A great step has been made towards getting rid of
the silly practice of demanding Latin and Greek verse-making as a proof of scholarship. The Balliol scholarships are the blue ribbons of the University for Undergraduates, and one of them has just been obtained by a man who made no attempt at Latin or Greek verse. It had been announced, this year for the first time, that original Latin and Greek prose would be given as an alternative for Latin and Greek verse. But nobody supposed that a scholar would soon appear, so ripe in other respects, at the age of 18, the usual age for the scholarships, as to warrant the examiners in overlooking the candidate's ignorance of versification. Such a candidate did however, appear on this, the very first occasion, in Mr. A. H. Higgs, who has been trained at University Hall, London, under Professor Beesly, and has attended the Latin and Greek classes at University College, London. Professor Beesly had always discouraged him in the study of Latin and Greek verse, on the ground that the time wasted on them could be far better applied to the study of a wider range of classical literature, and so it has turned out. Mr. Higgs has won the first Balliol scholarship without writing a word of verse,—a fact which may, we trust, impress the imagination of the masters of public schools, and induce them to drop verses in favour of a wider range of reading, even for their best scholars. If so, Mr. Higgs's success will abate a nuisance.
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