“AT PORTAS” AT WINCHESTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20536, 11 October 1928, Page 18

“ AT PORTAS” AT WINCHESTER.

A RARE HONOUR FOR AIR BALDWIN. When Mr Baldwin went to Winchester recently to be given the freedom of the city, he paid a visit to Winchester College, where, according to time-honoured custom in the case of eminent men, he was given an ad Portas reception (remarks the Observer). During the last 50 years or so only three Prime Ministers have received this distinction, and Mr Baldwin is the first Conservative Prime Minister to be accorded it. The other two Prime Ministers were Liberals—Mr Gladstone and Mr Asquith (as he then was). During the period mentioned three Royal personages have been received ad Portas—the present King and Queen, and the late King Edward as Prince of Wales. In addition, there have been some foreign potentates, one Archbishop of Canterbury, a Lord Chancellor, a Chancellor of the Exchequer, a President of the Board of Education, and the present Earl of Selborne on his return from South Africa after filling the post of first GovernorGeneral of that Dominion. Every Bishop of Winchester is received ad Portas immediately after his appointment because he holds the official position of visitor to the college. Queen Alary is the only woman who has received this honour, although the custom was founded by a woman. It dates from 1615. A Mrs Letitia Williams, a daughter of a “footman” to Elizabeth and James I, whose brother was Warden of New College, Oxford, the parent college of Wykeham’s Winchester foundation, provided a sum of money for the annual delivery of a Gunpowder Plot sermon and three orations, one of them to be an ad Portas address in connection with the annual election of new scholars. The electors, who included the Warden of New, rode from Oxford on horseback until carriages superseded that mode of travel, and when carriages gave way to railways they reached the college from the station in a cab. The precise date for this visit was fixed by the Warden of New for any day between July 7 and October 1. They were always preceded by a servant known as Speedyman, who announced to the expectant collegians the imminent arrival of the visitors, and mounted a ladder and removed the schedule from the Outer Gate. When the visitors arrived they halted under or just beyond Middle Gate, and the senior scholar proceeded to deliver an “ Oratio ad Portas.” Every year this ceremony was observed until 1873 with the exception of one year —1666. In that year the plague raged at Winchester, and it was decided that it would be too grave a risk to bring the visitors into the city. They were, therefore, received halfway between Winchester and Oxford, at Speedhamland, near Newbury, where the Latin oration was delivered. At what gate it was done is not known, but the excursion cost the college £sl 15s 6d. A similar ceremony existed at Eton for many years. There the Provost of King’s and his two posers halted at the gateway under Lupton’s Tower, and after the Provost of Eton had greeted his brother of King's with the kiss of peace, the second colleger delivered the Cloister Speech. There is no “ Oratio ad Portas ” at election time at Winchester College now, but the ceremony is accorded to distinguished visitors such as Air Baldwin. He will join in a procession from the headmaster’s house in College street, headed by the college porter, with his silvertopped staff, the warden and fellows, the headmaster and his staff, all in their robes. Passing through Outer Gate, they will cross Outer Court to Middle Gate, where Air Baldwin will be brought face to face with foundation scholars in their gowns, commoners, and others, assembled with their backs to chapel. As soon as Air Baldwin appears the prefect of hall, who will be in evening dress, will step forward, and without preface deliver a speech of welcome in Latin, As in the case of Air Asquith and others of modern times. Air Baldwin will have to put up with a little mild banter. Air Asquith, whose visit coincided with the suffragette agitation, was accused of Hying to Winchester from the furies, and, perhaps, Air Baldwin will be “ twitted ” on the subject of the " flappers,” to whom his Government has given the vote. Air Baldwin will reply, but whether in Latin, as Air Asquith did, or in w-hat Lord Selbourne described as “ the vulgar tongue,” has not vet been disclosed. But he will, of course, ask for a “remedy” (a holi-, day) for the collegians, and naturally the headmaster will not refuse. Ten in hall will follow, and then an inspection of the college buildings.