As Charlie was adjusting to Oxford, Oxford was still adjusting to the Rhodes Scholars. The Scholars’ arrival was a notable change for the colleges. Charlie’s class was only the second group of Rhodesmen to enroll, swell the ranks of the Oxford Freshers, and change things. It electrified the campus, and was news well beyond.
Below is an article from the Sheffield Daily Independent, reprinted in the Oxford Magazine about the incoming, bigger-than-ever Freshman class.
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A correspondent sends us the enclosed cutting from the Sheffield Daily Independent for November 2. It is culled from the special “London Letter,” which is fortunately exclusive to the Independent: —
THE UNIVERSITY CRISIS.
The Universities re-opened with some doubt as to what would happen from the influx of Freshmen, and particularly through the Rhodes Scholars. The increase was greatly in excess of custom, and the undergraduates, inclined to take the worst view of every seeming infringement of their exclusiveness, fretted a good deal in anticipation. The Dons themselves were not altogether free from similar emotion. It seems, however, there is nothing to worry over. The new men are being gently fagged according to routine. The ‘Rhodes Kids,’ who were to kick and butt like bulls of Bashan, are amongst the meekest, and altogether the Freshmen of 1905-6 are pronounced a good sort. A fine crop of young cadets of noble houses are coming along with their destination roads marked for high politics. But in the meantime, whether the present influx of Freshmen produce any geniuses or not, the crisis is happily laid.”
The Oxford magazine: a weekly newspaper and review, Volume 24, By University of Oxford, November 8, 1905,
