Students At Cambridge

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 3

Students At Cambridge

Cambridge Life. By R. J. White. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 303 pp.

Cambridge, England, is certainly a wonderful place in which to live. Those who have had the experience and those who have passed through the famous University town and seen only a small part of the life lived in those idyllic surroundings are very much in agreement on this point. Of course, it is the life of the dons and the students in the colleges which is the most interesting: most work hard on their chosen labours for part of the time, and play, sometimes equally hard, for the rest. It’s a great life once you have been admitted to a college. Ah! There’s the rub—it’s not easy to secure admission these days. Parentage and money may help, but not so much as excellence in highly competitive examinations and a good showing in an interview. Once in, the graduate lives an extremely full life because there’s always something happening or something to be done; he must see the tutor, the director of studies, and his own supervisor; he may attend a few of the lectures offered by the university; he may possibly in these days of religious revival go to a chapel service or, if he is oldfashioned, to a political meeting; he may row on the river or run at Fenners or visit the Arts Theatre; he will almost certainly talk till morning with his neighbour on philosophy, reljaion, women, politics and ways w and means of getting a Second. New Zealanders who want to know something of this life, which may not appear to be so very different from the life of any fulltime university student, should read this account of it by R. J. White, a Cambridge don who both loves the life and knows what he is talking about. His book, neither a history nor a guide book “although it contains some history and some guidance,” follows the pattern of the academic year. It begins with a general description of the site. “The Cam bridge is the only bridge in England to give its name to a county.” After a brief reference to Town and Gown in past and present, Mr White discusses the problem of getting into a college and the more likely experiences of a Freshman in the Michaelmas Term. The administration and organisation of a college come in for some analysis and a mixture of genuine historical and entirely imaginary characters help to carry the story of

Cambridge life along through the Lent and Easter terms, when work at last becomes more important than play, in spite of the distractions of boat races, cricket matches, and the May balls, which are invariably held in June. One of the fictitious characters introduced to help the author deal with the many aspects of Cambridge life which confront the raw fresher is Duncan Macleod, a New Zealander, “all the way from the Queen’s College, Wangarai, North Island.” Duncan enters the story at p. 66 and bobs up from time to time to make some observation or learn some lesson. Though his sheepfarm and college origins may be obscure, one cannot help feeling that his final appearance on p. 255 during May Week is inspired by the author’s real experience of New Zealanders anxious to celebrate success, for we read that “Philip Hughes-Browne (a rather hearty type of Englishman of good family) and Duncan Macleod are going to give a bottle-party to end all bottleparties.”

This entertaining book is very cleverly written, as .it deals quite naturally with a wide range of topics and problems and yet retains both a measure of continuity and the reader’s interest. Mr White makes some wise observataions as well as revealing something of the clash of interests between the old classical and the new. scientific approaches. Thus an elderly tutor is made to remark: “As long as history continues to be about Chaps it will remain the nearest thing to a general and humane education that Cambridge can provide . . . Historians don’t fall for superstitions so easily. A proper look at the past of mankind should cure you of any faith in easy answers, or short-cuts to salvation.” In keeping with the attitude of many dons is the remark made by Mr White on the way students become friends and help to stimulate one another: “We don’t educate them. They educate each other.”

Books on Cambridge are without number or end, but this one marks a very useful addition to the pile. Its two dozen illustrations help the author to get across the impression that historv is in the Cambridge air and buildings. Mr White fails to treat the great men of the twentieth century in Cambridge as he has treated the makers of colleges and university in earlier periods, but this is nonetheless one of the better books on Cambridge.