t, the amount of play
in Oxford has increased the amount of work. Organized games mean
physical fitness, and physical fitness means ability to get
intellectual work done. Perhaps it may be argued that the absorption
in athletics deadens all intellectual life, and that many Oxford men
read only and discuss only the sporting news in the papers; this no
doubt has a strange fascination, even for men who do not play; one of
the most distinguished of Oxford statesmen of the last generation,
himself so blind that he could not hit a ball, confessed to me that
he always, in the summer, read the cricket news in /The Times/ before
he read anything else. But he and many other Oxford men read
something else, too. And it may be maintained without question that
the hard exercise, which is the fashion in Oxford, tends to keep
men's bodies healthy and to raise the moral tone of the place. Oxford
and Cambridge may not be what they should be in morals, but they
compare very favourably in this respect with other towns.

All this seems a far cry from Iffley Mill; but Iffley means to an
Oxford man, not so much the picturesque village, nor even its gem of
a Norman Church that towers above the lock, but the place where
Eights and Torpids start for the races. And the boating, which is so
associated with the name of Iffley, is still--and long may it be so--
the queen of Oxford sports. To succeed as an oar, a man has to learn
to sacrifice the present to the future, to scorn delights and live
laborious days, to work together with others, and to sink his
individuality in the common cause. These are great qualities, and
therefore in any book on Oxford, the picture, which recalls them and
is their symbol, has a right to a place.

Printed in Great Britain.
Letterpress by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh.
Plates engraved and printed by Henry Stone & Son, Ltd., Banbury.

[OXFORD FROM THE EAST (End papers)]

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