Found myself member of the University!"

In pursuance of his plan for getting the best of everything, his father
had chosen the best college, as far as he knew, that in which social and
scholastic advantages were believed to be found in pre-eminent
combination, and he had chosen what was thought to be the best position
in the college; so that it was as gentleman-commoner of Christ Church
that John Ruskin made his entrance into the academic world.

After matriculation, the Ruskins made a fortnight's tour to Southampton
and the coast, and returned to Herne Hill. John went back to King's
College, and in December was examined in the subjects of his lectures.
He wrote to his father on Christmas Eve about the examination in English
literature:


"The students were numerous, and so were the questions; the room
was hot, the papers long, the pens bad, the ink pale, and the
interrogations difficult. It lasted only three hours. I wrote
answers in very magnificent style to all the questions except three
or four; gave in my paper and heard no more of the matter: _sic
transeunt bore-ia mundi_."

He went on to mention his "very longitudinal essay," which, since no
other essays are reported in his letters about King's College, must be
the paper published in 1893, in answer to the question. "Does the
perusal of works of fiction act favourably or unfavourably on the moral
character?"

At his farewell interview with Mr. Dale he was asked, as he writes to