. Now
no College is without its chapel. All Colleges at one
time insisted on their members attending a certain
number of chapel services a week. A few still do
this, but in most Colleges attendance is voluntary.
The College libraries are usually of antiquarian
rather than utilitarian interest. Speaking from per-
Som ething
By H. A. Moore
The inauguration of the honor course for sen-
fors in the English department is the most recent
advance in the program of the literary college of
the University to offer its students the opportunity
,of obtaining the broadest education possible during
their four years in the University. This plan is
designed for seniors of approved ability who desire
to devote the major part of their time to work in
the English department.'
For a long time the need of such a plan has
been felt among the administrative officers of' the
University and last spring the faculty of the- lit-
erary college decided to put this plan into operation.
Many students have desired to obtain such an oppor-
tunity to become acquainted with the best in English
literature, but their attempts at such an accomplish-
ment without the proper guidance have been chaotic.
Lack of time has also prohibited them from contin-
uing their efforts.
When this course was announced last spring,
more than 25 students appeared before the com-
mittee made up of Prof. Louis A. Strauss, Prof.
James H. Hanford, and Prof. Oscar J. Campbell, all
of the English department which is in charge of this
new course, to apply for permission to adopt this
plan of study. Of this number less than 10 were
considered proper candidates by the committee, and
at present there are only eight seniors enrolled in
the course.
Students who desire to take this course must
apply to the English department between May 1 and
June 1 of their junior year. The committee consid-
ers the applicants and grants permission only to
those students of high standing who are deemed
qualified to do independent work.
Students whose request has been granted may
substitute as an equivalent for nine hours work in
And At Cambridge-
"May Week" comes in June and lasts
for a fortnight.
One timid College
shamefacedly to sink
neath the ground.
has gone so far as
its bathrooms be-
Head porters are mistaken for heads
of colleges, and vice versa.
sonal experience I should say that the bulk of most
College libraries consists of volumes of the 17th
century sermons whose bindings are considerably
more attractive than their contents. Some,, however,
contain very valuable works. Corpus Cristi Col-
lege library contains one of the richest collections,
of manuscripts in the country, including the earliest
manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other,
Saxon and Norman works. Most College libraries
contain some ewe-lamb of sufficient value to attract
the predatory tourist.
If the College is one which possesses "backs,"
you are bound to be taken there. "Backs" are what
their name implies, the backs of the Colleges; only,
unlike most backs, they are a good deal more at-
tractive than the fronts. You will go through the
last court and find yourself in the open, with well-
kept lawns stretching in front and the river lazily
meandering through, while the background will be
filled with trees. Whether in summer when the
leaves are green, in autumn when they are tinted
red and blue, or in spring when the crocus and daf-
fodil bloom on the lawns and river banks the backs
are things of beauty. They are the one possession
which' Oxford cannot equal.
Such is the College, and how to dQscribe the life
lived th'ere. I had better explain here that all mem-
bers of the College do not actually have rooms in it.
A certain percentage have to live in lodgings li-
censed by the College. (The landlady, with her in-
evitable daughter and pretentious Aspidestra-the
adjectives are interchangeable,-is as much a fea-
ture of Cambridge life as the "Gyp" or "bedder")
But everybody spends at least a year in College,
most spend two, and a good many, including all
scholars, spend their whole time there.
We will once again take our friend the under-
graduate, whom we have fortunately provided with
rooms in College and not with lodgings, and will
describe his normal day. At about half-past six he
will be awakened by the sound of brushing and
banging in his sitting room, which, as we have
already explained, opens on to his bed-room. It is
the "Bedder" taking the only opportunity she gets
of tidying up the room. He will turn over and
snooze till seven-fifteen, when a knock at the door
heralds the arrival of the "gyp" with hot water and
"A nice morning, sir." Some "Gyps" of great orig-
inality have adopted a different morning phrase, but
only your rare genius can evolve a greeting which
tallies each morning with the actual circumstances.
The "gyp" will then retire, taking the undergrad-
uate's shoes wih him. These he is reputed to
clean. The .undergraduate will then rise and shave,
and, donning his dressing gown and slippers, will
wander forth into the cold morning air. The garb
may seem a strange one for a constitutional, but his
primary object is not exercise, but a bath. Bath-
rooms, being blatantly modern, have only just been
introduced into the Colleges and are situated in
some remote and hidden corner away from the re-
proachful eyes of architectural purists. One timid
College has gone so far as shamefacedly to sink its
bathrooms beneath the ground. Before the invas-
ion of the bathroom, undergraduates were wont to
sit in a basin about the size of a cart-wheel into
which they would pour a kettleful of water and bail
themselves clean. Some Colleges still repel the
Philistines and maintain the primitive hip-bath, but
the garrison are mutinous and without a doubt these
last pathetic strongholds will soon fall.
By the time the undergraduate has bathed, re-
turned to his bedroom and dressed he will find his
breakfast ready. This he may order each morning
from the College kitchen (which acts as a kind of
perambulatory restaurant), or cook himself over his
gas-ring, or he may content himself with eating
some dry cereal. He will in any case have to make
his own tea. There was once a time when he had a
certain respect for the feminine and culinary arts.
Now he has realized that the art of making tea,
astonishing though it may seem, is simply the act of
putting boiling water on top of tea-leaves. He may
even have gone so far as to discover that frying
bacon is in reality nothing more alarming than the
placing ,of shop-sliced rashers into a pan over the
fire and poking them about to stop them sticking.
Some intrepid spirits have gone even further and
do vigorous things with eggs and sausages and
soups.
Breakfast over, he remembers that he has to
attend a nine o'clock lecture. He therefore seizes
his note-book and his academic gown and hurries
off. Most probably he will bicycle. There are more
bicycles to the square yard in Cambridge than in
any other place in the world. At the lecture he will
listen attentively, taking copious notes . . .
But I really cannot go on like this. I must try
to describe the day of a normal undergraduate and
not a paragon of virtue. I will start again. He is
called, as before, at seven-fifteen, but feeling re-
markably lazy through having sat up late the night
before, he yawns, pulls the bed-clothes over his eyes
to block the reproachful sunlgit, and sleeps once
more. He wakes to hear the College clock chiming.-
eUniversity
proved that there was a sincere desire on the part
of the members of the course to make the most of
this advantage which has been offered them, said
Professor Hanford in commenting upon the attitude
of the students who have undertaken this special
study.
The inauguration of this new course means con-
siderable additional work for the professors of the
department who are on the committee. The time
which they must necessarily spend in meeting this
group and the time spent in individual conferences
must be outside of their regular classes. They are
interested in this work, however, and are enthusi-
astic in their endeavors to help the student obtain
the end which he desires. For this reason it has
been found necessary to limit the number of stud-
ents who will be allowed to take this course. In the
future admittance will be on a competitive basis. the
ten members of the senior class who have made the
best showing in their work will be eligible to apply
for admission, until the department can be enlarged
to handle more students in this course.
"The purpose of the plan is to make it a distinc-
tion for a student to obtain admission to this course,
just as it is a distinction to obtain a place in some
dramatic production or some other campus activity,"
said Professor Hanford.
"Students who desire to apply for admittance
should plan far enough ahead so that we can sug-
gest to them the work which they should take dur-
ing their junior and even their sophomore year, as a
preparation for the work which they desire to take
up during their senior year. Such students should
make known their intentions to the department be-
fore the end of their sophomore year at the latest."
A student who receives honors in this course
will have his name placed upon the program at the
Honors' Day convocation which is held sometime
during May. The fact that he has received honors
He counts. "Nine o'clock," he murmurs. "No use
trying to get to old Whoeveritis, 'at any rate, he's
never worth listening to," and slinking beneath the
clothes with a satisfied sigh he sleeps once more. At
ten o'clock he crawls up, having suddenly .remem-
bered that his breakfast is getting cold. He slips
on his dressing gown and goes in to eat it. The
kettle which the "bedder" has placed on the gas-
ring for him hap nearly boiled itself empty, but
there is enough left in it to make a little tea. His
bacon is cold, so he places it as near the fire as
possible to get warm, and begins his breakfast with
bread and marmalade.
Half an hour later we see him dressed and in
his right mind sallying forth to attend the second
lecture of the day at 11. It is three minutes past
the hour when he reaches the lecture room. He
listens outside the door and hears the lecturer's
voice droning away inside. He opens the door
quietly and goes in. The rest of the undergrad-
uates stamp their feet loudly, a form of welcome
invariably accorded to the unpunctual. The lecturer
proceeds with his lecture unmoved. The lecture ends
at twelve and he then goes to hear his College super-
visors' criticism of his weekly essay. This lasts
another hour, and at one o'clock he goes to his rooms
for lunch. This is a light affair. He h'as probably
bought a pie which he ekes out with' bread and
cheese. He is playing in a College match afterwards
and so dares not eat too much. A cycle to the Col-
lege grounds, a hard game, a hot bath and then
one of the pleasantest meals of the day,-afternoon
tea. This is invariably a social function; a few
friends are asked in, chairs are drawn up to the
fire, and with the food on the floor in front of them
and the cups on the floor by their side, the party
eat and smoke in comfort, chatting aimlessly the
while on any -subject that crops up, from theology
to the latest revue star.
At about 6:30, or before, the party will break up
and the undergraduate will take down a book and
do a little work till "hall." This meal, which the
outside world would call dinner, is the only meal
of the day whcih the undergraduate cannot have in
his own rooms. He is allowed to absent himself
from it ten times a term, but that is all. In practice
he can stay away whenever he likes, for nothing in
the way of a roll-call is taken, but he will, of course,
be charged for it unless his absene is official. Most
people have no desire to stay away from hall. for
it provides a good opportunity 'for seeing other mem-
bers of the College, and groups of friends make a
practice of sitting together. After hall the under-
graduate may retire to his rooms to work, or he
may attend some lecture or the meeting of some
club to which he belongs, or he may go to the
theatre. Before doing any of these things several
may retire to the rooms of one of their number to
drink coffee together. They may even stay together
the whole evening, talking, playing on the piano,
or perhaps playing bridge. If the company are
in a jovial mood they may amuse themselves in other
ways. They may, for instance, start playing cha-
rades, and once I remember finding that one of those
present hadbought a packet of "Bubbeline", which
led to the whole of the assembly spending a very,
pleasant evening blowing bubbles and completing
the ruin of several perfectly good pipes.
If the undergraduate goes back to his rooms to
work he will probably do so without interruption
until 11, though there is always a possibility of some
one calling to see him before this time. At about
half-past ten or eleven, if no one has been to his
roon:, he will go to theirs. At this time, in half
the rooms in College, little groups of people will be
found sitting around the fire smoking and drinking
1 efore going to bed. It is not such a scene of
depravation as the words might suggest. Though
England is not a dry country, in nine cases out of
ten the night-cap will consist of nothing stronger
than tea or coffee. In the rare tenth instance it will
consist of cocoa. Looking at it from a detached
point of view the spectacle of some half-dozen young
men chatting over a cup of tea seems ludicrous. It
is the sort of thing which one might expect of a
party of old maids, but not of a vigorous company
in the many twenties. Yet it is the most pleasant
hour of the day. Work done! a satisfied lazy feel-
ing; a warm fire; the lights dim; intelligent people
to talk to, and yet no necessity for conversation if
you prefer to remain quiet to lean back in your
chair, blowing out the tobacco smoke and indolently
listening to the seemingly far-distant tangent;talk
of the rest of the circle. And so, at midnight. to
bed.
College life is a free and easy affair. The days
slip by and the short term is over before the fact
has been clearly realized that it has begun. Then
the undergraduate will bemoan that he has been
able to do no work, and will depart for his vacations
with a box full of books and a grim determination
to shun delights and live laborious ;cays.
It is a life in which rules are few and far bc-
tween. Some Colleges insist on the attendance of a
certain number of chapel services, some forbid
undergraduates to walk on the grass in th'e College
4ew
For
Th
"This plan is not modeled after the Cambridge or
Oxford systems," said Professor Strauss in com-
menting upon the new course, "for it would be im-
possible under the conditions which exist in Ameri-
can universities to adopt that system.. It does re-
semble on a much smaller scale the work where one
undertakes to obtain his doctor's degree. " Such a
system as that used in the English institutions
would require a complete reorganization of the edu-
cational system which is now used in American in-
stitutions. We consider our new plan the best
means of coping with the situation, and although we
admit that it is far from perfect we feel that it will
afford the student an opportunity of obtaining a
broader cultural background than ras been the case
heretofore."
The course has been divided into three phases
which will be studied and discussed under the guid-
ance of one of the professors on the committee.
The first period will cover the literature from
the earliest times to the Renaissance. This work
is under the direction of Professor Hanford. The
second division of the course will be the study of
drama to th'e seventeenth century. Professor Camp-
bell will have supervision over this phase of the
course. The third division of the work will be the
literature of the Restoration period and will be stud-
ied under the direction of Professor Strauss. The
plans for the work which will be taken up during
the second semester have not yet been completed.
Recently Professor Hanford invited the members
of the honor course to his home. This offered the
students an opportunity of coming into closer con-
tact not only with the professor, but with the other
members of the class who have like interests and
aspirations. In addition to these occasional meet-
ings a student is free to consult the professors at
any time to discuss some particular subject or to