[TO THE EDITOR OF THE" SeEcrAFor..1
one, I believe, has yet come forward to inform the "American Mother" that if an undergraduate's rooms are shabby it is because he chooses to have them so. Excepting at a very few Colleges where the hostel system has been wholly or in part introduced, his furni- ture, carpets, curtains, wall-paper, and paint belong to himself ; they pass from tenant to tenant by a valuation, or are renewed by the incoming tenant at his own expense. The College does not interfere in the matter, except by appointing an official valuer, and by insisting on the renewal of paint and paper when absolutely necessary. "A Quondam Don" severely criticises College sanitation, and not entirely without justice. But things are not nearly so bad as he makes out Sinks in gyprooms are quite unusual in Cambridge, except perhaps in some new buildings. Closets are usually in out- houses standing by themselves, or in new buildings are at the top of each staircase. Staircase ventilation has been attendea to, though often only quite lately. Bedrooms in old buildings are often very small and without fireplaces ; but I know of none without adequate windows ; and undergraduates, to do them justice, have a wholesome dislike of "fug," and keep open windows all the year round. It is news to me that the sanatoria are full of broken-down 'Varsity men. My own old friends, an average year at an average College, are all of them healthy ratepayers. Of Oxford, to my regret, I am not qualified to write ; but I make no doubt she can defend herself. My only considerable stay there was spent among "rich men, furnished with ability, living peaceably in their habitations" at a College where there are no undergraduates'
rooms to speak of.—I am, Sir, &c., A RESIDENT DON.
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