Punch (13.1847)

A FRAGMENT

from our journal of the cambridge installation.

ur _ visit to Cambridge lias been one long
triumph. We have just returned from the
Senate House. We are a D.C.L. The manly
voice of the Public Orator is still tingling in
our ears. Onr hand still glows to the gracious
touch of our Prince ! Can we forget the pure
and unexaggerated Latin of that closing period.

" Attamen, ut perfacetum ipsum Putichium
adloquar. Cujus qualis lepor, qv.ales ipsis Atticis
ArriKiDTtpoi .sales, quis mscit? Quern quidem
hebdomatice loqueutem qv.aligaudio perlegere sim
assuettcs, cur taceam ? Hum cum illustrissimo
nostro principe versantem immo colloquentem
quum intueor: ' Felices' inquam, ' Cantabrigue !
Ter beata Accidentia ! Qtiam excelsissimus et doc-
tissimus princeps colere, quam hilarissimus et
lepidissimus Punckius ridere dignetur !' "

"We still seem to hear those enthusiastic
young men, in whose cries our name was
blended with our Sovereign's and that of her
glorious consort. How fervid those prize com-
positions, insisting, so appropriately, on two
points in particular—the accomplishments of
Prince Albert, and the corruptions of the
Church of Pome! We subjoin the spirited conclusion of the Prize
Poem on " Sir Thomas More."

Thus has my teeming fancy dared to soar,

And sing the praises of Sir Thomas More;

Well did he hold with steady hand the helm

As Lord High Chancellor of" England's realm :

But in the course of long revolving years,

A greater Chancellor than he appears.

Hail, Albert, hail! till Earth's last moments come,

And Granta's glory sinks into the tomb,

Thy name shall stand unscathed by pitying fate :

How great amongst the good, how good amongst the great!

Beautiful exceedingly, also, those stanzas from the Latin Ode, replete
with chaste classicality,

Alberte, magnis edite regibus,
Princeps paternae dulce decus Gothse,
Sunt quos_ triumphales juvarit
Ob meritum petiisse laurus,
Te Granta, nupsit quod tibi regia
Marita, Cancel sumere larium
Powysse dignatur rejecto :
Sic valeas et episcopemur 1

Then the other Prize Exercises! The Greek Ode (in the style of
Demosthenes) ; the Epigrams, (which we thought inferior to the gene-
rality of those which appear in our own publication); and the Porson
Prize, a neat translation into Greek Verse of a scene from one of the
Lyceum burlesques. After the recitation, His Royal Highness, with
ineffable grace, presented the prizemen with medals, prefacing the
delivery of each with a short speech, assuring the young gentlemen he
was not unacquainted with classical literature, having in his youth com-
posed an Opera. The Installation Ode followed. It deserves a column
to itself.

10 p.m. We are just returned from the grand display of fireworks.
Several symbolical tableaux excited great admiration. Among the
most beautiful and significant of them was a representation of the
Albert Hat, reversed, so as to form a cornucopia, with mitres and
stalls falling from it. Among the illuminations we remarked a trans-
parency over the gate of Trinitv, representing the distinguished Master
of that "College, surrounded by the legend " Nolo Episcopari" in coloured
lamps.

Wednesday, July 7th. The great feature of this day's amusements
was an al-fresco fete in the grounds of St. John's and Trinity Colleges,
which had forgotten all ancient rivalry, and had been, by the taste of
1 heir respective resident Fellows, transformed into a miniature semblance
of Fairy Land, or Greenwich Park on a Fair Day. The sound of the
Redowa Polka issued from elegantly-draped booths, in which bed-
makers in fancy dresses furnished refreshments, gratis, to the guests;
swings, whirligigs, and merry-go-rounds, freighted with all that is
gravest, wisest, and noblest in the land, were glancing amid the ances-
tral trees; and in a retired part of the grounds, where an artificial
elevation had been built up, in imitation of the fer-icus One Tree Hill,
the Regius Professor of Divinity, with some ladies of rank, was racing
gaily down the smooth enamelled turf. Shouts of laughter crept over
the rapidly-flowing Cam. On all sides were exalted and learned men
surrendering themselves to the abandon of that delicious excitement
which the presence of the Sovereign and the Prince is so calculated to
produce. Here was the Regius Professor of Civil Law polking in his •
scarlet robes : there was the Public Orator drinking ^Champagne out of
tumblers, and invoking blessings on his Prince. We leaned on the arm
of our friend, the Lord Almoner's Reader in Pk^ography, and he
pointed out to us the celebrities of the place—among Them, Professors
Smythe, Sedgwick, Holloway, Risley, and Kelleb.

But our time was growing short. We remained to see Dr. Whewell
present the Queen with a draught of bishop in a golden cup, while the
resident dignitaries of the University were brought up and prostrated
themselves before the Prince; the Public Orator reading, in a most affect-
ing manner, a modest panegyric, in which most of the adjectives appeared
to end in "issimus." Immediately on the conclusion of this inspiriting
ceremony, we started for the railway train, and were soon on our way to
London, bearing with us many delightful reminiscences of Cambridge,
and a proud appreciation of our diploma of Doctor.

Vol. 13.

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