his own solution.

The forms were observed _juramenti gratia_, but much practical work was
supplemental to the statutes. This could be illustrated in more than one
way--the most interesting is the development of the educational side and
the tutorial system.

The statutes prescribed the appointment of certain lecturers--even the
subjects of their lectures. Space need not be occupied in showing that
such provisions soon became obsolete. The working solution was found in
the tutorial system. In early days it was contemplated and prescribed
that each Fellow should have the care of two or three students, living
with them, teaching them daily; the exact date when this system passed
away has not been traced with any certainty, but gradually the number of
Fellows taking individual charge of the undergraduates diminished until
it became reduced to two or three. Those in charge became known as
Tutors, and with each Tutor was associated one or two others called
Assistant Tutors or Lecturers. A charge was made to the undergraduates
for tuition, and the sum so received was shared by the Tutors and their
assistants. But the Tutor was not a College officer in the eye of the
statutes, nor the money received for tuition treated as part of the
College revenues. The system worked, because it was meant to work, and
as it was not subject to obsolete rules could be modified and adapted to
changing conditions. So long as the chief subjects of study were few in
number, practically restricted to classics and mathematics, College
provision for teaching was possible and simple. The multiplication of
studies, the needs of the studies generally known as the Natural
Sciences, with their expensive laboratories and equipment, are entailing
further changes, and the tendency, more especially in the newer
subjects, is to centralise teaching under the control of University
professors and teachers. The subject is one of great interest, but
cannot be further touched upon here. To return to the history of St.
John's.

Dr. James Wood became Master in 1815. He was a man of humble origin, a
native of Holcombe, in the parish of Bury, Lancashire. According to a
well-authenticated tradition he "kept," as an undergraduate, in a garret
in staircase O in the Second Court, and studied in the evening by the
light of the rush candle which lit the staircase, with his feet in
straw, not being able to afford fire or light. He became a successful
and popular College Tut