The Story Of The Great Universities

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 207, 2 September 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Story Of The Great Universities

THE rivalry that exists to-day between Oxford and Cambridge is chiefly concerned with sport. The boat race, the annual football matches and the athletic meeting are now encounters of national importance and the banks of the Thames from Putney to Mortlake are crowded with supporters, the majority of whom have no connection with either University, but who all take sides and wear the ribbon of their choice.

In the Middle Ages, when sport had not reached tho place in daily life which It has to-day, the rivalry took the form of disputes about the relative importance and antiquity of the Universities. In Professor Mnitland's words: "The oldest of all tnter-university sports was a lying match I" As a result,, n series of remarkable legends were gradually noised abroad to account for the origin of each place of learning.

Oxford was said to have been founded by "Brute the Trojan," King of Mempiiric in 1009 8.C., at the time of the prophet Samuel I The Druids were also credited with its foundation by some imaginative Oxonians.'

Even more extravagant in their legends, the men of Cambridge appropriated a mythical Spanish prince, Cantaber by name, who was supposed to have come over to England and founded the East Anglican University 4321 years after the creation of the world! How the actual date was discovered is not known I Founded in France The authentic foundation of Cambridge, when all tho fables have been cleared away, begins, oddly enough, in France, where Sigebert, rightful King of the East Angles, was spending the years of his exile. Being converted to Christianity, and desirous of introducing Gallic customs into Britain, Sigebert, on his recall to the Throne, founded a school "for the instruction of boys" among the East Angles. A bare account of it is given by the Venerable Bede.

Two years after he came to the Throne, Sigebert gave up his kingdom and became a monk. But the school continued to flourish, and was soon surrounded by other places of instruction, religious houses which attracted a large number of students to the different Bionaatie orders.

Few of these scholars, however, made Cambridge their fixed abode. It was their custom to wander all over England, from Oxford to Cambridge, from Cambridge to Reading or Maidatone, and even over Europe, to Paris, Toledo, Salerno, in their search for knowledge. After a short stay at one University, they used to pack up the few hooks that they could afford to possess, strap them on to the lean nag which represented home and property, and ride off to fresh fields of learning. Cambridge, nevertheless, continued to grow, and was already recognised u an important centre of learning when in 1231 King Henry 111. issued a writ for it* governance as such, and at the same time conferred certain disciplinary powers on the Bishop of Ely. The University at this stage in its career existed without any colleges. The main division of students was into "Nations": The Boreales, or Scotsmen and Englishmen from beyond the Trent,

Cambridge Was Founded By An Exiled King Of The Angles

and the Australes, consisting of Irishmen, Welshmen, Southern Englishmen, and Continental students. But soon, when the Bishop of Ely saw how narrow was the influence the religious houses had on the students, and the numerous fights that broke out between the two "Nations," he founded a college which he called Peterhouse, on a model drawn up by Walter de Merton, who afterwards founded the college which bears his name. The college was not as we know it to-day, with its own chapel, refectory, library, and student quarters. It was merely an enlarged hostel, where the students lodged. Lectures were still conducted in hired houses, or occasionally in one of the city churches. But at least the foundation of the present collegiate system had been laid, and other colleges gradually followed. "Town and Gown" riots were not slow to disturb the peace of the old city, and lights, often with fatal results, occurred

regularly between students and tradesmen, lx>tween the University staff and the keepers of the houses in which the undergraduates lodged and among the scholars themselves. Alehouse brawls and mad rioting periodically sent a stream of Cambridge students to Oxford to seek peace for their studies or else refuge from their enemies, but the tide soon turned when disturbances at Oxford sent thein scuttling back again. The rioting at Cambridge culminated at the time of the Wat Tyler rebellion in the sacking of several colleges. There was public plunder, and the burning of valuable records. At length the King sent down delegates to inquire into the cause of the disputes. Sixteen townsmen were hanged, while others of them, as well as some of the gownsmen, fled for sanctuary to the religious houses or were clapped in gaol. Cambridge was never so royally inclined as Oxford, which always had a close and intimate connectioi. with the Crown. But during the Civil War, when money was scarce, much of the University's silver plate was melted down for

ByGeorge Fairholme

Charles' war chest. When the Commonwealth was proclaimed, however. Cambridge showed little resistance and submitted without any of Oxford's stubborn royalisni. Soldiers were quartered in the various colleges, which were garrisoned like fortresses. King's Chapel w'as turned into a drill hall. Libraries and museums were ransacked, chapels dishonoured, service books torn to pieces in the University Church, pictures and valuable prints burned in the market place or sold for one-fifth of their value, coins were stolen, an exquisite cross in St Mary's was defaced at Cromwell's special order, and groves, bridges and orchards were cut down and the timber sold. By 1710 the University was in a deplorable state. A visitor'at that time

reported that only in winter were a few lectures given to the bare walls, for no students could be induced to attend. The rooms were evil-smelling, the libraries stocked with but a poor selection of books which were badly housed anil covered with dust. In one case the books were kept in "a garret under the roof, wliich could have been very little or not at all visited, for the top step was buried in pigeons' dung, and the MSS. lay thick with dust on tlie floor and elsewhere about tlie room in such disorder that, though there was a written catalogue of them there. I could do nothing at all and was even doubtful . whether I could handle them for dust." i Bentley's Regime 5 This state of affairs was not long to remain so, for there appeared at Cams bridge as Master of Trinity a man who ■J made such violent and revolutionary I changes that he found himself hotly opposed on every side. ' Richard Bentlev sjtent such huge sums ~ of money on improvement of the college buildings that Cambridge became finanr eially embarrassed and protests came 4 thick and heavy upon him. But he • answered them all imperturbablv: "Tis all but child's play; I am not warm . • vot '". ° r ' -I expect your complaints but it will be all the same twenty years hence." i Bv a series of extraordinary tricks of J fortune or by hie own ingenuity Bent-

r ley avoided dismissal. On one occasion ' lie even locked in a cupboard the man who had come to arre=t him For charging , fees for honorary degrees. [ Always on the edge of a precipice and ' always by any means, fair or foul, ' trying to improve the University, Bent- : ley continued in his post year after ' year until in 1742, at the age of 80, he ' died. It is to his steadfast desire for the I. Diversity s good that Cambridge owes much of its present status as one of the world's greatest universities. With the establishment of Girton College in 1873 by the efforts of Miss Emily Davis and <>f Newnham in 1875, women at last gained the right to sit for examinations. All fields of study were not yet open to them, but a big step forward had been taken. The University Extension Movement was an attempt to briny; University education within reach of those who had neither the time nor the . money to be regular students at the University. In 1872, L Diversity lectures were for the first time available to outside students. 1 he Workers' Educational Association, the Board of Extra-mural Studies und other bodies now organise classes throughout the country which may be attended by workers whose evenings are free. In the Long Vacation summer schools are arranged, that outside students may spend some days or

« weeks in residence at the University and receive for a time many of the benefits of regular students. Progress continued year bv vear— until 1914. In that year the halls were emptied of all but a "handful of students —3672 undergraduates forsook learning for war. -Academic life went on. its continuity never quite broken though nearly 14.000 Cambridge men—students past and present—fought with the King s forces. Two thousand of them died; 3000 were wounded. The University seemed to change its purpose ami become a scene of military activities. It was used as a barracks and hospital. 1918 came and again there was change at Cambridge, but this time it was in the faces of the students. Mingling with the youths fresh from the schools were men with their faces seamed with battle scars, who had returned to take up the threads of their interrupted educations or to fit themselves for new posts. 1921 and women took another step forward and were allowed to hold degrees. Seniors of Girton and Xewnham were granted professorship readerships and lectureships in the University. 1938—and still the story ,/oes on, full of the romance and endeavour which have made the University famous throughout the world. Next Week: harvard.