llege I was destined to be subsequently either a disgrace or ornament.
Jowett was frequently at Torquay, having a sister who lived there, and
he was specially asked to luncheon at Chelston Cross to inspect me and
see how I should pass muster as one of his own disciples. His blinking
eyes, the fresh pink of his cheeks, his snow-white hair, and the
birdlike treble of his voice, have been often enough described, and I
will only say of them here that, when he took me for a walk in the
garden, I subconsciously felt them--I cannot tell why--to be formidable.
He inquired as to my tastes and interests with a species of curt
benignity; but to my interest in poetry he exhibited a most
disconcerting indifference, and I felt during the whole of our interview
that I was walking with a mild east wind. In this he was a marked
contrast to Ruskin, Robert Browning, and certain others--especially to
"Owen Meredith"--men between whom and myself there was at once some
half-conscious bond. There are no estrangements so elusive, and yet so
insuperable, as those which arise from subtle discords in temperament.
And yet in certain individual acts, to which I shall refer presently,
Jowett treated me, when I was safely settled at Oxford, with much
sympathetic good nature. But these and other Oxford experiences shall be
reserved for another chapter.

CHAPTER V

EXPERIENCES AT OXFORD

Early Youth at Oxford--Acquaintance with Browning, Swinburne,
and Ruskin--Dissipation of an Undergraduate--The Ferment of
Intellectual Revolution--_The New Republic_

My experiences at Oxford I may divide into two groups--namely, those
belonging to the social life of an undergraduate, and those consisting
of the effects--philosophical, moral, or religious--produced in an
undergraduate's mind by the influence of academic teaching.

As to my social experiences, my recollections are, on the whole,
pleasurable, but they are somewhat remote from anything that can
properly be called scholastic. They are associated with the charm of
certain cloistered buildings--with Magdalen especially, and the shades
of Addison's Walk; with country drives in dogcarts to places like Witney
and Abingdon; with dinners there in the summer evenings, and with a
sense of being happily outside the radius of caps and gowns; with supper
parties during the race weeks to various agreeable ladies; and with a
certain concert which, during one Commemoration, was given by myself