INTRODUCTION TO CAMBRIDGE
By S. C. Roberts
Almost all undergraduates and most dons must know that faint sinking feeling which follows the request of a visiting aunt " to be shown the beauties of Cambridge." Some will feel grave doubts about what the beauties of Cambridge are and where they are to be found, and very few will feel certain that they can answer all the questions, intelligent or otherviise, which their companion may propound. Now for the small price of half a crown all that agony can be avoided, and, armed with Mr. S. C. Roberts' Introduction to Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, 2s. 6d.), the freshman who can hardly distinguish Trinity from Downing can face with equanimity the most formidable relative. In one chapter of his book Mr: Roberts outlines a tour of Cambridge in which the histories of the colleges and the functions of the various University buildings are concisely treated. This would provide, as it were, the skeleton of the scheme, which would have to be filled out from other chapters in the book. These other chapters, however, are so packed with relevant infonna. tion that the guide need fear nothing—not even questions such as : " What is the constitution and function of The
Financial Board of the University ? " - " When were Proctorsinvented ? " ; " What are the duties of the Public Orator ?"-
" Into what sciences is the Tripos in Biology A divided ? But it is not only residents in Cambridge who will profit by this book. No more suitable present could be found for an anxious mother sending a son for a first term at Cambridge, nor indeed a better for the son himself, who will learn from it more about university life than he will from all those jocular and picturesque descriptions usually put into the hands of young men.
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