OXFORD'S "ALPS."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8129, 1 May 1906, Page 7

OXFORD'S "ALPS."

The Warden of the New College, Oxford, waa naturally alarmed recently on hearing men on his roof. Investigation showed that three men ■were there, and the police were at oooe sent for. The building waa surrounded and eventually a man was secured who turned out to be not AN ENTERPRISING BURGLAR bat a graduate of Trinity College and an ex-president of the Union. This adventurous young man had made 'a perilous descent of 30ft. from the roof of the warden's houße to the roof of the Gloristers by means of a telephone wire. Brought before the Vice-Chan-cellor's Court on a obarge of being on the New College roof for SUPPOSED UNLAWFUL PURPOSE

he explained that his purpose was merely the innocent one of climbing Bnd the Vice-Ohaßcellor after speaking of tha escapade as a "mon-key-trick" discharged him from

CRIMINAL, JURISDICTION and handed him over to the prootor. The explanation advanced waa somewhat" mysterious but more light came in a letter to the "Daily Mail", in whioh it was explained that this young man and his two companions were merely scaling Oxford's "Alps," a pastime which tbey clamed was juat as fasoinating as climbing Mont Blanc. The Oxford Alpine Club, it seems, was founded in 1901 for the purpose of SETTING RULES AT DEFIANCE

and [surmounting defences whioh the college authorities believed were impregnable. It started with six members—the test to be passed by candidates was a severe one—but as the news of the daring feats of the Alpinists spread through Oxford the club was strengthened by many men, to whom offloiil contumely and' displeasure were as nothing compared with the

FEARSOME JOYS OF MIDNIGHT rambling over roof and wall. "Let members of tbe real Alpine Olnb sneer at us if they will, but they iihould remember that though we have not the dangers of eaow and ice and storm to contend with, yet they have not before them

THE KNOWLEDGE OP DETECTION

in all probability means expulsion from the university—that the police and the authorities view their efforts with matked disapprove, that climbing in the dark ia more dangerous than in the light, and although rooks and ioy slopes are hard to climb, so for that matter is a mere rainpipe." The writer goes on to point out that a slip with RUSTY SPIKES A FOOT LONG below is just as risky as a slip with a preoipice below. Indeed, he confidently recommends this dim bing over roofs as a sport. "Stealing through quiet, moonlit quadrangles and gardens, beneath the winJowa of sleeping dons, brings one a tbrilIng pleasure snob as th master cracksman must surely feel when engaged on his difficult business."