LATER DAYS AT OXFORD 211 



letters, which to me bring only regret for the " might-have- 

 been." I have already made it clear what the " health " 

 obstacle amounted to. Surely all the promise that ever was 

 in me in those days was but Dead Sea fruit, and yet there 

 were times when I thought there was no object of ambition 

 to which I could not readily attain so fatally easy was it 

 to pass examinations after a few weeks of work ! 



That last week or ten days at Oxford was a happy tune, 

 with all the working wheels run down, and so many good 

 friends to entertain and be entertained by. I saw much 

 of John Doyle, and he strongly advised me to go in for a 

 Fellowship at All Souls, as there were three vacancies, 

 and I decided to follow his advice, for a Fellow of All 

 Souls is not as the Fellows of other colleges, and it would 

 have been very delightful to be in the same good fellow- 

 ship with Doyle himself. The thing was all but settled 

 when, alas ! a flaw was discovered in my qualifications. 



To become a Fellow of All Souls you must have either 

 graduated with a First Class in Final Schools or have 

 passed all the necessary examinations for so graduating. 



It was suddenly discovered that I had not passed my 

 Divinity examination, and that is, or was, essential before 

 taking your degree. There was no fixture for a Divinity 

 examination before the All Souls fellowships were to be 

 decided, and I, therefore, could not qualify in time. 



In sheer annoyance at this, I left Oxford without going 

 in for Divinity at all, and it was not until two years later 

 that I came to a more sensible frame of mind and went 

 up for the simple purpose of passing Divinity, which was 

 an absurdly easy thing to do. Even so, however, so 

 neglectful was I of my own interests that I did not put 

 my gown on until twenty years later, when I brought off 

 the " double event " of B.A. and M.A., on one morning 

 in 1896. The Balliol porter was rather interested in that 

 occasion, and provided me with all the necessary gowns, 

 etc., and first of all it was pleasant in that year, 1896, 

 to put on a Cap and undergraduate's gown and walk 

 down High Street, causing a certain amount of mild 



