A Spectator's Notebook
TALKING to one of our better- known lecturers in English the other day, I was remark- ing that since there was much to be said for a certain amount of study of linguistic development, metrical theory, and so forth, I did not share the view of one of our leading poets (himself a First in Eng- lish) that the English depart- ments should be abolished; they should simply be cut down to a fiftieth of their actual size and forbidden to 'teach' litera- ture. Apart from the negative gain of eliminating a large output of organised nonsense, there would be the positive one of providing the extra uni- versity places which we are told arc so urgently needed. He seemed very miffed, and answered warmly, 'What about sociology?' I said that I thought that that too, should be cut by about three-quarters. At this he changed his tone and said, 'Oh, in that case, of course I agree with you. I thought you were just picking on us'.—Perhaps it is this spreading opinion that Eng. Lit. is heading the way of all those phrenology classes of the nineteenth century that makes one feel a certain sympathy for the grand old representa- tives of a dying order. Even so, gowned or dressing-gowned, I cannot feel that students' complaints about the non-election of Leavis to the Faculty Board in Cambridge are worth while. One need not have any special faith in the ability of dons to make right decisions in these matters to feel that if the election had been thrown to the student body it might well have put in Jimmy Edwards instead.
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