From Gretna Green to Land's End: A Literary Journey in England.Bates, Katharine Lee
General
From Gretna Green to Land's End: A Literary Journey in England.
Bates, Katharine Lee
England -- Description and travel
Then the Undergraduate Gallery turned its attention to the organist,
who in all the hubbub was brilliantly going through the numbers of his
program.
"Will you kindly tell us what you're playing, Mr. Lloyd?"
"We don't care for classical music ourselves."
"'Auld Lang Syne,' if you please."
The organ struck into "Auld Lang Syne," and the lads sprang up and
sang it lustily with hands clasped in the approved Scotch fashion.
"'Rule, Britannia,' Mr. Lloyd."
Again he obliged them and was rewarded by a rousing cheer, followed by
cheers for the Varsity and the ladies, groans for the Proctors, who
are the officers of discipline, and barks for their assistants, the
so-called Bulldogs. In the midst of this yelping chorus the great
doors were flung wide, and an awesome file of dignitaries, in all the
blues and purples, pinks and scarlets, of their various degrees, paced
slowly up the aisle, escorting their distinguished guests, savants of
several nations, and headed by the Vice-Chancellor, whose array
outwent Solomon in all his glory.
The top gallery was on its feet, but not in reverence. The organ-march
was drowned in the roar of lusty voices greeting the Head of the
University thus:
"Oh, whist, whist, whist!
Here comes the bogie man.
Now go to bed, you Baby,
You Tommy, Nell, and Dan.
Oh, whist, whist, whist!
He'll catch ye if he can;
And all the popsies, wopsies, wop,
Run for the bogie man."
The uproar was no whit diminished when presently the Vice-Chancellor
was seen to be making an address.
"Who wrote it for you, sir?"
"Oh, that's shocking bad Latin."
"_Jam!_ What kind of jam?"
"It's just what you said to those other blokes last year."
"It's always the same thing."
"It's all blarney."
"The guests wish you were done, sir."
"You may sit down, sir."
But the Vice-Chancellor, unperturbed, kept on with his inaudible
oratory to its natural end.
A professor of illustrious name was next to rise, throwing up a
laughing look at the boys, whose tumult bore him down after the first
few sentences. What matter? It was idle to pretend that that great
audience could follow Latin speeches. They were all to go into print,
and he who would and could might read them at his ease. The phrase
that undid this genial personage was _clarior luce_.
"Oh, _oh_, sir! Lucy who?"
"Clare or Lucy? Try for both, sir."
"We'll surely tell your wife, sir."
"A sad example to our youth, sir."
"You shock our guest from Paris, sir."
The prize English essayist was hardly allowed to recite the first
paragraph of his production.
"Very nice."
"But a great bore."
"It's not as good as mine."
"That'll do, sir."
"The Vice-Chancellor is gaping, sir."
"Three cheers for the lady who jilted the Senior Proctor!"
Under the storm of enthusiasm evoked by this happy suggestion, the
English essayist gave place to the Greek poet, a rosy-cheeked
stripling who stood his ground barely two minutes.
"Aren't you very young, my dear?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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