Part 5 (1/2)

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 41]

CHAPTER V

MR VERDANT GREEN MATRICULATES, AND MAKES A SENSATION

AS they went out at the gate, they inquired of the porter for Mr

Charles Larkyns, but they found that he had not yet returned fro the vacation; whereupon Mr

Green said that they <vg041jpg> would go and look at the Oxford lions, so that he ht be able to answer any of the questions that should be put to hiuide, one of those wonderful people to which show-places give birth, and of whoentleuidance Mr Verdant Green made his first acquaintance with the fair outside of his Aluide served to direct attention to the various objects he enue,” he said, as he trotted them down St Aldate's, ”built by Card'nal Hoolsy four underd feet long and the faht that being the number of stoodents on the

[42 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

foundation;” and thus the guide went on, perfectly independent of the artificial trammels of punctuation, and not particular whether his hearers understood hientlees, and principal hedifices in a nour and a naff,” it could not be expected but that Mr Green should take back to Warwickshi+re otherwise than a slightly confused impression of Oxford

When he unrolled that rich panorama before his ”ely out of place The rich spire of St

Mary's clai> poorer sister at the cathedral The cupola of the Toe doreat round shoulders at the intrusion of the cross-bred Graeco-Gothic tower of All Saints The theatre had walked up to St Giles's to see how the Taylor Buildings agreed with the University galleries; while the Martyrs' Mee, in ti a walk in the Botanic Gardens The Schools and the Bodleian had set their back against the stately portico of the Clarendon Press; while the antiquated Ashiven place to thefront of University College had changed into the cold cleanliness of the ”classic” ~facade~ of Queen's The ters of All Souls', - whose several stages seem to be pulled out of each other like the parts of a telescope, - had, so, which had gone, nevertheless, on a tour to Broad Street; behind which, as every one knows, are the Broad Walk and the Christ Church ot into ~New~ quarters; and Wadhae of

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 43]

air Lincoln had rated from near Exeter to Pembroke; and Brasenose had its nose quite put out of joint by St John's In short, if the eneral ~pousset~ s

But if such a shrewd and practised observer as Sir Walter Scott, after a week's hard and syste, could only say of Oxford, ”The time has been much too short to convey to me separate and distinct ideas of all the variety of wonders that I saw: rand but indistinct picture of towers, and chapels, and oriels, and vaulted halls, and libraries, and paintings;” - if Sir Walter Scott could say this after a week's work, it is not to be wondered at that Mr Green, after so brief and rapid a survey of the city at the heels of an unintelligent guide, should feel hihtly confused when, on his return to the Manor Green, he attehts of Oxford

There was ~one~ lion of Oxford, however, whose individuality of expression was too striking either to be forgotten or confused with the h (as in Byron's ~Dreaes Crowded like waves upon”

Mr Green, yet clear and distinct through all there ran

”The strealorious street,”

to which one of the first critics of the age+ has given this high testih Street of Oxford has not its equal in the whole world”

Mr Green could not, of course, leave Oxford until he had seen his beloved son in that elegant cap and preposterous gohich constitute the present acaderaduate; and to assuht to the sa and instructive book, the University Statutes, says in its own delightful and unrivalled canine Latin, ”~Statutum est, quod nemo pro Studente, seu Scholari, habeatur, nec ullis Universitatis privilegiis, aut beneficiis~” (the cap and gown, of course, being aium vel Aulam admissus fuerit, et intra quindenam post talem admissionem in matriculam Universitatis fuerit relatus~” So our hero put on the required white tie, and then went forth to complete his proper costu to be ”Academical robe- who should be the tradesman favoured with the order for

---Wordsworth, Miscellaneous Sonnets

+ Dr Waagen, Art and Artists in England

[44 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

his son's adornment At last he fixed upon a shop, the hich contained a owns, hoods, surplices, and robes of all shapes and colours, froeousness of the scarlet robe and crimson silk sleeves of the DCL