UNDERGRADUATES AND MOTORS
BY THE MASTER OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE.
THE older seats of learning have always opposed any acceleration of progression. The long, unlovely,, brick viaduct which spoils the foreground of the beautiful view from the north terrace at Windsor Castle is the result of the opposition of the Governing Body of Eton College to the approach of the railway to the institution over which they presided.
When the longest and undoubtedly most uncomfortable, station in the Empire was constructed eighty years ago at Cambridge, the opposition of the University was such that. the station was placed far beyond the confines of the town as it was then. Six years later we find Dr. Corrie, Master of Jesus College and Vice-Chancellor, objecting to the cheapening of railway fares " for conveying for- eigners and others to Cambridge on Sundays." In a letter to the Manager of the Great Eastern Railway he. adds : " I should be obliged, therefore, by your making it known to the Directors that such arrangements as those contemplated by them are as distasteful to the authorities of the University as they must be offensive to Almighty God and to all right-minded Christians."
When I was an undergraduate, some forty-five years. ago, the chief object of dread was the driving of tandems,i and there was an edict against such proceedings. Not. that it really mattered to the undergraduates ; they, simply sent their leader beyond the limits of the Univer- sity jurisdiction and drove out to the allotted place and hitched him on. This edict was only repealed four years ago. Later there was great alarm about swimming, and no one was allowed to venture in any form of vessel on the Upper River until he could produce a certificate. showing that he could swim a certain distance ; but no such precaution was taken on that part of the river where the rowing takes place, and where the water is much more poisonous and more likely to injure anyone who is in- voluntarily submerged. At the present time the Univer- sity—or part of it—is largely occupied with trying to prevent or to limit progression by means of motor vehicles of all descriptions. The streets are narrow and a certain! number of accidents happen, but the Chief Constable is said to possess statistics showing there are more accidents' in the borough during the vacations than during term, time. At any rate, the three notable professors who have been injured during the last few years owe their misfortune to a Naval Officer who was not a member of the University, to a lady, and to an alderman.
Undergraduates are extremely agile mammals, very quick of eye and resourceful, and on the whole they' manage to do comparatively little damage except to. themselves. Accidents in Cambridge are said to be far+ less than those at Windsor—a much smaller town—an& than those of seaside resorts of a similar size. Of course, there is a certain amount of risk, but as a Regius professor, of Oxford University—in a book—tells us, " And there you have the meaning of life focussed to a point. Life,, Mr. Hooker, consists in facing risks." And like other Regius Professors of Oxford, he wasn't far wrong. I believe I am one of the few elderly dons who have been run over by an undergraduate, but he was on a " push bike," and I think few members of the Senate have appreciated the nobblyness of a bicycle as I appreciated it when I was lying on the ground and it was lying on my back and a heavy undergraduate was lying on it. How- ever, we picked each other up, and he was so frightened and apologetic that I had to hold his hand and comfort him instead of upbraiding him, as really I suppose I ought to have done.
The attempt to check progression by petrol is like Mrs. Partington's effort to keep back the Atlantic, and is likely to be about as successful. After all, it is really a matter for the police. If driven too far, the undergradu- ate will simply take to flying. You can get a perfectly good secondhand flying machine for far less than a motor bicycle ; and the Air Force is doing what it can to encour- age aviation amongst our students. Flying will inevitably meet with similar opposition, and proposals will un- doubtedly be made to net in the College courts.
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