VOL. V.

o be in Oxford is to commune in spirit with the greatest of the great men of the past, to meet the makers of history of the present, and to come in contact with the young men who will lead in the world of thought in the future. Besides all this, however, there is a peculiar and unexplainable charm about the place itself-a charm as strong as an ever-constant memory can make it, and as lasting as life itself.

Never was eulogy more fitting than this of Mathew Arnold:

"Beautiful city! So venerable, so lovely, so unravaged by the fierce intellect

ual life of our century, so serene! And yet, steeped in sentiment as she lies, spreading her gardens to the moonlight, or whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Ages, who can deny that Oxford, by her ineffable charm, keeps ever calling us near to

the true goal of

all of us-to the

No. 1.

ideal, to perfection, to beauty--in a word, which is only truth seen from another side."

The Oxford of to-day shows us a federation of twenty-two colleges and over twelve hundred students including graduates and undergraduates. These are easily distinguished on the street by the diference in their gowns. Each college has its own governing head, who is called the president, prin

cipal, warden, provost, master or dean, according to the peculiar classification of the college. Each college is also separate in regard to its fellows, endowment, library, lecture-room and dining-hall.

college, while the professors compose the regular University staff of teachers, and to their lectures come the students from all the colleges. Two kinds of degrees are granted; those which come by examination and are called pass degrees, and those which are conferred as a mark of distinction and are called honor degrees. Many of the greatest men of the world have been proud to claim

for scholarship, and Brasenose for athletics.

Besides the colleges there are, of course, other buildings, such as the Bodleian Library, which contains a million and a half books; the famous Clarendon Press, from which every Oxford Bible comes, the Ashmolean Museum, the Art Gallery, which contains two hundred and seventy sketches and drawings by Raphael and Michael

dom been conferred upon Americans, although Longfellow and Holmes obtained it, and this present June a former citizen of Indiana, the present Mayor of Oxford, Mr. Robert Buckell, was thus honored.

Each college has a social life within itself, its members always club together, work together, and strive to maintain its peculiar reputation. Thus, Oriel is famous for its theology, Christ Church for its noblemen and aristocracy, University College

the degrees are conferred.

Here, near the platform, are two benches, where in by-gone days the tradesmen of the town sat during the exercises. The proctor, whose office is much the same as our guardian of the peace, announced the name of the candidate and then walked twice back and forth past these benches. If the young man had been careless and forgotten to settle his bills, the proctor's sleeve was plucked by an irate tailor or merchant, the indebtedness made known, and the young man pre

vented from receiving his degree till the account was settled. It, well illustrates the conservative nature of the English, and the tenacity with which they cling to old traditions that these benches still stand where they were a hundred years ago, and although not filled now with angry creditors, nevertheless are still passed by the proctors.

With the preservation of this custom there are others equally interesting; such as the singing of Christmas carols at your window by the choir boys from the University chapels, and

the May day celebrations. At exactly five o'clock on the morning of May 1, a Latin hymn to the Holy Trinity is sung from Magdalen Tower by the choir habited in

surplices. After this, and the pealing of bells, the members of the choir always throw down their caps and gowns, for no reason except that it has been done from time im