Part 5 (1/2)
[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 41]
CHAPTER V.
MR. VERDANT GREEN MATRICULATES, AND MAKES A SENSATION.
AS they went out at the gate, they inquired of the porter for Mr.
Charles Larkyns, but they found that he had not yet returned from the friend's house where he had been during the vacation; whereupon Mr.
Green said that they <vg041.jpg> would go and look at the Oxford lions, so that he might be able to answer any of the questions that should be put to him on his return. They soon found a guide, one of those wonderful people to which show-places give birth, and of whom Oxford can boast a very goodly average; and under this gentleman's guidance Mr. Verdant Green made his first acquaintance with the fair outside of his Alma Mater.
The short, thick stick of the guide served to direct attention to the various objects he enumerated in his rapid career: ”This here's Christ Church College,” he said, as he trotted them down St Aldate's, ”built by Card'nal Hoolsy four underd feet long and the famous Tom Tower as tolls wun underd and wun hevery night that being the number of stoodents on the
[42 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]
foundation;” and thus the guide went on, perfectly independent of the artificial trammels of punctuation, and not particular whether his hearers understood him or not: that was not ~his~ business. And as it was that gentleman's boast that he ”could do the alls, collidges, and princ.i.p.al hedifices in a nour and a naff,” it could not be expected but that Mr. Green should take back to Warwicks.h.i.+re otherwise than a slightly confused impression of Oxford.
When he unrolled that rich panorama before his ”mind's eye,” all its component parts were strangely out of place. The rich spire of St.
Mary's claimed acquaintance with her <vg042.jpg> poorer sister at the cathedral. The cupola of the Tom Tower got into close quarters with the huge dome of the Radcliffe, that shrugged up its great round shoulders at the intrusion of the cross-bred Graeco-Gothic tower of All Saints. The theatre had walked up to St. Giles's to see how the Taylor Buildings agreed with the University galleries; while the Martyrs' Memorial had stepped down to Magdalen Bridge, in time to see the college taking a walk in the Botanic Gardens. The Schools and the Bodleian had set their back against the stately portico of the Clarendon Press; while the antiquated Ashmolean had given place to the more modern Townhall. The time-honoured, black-looking front of University College had changed into the cold cleanliness of the ”cla.s.sic” ~facade~ of Queen's. The two towers of All Souls', - whose several stages seem to be pulled out of each other like the parts of a telescope, - had, somehow, removed themselves from the rest of the building, which had gone, nevertheless, on a tour to Broad Street; behind which, as every one knows, are the Broad Walk and the Christ Church meadows. Merton Chapel had got into ~New~ quarters; and Wadham had gone to Worcester for change of
[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 43]
air. Lincoln had migrated from near Exeter to Pembroke; and Brasenose had its nose quite put out of joint by St. John's. In short, if the maps of Oxford are to be trusted, there had been a general ~pousset~ movement among its public buildings.
But if such a shrewd and practised observer as Sir Walter Scott, after a week's hard and systematic sight-seeing, could only say of Oxford, ”The time has been much too short to convey to me separate and distinct ideas of all the variety of wonders that I saw: my memory only at present furnishes a grand but indistinct picture of towers, and chapels, and oriels, and vaulted halls, and libraries, and paintings;” - if Sir Walter Scott could say this after a week's work, it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Green, after so brief and rapid a survey of the city at the heels of an unintelligent guide, should feel himself slightly confused when, on his return to the Manor Green, he attempted to give a slight description of the wonderful sights of Oxford.
There was ~one~ lion of Oxford, however, whose individuality of expression was too striking either to be forgotten or confused with the many other lions around. Although (as in Byron's ~Dream~)
”A ma.s.s of many images Crowded like waves upon”
Mr. Green, yet clear and distinct through all there ran
”The stream-like windings of that glorious street,”*
to which one of the first critics of the age+ has given this high testimony of praise: ”The High Street of Oxford has not its equal in the whole world.”
Mr. Green could not, of course, leave Oxford until he had seen his beloved son in that elegant cap and preposterous gown which const.i.tute the present academical dress of the Oxford undergraduate; and to a.s.sume which, with a legal right to the same, matriculation is first necessary. As that amusing and instructive book, the University Statutes, says in its own delightful and unrivalled canine Latin, ”~Statutum est, quod nemo pro Studente, seu Scholari, habeatur, nec ullis Universitatis privilegiis, aut beneficiis~” (the cap and gown, of course, being among these), ”~gaudeat, nisi qui in aliquod Collegium vel Aulam admissus fuerit, et intra quindenam post talem admissionem in matriculam Universitatis fuerit relatus.~” So our hero put on the required white tie, and then went forth to complete his proper costume.
There were so many persons purporting to be ”Academical robe-makers,”
that Mr. Green was some little time in deciding who should be the tradesman favoured with the order for
--- * Wordsworth, Miscellaneous Sonnets.
+ Dr. Waagen, Art and Artists in England.
[44 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]
his son's adornment. At last he fixed upon a shop, the window of which contained a more imposing display than its neighbours of gowns, hoods, surplices, and robes of all shapes and colours, from the black velvet-sleeved proctor's to the blus.h.i.+ng gorgeousness of the scarlet robe and crimson silk sleeves of the D.C.L.
”I wish you,” said Mr. Green, advancing towards a smirking individual, who was in his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves and slippers, but in all other respects was attired with great magnificence, - ”I wish you to measure this gentleman for his academical robes, and also to allow him the use of some to be matriculated in.”