1 84 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



In April, 1881, the first meeting of the Court of 

 Governors of the Victoria University was held. The 

 labour connected with the arrangement of the curricula 

 for the degrees was no light one. Indeed, it is only 

 by those to whom the task had been assigned of 

 initiating the first new English University that the 

 difficulties of drawing up a scheme which should be at 

 once of high academic character and yet in accord 

 with the requirements of the locality can be fully 

 appreciated. Among those to whom the University 

 was in this respect most indebted must first be 

 mentioned the name of Professor A. W. Ward, 

 afterwards Principal of Owens College and Vice- 

 Chancellor of the Victoria University, and now 

 Master of Peterhouse. Dr. Ward brought to bear 

 on the question, not only a full appreciation of the 

 requirements of a University situated in a great 

 centre of industrial and commercial life, but a com- 

 plete knowledge of the older University systems of 

 England, Scotland, and Germany, and a devotion to 

 the cause and a clear- and fair-mindedness which were 

 in themselves a guarantee of success. 



Among the many others who worked for the foun- 

 dation of the University, the names of Joseph Gouge 

 Greenwood, our first Vice-Chancellor, and Principal of 

 the college, and Richard Copley Christie, who gave 

 to the University his magnificent library, and to whose 

 munificence we owe the Whitworth Hall, will never 

 be forgotten. 



Other members of the college staff with whom I 

 worked for thirty years in perfect harmony, and who 

 also aided in one way or another in the great work, 

 were the late Augustus Wilkins, the classic ; the late 

 William Crawford Williamson, the authority on the 

 flora of the coal measures ; Boyd Dawkins, still the 



