Five Years in an English University

by Bristed, Charles Astor

• ISBN13: 9781108014809
• ISBN10: 1108014801
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-26
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874) was an American scholar and author, and the first American writer to defend American English spelling. Having graduated from Trinity College in 1845 he published this account of his experiences at the university in 1852 to provide accurate, first-hand information for Americans about study in an English university, with the intention of starting a debate over the inclusion of aspects of English higher education in the American system. Volume 1 contains his recollections of his time in Cambridge as an undergraduate, with detailed descriptions of daily life, examinations, lectures and activities outside academia. Written for those with no experience of the university, this volume provides a valuable insight into the daily life of a student at Cambridge in the middle of the nineteenth century while also providing explanations for the aspects of the institution which to the outsider might seem strange.

Table of Contents

Preface

First impressions of Cambridge

Some particulars, rather egotistical, but very necessary

Introduction to college life

The Cantab language

An American student's first impressions at Cambridge and on Cambridge

Freshman temptations and experiences

The Boat Race

A Trinity supper party

The May examination

The first long vacation

The second year

Third year

Private tuition

Long vacation amusements

A second edition of third year

The scholarship examination

The reading party

Sawdust pudding with ballad sauce

'En Xurou Akmh'

How I came to take a degree

The Polloi and the civil law classes

The classical tripos

A visit to Eton

Being extinguished

Reading for a Trinity fellowship

The study of theology at Cambridge

Recent changes at Cambridge

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