306 THE EAGLE COLLEGE AWARDS The following awards were made on the results of the THE EAGLE Annual Entrance Scholarships Examination, December 1939: Major Scholarships: DAIN, J., Merchant Taylors' School, for Mathematics (Baylis Scholar_ � jJ(fagazine ship). HARRISON, E., Doncaster Grammar School, for Mathematics. TURNBULL, D. G., Rugby School, for Mathematics. SUPPORTED BY MEMBERS OF SMITH, N. J., King's School, Macdesfield, for Mathematics. GARNER , H. C., Westminster School, for Mathematics. PLATT, F. K., Denstone College, for Classics. Sf Yohn's Colle e NICHOLLS, C. G. W., Whitgift School, Croydon, for Classics. g PI TT, G. J., Cotham Secondary School, Bristol, for Natural Sciences. LITTLEWOOD, J., Manchester Grammar School, for ModernLa nguages. Minor Scholarships: REDFERN, P., Bemrose School, Derby, for Mathematics. HANSFORD, J. T., Christ's Hospital, for Mathematics. MORGAN, J. C., King Edward VI School, Stourbridge, for Classics. WILLAN, R. L., Cheltenham College, for Classics. SADLER, J. J. G., King Edward VI School, Birmingham, for Classics. TURNER, R., Sir Joseph Williamson's School, Rochester, for Natural Sciences. PARLOW, J. T. M., West Hartlepool Secondary School, for English. KERROD, N., King James's Grammar School, Almondbury, for Modern Languages. Exhibitions : VAU GHAN, J. R. M., Aldenham School, for Mathematics. JACKSON, R., Poddington School, for Classics. WHITTINGHAM, C. P., Owen's School, Islington, for Natural Sciences. RICHARDSON, J. B., Bury Grammar School, for History. RoYDs, G. H. A., Haileybury College, for History. SHARMAN, J. C., King Edward VI School, Birmingham, for Modern Languages. BRUCE LOCKHART, L., Sedbergh School, for Modem Languages. RATTENBURY, A. F., Kingswood School, for English. VOLUME LI, No. 224 PRINTED' AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY PRINTED BY W. LEWIS, M.A., AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE MCMXXXIX St. Joh. CoIl. Lib. Camh. CONTENTS PAGE The Orator Emeritus 211 Winter Siege .. 236 Love and the Siren 237 The Gauge of British Railways 240 Johniana 248 Book Review 250 College Chronicle : The Adams Society 251 The Classical Society 252 The Historical Society 253 The Law Society 254 The Medical Society. 255 The Musical Society 255 The Natural Science Club . 259 The Theological Society 260 Association Football . 260 The Athletic Club 261 The Chess Club 262 The Cricket Club 262 The Hockey Club 263 L.M.B.C. 264 Rugby Football 265 The Squash Club 266 College Notes 266 Obituary : Alfred Harker 273 Ralph AlIen Sampson 285 Donald John Campbell 288 The Library 298 College Awards . 306 Illustrations: Alfred Harker facing p. 273 ':ne. Ralph Allen Sampson " ,,258 St. Job. Ooll.Ltb. Oamb. -THE EAGLE ������������������������������� VOL. LI December I 939 No. 224 ������������������������������� HE THE ORATOR EMERITU S retirement of Mr T. R. Glover from the Public TOratorship (or Oratorship, as it is now called1) severs the connexion which has existed for sixty-three years between St John's and this ancient and honourable office. Such a long period of distinguished service on the part of Sir John Edwin Sandys and his pupil and friend is reminiscent of the spacious days of the J ohnians, Richard Croke, John Cheke and Roger Ascham. Croke indeed was the firstPublic Orator, but his reputation was built on his labours abroad; and the names of Cheke and Ascham were and are better known to Englishmen. Does history repeat itself? If the doubter says no, let him consider what manner of men the last two scholars were and what they achieved. Is it a mere coincidence on the one hand that Cheke, who was succeeded by his pupil Ascham,2 played an important part in the much-needed reform whereby the Erasmian pro­ nunciation of Greek was substituted for the Reuchlinian about 1 535; and on the other that Sandys helped in redeeming Latin from the barbarity of English vowels and emasculated littera latrans, and pronounced it in the Senate House from 1904 onwards to be understood at last by the rest of the world, 1 The new Statu�e of 1926 did not alter his preference for the title of the office to which he was elected (the original Statute of 1522 provided " ut unus aliquis orator publicus eligatur "); he liked it also because it was borne by Sir John Sandys, to whom he owed so much, and also by George !Ierbert (1619-27), who in his application called the Public Oratorship 'the finest place in the University "- 2 Cheke, 1542-6; Ascham, 1546-54- ELl 14 212 THE EAGLE THE ORATOR EMERITUS 213 and to be moderately intelligible to the ghost of Cicero? Did three years. His successor was elected on 21 January 1920, not Ascham write of his master in words which Sandys and made the first of his many appearances in the Senate himself has paraphra sed :1 House on 20 February. In that year he discharged the heavy For some five years, Aristotle and Plato had been studied at duty of writing speeches for many of the heroes of 1914-18, 8t John's ; 80phoc1es and Euripides were more familiar than including Foch, J ofIre,1 Haig, Plumer, Allenby, J ellicoe, Plautus had been twelve years before ; Herodotus, Thucydides, Beatty, Bonar Law, Austen Chamberlain, Mr Lloyd George and Xenophon were more " conned and discussed" than Livy was and Mr J. H. Thomas. During his twenty years as Public then ; Demosthenes was as well known as Cicero ; Isocrates as Orator, hardly an Easter Term passed without the visit to Terence ; "it is Cheke's labours and example that have lighted up and continue to sustain this learned ardour", Cambridge of some monarch, statesman, scholar, scientist or cleric of international fame; and Mr Glover himself tells how and did not Mr Glover say of Sandys, when he presented him he presented four English Prime Ministers, several Dominion for the degree of LL.D., in a speech which ends witha sincere statesmen including Mr Mackenzie King, two English tribute to the courtesy, charm and friendship of the latter sovereigns, four Emperors and one "god". The "god" (" Si discipulo talia licet confiteri, ex quo primum ColIegio appeared in Cambridge on 18 May 1921 and was the Crown nostro interfui, hunc semper mihi comem recordor, semper Hirohito, now the Emperor of Japan, for whom the jucundum, semper amicum fuisse") :2 Prince upper end of the gallery in the Senate House was kept clear Demosthenem, Euripidem, Isocratem, Cic�ronem exposuit, lest anybody should look down upon him from above. He, Aristotelis Rempublicam sarcophagis Aegyptiis erutam edidit, the ex-Emperor of Abyssinia (then heir-apparent and known immo senectutis in limine fontis Pindarici haustus non ille expalluit?3 as Tafari Makonnen), and the King-Emperors Edward VIII and George VI made up the total of imperial monarchs. And indeed does the parallel require any emphasis other than in coining the happiest that attained by Saints bury' s words?4 The Public Orator was an expert Ascham phrase for the best-known characteristics of celebrated appears to have been a very agreeable good specimen of a visitors. Viscount Grey of Fallodon was "viri, civis, Angli type of Englishman : humorous, learned, ready and much more to teach others than to pride himself perfectum exemplar et absolutum'',2 and Mr Montagu affectionate upon his learning ; to his friends and family ; zealous Norman "mensariorum Britannicorum princeps, iterum his for his country and country's language. electus ut mensarum omnium augustissimae praesideat".3 At the age of seventy-five Philip Snowden had, like the elder and the younger Cato,4 Sandys found that his powers were severely the Philippi";5 and of his colleague taxed by the spate of Honorary Degrees "rigidum animum were which the inevitable aftermath of the " Uncle" Arthur Henderson it was said "noverunt et alii, si last war, and at the end quid ponderis habeant of 1919 resigned from forte nepotum in morem lu. serunt, the post which he had graced for forty- 1 History of Classical patruae uerbera linguae".6 Sometimes a phrase would call Scholarship, vo!. Il, p. 232. 2 "If his old pupil may say so, I remember that, since I first became member of our College, he a 1 Foch and Joffre did not after all come to Cambridge. has been always kind, always pleasant, always a friend." The oration had 2 "The perfect and absolute model of a man, a citizen, an Englishman." previously stated : "he has commented on Demosthenes, Euripides, Isocrates 3 "The prince of our British bankers, who has been elected Governor and Cicero; he has published Aristotle's Constitution of Athens, now for the second time of the most majestic Bank in the world." recovered from the tombs of Egypt; and even on the threshold of • Livy, 39. 40; Lucan, 2. 389. old age he has not blenched at the from the thought of drinking 6 "Philip's rigidity fo untain-head of Pindar". of soul." S Horace, Epistles, 1. 3. 10. 6 "Others, who have played the fool as nephews will, know the weight an uncle's lashing tongue can have." The father's brother was the high­ • A Short History of English Literature, p. 238. handed member of the Roman family, as appears from Horace, Satires, 14-2 214 THE EAGLE THE ORATOR EMERITUS 215 up a vision of a figure so well-known and popular in Cam­ bridge as the former solum quid aer quid genus faciat investigamus et cum Provost of King's, M. R. J ames, familiar whose Aeschylo Caucasum Sardes Bactra lustramus. "1 features "memini me iuvenem saepenumero ad­ If the classical quotation has vanished from Parliament, its spexisse, dum e Museo ad Collegium Regale redit laetus et fumifer '',l and whose old stronghold, since the days when Gladstone was its last ghost stories appealed so Theodore Roosevelt that much to great exponent, it still lives in the Senate House, in the the latter, when in Cambridge, is Sheldonian and at Trinity where a Public said "cum illo in primis congredi College, Dublin, et colloqui voluisse qui tot terrores magicos Orator has in his quiver many a swift arrow to carry a message tot nocturnos lemures conscripserat".