Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-07
PRINCE AT OXFORD
EngIand'S Future Ruler to Live
as Other Students.
WILL ATTEND MAGDALEM
Plans for College Career Are With
out Precedent.
MANN HAS STORMY CAREER
Has Had Great influence in Indus
trial Upheavals Of Great
Britain.
WILL ATTEND MAGDALEN
MANN HAS STORMY CAREER
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star
LONDON, March o, 1912
An effort is to be made to enable the
Prince of Wales to lead at Oxford ap-
proximately the same life that he would
do were he an undergraduate Of ordinary
birth. One wishes every success to the
experiment, for 1t will be an unusual one
and without precedent in the history
either Of the throne or the university.
There Is no reason why the outcome
should not be Of the happiest and enable
the prince to know and to feel that fond
hess for his alma mater and that pride In
being one OF her sons that has made the
Oxonian a power in the land.
He goes to Magdalen College, which
every Oxford man calls ''Maudlin.'' 1t
was of old the royal college. but James
III and Magdalen had a notorious quar-
rel, and not since then has a member of
the royal house near the throne attended
at the old foundation. Even King Edward
graduated at Christchurch. but there is
in the chapel a monument to Prince
Christian Victor and three other members
OF the college who were graduates and
died in South Africa 1t is true the col
de-lys, but they are those of Elton. Wayn-
fleet, who founded Magdalen. brought
them with him from there, where he was
the first provost. His name, of course.
was William Pattern, and he was a Lin
colnshire man. though his family be-
longed to Dagenham in Essex. and was
not unknown in the north. 1t was the
same as the Wilson Patterns of Lanca-
shire and Cheshire, the late Lord Win
marlegh being a member Of 1t in our
time.
Magdalen Has Changed.
Magdalen has changed even in days
more recent than those Of James III. Glib
bon was a student there, and draws a
very disagreeable picture of the life he
led as gentleman commoner. He says
II spent fourteen months at Magdalen
College. they proved the fourteen months
the most idle and most Improbable Of
my whole life. The reader will pronounce
between the school and the scholar, but
i cannot affect to believe that nature had
disqualified me for all literary pursuits"
Now, however, there is no foundation in
the whole Of the university which ranks
SO high for intellectual vigor and aspira-
ton.
The prince will find himself somewhat
or grown-up among youths at the uni
verSity, since his experience has been so
much wider already than that of his asso-
ciates. He has had an education which
Is of the most practical character. His
early training was looked after by HI.
y. Hansell, who Is himself a graduate
of Magdalen, and continues his tutor, but
since 1907 the prince has been a student
IN that most thorough of all schools.
Ire navy Whereas the ordinary youth
leaves Elton or Harrow or Rugby merely
versed in games and book learning, and
goes to the university to ripen what one
nay describe as the intellectual side of
nm. to have a final polish put upon the
ira ming which he has already obtained
at his public school. the prince has had
experience of men and machines.
Has Learned to Work. -..-
He has learned to work with his hands
at bench and lathe. He has had to study
drill. and be subject to the discipline
which the navy at all times exacts from
its would-be sons. whether they are lads
at Osborne or Dartmouth. or men on
board q bsttleship. He has shared a
dormitory with sixteen others up till
last year. and associated with comrades
with whom caste did not count, who re-
duced his high-sounding title to that or
mere royalty to whom seniority count
ed for everything and birth for moth
ing. Since then he has stood his watches
on board man-o'-war. has commanded
and has been responsible for the welfare
of one of those heavy guns which are
worshiped on board ship.
All this portends knowledge, especial
ly OF men-and technically at Oxford all
are "men'-which is unique In the history
of the varsity, and when the possessor
Of 1T Is a prince as we'll as student the
thing Is worthy Of observation. All the
more probably will he enjoy the life of
this famous seat of learning. 1t will have
all the attractions of a thorough change
Will Miss Much Pleasure.
The king in deciding that he shall have
rooms in college is doing wise thing.
The young prince will even then miss
much Of the pleasures that fall to the
ordinary undergrad. He will not have
opportunities for the stolen joys OF
neglecting his lectures, or joining up
with some set or another and living a
life which is ones own, and need not
necessarily be occupied in the sowing Of
wild oats In fact. one can have a Jolly
time. wherein o'clock teas figure largely
He will probably occasionally make an
the music halls, and he may even achieve
the triumph Of being gated and have
other punishments on which one looks
back In after life with much innocent
pride But. alas. one supreme gladness
cannot be his. He can never boast of
having been thrown out of the Empire or
the Alhambra music halls boat race
hight.
The prince has the advantage that his
character has already developed much
tnore than the ordinary youth of his
age He Is keenly interested in much that
the undergraduate regards as a bore His
worker and very much alive.
The river should have attractions for