these savages were grafted on Oxford? How would they alter the tone? We
shall see. It will be an interesting struggle. Shall we hear of six-
shooters in the High?--of hominy and flannel cake for breakfast?--will
undergrads look 'spry?'--will they 'voice' public opinion? . . . I
forbear: my American vocabulary is limited. _Outre_ _mer, outres moeurs_,
as Mr. Walkley might say in some guarded allusion to Paul Bourget. . . .
I shall be sorry to see poker take the place of roulette, and the Christ
Church meadows turned into a ranch for priggish cowboys, or Addison's
Walk re-named the Cake Walk. But no, I believe Mr. Rhodes, if there was
just a touch of malice in his testament, realised that Oxford manners
were stronger than the American want of them. Oxford may be wounded, but
I have complete confidence in the issue. These Boeotian invaders must
succumb, as nobler stock before them. They will form an interesting
subject for some exquisite study by Mr. Henry James, who will deal with
their gradual civilisation. Preserved in the amber of his art they will
become immortal.

I have been able to clip only the fringe of a great theme. Athletes
require an essay to themselves. In later age they seem to me more
melancholy than their Cambridge peers and less successful. These
splendid creatures are really works of art, and form our only substitute
for sculpture in the absence of any native plastic talent. From the
collector's point of view they belong to the best period, while the
graceful convention of isocephaly, which has raised the standard of
height, renders them inapt for the 'battles' of life, however well
equipped for those of their College where the cuisine is at all
tolerable.

I am not enough of an antiquary to conjecture if there was ever a temple
to Isis during the Roman occupation of Britain on the site of the now