f young men were at Wadham
together. As they are all alive, it is impossible, and would be
unbecoming, to estimate what their influence on English life and
thought will be; but it was a curious coincidence that sent to Wadham
together, in the 'nineties, Lord Birkenhead, who reached the Woolsack
at the earliest age on record; Sir John Simon, who, if he had wished,
could have lowered that record still further, and C. B. Fry, once a
household name as the greatest of British athletes.
Three groups of Wadham men have been spoken of; one other name must
be mentioned of one who stood alone at college, and for a long time
in the world outside, in his attitude to the social problems of our
day. Whatever may be the future of the Settlement movement, its
leader, Samuel Barnett, "Barnett of Whitechapel," is not to be
forgotten, for his name is associated as a pioneer and an inspiring
force with every movement of educational and social advance in the
latter half of the nineteenth century. M. Clemenceau, no friendly
judge of the ministers of any religious body, pronounced him one of
the three greatest men he had met in England. Certainly he was great,
if greatness means to anticipate the problems of the future before
the rest of the world sees their urgency, and to make real
contributions to their solution.
It has been a feature of the history of Oxford that every college
has, from time to time, come to the front as the special home and
source of some movement. There has never been the overshadowing
concentration of men and of wealth, which has given a more one-sided
direction to the history of Cambridge. Hence the strength of the
college system; every college has its traditions to live up to, its
great names to cherish, and Wadham is, certainly, by no means last or
least in these respects.
HERTFORD COLLEGE
"Outspake the (Warden) roundly:
'The bridge must straight go down;
For if they once should get the bridge ...'"
MACAULAY, /Horatius/, adapted.
Academic bridges, over the Cam or elsewhere, are a great feature at
Cambridge. At Oxford they were unknown till this century, when
University first of all threw its modest little arch over Logic Lane;
later, in 1913. the "Bridge of Sighs," which forms the subject of
Plate XXIV, was completed. There was a hard struggle before leave
could be obtained from the City Council for thus bridging a public
thoroughfare; University only maintain
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