At a superficial glance the testator's intention seems to have been to send the students to Oxford directly from American schools. Such a course, it seems to me, could only work harm. Even if the educational and residential facilities afforded at Oxford were on the whole superior to those of American universities, which they are not, the difference could not compensate the student for the loss of his American university course with all it means in forming lifelong friendships among his countrymen and in assimilating the national spirit. If, however, the Oxford scholarships were awarded to recent graduates of American universities, the greatest advantage might result. The student might then modify his native training so as to complete it and make it more effective. Now the wording of the testament requires only that the American scholars shall "commence residence as undergraduates." This they will be able to do whatever their previous training, and in fact this is what Americans at Oxford have always done in the past. The most valuable A.B. leaves the field of human knowledge far from exhausted; and the methods of instruction and of examining at Oxford are so different from anything we know that it has even proved worth while for the American to repeat at Oxford the same studies he took in America. The executors of the will should be most vigorously urged to select the scholars from the graduates of American universities. The parts of this book that treat most intimately of Oxford life were written while in residence in Balliol College some six years ago. Most of the rest was written quite recently in London. Much of the matter in the following pages has appeared in "Harper's Weekly," "The Bachelor of Arts," "The Forum," and "The Atlantic Monthly." It has all been carefully revised and rearranged, and much new matter added. Each chapter has gained, as I hope, by being brought into its natural relation with the other chapters; and the ideas that have informed the whole are for the first time adequately stated. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTORY 1 I. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE COLLEGE I. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLLEGES 7 II. THE OXFORD FRESHMAN 10 III. A DAY IN AN OXFORD COLLEGE 17 IV. DINNER IN HALL 21 V. EVENING 28 VI. THE MIND OF THE COLLEGE 37 VII. CLUB LIFE IN THE COLLEGE 52 VIII. SOCIAL LIFE IN THE UNIVERSITY 62 IX. THE COLLEGE AND THE UNIVERSITY 74 II. OXFORD OUT OF DOORS I. SLACKING ON THE ISIS AND THE CHERWELL 81