292 
' e 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OUR Correfpondent, who furnifhed 
you with the curious anecdote in 
the Port Fonio of your Magazine for 
March, relative fo Garrick and Johnion, 
appears in the laft line inadvertently to 
have written, the Dofor, for “ Mr. 
Garrick.’ It is not poflible that he could. 
have meant to fay, Dr. Jolnfon died a few 
months after he received the benefaction of 
Garrick. Such a verbal error is natural 
in the hurry of writing. 
Your's, &c. 
A Book Worm. 
March 5, 1803. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N my laft, I brought about a hundred 
_ JL young ftudents of Cambridge to the 
grand theatre, on which fo much of their 
future fuccefs in life of many depends. 
They enter the Senate-houle, a large, 
noble, elegant room, unfortunately paved 
with marble, on the fecond Monday of 
January, between feven and eight o’clock 
in the morning. On two pillars at the 
entrance ot the faloon are fixed papers ; the 
one containing the lit of the young men, 
arranged accord; ing to their clafles ; the 
other paper noting the employment of cér- 
tain claffes for the next hours Each man, 
on entering, looks at the paper; that, if 
he is to be employed by the public exa- 
miner, he may be ready, as no time is to 
be loft at the moment of his call; if his 
clafs is not to be employed by the public 
examiners, he then prepares himielf either 
for a private examination, or to fit ftill in 
his place, or to play at tee-totum, At 
eight o’clock precifely, the names are 
called over, and the abfentees being mark- 
ed, are fubjected to certaim fines. The 
two claffes to be examined wiwé-voce are 
now called out, and proceed to the places 
where tables and forms are provided for 
them. At each table fit two public exa- 
miners, and round it the young men, ac- 
cording to their place in the cials. Pens, 
ink, and paper, are in abundance upon the 
tables: the examiners queftion the young 
men, and, according to their anfwers, affix 
certain marks to their names agreed upon 
between them, by which che refpective 
merits of each perfon in the clafs is, at 
the end of this examination, afcertain- 
ed. 
Ais foon as thefe clafles had left their 
Cambridge Examinations continued, 
[ May 15 
places, in the body of the Senate-houfe, 
the other clafles, mentioned in the paper, 
are called out, and to each of them is 
given a paper of problems, which he takes ' 
with him to any window he pleafes, 
where there are pens, ink, and paper pre- 
pared for his ep In this manner, 
, with the utmoft order and regularity, more 
“than half of the young men are fet to work 
within lefs than five mimutes after the 
clock’ has itruck eight. We have now 
time to confider the appearance of the Se- . 
nate-houfe. Inthe middle are to be feen 
a {core or two of Matters of Arts, walk-- 
ing up and down ; at the fides, on forms, 
are fitting the young men not under exa- 
mination. ‘They have all their refpeétive 
ftations, according to their colleges; and 
in thefe ftations they fit for a little time, 
till exzut, or the call of a Maiter of Arts, 
excites them to fome occupation. 
The Mafters of Arts, walking up and 
down, are of two clafles ; public-officers, 
whofe duty it is to be there, or private 
Matters of Arts brought thither by curio~ 
fity, or an intention to take part in the 
examination. ‘The public-officers are the 
two Proctors, and the Fathers of Colleges, 
for each college fends one decorated with — 
this title, whofe care, and often anxious . 
care, it is to fee after the weifare of his 
fons. Thefe Fathers and Matters chat 
together on the refpective merits of their 
young men, and agree among themfelves 
to examine fuch and fuch pe =rfons as are 
fuppofed to be nearly on a par, and fiate 
privately to each other the refult of their 
examination: or a young man, thinking 
himfelf fuperior to one in the clafs above 
him, acquaints his Father with the fufpi- 
cion, who takes the proper fteps to exa- 
mine into the true ftateof the cafe. Thus 
anumber of young men are taken from 
their ftations by Matters of Arts, who 
either examine them vrvd voce, or give a 
paper of problems to folve. ‘Fhus the 
-number on the forms is confiderably dimi- 
nifhed, and in every quarter are to be 
feen young men either writing, or an- 
fwering in alow voice the qucitions of 
the examiners.’ The remainder of the 
young men muft now either fit in their 
places, or go to the windows behind them, 
where, time out of, mind, they have been 
accuftomed to amufe themfelves with tee- 
-totum,which is played in the ufual manner, 
but with this particular law—that, if any 
oneis called out to be examined, he fweeps 
the board of the cafh upon it. 
At nine o'clock, thedoors of the Senate- 
houfe 
