An American in Victorian Cambridge

Description

Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874) was the favourite grandson of John Jacob Astor (the first American multi-millionaire, and the Astor of the Waldorf-Astoria). After gaining a degree at Yale, Bristed entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840, graduating in 1845. "An American in Victorian Cambridge" is a richly detailed account of student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. The rationale for the book, which is as appealing today as it was then, is that this is pre-eminently a book about an American student at an English university. The book belongs to a fascinating C19th trans-Atlantic publishing genre: travel accounts designed to describe British culture to Americans and vice-versa.

In this new edition, some substantial additions have been made: the Foreword and Introduction both help to contextualise the work, and point to its significance as an important historical source and as a fascinating memoir of life in Victorian Cambridge; annotation helps to identify the individuals who appear in Bristed’s text; and an index allows full use to be made of the text for the first time.

Illustrations


Photograph of Charles Astor Bristed


Foreword by Patrick Leary


Introduction by Christopher Stray


Bibliography


Original dedication


Original preface


1. First Impressions of Cambridge [1840]


2. Some Preliminaries, Rather Egotistical but Very Necessary [1835-9]


3. Introduction to College Life


4. The Cantab Language


5. An American Student's First Impressions at Cambridge and on Cambridge


6. Freshman Temptations and Experiences


7. The Boat Race [1841]


8. A Trinity Supper Party [1840]


9. The May Examination [1841]


10. The First Long Vacation [1841]


11. The Second Year [1841-2]


12. Third Year [1842-3]


13. Private Tuition


14. Long Vacation Amusements [1843]


15. A Second Edition of Third Year [1843-4]


16. The Scholarship Examination [1844]


17. The Reading Party [1844]


18. Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce [1844]


19. On the Razor's Edge [1844-5]


20. How I Came To Take a Degree [1845]


21. The Polloi and the Civil Law Classes


22. The Classical Tripos [1845]


23. A visit to Eton. English Public Schools


24. Being Extinguished [1845]


25. Reading for a Trinity Fellowship [1845]


26. The study of Theology at Cambridge


27. Recent Changes at Cambridge


28. The Cambridge System of Education in its Intellectual Results


29. Physical and Social Habits of Cambridge Men. Their Amusements, &c.


30. On the State of Morals and Religion in Cambridge


31. The Puseyite Disputes in Cambridge, and the Cambridge Camden Society


32. Inferiority of our Colleges and Universities in Scholarship


33. Supposed Counterbalancing Advantages of American Colleges


34. The Advantages of Classical Studies, Particularly in Reference to the Youth of our Country


35. What Can and Ought We To Do for our Colleges?


Charles Astor Bristed 1820-1874: An annotated bibliography


Index

Sujets

• Social History
• HISTORY
• EDUCATION
• Histoire
• Cambridge University
• 19th century
• University of Cambridge
• University
• Charles Astor Bristed
• Higher
• Culture of Europe
• History of the British Isles
• Level
• Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
• General officer
• Victorian era
• School
• Higher education
• General
• Waldorf-Astoria
• Cambridgeshire
• Université de Cambridge
• Cambridge

Informations

• Publié par: University of Exeter Press
• Date de parution: 02 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780859898980
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

AN AMERICAN IN VICTORIAN CAMBRIDGE
CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED’S “Five Years in an English University”
An American pb V6:UEP 30/10/08 12:30 Page 1
AN AMERICAN in VICTORIAN CAMBRIDGE
AN AMERICAN
inCHARLES ASTOR BRISTED’S
“Five Years in an English University” VICTORIAN CAMBRIDGE
CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED’S
“Five Years in an English University”
ISBN 978-0-85989-825-6
edited and with an introduction byISBN 978 0 85989 825 6
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER PRESS
9 780859 898256
www.exeterpress.co.uk CHRISTOPHER STRAYA N A M E R ICA N I N V ICTOR I A N CA M BR I DGE
Charles Astor Bristed’s
“Five Years in an English University”
Five Years in an English University is a richly detailed account of
student life in the Cambridge of the 1840s. It belongs to a fascinating
nineteenth-century trans-Atlantic publishing genre: travel accounts
designed to describe British culture to Americans and vice-versa.
“An edition of real excellence.”
Frank M.Turner, Director of the Beinecke Library, Yale University
“He was at one of the two colleges … which were the two powerhouses
of the nineteenth century Cambridge scene. He ofers a unique insider’s
account of this, its competitiveness, its camaraderie and its sheer
basic mechanics. We begin to see what underpinned so many of the
relationships in the world of nineteenth century British government
and politics.”
Gillian Sutherland, Newnham College, Cambridge University
“There is nothing quite like it … nothing quite so detailed, so inside
the institution and so inside what is for Bristed a foreign culture. It was
a tour de force by a man whom Christopher Stray describes (accurately)
as something of a playboy. The account mixes delightful anecdote with
real understanding, and it is always lively.”
Sheldon Rothblatt, University of California, Berkeley
Charles Astor Bristed (1820–1874) was the favourite grandson of John Jacob
Astor II, the frst American multi-millionaire and the Astor of the
WaldorfAstoria; after gaining a degree at Yale, Bristed entered Trinity College, Cambridge
in 1840 and graduated in 1845.
Christopher Stray is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Classics,
University of Wales Swansea. His previous books incCluladse sics Transformed:
Schools, Universities and Society in England, 1830–1960 (OUP 1998); Gilbert Murray
Reassessed: Hellenism, Theatre, and International Politics (OUP 2007).
Stray, An American in Victorian 1 1 10/10/2008 13:21:45“Bristed’s account of his time at Cambridge enthralled me when I frst
read it many years ago, and I have often wished that this insightful and
entertaining book was better known. Thanks to Christopher Stray, who
has brought such extraordinary erudition and such indefatigable research
to bear on the project, a carefully edited and usefully annotated and
indexed edition is now available at last.”
“In the nineteenth century, the world’s two great Anglophone cultures
were separated by barriers a great deal more troublesome and
tempesttossed than mere ocean vastness. From the 1820s through at least the
1860s, Anglo-American relations were wracked with confict, permeated
by suspicion, and enveloped in a fog of mutual incomprehension. With
half of their vast country mired in the sin of slavery and the whole a mix
of bustling commerce and noisy democracy, Americans laboured under
a painful sense of inferiority to the British elites whose books they read
so avidly … For many of the [British], America represented the triumph
of mob rule and vulgar money-worship, forces whose corrosive power
might one day threaten to overwhelm the vaunted stability and progress
even of the world’s greatest empire if not kept frmly in check. The
result was a continual and escalating series of ferce skirmishes … Into
this ferociously contested cultural no man’s land sauntered the dapper,
insouciant, improbable fgure of Charles Astor Bristed …”
from Patrick Leary’s Foreword to An American in Victorian Cambridge
Stray, An American in Victorian 2 2 10/10/2008 13:21:45An American in
Victorian Cambridge
Charles Astor Bristed’s
“Five Years in an English University”
‛’αλλ’ ’απ’ ’εχθρων δητα πολλά μανθάνουσιν οι σοφόι
[but of course wise men learn a lot more from their enemies]
AristophanesB, irds 376
edited and with an introduction by
Christopher Stray
foreword by
Patrick Leary
Stray, An American in Victorian 3 3 10/10/2008 13:21:45
˘
˘First published in 2008 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter EX4 4QR
UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
© For the new editiorial matter: Christopher Stray 2008
© Foreword: Patrick Leary 2008
The right of Christopher Stray to be identifed as author
of the Introduction, Bibliography, Index and Notes of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Acts 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Paperback ISBN 978 0 85989 825 6
Hardback ISBN 978 0 85989 824 9
Typeset in Didot and Bembo
by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Printed in Great Britain by T J International, Padstow
Stray, An American in Victorian 4 4 10/10/2008 13:21:45Contents
Illustrations vii
Photograph of Charles Astor Bristed viii
Foreword by Patrick Leary ix
Introduction by Christopher Stray xiii
Bibliography xxxi
Original dedication xxxv
Original preface xxxvii
1 First Impressions of Cambridge [1840] 1
2 Some Preliminaries, Rather Egotistical but Very Necessary
[1835–9] 6
3 Introduction to College Life 11
4 The Cantab Language 23
5 An American Student’s First Impressions at Cambridge and
on Cambridge 29
6 Freshman Temptations and Experiences 39
7 The Boat Race [1841] 44
8 A Trinity Supper Party [1840] 50
9 The May Examination [1841] 62
10 The First Long Vacation [1841] 77
11 The Second Year [1841–2] 84
12 Third Year [1842–3] 106
v
Stray, An American in Victorian 5 5 10/10/2008 13:21:45vi An American in Victorian Cambridge
13 Private Tuition 134
14 Long Vacation Amusements [1843] 145
15 A Second Edition of Third Year [1843–4] 151
16 The Scholarship Examination [1844] 174
17 The Reading Party [1844] 184
18 Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce [1844] 189
19 On the Razor’s Edge [1844–5] 206
20 How I Came To Take a Degree [1845] 220
21 The Polloi and the Civil Law Classes 229
22 The Classical Tripos [1845] 232
23 A visit to Eton. English Public Schools 240
24 Being Extinguished [1845] 256
25 Reading for a Trinity Fellowship [1845] 260
26 The study of Theology at Cambridge 268
27 Recent Changes at Cambridge 271
28 The Cambridge System of Education in its Intellectual
Results 278
29 Physical and Social Habits of Cambridge Men. Their
Amusements, &c. 290
30 On the State of Morals and Religion in Cambridge 301
31 The Puseyite Disputes in Cambridge, and the Cambridge
Camden Society 315
32 Inferiority of our Colleges and Universities in Scholar3sh28ip
33 Supposed Counterbalancing Advantages of American
Colleges 337
34 The Advantages of Classical Studies, Particularly in
Reference to the Youth of our Country 353
35 What Can and Ought We To Do for our Colleges? 374
Charles Astor Bristed 1820–1874: An annotated bibliograp3hy90
Index 413
Stray, An American in Victorian 6 6 10/10/2008 13:21:46Illustrations
The illustrations in the text are taken from John Lewis (or Louis) Roget’s
Cambridge Scrapbook (Cambridge, 1859). The book’s full titlA e iCs ambridge
Scrap-Book. Containing in a pictorial form a report of the manners, customs, humours
and pastimes of the University of Cambridge … By a Special Commissioner,
appointed by himself. With an appendix of papers on applied mathematic. s Roget
was suggesting, tongue in cheek, that he was gathering information about
the University’s workings, just as the members of the Royal Commission
on the University appointed in 1850 were charged with reporting on it
and issuing recommendations for reform. Their report was published in
1852; Roget’s earlier publications, brought together iSn crtahp-e Book, were
Familiar illustrations of the language of mathematics: or, a new picture-alphabet for
well-behaved undergraduates (1850) and Cambridge customs and costumes (1851).
John Roget (Trinity 1846) was the only son of Peter Mark Roget, whose
famous Thesaurus frst appeared in 1852. He graduated in 1850, taking in
the Mathematical Tripos exactly the same position as Bristed had in Classics
fve years before – second in the second class. Roget became a lawyer, but
was also a talented and prolifc water-colourist.
vii
Stray, An American in Victorian 7 7 10/10/2008 13:21:46Charles Astor Bristed.
Library of Congress, Brady-Handy Collection, BH82–5031A.
Stray, An American in Victorian 8 8 10/10/2008 13:21:46Foreword
by Patrick Leary
In the nineteenth century, the world’s two great Anglophone cultures were
separated by barriers a great deal more troublesome and tempest-tossed than
mere ocean vastness. From the 1820s through at least the 1860s,
AngloAmerican relations were wracked with confict, permeated by suspicion,
and enveloped in a fog of mutual incomprehension. With half of their
vast country mired in the sin of slavery and the whole a mix of bustling
commerce and noisy democracy, Americans laboured under a painful sense
of inferiority to the British elites whose books they read so avidly, a burden
that too often left them at once absurdly boastful and exquisitely sensitive
to any slights from British visitors or commentators. For many of the latter,
America represented the triumph of mob rule and vulgar money-worship,
forces whose corrosive power might one day threaten to overwhelm the
vaunted stability and progress even of the world’s greatest empire if not kept
frmly in check. The result was a continual and escalating series of ferce
skirmishes, in which the aggressive condescension of visitors like Captain
Marryat and Mrs Trollope, with their c