The Bromsgrovian/Volume 2/Number 5/Oxford Letter
Someone has said that during the (so-called!) Summer Term, we in Oxford cannot be expected to do any work, because our attention is exclusively claimed by "Eights and cousins;" when, therefore, in addition to these distractions, we have the further excitement of a Royal visit, surely a college tutor's heart must be of adamant if he look not with lenient eye on lectures cut and essays unwritten! Yet experience tells us that even now the "gens ferrea" has not entirely left our earth.
Loyalty must assuredly be henceforth a characteristic of Oxford tailors; from their point of view it would be well if the Prince would come once a week. Never for years past have Messrs. Foster and Evans sold so many hats in so short a time, not, O innocent reader! because the undergraduate world flocked to those great emporiums eager to honour its Prince by donning new and elegant shapes, but because it was compelled to repair the mischief done by the sportive rabble during the illuminations, on the nights of the 2nd and 3rd of May. The "town" and "gown" had various encounters while out in the streets to see the illuminations.
Then, as now, Oxford was very full of visitors; many ladies still linger here though the Eights are over. The weather during the races did not allow of anything but ulsters and macintoshes till the last two days, but there was some very good racing during the week, especially between B. N. C. and Magdalen. Exeter had no difficulty in keeping the headship, and the boat is on all sides voted "splendid." The Unattached Boat went up seven places and intends, I believe, to go to Henley.
Professor Ruskin is this time giving three lectures, and, owing to the crush of last term, admission is now only by ticket, and each lecture is delivered twice.
More Royalty is going to honour us this term; the Duke and Duchess of Connaught or Albany—no one seems to know which—are coming for Commemoration. During that week there will be more "schools" on than any other week in the term. Even the gorgeous New Schools have proved inadequate to accommodate all candidates for examination this summer; the Honour Greats men are to be relegated to the Sheldonian Theatre. "On dit" that two of the Commemoration Balls are to be held in the former building.
College cricket has been in full swing during the term; the 'Varsity matches proper begin on Thursday with the M. C. C.
Yours truly,
O. B.
To the Editor of the "Bromsgrovian."