The noble twin of Oxford is certainly inferior in the appearance which she first presents to a stranger, and yet, from the first, the chapel of King’s is a superb sight, which even Oxford might almost grudge to her sister. I greatly regretted reaching Cambridge during a vacation, when comparatively few of the gownsmen were on the spot. Still, having become so familiar with academic manners, in Oxford, it seemed hardly necessary to do more than survey the still-life of Cambridge, in order to understand it as well. The diversities between the Universities are indeed many, and all my prepossessions are in favour of Oxford; and yet, after a brief external survey of her rival, and much conversation with some of her loyal sons, I can easily understand their attachment to her, and the pride they take in her reputation, as well as their firm conviction of her superiority. To an American, indeed, the late election of so unfit a person as Prince Albert to be their Chancellor, is a surprising thing; and it is no very bright omen, for the University, that the prince already aims to shape it, as near as possible, after the similitude of Bonn, his own garlicky, blouse-wearing, and pipe-smoking _Alma Mater_, in Teutschland. But, on the other hand, the spirited resistance which was made to that measure, in bold opposition even to the known wishes of a beloved Queen, is instanced, by many Cantabrigians, as a proof of devotion to great principles, of which they have reason to be proud. They have a thousand better reasons for being proud of their University, and would that their Chancellor, who is otherwise so well qualified, had the power to appreciate and feel them half as warmly as many an American does, from the depth of his soul! Cambridge struck me as an older and less modernized place than Oxford. Its streets are a labyrinth, and many of them present the appearance of Continental, rather than of Insular Europe. One of the first things that struck me was the conduit erected by the same “old Hobson” whom Milton celebrates, and from whom comes the adage of “Hobson’s choice.” He was a carrier, and kept horses to let, but made the Cantabs take the horse that stood next the stable-door whenever they came to hire. He certainly was a remarkable man, for what other carrier was ever consigned to immortality by a monument in Cambridge, by a practical proverb, and by a memorial in the verse of such a poet as Milton?