St. John's College, Cambridge Part 4

On the death of Dr. Tatham (19th January 1857), Dr. William Henry Bateson was elected Master; he had been Senior Bursar of the College from 1846, and Public Orator of the University from 1848. Dr. Bateson was a man of scholarly tastes, but he was above all a practical man of affairs and of broad views. He served on more than one University Commission appointed to examine into and report upon the University and Colleges. The College statutes were twice revised during his mastership; the first code becoming law in 1860, the second was prepared during his lifetime, though it did not become law till a year after his death.

These statutes are much less interesting reading than the early statutes, though undoubtedly more useful. While aiming at precision in the matter of rights and duties, they leave great freedom in matters of study, discipline, and administration. All local restrictions on scholarships and fellowships have been abolished. The government of the College is entrusted to a Council of twelve, elected by the Fellows, and presided over by the Master; a simple method has been provided of altering them if necessary. Independently of the changes thus introduced the College, on its own initiative, was providing for the newer studies.

In 1853 a chemical laboratory was built, and a lecturer in chemistry appointed, and other lecturers appointed from time to time as the scope of University teaching was widened. St. John's at an early date began to elect men to scholarships and fellowships for Natural Science. In all this we may trace the influence of Dr. Bateson, one of whose guiding principles was to widen and increase the teaching power of the College, and to reward intellectual distinction of any kind. Dr. Bateson died 27th March 1881, and was succeeded by Dr. Charles Taylor, the present Master.

Of men who have added l.u.s.tre to the College roll of worthies we may mention Sir John F. W. Herschel, the astronomer, who was Senior Wrangler in 1813, and died in 1871, laden with all the honours which scientific and learned bodies could bestow upon him; he lies buried in Westminster Abbey close to the tomb of Newton. John Couch Adams, Senior Wrangler in 1843, in July 1841, while yet an undergraduate, resolved to investigate the irregularities in the motion of the planet Ura.n.u.s, with the view of determining whether they might be attributed to an undiscovered planet.

The memorandum he made of his resolve is, as has been stated, now in the College Library. It is a matter of history how Adams carried out his purpose, and how through a series of unlucky accidents he did not get the sole credit for his discovery of the planet Neptune. Adams became a Fellow of the College in 1843, but had to vacate his fellowship in 1852 as he was not in orders. The College tried to induce a Mr. Blakeney, who then held one of the very few fellowships tenable by a layman, to resign his fellowship and make way for Adams; offering to pay him for the rest of his life an income equal to that of his fellowship. Mr. Blakeney, however, refused, and a fellowship was found for Mr. Adams at Pembroke College, which he held till his death.

It is perhaps a delicate matter to allude to those still living, but two may perhaps be mentioned. The Hon. Charles A. Parsons by his development of the steam turbine has revolutionised certain departments of engineering. Dairoku Kikuchi, the first j.a.panese student to come to Cambridge, after graduating in 1877, in the same year as Mr. Parsons, returned to j.a.pan, and has held many offices, including that of Minister of Education, in his native country.

We may say that the changes introduced in the nineteenth century have restored to the College its national character, admitting to the full privileges of a University career certain cla.s.ses of students who had been gradually excluded. During the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, there was always a part of the nation, Protestant or Roman Catholic, which found the entry barred to it. The establishment of the Anglican rule in the reign of Elizabeth led to the exclusion of Roman Catholics, and for three hundred years the doors of the University were closed to them.

The Civil Wars, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration produced religious difficulties of another kind; the wholesale ejections in 1644 and 1660 testify to the troubles men had to face for conscience' sake. After the Restoration the Puritan, the Protestant Dissenter, was excluded with the Romanist.

In the eighteenth century a certain variety was introduced by the entry of students from the West Indies, sons of planters; one or two individuals came from the American colonies. The constant wars drew off men to military careers, and the religious movements towards the close of the century attracted men, after leaving College, to Unitarianism or Wesleyanism. The celebrated Rowland Hill was a member of the College; Francis Okeley, after leaving, became a Moravian or a Mystic. Such dissenters as entered the College, and they were very few, were obliged to leave without graduating.

The removal of all religious tests has thus restored to the ancient Universities a national character they had not possessed since the early days of Henry VIII., when all could come, as all were practically of the same faith.

Thus a wider field is open to the College to draw on, not only in the British Islands, but in all its colonies and dependencies. On the other hand, it is no less true that her sons are to be found more widely scattered. A hundred and fifty years ago one could say of a selected group of men that the majority would become clergymen or schoolmasters, a few would become barristers, others would return to their country estates, one or two might enter the army; with that we should have exhausted the probabilities. Now there is probably not a career open to educated men in which members of the College are not to be found; the State in every department, civil, ecclesiastical, or military, enlists her sons in its service. The rise of scientific industries has opened new careers to trained men. We talk of the s.p.a.cious days of Elizabeth; if s.p.a.ce itself has not increased it is at least more permeated with men who owe their early training to the foundation of the Lady Margaret.

CHAPTER VIII

SOCIAL LIFE

Hitherto we have confined ourselves to an outline of the College history on what may be called its official side. In what follows we deal briefly with some features of the life of the place.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NEW COURT]

The original, and perhaps the chief, purpose of the College in the eyes of those who founded it was practically that it should form a training ground for the clergy. The statutes of King Henry VIII. distinctly lay down that theology is the goal to which philosophy and all other studies lead, and that none were to be elected Fellows who did not propose to study theology. The statutes of Elizabeth provided a certain elasticity by prescribing that those Fellows who did not enter priests' orders within six years should vacate their fellowships; but that two Fellows might be allowed, by the Master and a majority of the Senior Fellows, to devote themselves to the study of medicine. King Charles I. in 1635 allowed a like privilege to be granted from thenceforth to two Fellows who were to study law. These privileges were not always popular, and we occasionally find the clerical Fellows complaining that while the duties of teaching and catechising were laid on them, a man who had held one of the law or medical fellowships sometimes took orders late in life and then claimed presentation to a College benefice in virtue of his seniority as a Fellow, having in the meantime escaped the drudgery to which the Fellow in orders had been subject.

The emoluments of members of the Society in early times were very modest, and as prices rose became quite inadequate; the amounts being named in the College statutes were incapable of alteration, and indirect means were taken to provide relief. In Bishop Fisher's time it was considered that an endowment of 6 a year sufficed to found a fellowship, and 3 a year to found a scholarship. The statutable stipend of the Master was only 12 a year, though he had some other allowances, the total amount of which was equally trivial. James Pilkington, Master from 1559 to 1561, when he became Bishop of Durham, wrote to Lord Burghley on the subject of his successor, stating that whoever became Master must have some benefice besides to enable him to live. Richard Longworth, Master from 1564 to 1569, made a similar complaint, putting the weekly expenses of his office at 3. We accordingly find that many of the Masters held country benefices, prebends, or deaneries with their College office. Lord Keeper Williams, who gave to the College the advowsons of Soulderne in Oxfordshire, Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, and the sinecure rectories of St. Florence and Aberdaron in Wales, made it part of the conditions of his gift that the Master should always be ent.i.tled to take one of these livings if a vacancy occurred. Many of the Fellows also held benefices or curacies near Cambridge. In the eighteenth century the business of holding ecclesiastical preferment in plurality became almost a fine art; thus Sir Isaac Pennington, who was President of the College and Regius Professor of Physic, left to the College by his will a fund to provide the sum of 200 a year for the Master "if he be rector of Freshwater and not otherwise," a direct and curious incentive to holding in plurality. A Fellow was ent.i.tled to his commons, and, in addition, to allowances of 13s. 4d. under each of the three heads of "corn," "livery," and "stipend," or, as we may say, food, clothes, and pocket-money. The College officers received but small salaries, the most highly paid being the President and Senior Bursar, who each received 2.

An effort was made by the Statutes of the Realm to improve the condition of members of colleges. It seems to have been a.s.sumed that the rent of a college farm, like its statutes, could not be altered; but by an Act of Parliament pa.s.sed in the eighteenth year of Elizabeth, known as Sir Thomas Smith's Act, it was enacted that from thenceforth one-third of the rents were to be paid in wheat and malt; the price of wheat for the purposes of the Act being a.s.sumed to be 6s. 8d. a quarter, and of malt 5s. a quarter. Thus if before the Act the rent of a farm was 6 a year, after it became law the tenant had to pay 4 in money, three-quarters of wheat, and four quarters of malt, these two latter items coming to 1 each. But the tenant now paid a rent varying according to the prices of the day--namely, the money rent plus the cash value of the wheat and malt according to the best prices of these commodities in Cambridge on the market-day preceding quarter-day. Thus as the prices of wheat and malt rose the College benefited. By the Act this variable one-third, or "corn-money," went to increase the allowance for commons. As time went on the amount of the corn-money was more than sufficient to pay for the commons, and a further modest allowance out of the surplus was made to all who partic.i.p.ated in the College revenues, whether as Master, Fellow, scholar, or sizar, under the name of _praeter_.

In process of time another source of revenue arose. Leases of College estates were usually granted for a term of forty years, and there was a general custom that the tenant might surrender his lease at the end of fourteen years and receive a new one for forty years. As prices rose tenants were willing to pay a consideration for the renewal known as a "fine"--this was calculated on the full letting value of the estate at the time of the renewal, the rent reserved remaining at its traditional amount. At first this fine-money was regarded as a species of surplus, and grants were made from it to Fellows or scholars who were ill or in special need of temporary a.s.sistance. The cost of entertaining royalties or other distinguished visitors, and part of the cost of new buildings, were defrayed from this source. In the year 1629 the practice arose of dividing this fine-money up among the Master and Fellows in certain shares, and the money so paid became known as the "dividend." At the present time the College property is managed like any other landed estate, and after the necessary expenses of management and maintenance have been met, and certain fixed sums paid to the scholars and exhibitioners, and to the University, the remainder is by the statutes divided up into shares called dividends, each Fellow getting one dividend, the Master and the members of the College Council receiving certain additions calculated in dividends; there is a general restriction that the dividend shall not exceed 250 a year. The fall in the value of land at present automatically provides that this limit is not exceeded; if the revenues become more than sufficient for the purpose, additional fellowships and scholarships must be established.

The reader will gather that the chief endowment of the College arises from land. The College estates lie scattered over most of the eastern side of England, from Yorkshire to Kent. There is no large block of property anywhere. The estates in past times, when means of communication were poor, must have been difficult to visit. In the leases of the more distant farms it was usual to stipulate that the tenant should provide "horse meat and man's meat" for the Master and Bursar and their servants while on a tour of inspection. That some care was bestowed on the management is clear from the regular entries, in the books of accounts, of the expenses of those "riding on College business." Probably the estates were visited when leases came to be renewed, and an effort made to discover the actual letting value of the property. Land agents seem to have been first employed to make formal valuations towards the end of the eighteenth century, and about the same time plans of the estates were obtained, some of these, made before the enclosures, showing the land scattered in many minute pieces, are very curious and interesting.

The actual life within the College walls is not so easy to describe with any certainty. At first, as we have seen, the undergraduates actually lived with Fellows of the College, and overcrowding must have been a constant feature of College life. On 15th December 1565 a return was made to Lord Burghley of all students, "whether tutors or pupils,"

residing in the College, with notes as to whether they had come into Chapel in their surplices or not. The return concludes with this summary: "The whole number is 287, whereof there came into the Chappell with surplesses upon the last Sat.u.r.daie and Sondaie 147; and abrode in the country 33. And of thother 107 whiche c.u.mme not in as yet, there be many c.u.mme to the Colledge of late and be not yet provided of surplesses." At this time we have to remember that the buildings of the College consisted only of the First Court, the Infirmary or Labyrinth, and a small block of buildings in a corner of the ground now occupied by the Second Court, swept away when that was built. The arrangement seems to have been as follows. The ground-floor rooms were occupied by junior Fellows, each with a few pupils. The rooms on the first floor, known in the College books as the "middle chambers," were in greater request; with these went the rooms on the second floor, with sometimes _excelses_ or garrets over them--these could accommodate a senior Fellow with several pupils. In the older parts of the College the rooms occupied the whole depth of the building, and so were lighted from both sides; in the corners, when light could be obtained, cubicles or studies were part.i.tioned off. From a sanitary point of view, life under such conditions must have left much to be desired, and the burial registers of All Saints' parish (in which the older part of the College is situated) leave the impression of frequent and almost epidemic illness in the College during the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century.

The undergraduates in early times were much younger than the men of the present day. The statutes prescribed that the oath should not be required from scholars who were under sixteen years of age; the frequent occurrence of _non juratus_ in the admission entry of a scholar shows that many came to the College before that age. Probably the average age was about sixteen; the idea being that after the seven years' residence required for the M.A. degree they would be of the proper age to present themselves for ordination. Those under eighteen years of age might be publicly whipped in the Hall for breaches of discipline.

Students from distant parts of England probably resided continuously in College from the time they entered it until they took their degrees. The statutes of King Henry VIII. contemplate a period of some relaxation at Christmas; providing that each Fellow in turn should be "Lord" at Christmas, and prepare dialogues and plays to be acted by members of the College between Epiphany and Lent. The brazier in the Hall seems to have been kept burning in the evening about Christmas time; of this practice a curious relic survived until comparatively lately, it being the custom to leave a few gas-jets burning in the Hall until midnight from St.

John's Day (December 27) until Twelfth Night.

There were three cla.s.ses of students. The Fellow Commoners, sons of n.o.blemen or wealthy land-owners, who sat at the High Table, or, as it was phrased, were in Fellows' commons. Some came in considerable state.

In 1624 the Earl of Arundel and Surrey sent his two sons, Lord Maltravers and Mr. William Howard, to the College. The Earl's chaplain, or secretary, in making arrangements for their coming, wrote to request that they should have one chamber in the College, with a "pallett for the gromes of their chamber"; the rest of "his lordships company, being two gentlemen, a grome of his stable and a footman, may be lodged in the towne near the College." At this period the Second Court had been built, and the accommodation for residence thus somewhat greater than in Elizabethan times. The Fellow Commoner wore a gown ornamented with gold lace, and a cap with a gold ta.s.sel. The last Fellow Commoner at St.

John's to wear this dress was the present Admiral Sir Wilmot Hawksworth Fawkes.

The next cla.s.s in order of status were the Pensioners--men who paid their expenses without a.s.sistance from the College, sons of middle-cla.s.s parents. In times of which we have any definite record this was the most numerous cla.s.s in College. Lastly, we have the sizars. A sizar was definitely attached to a Fellow or Fellow Commoner; he was not exactly a servant, but made himself generally useful. For example, those members of the College who absented themselves from the University sermon were in the eighteenth century fined sixpence, and the sizars were expected to mark the absentees. The sizar at Cambridge had, however, always a better status than the servitor at Oxford, and in the days when scholarships were strictly limited as to locality, a sizarship was something of the nature of what at the present day we should describe as an entrance scholarship or exhibition, the a.s.sistance given consisting in a reduction of expenses rather than in actual direct emolument. At the present time there is no difference in status among members of the College; the foundation scholars, however, having special seats in Chapel and a separate table in Hall if they choose to make use of it.

Until 1882 the condition of celibacy attached to all fellowships in the College; Queen Elizabeth held strong views on the matter, even discouraging the marriage of Masters. The necessity of taking orders was somewhat relaxed in 1860. The system had its advantages--it tended to produce promotion; for the natural inclination of mankind to marry, vacated fellowships; the disadvantage was that men with a real taste for study or teaching had no certain career before them. The question of allowing Fellows to marry was raised in the eighteenth century, but met with little support and much opposition. Even in the middle of the nineteenth century a University Commission inclined to the view that celibacy was inseparable from the collegiate system.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "BRIDGE OF SIGHS"]

The clerical restriction had the effect of chiefly confining selection to College offices to those who were in orders. These in due course went off to benefices in the gift of the College, these acting as a species of pension. One form of benefaction frequently bestowed by past members was the gift of an advowson; one or two benefactors left estates, the revenues from which were to acc.u.mulate, and with the sums so raised advowsons were to be purchased. Presentation to livings went by seniority of standing, and this practice, with the restriction on marriage, gave rise to the belief, still prevalent in many parishes where the College is patron, that the College on a vacancy always chooses for the next inc.u.mbent "the oldest bachelor." It seems probable, without any minute statistical inquiry, that most of the Fellows left the College before the age of forty. A few remained on for life.

It is difficult now to reconstruct a picture of the High Table, made up as it was for many years of a group of middle-aged or elderly men, with a considerable admixture of youthful Fellow Commoners. During the eighteenth century the proportion of Fellow Commoners was probably from one-fourth to one-third of those dining together, and constraint on both sides must have been almost inevitable. The terms "don" and "donnishness" seem to have acquired their uncomplimentary meaning about this period. The precise significance of "don" is not easy to express concisely; the most felicitous is perhaps that of the Oxford _Shotover Papers_, where we read that don means, in Spain, a gentleman; in England, a Fellow. The abolition of the Fellow Commoner was perhaps chiefly due to the rise of the democratic spirit and a general dislike of privilege, but there are other grounds for welcoming it.

Of the individuals who make up the stream of youthful life which has ebbed and flowed through the College gate there is but little official record. An Admonition Book exists, in which more than a century ago those who were punished for graver offences against discipline signed the record of their sentence and promised amendment. One youth admits over a trembling signature that he was "admonished by the Master, before the Seniors, for keeping strangers in my chamber till twelve o' the clock, and disturbing the Master by knocking at his gate in an irreverent manner at that hour for the keys of the gate." When the College gate was closed it may be explained that the keys were placed in the Master's keeping. We are, however, left in ignorance of what pa.s.sed in that chamber until the midnight hour. Yet no doubt the student in past days had his amus.e.m.e.nts as well as his successor of the present day--rougher perhaps, but not less agreeable to him.

In Bishop Fisher's statutes archery was encouraged as a pastime, and we know from Ascham's writings that he indulged in it. In the sixteenth century the College built a tennis-court for the use of its members.

John Hall, who entered the College in 1646, recommended "s.h.i.ttlec.o.c.k" as fit for students--"it requires a nimble arme with quick and waking eye."

We hear of horse matches and c.o.c.k-fighting, but in terms of disapproval.

Football is mentioned in 1574, when the Vice-Chancellor directed that scholars should only play upon their own College ground. In 1595 "the hurtful and unscholarly exercise of football" was forbidden, except within each College and between members of the same College. Certain general orders for the discipline of the undergraduates, which gave rise to much controversy about 1750, forbade cricket between the hours of nine and twelve in the morning. In 1763 the Vice-Chancellor required that no scholar, of whatever rank, should be present at bull-baiting. We read in the eighteenth century of "schemes" or water-parties on the river, but these appear to have been more of the nature of picnics than exercises of skill. Riding was probably very common, the student arriving on his nag, perhaps selling it and using the proceeds as a start in his new life. The phrase "Hobson's choice" took its rise from the rule in the livery stables of Hobson the carrier that a man who hired a hack had to take the one that stood nearest to the stable door.

In later days stage-coaches supplied a more regular means of conveyance. Students leaving Cambridge for the North betook themselves to Huntingdon, and were housed at the George Inn there till places could be found for them in the coaches. The landlord of the George sending over to Cambridge to let it be known that one batch were gone and that another might come over.

Traditions linger in parishes round Cambridge that the University "gentlemen" used certain fields or commons for the purpose of riding races; the Cottenham steeplechases are presumably a survival of this practice. Shooting and coursing, with a little hunting, came into vogue at the end of the eighteenth century.

The rise and organisation of athletic sports as an essential element of College life would require a bulky history in itself. The first to take definite form was rowing. The historic boat club of the college is the Lady Margaret Boat Club; this was founded in the October term of 1825.

The actual founder of the club seems to have been the Hon. Richard John Le Poer Trench, a son of the second Earl of Clancarty. Trench afterwards became a captain in the 52nd Regiment, and died 12th August 1841. The club was the first to start an eight-oared boat on the Cam, though some Trinity men had a four-oar on the river a short time before the Lady Margaret was started. Among the first members of the club were William Snow and Charles Merivale, afterwards Dean of Ely. Trench acted as stroke of the original first boat crew in the Lent Term of 1826. There were at first no regular races, but impromptu trials of speed with other crews frequently took place. In 1827 the University Boat Club was started, and regular b.u.mping races begun. The first challenge to Oxford was determined on at a meeting of the University Boat Club held 20th February 1829, when it was resolved: "That Mr. Snow, of St. John's, be requested to write immediately to Mr. Staniforth, Christ Church, Oxford, proposing to make up a University Match." The match was made up, and the race rowed at Henley on 10th June 1829, and from this the annual boat-race between Oxford and Cambridge takes its rise. Snow acted as stroke of the Cambridge boat, George Augustus Selwyn, successively Bishop of New Zealand and Lichfield, rowed "seven," and Charles Merivale "four." Snow (afterwards Strahan) became a banker, and died at Florence 4th July 1886. In after years when, from 1861 to 1869 inclusive, Oxford had uniformly beaten Cambridge, the Lady Margaret supplied the late John H. D. Goldie to break the spell and restore hope and confidence to Cambridge crews. Thus the College club has taken an important part in the establishment and maintenance of Cambridge rowing. Two verses of the College boat song run as follows:--

"Mater regum Margareta Piscatori dixit laeta 'Audi quod propositum; Est remigium decorum Suavis strepitus remorum Ergo sit Collegium.'

Sic Collegium fundatum Et Johannis nomen datum Margareta domina, Ergo remiges gaudendum Triumphandum et canendum In saeclorum secula."

So that, if we can trust the historic insight of the author (Mr. T. R.

Glover), the intentions of the foundress have been duly carried out.

The uniform of the club was at first much what it is now, a white jersey with pink stripes; with this was worn a jacket of scarlet flannel, popularly known as a "blazer"--a name which has pa.s.sed into the English language as descriptive of the coloured jackets of all clubs. It is said that some one, whose feeling for a.n.a.logy was stronger than for decorum, described the surplice as "the blazer of the Church of England."

Organised cricket clubs, athletic clubs, and football clubs grew up, and in process of time clubs for the pursuit of every kind of athletic exercise have been started. Originally each club in College had a subscription, paid by its members, towards the expenses of the special game. About twenty years ago all the clubs in St. John's were united into one club--"The Amalgamation." The subscription to this ent.i.tles a member to join in any of the recognised games. The funds are administered by a committee consisting of the representatives of those interested in the different games, and grants made from the general fund towards the expenses of each game. The presence of a few senior members of the College on the committee provides the continuity so difficult to maintain with the short-lived generations of undergraduate life. The College provides the ground for the cricket, football, and lawn-tennis clubs, while through the generosity of members of the College of all standings a handsome boat-house has recently been built on the river.

The College also possesses flourishing musical and debating societies, and from time to time clubs arise for literary and social purposes, dying out and being refounded with great persistence.

In another sphere of work the College has taken a leading part. St.

John's was the first College in Cambridge to start a mission in London--the Lady Margaret Mission in Walworth. Preaching in the College Chapel on 28th January 1883, the Rev. William Allen Whitworth, a Fellow of the College, then Vicar of St. John's, Hammersmith, afterwards Inc.u.mbent of All Saints', Margaret Street, suggested that the College should support a mission in some neglected district of London. The matter took form a little later in the year, and since then the College Mission has been a College inst.i.tution. Members of the College visiting the mission district, and visitors from Walworth coming for an annual outing, including a cricket match, in August.

Another flourishing inst.i.tution is the College magazine, _The Eagle_.

Founded in the year 1858, it has maintained its existence for nearly fifty years, being now the oldest of College magazines. It has numbered among its contributors many who have subsequently found a wider field and audience: some of the earliest efforts of Samuel Butler, author of _Erewhon_, are to be found in its pages.

I now bring my sketch of the College history to a close. I have endeavoured, within the prescribed limits, to give an outline of the corporate life of an ancient and famous foundation. In writing it two cla.s.ses of readers have been borne in mind: the visitor who, within a short compa.s.s, may wish to learn something more than can be picked up by an inspection of the buildings; members of the College who feel a lively interest in the habits and pursuits of those who have preceded them. I have, perhaps, thought more of the latter than of the former cla.s.s.