The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-04 00:00:00

Visit of 4'

vue Prince and Princess of Wales
to Cambridge,

After leaving Peterhouse on Thursday evening
the Prince and Princess of Wales honoured with
their presence a performance of the Amateur Dra-
matic Company, better known as the A.8.C., at
their bijou theatre. With performances of this
nature there can be no mediocre standard ; they are
either insufferably dull, or else yield more pleasure
and attain a success more brilliant than it is in the
power of professional actors to achieve. The acting
of the A.D.C. was decidedly of the latter class.
From the time the curtain rose till it fell ultimately,
a few minutes before 11 o'clock, the audience were
kept in uninterrupted good humour, and not only
the Prince, but nearly every member of the Royal
party, testified by frequent applause how much they
appreciated the efforts of the company for their en-
tertainment. The performance began with the farce
of " Whitebait at Greenwich," but the principal
feature in the programme was the burlesque extra-
vaganza of "Aladdin ; or the Wonderful Scamp."
The Cambridge amateurs are not content, like many
of their fellows, to avail themselves of external aid
in any of the parts intended to move the tender pas.
sions ; they stand or fall by their own resources
exclusively, and they represent and put upon the
stage female as well as male characters, which sing
and dance and look almost as captivating as the
fair originals whom they seek to counterfeit. Where
all distinguished themselves so highly it is invidi-
ous to make selections, but a recognition of the
eminent services of Mr. Burnand, to whom the
foundation of the company is due, ought not to be
overlooked.

From the theatre their Royal Highnesses drove
at once to the Fitz williatn Museum, where a ball
was given in their honour, and on their way the
electric light, which had been flashing for some
hours previously from the summit of Great St.
Mary's Church, was thrown full upon the Royal
carriages, and afforded to the multitudes of specta-
tors thronging the streets an admirable opportunity
of seeing the Prince and Princess as they passed.
Among the leading members of the University there
had been considerable division of opinion as to the
propriety of devoting their grand Museum to such
purposes as a ball, and a very clever paper apropos
of the discussion had been put forward, it is said,
by Professor Selwyn. In this the point was humor.
ously canvassed whether it was intended that the
Prince should take his degree per saltum ; and in
reply to the doubtings and questionings of an ima-
ginary M.A. the Procaneellarius was represented
as saying,,.

Saltabiraus onines ;
Orbis et uxor amans ardet inire choros.

Further on the M.A. wishes to be informed what
dunce befits the character of so grave an institu-
tion

Forsan Minueita decora
llispana ducet cum gravitate choros.
The response of the Procancellarius is more in ac-
cordance with the spirit of the external world in-
vading the institution :
Non ita—nam priecos redolet minis ills catones;
Nec rapidos juvenes tarda chorea decet ;
thistati potius—GyruFque, et Polka—supremus
Sub matutina Luce—Rogerus Eques.

To the pamphlet was affixed the title " Hospitium
Saltatorium," and in consequence of this grave
University joke the grand Museum, which forms
one of the most imposing of the modern architectu-
ral decorations of Cambridge, has acquired the
similar appellation of " the dancing-booth." The
ball, nevertheless, was held, in spite of all the
opposition end raillery brought to bear, and was
attended with brilliant success. Upwards of a
thousand persons were present, and the arranges
ments were such as to exhibit the noble proportions
of the building to the greatest advantage. The
large entrance-hall or portico, which is yet un-
finished, was draped from the ceiling with the
Danish colours, and by the introduction in large
numbers of rare and costly plants a striking vestis
bale, partaking of the nature of a conservatory,
was formed. Gas was carried for the occasion into
the different rooms upstairs, and the effect was
heightened by innumerable lamps, judiciously dis-
tributed, and by wax lights in the supper room
below. The bontd of f
enadstiearirGnausaer,dasnwd acsosotate-
ined at t h f
the grand Grenadier
and Tinney's band held possession of the orchestra
in one of the emailer apartments of the great room.
This principal apartment was the one in which visi-
tors mainly assembled, and as none of the pictures
upon the walls had been disturbed, these presented
a valuable relief during the interval that elapsed
before the arrival of the royal party. For their
accommodation a email apartment, fitted up with a
dais and couches, was set apart at the end of the
great room corresponding to that where the orches-
tra was established. The Prince and Princess,
however, expressed a wish to dance in the great
gallery or state room ; and although at the outset
the gratification of their desire was attended with
a little difficulty, owing to the number of visitors
present, and the general anxiety to press forward
as much as possible, a sufficient space in the centre
of the room was ultimately cleared, and maintained
by the formation of a volunteer rope brigade. The
Prince led off the first quadrille with Lady Royston,
the Princess dancing with Lord Royston. After-
wards his Royal Highness danced with the Duchess
of Manchester, and the Princess of Wales with his
Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief. Her
Royal Highness was attired as usual in mourning
but were magnificent diamond ornaments, and,
though exhibiting traces of fatigue, appeared to
enter thoroughly into the spirit of the scene. At 1
o'clock supper was served for 40 in the Library—a
very spacious and beautiful apartment. The guests
were—his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. her
Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of
Devonshire and Lady Louisa Cavendish, the Duke
and Duchess of Manchester, the Marquis and
Marchioness of Carmarthen, the Marquis Camden.
Earl Powis, Earl and Countess Hardwicke and
Ledy Agneta Yorke, Countess of Morton,Earl Gran-
ville, Earl and Countess Spencer, Earl and Coun-
tees Fitz william, Viscount and Viscountess Royston,
Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston, Lord Hyde,
Lord Alfred Hervey, Lord Harris, lion. C. Carring-
ton, Hon. and Rev. the Master of Magdalene and
Hon. Mr, L. Neville, Colonel the Hon. James Mac-
donald, the Vice. Chancellor, and Mrs. Cookson, the
Master of Trinity and Lady Affieck, General
Knollys, Col. Hon- E. F. Keppel, Dr. Paget, Rev,
J. Power, Rev. A. V. Hadley, Rev. A. J. Day, Mr.
Day, Mr. H. Oakeley, and the Rev. H. Luckock.
The Royal party did not leave the Museum until
about two o'clock, when they returned to Trinity
Lodge, which forms the headquarters of the Prince
during his stay in Cambridge.
Yesterday the proceedings of the Royal party
opened with a visit to the splendid chapel of King's
College, the tame of which has penetrated to every
quarter where architectural beauty is valued.
Divince service commenced at half-past 11 o'clock,
and, by desire of the Prince of Wales, consisted of
the Litany (chanted), and the anthem "I have
surely built thee a House." (Boyce) All persons
attending the service were in their places nearly an
hcur before the Royal party arrived, so that as soon
as they entered the outer door they had a complete
and uninterrupted view of the magnificent pano-
rama of stone leading to the interior of the chapel.
The cheers of the spectators on the lawn of the
College and from the Senate-house, where the
Undergraduates were assemh,ingt rushed into the
building when the doors were opened, but, subdued
by the immense area and height of the roof,
they sounded less like human voices than the
gusts which whistle and clatter at sea through the
rigging high over head. The service was exceed-
ingly impressive. At its close the Royal party
proceeded to the Senate-house, where the tie-
grees not conferred on the previous day were now to
be awarded. The building was, if possible, fuller than
on the previous day, and the undergraduates, grown
more accustomed to the presence of Royalty, were
under less restraint in the utterance of their opinions.
" Denmark" and " the Princess of Wales'' were
even more lustily cheered than on the day before,
and " Austria" quite as heartily groaned. It was a
remarkable circumstance, and one creditable to
Undergraduate delicacy of perception, that on
neither day was "Prussia" mentioned, either for
praise or for blame, "The Qeeen," " the Princess

Royal" and the "baby Prince" were all most loyally
and cordially honoured. Lord Palmerston was
loudly cheered, and his Foreign Secretary as loudly
groaned, though by an apparent inconsistency when
the name of Earl Russell was afterwards coupled
with " Reform," the sentiment of the assembly was
decidedly favourable. Messrs. Cobden and Bright
had their full share of odium. Mr. Disraeli even
was seateelis a prime favourite, though what had
happened in the interval to reverse the verdict of
the previous day it was not easy to discover. The
Bishop of Oxford, the L' Like of Manchester, the
Emperor of the French, Victorcumannel, the
Oxford boat, and the University Volunteer,: were
each and all warmly applauded. The col-
legiate " bulldogs" were barked at, and the respected
master of Trinity was whistled at, and by that time
the distinguished visitors were nearly all in their
places, and the proceedings commenced. The re-
citations of the various prizemen were first de-
livered, and the occupants of the gallery were by
no means sparing in their comments. One recipient
of a medal for Greek composition must have been
anything but encouraged by the opinion vouchsafed
from candid friends above that his utterance was
"rather flat," and numerous were the exhortations
addressed to others to " cut it short." At last the
point was reached at which the Chancellor of the
University proceeded to confer the honorary degree
of Doctor of Laws upon the various personages
selected for that distinction. Before conducting
each in his turn to the Chancellor of the University
the Public Orator delivered a short introductory
address in Latin, putting forward the grounds on
which in the opinion of the University the Doctors
elect had entitled themselves to that privilege. The
first so introduced to the assembly was the Earl
Granville, who was warmly applauded, and imme-
diately following him was the Duke of Manchester,
to whom the Orator having alluded as adding
" brighter glories" to the reception of the Prince and
Princess at Cambridge by the presence of the
cavalry troop, which he himself had raised, there
was a loud and general outburst of cheering. Earl
Stanhcpe elicited a graceful compliment to his
literary fame, and to the impactial character of him
writings. Lord Carnarvon, as a rising statesman,
and Lord Eversley, as Speaker for 18 years, and one
whose ancestors preferred exile to change of reli-
gion, were likewise well received. But it was for
Lord Palmerston that the full force of Undergraduate
enthusiasm was shown, though, like warm but in
discreet friends, they kept him standing for several
minutes before even a word in his favour could be
heard. The Orator, in a few brief but telling
sentences, presented him as the Pilot who had
weathered EC, many storms, as the man to
whom the country intrusted its fortunes confi-
dently in time of peace, but still more willingly in
time of war. The noble Premier having retired
amid the plaudits of the assembly, Lord Leigh next
received the honorary degree at the hands of the
Chancellor; but the cheering when Sir Edward
Balwer Lytton was presented was only just, if
at all, inferior to that when the Premier went
up. The justice of the mode in which the
Orator summed up his claims as " poet, philoso-
pher, orator," was instantly accepted by the gal-
leries. In this real prosaic world, the Orator added,
he presided over colonies, and when he liked, as a
magician, he created and peopled a world of his own.
When Sir Edward resumed his seat he must have
carried with him a gratifying ccnviction of the
esteem in which his name is held in the University
of Cambridge. Sir W. P. Wood and Sit' C. East-
lake having received their degrees, the only one of
the Doctors of Law against whom any hostile roam.-
festations were made advanced to the foot of the dais
on which the Chancellor was sitting. Unlike most
of the other instances, the introduction of the Public
Orator was not waited for. The moment the Dean
of Westminster left his seat a strong band of oppo-
nents raised their voices, and though the majority
were in his favour they were never able to drown
altogether the tumult of the rival faction. The
uproar was so prolonged that although the Orator
once or twice tried to quell it by commencing his
address, and though the Chancellor rose from his
seat and beckoned to the Undergraduates for silence,
it was apparently from weariness that they desisted
at list. Even then a final round of cheering from
the Dean's friends nearly set them all off again, like
the last contradictory croak in a rookery. The
Orator stated the case for the Dean of Westminster
as strongly as possib.e, alluded to his unselfish and
chivalrous character, to his travels in the East
with the Prince of Wales, to his ardent love of
truth, and to the courage with which he de-
fended opinions he had been led to adopt by in•
quiry, concluding with the aspiration :—" Te
igiture, Oxoniensibus tuis invidemus. Talis quum
sis, noster esto !" The list of honorary degrees
closed with the names of Mr. Beresford Hope, Dr.
Watson, Professor Hoffmann, the eminent organic
chemist, and the well-known Professor Wheatstone.
The grace had also passed in the case of Professor
Cobet, of the University of Leyden, one of the most
distinguished Greek scholars probably in Europe,
but he unfortunately was not able to attend.
The proceedings had terminated, and the royal
party were about to leave the Senate-;muse when
one voice was heard high above all the bualz of con-
versation, inviting " Three cheers for Canon
Wordsworth," which were accordingly given, 1,,:t I
with an admixture of hissing on the part of those
who thought it scarcely fair to return to a subject
already disposed of.

From the Senate-house after a short interval the
Prince and Princess, with tha Duke cf Cambridge
and their suite, proceeded to the hall of King's Cal•
lege, where they were entertained at luncheon, and
at three o'clock walked across the lawn of King's to
witness the display which always possesses so great
a charm—the procession of boats. A marquee had
been pitched at the end of the lawn, from which the
royal party were enabled to command an admirable
view of the proceedings, at the same time that any-
thing like pressure was avoided. The spectators
formed a perfect line at either side of the river some
distance back from the brink, and thus a clear
avenue was kept to see the boats as they approached.
These were not filled, as is sometimes the case, with
" scratch" crews, but with the oarsmen by whose
efforts their relative precedence had been decided.
Trinity Hall enjoys this year the envied place of
honour, and in compliment to the Princess the lines
of the boat were picked out with a double row of
white and red peonies, a thick cluster of which
also concealed from view the distinctive emblem
on the summit of the boat's ensign. The other
boats, to the number in all of 14, followed in
single file at racing speed, and eccentricities of vari-
ous kinds showed themselves in their preparations.
One, for instance, had a solemn-looking dog with
proctorial bands sitting in the bow, with as grave an
air as if responsible for the success of the demon-
stration. After ail the boats had passed through
Glare-bridge and the bridge above they droped
down again one by one in the same order, and took
up a position in front of the Princess's marquee.
Each as it did so shipped its oars and drew as close
to its neighbour as possible, till the whole extended
nearly across the river like a raft. This was a
manoouvre requiring the utmost care, the boats
having to be balanced with critical nicety; but it
was accomplished by the crews with apparent ease,
and when massed together within such a narrow
compass the combined effect of the flags fore and
att of the distinctive colours in the dress of each of
the eights was singularly bright and pleasing. At
a given signal the occupants of all the boats rose,
and tossing their oars into the air like gigantic
corn stalks, cheered the Royal party to the very
echo.

Orford may certainly boast its High-street, bat
it has nothing to present at all equalling the backs
of the Colleges at Cambridge. One portion of these
was seen to advantage in that part of the day's
proceedings last described, and the drive to St.
John's College, where the Horticultural Show was
held, was well calculated to convey an idea of the
peculiar beauty of these gardens.
The ostensible occasion for this assembly was a
horticultural fete, but it was evident that numbers
of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood
who could not gain access to the Senate-house or
Fitzwilliam Museum had come with the laudable
intention of seeing the Princess rather than the
flowers. The pupils of the School of Art, mar.
shelled by the secretary, Mr, Beaumont, formed a
square iu front of the platform provided for their

Royal Higbnesses, and as the names of the success-
ful candidates were read. out by Mr. Emery they filed
past the Princess, and received their prizes from
her hands. Their Royal Highnesses then came to
the front of the platform, and at the request of
Prince, Sir C. Eastlake addressed to the pupils a
few appropriate words, and thanked their Royal
Highnesses for the encouragement afforded to the
Cambridge School of Art.

The Royal party at dinner at Trinity Lodge in.
eluded the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke
of Cambridge, Duke of Devonshire, Lady Louisa
Cavendish, Viscount and 'Viscountess Palmerston,
Earl Spencer, Earl of Morton and Lady Morton,
...Tord Harris, Lord A. Hervey, General Knollys,
Colonel _TC..eppel, Lady Emma Osborne, Hon. and
Rev. L. Nevillt;, Master of Magdalen, and Mrs.
Neville, the President i;.f. Queen's, Colonel Macdon-
ald, Rev. W. C. Matheson, and the Vico-Chancellor
and Mrs. Cookson,