N'A JURE 



-^---. 



THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1913. 



CAMBRIDGE IN THE NINETEENTH 

 CENTURY. 

 "J.": a Memoir of John Willis Clark. By A. E. 

 Shipley. Pp. x+362. (London: Smith, Elder 

 and Co., 1913-) Price 10s. hd. net. 



TO anyone who had a share in Cambridge life 

 in the latter hall of the century that closed 

 with 1910, J. W. Clark, either as superintendent 

 of museums or as registrar}', was a familiar and 

 striking- figure. The many who knew him inti- 

 mately called him "J.," and all will welcome the 

 biography with that title which the Master of 

 Christ's, in more ways than one "J.'s" successor, 

 has produced with the assistance of a number of 

 friends. The book itself is rather gossipy. "We 

 respected him as a man of learning and weight, 

 and still more as a man of the world," says one of 

 the contributors; and it islargely with "J." as a 

 man of the world that the book deals. Erom the 

 point of view of the casual reader, it reminds one 

 somehow of the hundred and nineteenth psalm. 

 The kaleidoscope is shaken through some 300 

 pages, but the same constituent elements occur on 

 every page: "J.'s" friendliness, waywardness, 

 temper, as well as his interest in society, travel, 

 theatres, museums, buildings, architecture, books 

 and libraries ; and the serious part of the book, 

 which deals with the development of the study ot 

 the natural sciences at Cambridge, finds accom- 

 modation in two appendices. But, by the same 

 token, those who read the book with some know- 

 ledge of local colour will find it an epitome of 

 Cambridge in the nineteenth century, opportunist, 

 casual of purpose, wayward, but effective and pro- 

 gressive. 



Look at the beginnings. "J.'s " father, William 

 Clark, the second son of a Newcastle doctor, was 

 sent to Trinity in 1804, became a scholar in 1X07, 

 seventh wrangler in 1808, fellow of Trinity in 

 1809, "having especially impressed the examiners 

 by a brilliant rendering of a passage of Pindar into 

 English verse." He "walked the hospitals" in 

 London, was admitted to holy orders, and at the 

 age of twenty-six became a candidate for the 

 "professorship of anatomy." The election was 

 more burgensium. Lord Byron was a distin- 

 guished supporter. Clark failed on the first 

 occasion, but succeeded later, and became pro- 

 fessor of anatomy in the University at the age of I 

 twenty-nine — a fine instance of casualness of pur- 

 pose, waywardness, and effectiveness on the part 

 of the University. 



At that time the domination of the colleges over | 

 NO. 2282, VOL. gil 



the University was complete. The heads of the 

 seventeen colleges were the governing body ; pairs 

 of colleges took it in turn to "police " the under- 

 graduates, and to examine them all for their 

 degrees. The head was "the only permanent 

 officer of the college"; indeed, the other offices 

 were mostly held at his pleasure. It is a common 

 misunderstanding to suppose that the matrimonial 

 restriction operated to prevent fellows marrying ; 

 its real effect was to restrict the college appoint- 

 ments to what would now strike us as extreme 

 youth. A few confirmed bachelors who had taken 

 holy orders lingered on in residence, and sometimes 

 even attained old age, but they soon became super- 

 annuated for college work and fossilised. Lecturers 

 were often Bachelors of Arts, and an appointed 

 tutor has had to wait for the completion of his 

 M.A. degree before he could fufil all his functions. 

 Yeritable history speaks of a college don who, 

 having passed through all the range of college 

 offices, was regarded as quite past work, and 

 only waiting until it should please Providence 

 to call him to his rest, and who, on inquiry, 

 proved to have attained the ripe age of thirty-five! 

 years. He is, however, still in this world of care, 

 again enjoying a well-earned rest, though he has 

 some thirty years of service in a country living 

 to add to the record which forty years ago was 

 regarded as complete. 



Thus when "J.'s" father took up the duties 

 of professor of anatomy, the permanent staff of 

 the University and colleges made up a small and 

 select society of seventeen heads and twenty-five 

 professors, with a registrar}' and librarian, three 

 bedells, and eleven "cormorants," members of the 

 senate commorantes in villa. The selectness and 

 closeness of that society are still the subject of 

 many Cambridge anecdotes, some of which are 

 included in "J.'s" charming reminiscences, re- 

 printed from the Cambridge Review, in the volume 

 before us; but what is forgotten is that there 

 must have been a yawning gulf of age between 

 the average college don and the permanent society 

 which, as years went by, had necessarily to rely 

 more and more upon its dignity rather than its 

 activity for the respect of the rising generation. 

 The social amenities of college life naturally re- 

 mained mediaeval, and to a certain extent they are 

 so vet. It is still an accepted principle that the 

 simple labour of the.bedmaker is to be preferred 

 to the devious machinations of the plumber for 

 carrying bath-water to and fro. 



Into this close society "J." was born in 1833, 

 with one of the twenty-five professors as father, 

 and another, Robert Willis, as uncle ; the bio- 

 graphy does not say what he thought of pro- 

 fessorships, but he never developed that respect 



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