The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-16 00:00:00

THE COMMEMORATION AT OXFORD,

OXFORD, ILIC9 15.
The solemn, quiet days of Oxford's academic year,
the regular rontine of chapel and of college, end
with this week in all the joviality which marks
" Commemoration." In this great University re-
joicing dreary recollections of " gated" days, ruined
honours, and plucked fama are all alike forgotten.
It is Commemoration week—when unpopular proc-

tors have to screw up their courage tee meet the un-
dergraduates in the Theatre; when gay cre'veds and
pleasant parties throng the fine old College Qaads ;
when the dim religious-looking windows are filled
wi±:bloonaieg faces, and the anctuaries of the grass
plots are trodden unheeded. Oxford at all times is
a cheerful place, and in Commemoration time is
merrier than ever; but the Commemoration of this
year will be one, the like of which the University
'les never seen since when, just 49 years ego, the
Sheldonian Theatre was honoured with the presence
of the Allied Sovereigns, when George IV. was Re-
gent. But, even the rejoicings of that great occasion
are likely to be surpassed on this, for now the under•
graduates have to welcome their late fellow-gowns-
man and his fair young bride, and the University am
thorities have to do honour to one who hereafter it is
to be believed will do such honour to them, and, over
and above all, to suit the convenience of their Royal
visitors, the fetes and rejoicings of Commemoration
this year have all to be said or sung, danced or eaten,
in two long summer days, instead of six. The pro-
gramme offered for the acceptance, and, if possible,
for the enjoyment also of the youthful pair is of
the same diversified kind as marked every day
of the Prince's long route through Canada into
the far west beyond the 11Iississippi. It is such a
programme as only a very young and very happy
pair could venture to undertake, and we much
doubt if a young Princess was ever called upon, as
an enjoyment, to go through so much before, Leav-
ing aside the railway journey down to this city to-
morrow, there are also private receptions and public
routes to be gone through—a public welcome, with
addresses, at Magdalen-bridge, a procession through
Oxford, a grand distribution of prizes to volunteers,
a special congregation in the Sheldenian Theatre, a
Fancy Fair and Bantar which their Royal High-
nesses are to open, a Horticultural and Flower Show
to which they are to accord a similar honour, a mag-
nificent banquet to which 400 guests will sit down
in the hall of Christchurch in the evening, and a ball
in the beautiful new Corn Exchange, where the
visitors are somewhat rashly expected not only to
find room for themselves, but room for the dancing
also. This is a fair amount of fes'ivity for one day,
and that which follows it is just as good or as bed
—certainly beginning earlier and probably ending
later, and including another grand banquet and ball,
a rowing match, the procession of boats, a Free-
masons' fete, a great collation at All Souls, and,
above and beyond all, the Enccenia or Commemora-
tion—where the undergraduates can express their
opinion, and when they will avail themselves of their
privilege to the utmost, as Dr. Pusey and others
already know. With such great things on hand, is
is almost needless to say in what a fever of prepara-
tion Oxford is just now. Great Deans, Wardens,
and Principals are immersed in arrangements for
banquets and dances, and have to bend their minds to
the minute contemplation of such frivolities as never
entered the heads of Dons before. In every College
committees of some sort or kind are sitting, gigantic
piles of plates and table furniture, more or less
attractive, may be found in odd nooks and out-
of-the-way corners, and in every " Quad" the
residence of some fortunate dispenser of patronage,
in the way of tickets, may be known at once
by the hurried arrivals and slow disappointed de-
partures of the applicants, who come to prove, but
always in vain, that there is room at banquet and
at hall for them. The claim for tickets of every
kind has been enormous, and the courtesy and
kindly wish of the university authorities to favour
the applications of those who had even the re-
motest pretensions to he present on any occasion
have been tasked to the utmost. No reduction in
the number of these applications is likely to be
found as time draws on. Every train brings in
fresh crowds of visitors, and every minute the car-
riages of the country gentry come rolling in. Ac-
commodation in the literal sense of the term is
scarcely to be had for money, and certainly not for
love, and the local journals, who appear to have for
the thousandth time consulted the "oldest inhabi-
tant" declare on his unimpeachable authority that
Oxford never was so full. It is quite easy to believe
this when we find that the notices of beds to let
have all disappeared from the heart of the city, and
been driven to the remotest purlieus, such as
would only be discovered in the wanderings of
some inniess travellers. On the Sunday before
Commemoration Day all, without exception, high or
low, gentle or simple, come to promenade in the
evening under the grand old avenue of elms in
Christchurch. meadow. On this occasion, too, all
the belles in Oxford do their best to appear in
toilettes worthy the occasion, and hence its name
of " Show Sunday." Last Sunday it was a mere
contradiction in terms to call it a walk, or a pro-
menade, or a show, or anything but a dense crowd
which feebly tried to circulate along the avenue or
kept standing still till dusk, when the bell rang and
the solemn booming from " Tom Tower" rang out
the last exhibitors from the " Show," to be early
afoot again this morning, beseeching, intriguing,
striving in every way known to female inge-
nuity for tickets for one of the many ce-
lebrations to-morrow. Fortunately for the
Princess, and fortunately, perhaps, for the im-
pressions which she will take away from this famous
seat of learning, Thursday is to b 3 a quiet day—a
day devoted to a long and strictly private visit to
the famous monuments and buildings of the Univer-
sity. This, however, is to be the only quiet day,
for on Tuesday and Wednesday there will be not a
moment's rest for either of the Royal visitors.
Amid the general bustle and excitement going on
on all sides, even the quaint, gray old Colleges are
putting on a gayer aspect. The turf of the quad-
rangles, always beautifully soft and green, has been
mowed and rolled until it looks like the finest
ce2vet. The Men's rooms have been swept and
garzhlsfeed. for the visits of critical sisters and cousins,
and Chapels L
d Halls
',eve been trimmed up so as
yet tiseir best. The noble re-
fteoeltoooryk
ofth ecirhriosl;:e'tceharb,
in wlecd.h the Prince and
Princess are to be entertained at the g: and banquet,
has been tastefully re-decorated, and the portraies
of many of the Many Fiminent men who one at as
students within its Walls, having been cleererly
cleaned and restored, now present a brilliant aeid
imposing erray. The _Dean!:
other side of the quadrangle have apartments
abe en handeomely
t the
Royal party.
fitted up for the reception of the
Exeter and All Souls' are also
persTaetes to
qe, Farce ndo
honour to the Prince. In the picturesque
many_
coloured canvass, and decked of St. John's rows of dainty booths, gay
flgayags and arti-
ficial flowers, are being reared
saleswomen who are
..to hold
the new buildings of the
morrow for the benefit of
grounds of Trinity and
Worcester
aeFancy Fair there to
Infirmary-0
being made ready for a Hor-
ticultural
Show
are
also
and Masonic Fete. The
Corn-
Exchange, a large new buuding, in tne interior of
which coloured brickwork is introduced with
novel and striking effect, is, under the busy hands
of painters and upholsterers, assuming a festive
appearance worthy of the two balls which are to
take place there on 2uccessive evenings, and which,
it is certain, from the number of tickets issued,
will, as we have intimated, be densely crowded. In
front of the Town-hall the inscription "Let the
earth rejoice and the nations be glad" will blaze at
night in letters of fire. Along the High-street, from
Magdalen-bridge to St. Aldates, wooden galleries
Piave been raised at many convenient and some in-
convenient positions for the accommodation of spec-
tators to view the entrance of the Prince and Prin-
cess. Stout barriers have also been erected to guard
all the entrances to the Sheldonian Theatre, and to
check a premature irruption of violent under-
graduates or excited strangers. A more substantial
uarantee, however, for peace and order has been
ished by the arrival of Superintendent Walker,
ADivision of the Metropolitan Police, with
• picked men, to whom the University hus
for the time all its ancient privileges.
- be scarcely any town in England

furh.
of the .
200 of his

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