Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 3 (of 4).—1874-1892Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
History
Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 3 (of 4).—1874-1892
Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Humor
In dealing with University Education _Punch_ maintained his attitude
of a moderate reformer. Keble College, Oxford, dates from 1870; in
1878 _Punch_ twice over displays a keen hostility to the Anglican
spirit of its founders and the "gingerbread and gilt" of Butterfield's
architecture. He seizes the occasion to belittle Keble's poetry, to
attack Pusey, Burgon and Liddon, and to describe the college in the
following contemptuous quatrain:--
Half withdrawn in ways ascetic,
Half with modern notions stirring;
Half athletic, half æsthetic,
Neither fish, flesh nor red herring.
_Punch_ did not share the late Canon Liddon's pessimism over the new
Science degree at Oxford in 1879. Liddon is quoted as saying that
without the habits of exactness and precision acquired by classical
studies it was impossible to reach the higher characteristics of
an educated man. The argument was naturally resented by those who
maintained that "exactness and precision" were precisely the qualities
inculcated by scientific training, and in an ironical dialogue _Punch_
derides specialization as compared with the "humanities." In 1885 the
neglect of English literature at the older Universities is satirized in
the picture of the undergraduate reading out his illiterate letter, in
which the first and third persons are hopelessly mixed up.
In 1886 the spread of free education to the Universities is
foreshadowed in a description of the Slade Professor at Oxford
lecturing to a mixed audience of coal-heavers and undergraduates;
and the "Progressists' Calendar" indicates a revolt of Ratepayers
against their new burdens. In the same year the "Studies from
_Punch's_ Studio" include a portrait of the new type of University
don. "Wyckham of Jude's," who displays much versatile energy and
a wide range of interests--athletics, music, philosophy, Browning
and psychical research--ultimately goes to Australia as a Professor
of Greek. The reference to "Eleutheria Hall" foreshadows Ruskin
College, which was founded in 1899, and in other ways _Punch's_
fancy portraiture illustrates the changes which had come over the
spirit of Oxford's dream. We note, for example, the allusion to the
new cosmopolitanism--the invasion of foreigners, white and coloured,
anticipating the time some thirty years later which gave birth to one
of the best of modern Oxford anecdotes. A film was being exhibited
showing a large canoe manned by Hawaiian natives, whereon a voice arose
from the audience, "Well rowed, Balliol!"
[Sidenote: _The Value of Modern Languages_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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