The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
History
The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
In the year 1793, great improvements had been made in the Classical
Course set out for the studies of the undergraduates. These were,
it is said, largely due to the influence of Dr. Thomas Elrington.
On that occasion the works of the great Greek historians, Herodotus
and Thucydides, were brought for the first time under the attention
of the classical students in Trinity College; but, during the
forty years which followed, little change had been made in the
classical authors which were read by the undergraduates. In 1833,
for the first time, a distinct and shorter course was arranged
for students who were not candidates for Honours, while a larger
portion, generally of the same authors, was set out for candidates
for Honours, and a wider course of classical studies was appointed
for those who competed for Classical Moderatorships at the Degree
Examination. Similar arrangements were adopted for the students in
the Mathematical and Physical portion of their curriculum.
Before this time the students of the same division, of from thirty
to forty men, were examined together, and they had no opportunity
of competing with other men of their year in the Sciences; and in
classical studies at the Scholarship Examination only, at which
they rarely competed until the third year. It was now arranged that
those who answered well at each Term Examination in Science or in
Classics should be returned by the Examiner to compete at a more
searching examination in an extended course, at which all the best
men in the class should be examined together, on days separate from
those of the Term Examinations, by three Examiners in Science and
three in Classics set apart for that purpose; and so by this means
each student was able to measure himself each Term, not only with
those who happened to be in his own division, but with all the men
of his year; and in this way the undergraduates were incited to
continued study by healthy competition. Premiums in books, which
were formerly awarded at each examination to the best answerer in
each division, but which could be obtained only once in the year,
were confined to that of the Michaelmas Term, at which there were
two orders of prizes, first and second--the number of the first
rank prizes being restricted to one fortieth of the class, and that
of the second to one twentieth.
There was another and a very important improvement in the teaching
of the undergraduates which Provost Lloyd was mainly instrumental
in effecting. Hitherto the lectures of each Tutor were given to
his own pupils. He was supposed to instruct all the men of each
of the three Junior Classes at the least for an hour every day.
Each Tutor received the fees of his own pupils, and those who had
a large number in what was technically called his “chamber” had a
considerable income, but others who were not so popular had but a
scanty support.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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