The day following our arrival we start northward, making our first stop at Cambridge. Here we visit the great university—the rival of Oxford. The founder of Cambridge University is not known. There is a legend that it was founded by Cantaber, three hundred years before Christ was born. Whether this is true or not, the graduates are called Cantabrians.

We learn that there are eighteen colleges in the university, and that some of them have the same names as the Oxford colleges. We visit Trinity first of all, because it is the largest college in England. In all the colleges we find quadrangles, courts, towers, and chapels, which remind us of those we saw at Oxford. Three thousand students are enrolled in the university, many of whom have remained for special study during the long vacation. Behind the colleges we find the little river Cam. We see many little boats on the stream, and we ourselves hire small flat-bottom boats, called punts, which our boys pole for us. The Cam is so narrow that only "bump races can be rowed on it. We pass the "backs" great stretches of green lawns that extend along the banks of the river on which are the cricket and football fields and the scores of tennis courts. There are paths beside the little river, as well as beautiful walks across the meadows. The walks are lined with huge spreading lime trees, so old that no one knows when they were planted.

What an inspiring sight it all is! The old walls of the colleges, the winding little Cam on which students are canoeing, the long rows of immense trees, the deep green of the "backs," the dignified professors, walking

1 In a "bump race," the boats are not rowed side by side, but one behind the other. If the boat that starts second is faster than the one that starts first, it may not pass but only "bump" its rival.

A COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

145

about in their caps and gowns, the many graceful bridges across the stream, the massive towers and turrets - all make a picture that we shall not soon forget. We decide that the university is more beautiful than Oxford, although the city of Cambridge itself is not so attractive as her rival.

In the afternoon, we drive two miles to Girton — one of the two colleges here for women. We ride along a smooth road, first built by the Romans. On either side of us are beautiful homes and gardens. As we enter the wellkept grounds of Girton College, we see before us a series of long low buildings, of red brick-a most attractive sight.

When we are conducted through the buildings, we see that every student has a sitting-room and bedroom to herself. In the reading-room we find our own Vassar College paper with other magazines on the tables. In the library we see books containing the autographs of such authors as Tennyson, George Eliot, and many others who presented their works to the college. Unlike the university, Girton College is new-only a little more than twenty-five years old! In that time, the Girton students have taken many of the honors in the Cambridge University examinations. Of these honors, one hundred and ninety-two were in mathematics. Think of that when you hear some one say girls are not good in that subject!

The students of Girton attend the university lectures, but Cambridge does not give them any degrees, for, like Oxford, Cambridge is only for men. Some of the Scotch or Irish colleges, however, do grant degrees when the course at Girton is completed.

The woman who has conducted our party inquires when we enter our carriages, " Are American girls fond

of outdoor sports? Our girls are as fond of tennis and hockey as they are of their books."

What do you think our reply was?

Our party is once more divided when we depart from Cambridge the following day. The girls and their mothers wish to visit some of the cathedral towns and go to the Lake District in the Cumbrian Hills where Wordsworth once lived.

The boys, however, prefer to go to some of the busy cities in the north. For a time we will journey with them.

Our first visit is at Rugby, where Tom Brown (his real name was Hughes) went to school. Indeed, we find

trait of Dr. Arnold, once headmaster of Rugby and one of the greatest teachers England ever had. What a strong

yet tender expression he had! No wonder the boys loved him as they did. He tried to make every one do his best.

Rugby pleases us more than any English school we have seen, perhaps because it reminds us more of our

own schools. It is both old and new. It tries to keep all that was good in the old, and at the same time to gain what is best in the new. We are informed that each year, for the past five years, twice as many Rugby boys have won scholarships, when they have gone up to Oxford or Cambridge, as have the boys from any other school in England.

Our driver has come for us, so we start at once for the station. What an attractive little town Rugby is, we think, as we ride through its clean, well-kept streets, with their fine houses, each one of which has a little flower garden in front. A high brick wall shuts out some

of the houses from our view, yet we know that these houses, if we could see them, would look very inviting.

We are impressed, too, by the station at Rugby - an immense structure. One can take a train here for almost any part of England. As we give our driver his fee, we inquire: "Are the Rugby people interested in the school?"

"Yezzir," he proudly replies. "The lads are all fine

fellows. They are honest and true. If a boy is not like that, he is sent home, sir."

Soon we are riding swiftly eastward toward the coast. We pass through Norfolk, which we recall is the county where the north folk lived, just as the county south of us, Suffolk, was the home of the south folk years ago.

We stop for a little while at Harwich, on the coast, and visit the docks from which lines of boats daily depart for Hamburg or the Hook of Holland or Antwerp. It seems to us that the traffic between England and