Oxford is the one place in Europe where a man may do anything, however eccentric, and arouse no interest or emotion at all

Oxford is the one place in Europe where a man may do anything, however eccentric, and arouse no interest or emotion at all. In what other city, Cadogan asked himself, remembering his undergraduate days, could one address to a policeman a discourse on epistemology in the witching hours of the night, and be received with neither indignation nor suspicion?

E. Crispin, The Moving Toyshop (1946), 9

Anyone worthy of admission to the university would already be fluent in French

But ever since the decline of Latin, French had been the language of cultivated cosmopolitan elites – and thus the European language par excellence. When, in the early years of the twentieth century, it was first proposed to introduce the teaching of French as part of the modern languages syllabus at Oxford University, more than one don opposed the idea on the plausible grounds that anyone worthy of admission to the university would already be fluent in French.

T. Judt, Postwar (2005), 760

There were more books in Oxford, more people his own age, less dying

All students over sixteen were required to take an oath acknowledging royal supremacy over all questions of religion: but it was thought that a child under sixteen couldn’t be expected to understand the nature of the oath, and therefore the young brothers could live under the radar in Hart Hall, a place with a reputation for nurturing and protecting Catholics. There was less burning in the streets of Oxford than in London (at least since Archbishop Cranmer, condemned by Mary for refusing toe acknowledge papal supremacy, had med a fiery death in 1556). There were more books in Oxford, more people his own age, less dying.


K. Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (2022), 32-33

Epileptic royalty from their villas of exile

This was the first meeting since then, and from all over Europe old members had rallied for the occasion. For two days they had been pouring into Oxford: epileptic royalty from their villas of exile; uncouth peers from crumbling country seats; smooth young men of uncertain tastes from embassies and legations; illiterate lairds from wet granite hovels in the Highlands; ambitious young barristers and Conservative candidates torn from the London season and the indelicate advances of debutantes; all that was most sonorous of name and title was there for the beano.'

E. Waugh, Decline and fall (1928), 9

Winchester, New College, and the Treasury are the three places where they know everything

Anyway you know it all. You were at the Treasury. Winchester, New College, and the Treasury are the three places where they know everything.

A. Wilson, The old men at the zoo (1961), 71

A reservoir for the landed aristocracy, whose sons were inclined to treat college life as a blend of a wine-party and a hunting-box

[Christ Church] stood in particular for two things, each of them narrow, complacent and outworn. First it was held to be a reservoir for the landed aristocracy, whose sons were inclined to treat college life as a blend of a wine-party and a hunting-box, and when they matured translated their college toasts of 'Church and King' into policies defensible in the House of Commons. In sober fact, of course, so far as undergraduates went, till the middle of the last century a second and much larger element were candidates for holy orders, so fulfilling one main purpose of their founders.

...

Certainly for the first half of it [the later nineteenth century] the two elements of Church and Land were so fused and and interpenetrated that they made almost one substance. 

K. Feiling, In Christ Church Hall (1960), 129 [chapter on Edward Bouverie Pusey] 

A job at the Sudan Civil Service, for instance, required either a first-class degree, or a Blue plus a second

Wisden had been among the first to question the true merit of university cricket, removing its traditional list of Oxbridge blues in 1993. Matthew Engel, the editor, was widely condemned; one critic observed he was a "political scientist from Manchester University". But Engel, with some justification, felt the roll call had become the "biggest anachronism in the book". He added: "even the Oxford Mail and Cambridge Evening News stopped sending reporters."

A Blue had once denoted more than a first-class career: it opened doors. A job at the Sudan Civil Service, for instance, required either a first-class degree, or a Blue plus a second - which is how Guy Pawson, Oxford's captain in 1910, got in.

D. Pringle,' 'The end of first-class university cricket', L.Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2021), 116

I fear I should never be a success at Oxford ... I should never talk or drink enough

'I fear I should never be a success at Oxford ... I should never talk or drink enough.' However, by the post-war period, Cambridge was beginning to develop a reputation - unfortunate in Steven's view - for narrower professionalism. Trevor-Roper diagnosed the same disease at Oxford, and was determined to lead the alliance that would purge it.

M. Dinshaw, Outlandish knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runciman (2016), 365

I then measured them by their prowess at sport or taste in Burgundy

We were the usual miscellaneous collection of brains and brawn, and though many of my contemporaries have become famous, illustrious in the Church, Politics and all the Arts, I then measured them by their prowess at sport or taste in Burgundy and remained unimpressed by their mental gymnastics 

A.C. de Wiart, Happy Odyssey (1950), 16

President and sole member, he said, of some seventeen undergraduate social and literary societies

[Thomas] Earp had set himself the task of keeping the Oxford tradition alive through the dead years - as president and sole member, he said, of some seventeen undergraduate social and literary societies. In 1919, still in residence, he handed over the minute-books to the returning university. Most of the societies were then re-formed.

R. Graves, Goodbye to all that (1929), 203-4

Who do you regard as the greatest living historian?

Although Alan [A.J.P. Taylor] was by the 1970s a fairly marginal member of the College, he would always make a point of attending the viva examinations of all the History candidates, asking them in turn the single question, 'Who do you regard as the greatest living historian?' There was never much doubt what Alan's own answer to this question was.

R.W. Johnson, 'Reflections on Magdalen's golden age' Magdalen College Record 2015, 123

Suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited

Modern History was the most popular school in Oxford, regarded as a soft option, suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited.

A. Sisman, Hugh Trevor - Roper: the biography (2010), 35