The times., 1899-10-29

ship of the River.
The older generation of oxford men viii
tell US that commemoration is not what it
once was. We are accustomed to this sort
of statement from older generations, and
in university as in school life a generation
is wonderfully short space of time. Bach
elors of arts who, in other places, would be
considered to have scarce emerged from
boyhood have already attained enough an
tiquity to give them the privilege of find
ing fault with things as they are, and of
deploring with lofty bitterness the falling
off which they observe since their own
days. 1t is indeed, amazing, almost hu-
initiating, to find our places so quickly
filled by others, and to find also that So
ciety at large is so purblind as positively
to be satisfied with such inadequate sue
cessors of ourselves. Yet it must be con-
fessed, even on a fair and unmpassioned
view of the case, that the glories of Com
men, have somewhat waned There has
grown up another summer term festival,
whose centre is not a grave university cer-
NAANhyf but a. 1OnNcSt lOI TUE nGddSnlb VI
the river-the festival of the eights land
this has attracted to itself some of the balls
and concerts which in days gone by were
part of the celebrations of Common"
Fights Week is, perhaps, a time of peculiar
delights; it is, perhaps, the best river fes-
tival in existence, not excepting even Hen
ley; but it is a purely undergraduate fes-
tiyal. the UNDERGRADUATE an him
self TO making pleasure for himself and
for his people" and he prevails. The
dons are reduced perfeTce TO acquiesce in
hait-empty lecture rooms, and even the
proctors would seem TO realize that their
authority would be out Of place oxford
contrivcs with conspicuous success to con-
ceal the fact that it was ever intended to
be seat of learning; the cap and gown
suffer an almost total eclipse; there is
realized the exquisite ideal of a university
where work is suppressed
And as Fights " eek has increased Com
memoration has decreased. 1t has suffered
some changes, and those changes are to-
ward degeneration. II is no longer the
one and only time for visitors; the uni
yersity. worn out with the tolls of the
summer term, whether on the river or in
the schools, has largely gone down. The
procession of boats has ceased to be; it
DtNaLl4t SIdlGcIS pOSSiUl6 70 IUu even men,
much less oarsmen, to sit in them and the
salute to the Head of the River led but to
caPsizing and unseemiy laughter and so
the old ceremony struggled on as a mere
mockery of its former self for some years
and finally died away. Then, too, there is
no longer the Sunday promenade in Christ
Church meadows, where the black gowns
of the fellows and undergraduates used to
mingle with the many -cofored dresses Of
their fair sisters and cousins. 1t is, in
deed, a lamentable thing that this cere-
mony should have vanished; it was fine
and stately pageant, and was. moreover,
the one occasion Except in the very ear
liest days of freshinanhood) on which
proud parents could be escorted by their
son in cap and gown.
But the other features of Commemoration
still remain, modified in some respects, II
is true, but essentially the same. There
are still balls and concerts in plenty, three
balls a night, as a rule, for those who
like variety and-so adequate are these
June nights for the puTpose-broad day
light TO dance in for the last few hours;
and TO finish with there arrives, about 5
o'clock in the morning, a brisk photo
grapher to take the ruins of such dancers
as are left. Dresses and (horresco TefeTens)
compilations do not look their best at
. SlONh Ou a JuAlt lLOinluBs Jul III NuiS
respect camera is merciful and It's records
not unkindly perfect. Nor does a marquee
harmonic architecturally with the features
OF a college quad, and the older fellows
lament that the modern undergraduate is
not satisfied as they were in their time,
with the resources of the college as it is;
but in these days We demand such won
drous perfection OF appliances for dan
cling in the way OF floors and bands-and,
meanwhile, the art of dancing bids fair to
become extinct.
The undergraduate is a wonderfully hos
Ditable person. He spares no expense in
balls. suppers, or luncheOns, or picnics,
for these IuXuries viii go down in his
batells, and be paid for at the beginning
Of the following term by a more or less
complaining father, and it is, as policy,
highly desirable that some of them should
be due to the very reasonable and suffi-
cient cause of his people" having been
up at "Commem." There is nothing so
crampng to the mind as the payment Of
ready money. Moreover, it makes such
holes in an allowance that the practice
should be set aside as an unjustihable eX-
travagance. The undergraduate is as a
rule, freed from such restrictions; he will
entertain anybody at any time; he has
even made some attempts to make break
fast a social neal He that has not "peo-
pie up will borrow from him who has,
and will feed them and take them about in
punts, and make for their edificatiOn some
what daring antiquarian statements about
colleges and chapels. All as if he had
come into the world and to the university
for this special purpose. When one sees
him at his best, in Fights Week or Com
mem, it seems incredible that in a few
short years he will be quite an ordinary
being, earning a living, perhaps, or max
ing attempts in that direction, or even
paying his debts.
But although it is largely the under
graduate who is responsible for the jollity
of "Commem., >" the festival is not wholly
his. His balls and his entertainments are
mere excrescences on the great ceremony
of the Encoenia At that he is not SUI
preme; he is merely a Junior member of
the university" An Encoenia is a sight
not to be forgotten; the vice chancellor
and the doctors in their scarlet the proc
tors who, on their entry, are annually
greeted by half-friendly, .half-revengeful
hiss; the public orator with his Latin
speech; the honorary d. c. LIS in their
new splendor of scarlet and crimson; the
prizemen in their pulpits declaiming their
own poems in English or Greek or Latin;
the undergraduates in the gallery shouting,
interrupting with sublime irTeverence,
making jokes, good, bad, and Indifferent,
and the feminine belongings Of all these
in their finest summer dresses-such is the
Il