When Mr. Meyrick, an Oxford Don, expressed his satisfaction that our Educational System was not that of the Germans, _Punch_ was unable to echo his complacency, and went so far as to wish that "our Dons and Fellows were but as these Germans"; but it may be pleaded in extenuation of his offence that the doctrine of "Kultur" was less vocal in the 'sixties, and that German professors and teachers were not then so firmly harnessed to the car of "Machtpolitik." _Punch_ little thought that some fifty years later Admiral Tirpitz would admit that the most formidable opponent of Germany was the "polo-playing Englishman." The notion that pastime was overdone finds vent in the "Chant for College Athletes":-- How doth the busy Undergrad Improve each shining hour, Loving each new athletic "fad" To show his muscles' power! * * * * * In feats of strength and games of skill His time must all be passed, Heedless that, 'spite of cram, he will Be sorely plucked at last. [Sidenote: _Affluent College Servants_] Over-athleticism, however, was not the only ground of complaint against education at the older Universities in the 'sixties. The high cost of living for undergraduates, owing to the extortion of local tradesmen and the perquisites of college servants, provoked a correspondence in _The Times_ in the winter of 1865. _Punch_ ironically affected to defend the retail "profiteers." His College butler in "The Undergraduates' Rebellion" associates himself with the College Dean as the victim of a mutiny of meanness, and the accompanying cartoon rubs in the point, a stout butcher addressing an equally stout Don, engaged in cutting a loaf, with the words, "Wery low them letters in the papers, Mr. Dean! Wery 'ard on both of us, Sir--my beef and your bread-an'-butter!" _Punch's_ satire was justified by the fortunes notoriously made at the time and for many years afterwards by College cooks and butlers, whose incomes sometimes exceeded those of the Heads of Houses. More than ten years later a Christ Church "Scout" bitterly complained of the passing of the good old times. As he put it, "Instead of taking food home out of College, I has to bring it in." INVENTIONS, NOVELTIES AND FORECASTS