The Reverend James Mackintosh was an excellent official of his college,
and performed his duties with care and punctilium. He rose about
half-past seven o'clock every morning, drank a cup of tea and went to
chapel. After chapel he breakfasted, on Tuesdays and Thursdays with two
undergraduates in their first year, selected in alphabetical order,
seated at his table; on the other days of the week in solitude. At ten
o'clock he lectured, usually on one of St. Paul's Epistles, on which
subjects he possessed note-books filled with every conceivable piece of
information that could be gathered together--grammatical, philological,
topographical, industrial, social, biographical--with a few remarks on
the fauna, flora, imports, characteristics and geological features of
those countries to which those epistles were written, and in which they
were composed. These notes, guaranteed to guide any student who really
mastered them to success, and even distinction, in his examinations,
were the result of a lifetime of loving labor, and some day, no doubt,
will be issued in the neat blue covers of the "Cambridge Bible for
Schools." From eleven to twelve he lectured on Church history of the
first five centuries--after which period, it will be remembered by all
historical students, Church history practically ceased. At one he
lunched; from two to four he walked rapidly (sometimes again in company
with a serious theological student), along the course known as the
Grantchester Grind, or to Coton and back. At four he had tea; at five he
settled down to administer discipline to the college, by summoning and
remonstrating with such undergraduates as had failed to comply with the
various regulations; at half-past seven he dined in hall--a meek figure,
clean shaven and spectacled, seated between an infidel philosopher and a
socialist: he drank a single glass of wine afterwards in the Combination
Room, smoked one cigarette, and retired again to his rooms to write
letters to parents (if necessary), and to run over his notes for next
day.
And he did this, with the usual mild variations of a University life,
every weekday, for two-thirds of the year. Of the other third, he spent
part in Switzerland, dressed in a neat gray Norfolk suit with
knickerbockers, and the rest with clerical friends of the scholastic
type. It was a very solemn thought to him how great were his
responsibilities, and what a privilege it was to live in the whirl and
stir of one of the intellectual centers of England!
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account