There Is A
University Chapel On The University Grounds Which Belongs, If I
Remember Aright, To The Episcopalian Church.
The young men, for
the most part, live in college, having rooms in the college
buildings; but they do not board in those rooms.
There are
establishments in the town, under the patronage of the university,
at which dinner, breakfast, and supper are provided; and the young
men frequent one of these houses or another as they, or their
friends for them, may arrange. Every young man not belonging to a
family resident within a hundred miles of Cambridge, and whose
parents are desirous to obtain the protection thus provided, is
placed, as regards his pecuniary management, under the care of a
patron; and this patron acts by him as a father does in England by
a boy at school. He pays out his money for him and keeps him out
of debt. The arrangement will not recommend itself to young men at
Oxford quite so powerfully as it may do to the fathers of some
young men who have been there. The rules with regard to the
lodging and boarding houses are very stringent. Any festive
entertainment is to be reported to the president. No wine or
spirituous liquors may be used, etc. It is not a picturesque
system, this; but it has its advantages.
There is a handsome library attached to the college which the young
men can use, but it is not as extensive as I had expected. The
university is not well off for funds by which to increase it. The
new museum in the college is also a handsome building. The
edifices used for the undergraduates' chambers and for the lecture-
rooms are by no means handsome. They are very ugly, red brick
houses, standing here and there without order. There are seven
such; and they are called Brattle House, College House, Divinity
Hall, Hollis Hall, Holsworthy Hall, Massachusetts Hall, and
Stoughton Hall. It is almost astonishing that buildings so ugly
should have been erected for such a purpose. These, together with
the library, the museum, and the chapel, stand on a large green,
which might be made pretty enough if it were kept well mown, like
the gardens of our Cambridge colleges; but it is much neglected.
Here, again, the want of funds - the auqusta res domi - must be
pleaded as an excuse. On the same green, but at some little
distance from any other building, stands the president's pleasant
house.
The immediate direction of the college is of course mainly in the
hands of the president, who is supreme. But for the general
management of the institution there is a corporation, of which he
is one. It is stated in the laws of the university that the
Corporation of the University and its Overseers constitute the
Government of the University. The Corporation consists of the
President, five Fellows so called, and a Treasurer. These Fellows
are chosen, as vacancies occur, by themselves, subject to the
concurrence of the Overseers.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 224 of 277
Words from 115562 to 116066
of 143277