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The History of the University of Cambridge: Texts and Studies Volume 5
CAMBRIDGE IN THE 1830s THE LETTERS OF ALEXANDER CHISHOLM GOODEN 1831–1841
Alexander Chisholm Gooden (born 1817) went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1836, having previously been educated at the University of London. A glittering academic career beckoned; he was top of the Classical Tripos in 1840, and in the following year went to Germany to read for a Trinity fellowship, but died tragically early from peritonitis after rowing on the Rhine. The 170 letters between Gooden and his family and friends collected in this volume constitute a rich and hitherto unknown source for student life in Cambridge in the 1830s. They cover a wide range of topics: friendships, local politics, accommodation, clothing and bills, the personalities and vagaries of dons, and Gooden’s health. They also give a detailed picture of his career as a student of classics and mathematics, and, after his examination success in 1840, as a private tutor to undergraduates. The differences between Cambridge and London styles of scholarship caused difficulties for Gooden; they offer the reader an unusual and interesting light on his struggle to succeed at Trinity. JONATHAN SMITH is Archivist at Trinity College Library, Cambridge; CHRISTOPHER STRAY is Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Classics, University of Wales, Swansea
The History of the University of Cambridge: Texts and Studies ISSN 0960–2887 General Editor P. N. R. Zutshi Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives Cambridge University Library
1. The University of Cambridge and the English Revolution, 1623–1688, John Twigg 2. Medieval Cambridge: Essays on the Pre-Reformation University, edited by Patrick Zutshi 3. Gentlemen, Scientists and Doctors: Medicine at Cambridge 1800–1940, Mark Weatherall 4. Teaching and Learning in Nineteenth-Century Cambridge, edited by Jonathan Smith and Christopher Stray
CAMBRIDGE IN THE 1830s THE LETTERS OF ALEXANDER CHISHOLM GOODEN 1831–1841
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604–4126, USA website: www.boydell.co.uk A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gooden, Alexander Chisholm, 1817–1841. Cambridge in the 1830s : the letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden, 1831–1841 / edited by Jonathan Smith and Christopher Stray. p. cm. – (The history of the University of Cambridge. Texts and studies, ISSN 0960–2887) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–84383–010–8 (alk. paper) 1. Gooden, Alexander Chisholm, 1817–1841 – Correspondence. 2. Classical philology – Study and teaching – England – Cambridge – History – 19th century. 3. Trinity College (University of Cambridge) – Students – Correspondence. 4. Cambridge (England) – Intellectual life – 19th century. 5. University of Cambridge – Students – Correspondence. 6. Classicists – Great Britain – Correspondence. I. Smith, Jonathan, 1961– II. Stray, Christopher. III. Cambridge University Library. IV. Title. V. Series. PA85.G635A4 2003 480′.092 – dc21 2003008125
This publication is printed on acid-free paper Typeset by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
vi
Introduction Christopher Stray
1
Editorial note
18
THE LETTERS Youth, 1831–36 letters 1–22
19
Freshman, 1836–37 letters 23–54
50
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 letters 55–79
100
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 letters 80–107
131
Alexander Gooden BA, 1840–41 letters 108–64
165
Epilogue letters 165–70
215
Index
221
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our thanks are due to the following: For allowing reproduction: The Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; Pam and Ruari Chisholm; Dr. David Wykes, Director of Dr. Williams’s Library. For advice and help: Jacky Cox, Christian Gehrke, Heinz Kurz, David McKitterick and Patrick Zutshi. Special thanks are due to John Pickles, for detailed help with annotation, and to Pam and Ruari Chisholm, for their generous hospitality.
Alexander Chisholm Gooden. A pencil sketch by his brother James Chisholm Gooden, c. 1835. Reproduced by permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge.
INTRODUCTION
Most of the 170 letters in this volume1 come from the last six years of the life of Alexander Gooden, who died in 1841 aged twenty-three, when on the point of returning from Germany to England to sit the fellowship examination at Trinity College, Cambridge. After several years at the new University of London, he had entered Trinity as an undergraduate in 1836, and graduated as Senior Classic (top of the first class in the Classical Tripos) in 1840. In the Trinity fellowship examination of that year he failed to gain a place, but was confidently expected to succeed in 1841. Instead, he contracted peritonitis after rowing on the Rhine in August of that year, and died shortly afterwards. Gooden’s letters offer a unique insight into student life in Cambridge in the 1830s. The topics discussed range from college social life, the virtues and defects of dons, examinations and candidates, local elections and social events to the decoration and furnishing of rooms, the washing of shirts and his own health (he suffered from constipation). Gooden wrote for the most part separately to his father and to his mother. The added perspective this provides is enhanced by their letters to him, which are also preserved; and by correspondence between Gooden and his friends, college tutors and coaches. More will be said about this below; suffice it to say at this point that this corpus of letters deserves to take its place as a major primary source of information on student life in nineteenth-century Cambridge, together with Charles Bristed’s Five Years in an English University (1852).2 Family and upbringing Alexander Chisholm Gooden was born on 4 April 1818, the second son of James Gooden and his wife Mary, née Chisholm, who had married in 1812. Soon afterwards they moved to London, and in 1826 bought one of the seventeen grand new houses built by Thomas Cubitt on the west side of Tavistock Square.3 Tavistock Square was a very respectable address. At the time of the 1841 census, the Goodens had three servants; their neighbours the Lamberts at no. 32, with three children, had five.4 No. 39 was occupied from 1832 to 1846 by Sir Thomas Platt, baron of the exchequer 1 2 3 4
The letters are referred to in this introduction by their numbers: (1)–(170). C. A. Bristed, Five Years in an English University, 2 vols (New York, 1852); 2nd edn 1852, 3rd edn 1872. Bristed, a Yale graduate, was at Trinity from 1845 to 1850. Cubitt’s son Thomas went up to St John’s in 1838, and migrated to Trinity in 1839 (80). Charles Dickens lived on the east side of Tavistock Square in the 1860s. No. 33 now carries a plaque commemorating the brief residence there of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan; in the centre of the Square is a statue of Jinnah’s great opponent Mahatma Gandhi.
2 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden 1845–6.5 Before they married, both James and Mary Gooden had led interesting lives. James Gooden was born in 1773, a descendant of a well-known Lancashire Catholic family who had once owned Gooden Hall at Pendleton, near Bolton.6 It is not clear where he was educated, but he probably attended one of several small Catholic schools in the region.7 James Gooden had travelled in France and Germany, as is clear from his comments to Alexander during the latter’s fateful journey to Germany in 1841 (156). But the fortune which enabled him to live the life of a leisured gentleman had been amassed in Lisbon, where he had traded as a young man. The success of the English Factory in the late eighteenth century had been largely due to trading in Brazilian cotton as well as bullion; and we know that James Gooden sailed to Brazil, since in 1814 he brought back books and manuscripts from that country and took them to Robert Southey, who was then engaged on his History of Brazil.8 Nor was Southey his only literary contact; in 1820 he invited Coleridge to spend an ‘Attic evening’ with a Harmony Society to which he belonged. Coleridge’s letter of refusal noted that the society consisted largely of merchants.9 James Gooden’s religion meant that he was unable to matriculate at Oxford or to graduate at Cambridge. However he gained his education, it is clear that he was a well-read and educated man. We gain a glimpse of this from one of his several appearances in the diaries of Henry Crabb Robinson. On 21 May 1842, Gooden dined at Robinson’s house, the other guests including Wordsworth. Listing his guests, Robinson described Gooden as ‘an elderly gentleman, long an admirer of Wordsworth and a good scholar; of which he gave me a proof in turning into Latin verse, “As the laurel protects the forehead from lightning, so the mitre the forehead of bishops from shame.” ’10 The seating plan for another of Robinson’s dinners includes Gooden, Augustus De Morgan and Frederick Denison Maurice.11 Robinson and Gooden probably first met at the Athenaeum; they both belonged to the first group of members elected to the club by its founders in 1824, as did James Gooden’s medical adviser,
5 6 7 8
9
10
11
His son Charles went up to Trinity in 1840 (127). Francis W. Pixley, ‘The Chisholm’, The Genealogical Magazine 35 (March 1900), pp. 475–8. Pixley adds helpfully, ‘By tradition the Goodens are descended from Tostig.’ His name does not appear in the few surviving registers of Catholic schools, which Maurice Whitehead kindly arranged to be checked. H. E. S. Fisher, ‘Lisbon, its English merchant community and the Mediterranean in the eighteenth century’, in P. L. Cotterell and D. H. Aldcroft, eds, Shipping, Trade and Commerce (Leicester, 1981), pp. 23–44; A. R. Walford, The British Factory in Lisbon & its Closing Stages Ensuing upon the Treaty of 1810 (Lisbon, 1940); K. Curry, ed., New Letters of Robert Southey (New York, 1965), vol. 2, pp. 102–3: letter of 10 July 1814. Southey refers to having met Gooden in Lisbon; this will have been during his visit there in 1796. Coleridge to Gooden, 14 January 1820: E. L. Griggs, ed., Collected Letters of S. T. Coleridge, vol. 5 (Oxford, 1971), pp. 13–15 (original in Dr. Williams’s Library). Gooden is also referred to in C. Woodring, ed., Coleridge’s Table Talk (London, 1990), vol. 1, p. 172; K. Coburn and M. Christensen, eds, The Notebooks of S. T. Coleridge, vol. 4 (London, 1990), p. 4638. The society’s name may be connected with Coleridge’s view of his philosophy as a ‘harmony’ incorporating all others (Table Talk, vol. 1, p. 248). Gooden was a keen reader of Kantian philosophy (79, 127). H. C. Robinson, Diaries, Reminiscences, and Correspondence, sel. and ed. T. Sadler, 3 vols, 2nd edn (London, 1869), vol. 3, p. 200. Gooden is also referred to at vol. 2, p. 403 (1829) and vol. 3, p. 41 (1834). Robinson, Diaries, vol. 3, pp. 480–1.
Introduction 3 William Prout.12 Gooden was a firm Tory in politics, and his letters to Alexander demonstrate his keen interest and involvement in both municipal and national politics (e.g. 44). James Gooden died on 24 April 1851, aged seventy-seven.13 Crabb Robinson clearly knew Alexander Gooden quite well, since he recorded in his diary in 1841 that Alexander Gooden . . . died during this year. He was second son of James Gooden, of Tavistock Square, and one of the most remarkable and interesting young men I have ever known. He died suddenly, on the Continent, from inflammation, occasioned by rowing on the Rhine. His attainments were so extraordinary, that when Donaldson, of University College, was a candidate for the mastership of Bury School, Alexander Gooden, then an undergraduate, was thought fit to sign a testimonial in his favour. His modesty and his sensibility were equal to his learning.14 Mary Chisholm, also a Catholic, was born in 1781 into the leading family of Clan Chisholm, whose ancestral seat was at Erchless Castle, in the valley of Strathglass near Inverness. As a young woman she played an important part, along with her mother, in resisting the expulsion of tenants from the Chisholm estates, at a time when other leading members of the Clan were keen to sell land to English speculators. Hence she features as something of a heroine in the standard histories of Clan Chisholm.15 One of the three men who arranged Bonnie Prince Charlie’s escape, who had shaken hands with the Prince and sworn never so to use that hand again, was nevertheless willing to shake hands with her. She brought to her marriage with James Gooden in 1812 a substantial dowry, and on her mother’s death in January 1826 inherited from her.16 It may not be coincidental that it was in that year that the Goodens bought their new house at 33 Tavistock Square. Alexander’s elder brother James Chisholm Gooden was born in 1817. He and Alexander both attended the new London University, but it is clear from their records, and from the report of the tutor who coached boys in mathematics (15), that he was not the academic star his younger brother was. James’s talents lay less in academic learning than in art, and he became a professional artist, learning his craft from George
12
13 14
15 16
Prout was a physician and chemist of some distinction (see Dictionary of National Biography). In 1816 he had established that the excrement of the boa constrictor is 95 per cent uric acid; in 1823 he discovered that the human stomach contains free hydrochloric acid. His expertise on digestion will have made him a valuable adviser for James Gooden, who was much concerned about digestive ailments (35). Sarah Dodgson, Librarian of the Athenaeum, kindly provided a copy of the historical register of members. Gentleman’s Magazine 35 (1851), p. 680. A copy of Gooden’s will is preserved in the Family Records Centre, London; it does not record the value of his estate. Robinson, Diaries, vol. 3, p. 192. J. W. Donaldson (1811–61), fellow of Trinity, who taught Gooden in his final year at Cambridge, was appointed headmaster of King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, in 1841. Robinson misunderstood the situation – Gooden will have been asked for a testimonial, not as a mature scholar but as an ex-pupil, one who had achieved the rank of Senior Classic. Donaldson is discussed below. A. Mackenzie, History of the Chisholms; with Genealogies of the Principal Families of the Name (Inverness, 1891), which is dedicated to Mary Chisholm. This is still the basic account, though often inaccurate in detail. In January 1825 her resources totalled nearly £7500; she inherited just over £1000 from her mother in the following year (Memorandum of Mrs Gooden’s property, January 1825; Book of accounts, 1826, Chisholm family papers).
4 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden Chambers, with whom he travelled in the late 1830s in search of subjects (44, 94). James specialised in marine subjects, and was eventually given the official commission for a survey of part of the Thames.17 He exhibited at the Royal Academy on three occasions between 1835 and 1865, but never achieved more than minor success.18 After his parents’ death, however, he was in little need of this, since he received a large annuity which enabled him to live in style at 33 Tavistock Square.19 James married the girl next door, Anne Elizabeth Lambert, on 10 April 1851, two weeks before his father died.20 In 1887 his son Roderick Chisholm Gooden changed his name to Gooden-Chisholm and assumed the title of Chisholm of Chisholm; the present head of Clan Chisholm is a direct descendant.21 The picture of family relationships we gain from the letters between Gooden and his parents is one of relaxed affection, within the formal rules of Victorian parent-child etiquette. Gooden often uses his family nickname ‘Stumpy’ or ‘Stump’ in signing his letters. He uses it to both his mother (41) and his father (43), and both use it to address him (44, 94). The nickname presumably indicates that he was short of stature. The difference between his letters to James and to Mary Gooden is a conventional one. His father is given accounts of the curriculum, financial transactions and the ways of dons, and advises on reading and examination strategies; he negotiates with his mother about home visits and washing. Both, however, are consulted and reported to on Alexander’s health, especially on the constipation from which he suffered. A vein of what we should now regard as hypochondria runs through the letters, and James Gooden more than once sends advice on treatment and prescriptions; some of the latter coming from William Prout. A pleasant insight into the internal dynamics of the family is provided by the occasional teasing remark about Mary Gooden. In a cheerful and high-spirited letter of August 1838 (77), Alexander ends by sending his love to his father, his brother and ‘the Old Scotch Woman’; this probably refers to a self-deprecating remark made by his mother. Again, in a letter of July 1837 (44), James Gooden tells his son that Your Mother has been making a Forenoon Cake at the Mansion House . . . and was so graciously received by the Lady Mayoress, that she talked of nothing else
17
18
19 20
21
J. C. Gooden, Thames and Medway Admiralty Surveys. A Letter to the Members of the Select Committee of the House of Commons Appointed to Inquire into and Report upon the Basin and Dock Accommodation of the Royal Dockyards (London, 1864). For his painting, see A. Wilson, A Dictionary of British Marine Painters (Leigh-on-Sea, 1967), p. 37; A. Russett, George Chambers 1803–40, his Life and Work. The Sailor’s Eye and the Artist’s Hand (Woodbridge, 1996), pp. 118, 142, 159, 171. A surviving sketch book in the Chisholm family papers includes drafts which make it clear that the drawing of Alexander Gooden reproduced as the frontispiece is by James. James was close enough to Chambers for the latter to christen one of his daughters ‘Emily Gooding’ (James was known to Chambers as ‘Gooding’: Russett, George Chambers, p. 171). The 1881 census shows him and his wife and son living at this address with five servants (his parents had had three). Gentleman’s Magazine 35 (1851), p. 659: James Chisholm Gooden married Anne Elizabeth Lambert at Mortlake on 10 April. Gooden senior’s death on the 24th was recorded on p. 680. For James Chisholm Gooden, see Mackenzie, History, p. 133. The Lamberts had been engaged in the wine trade in Oporto since the 1730s (information from Mr J. Sweetman). See further [E. G. Hayes], Some Account of the Family of Lambert of Woodmansterne, Bansted, and Other Places in the County of Surrey. Compiled from Family Papers, Title Deeds, &c. by a Surrey Antiquary (London, 1886). Anne Lambert’s second name is wrongly given as Maud on p. 6. In the 1920s and 1930s most of the Gooden-Chisholms abandoned the Gooden element in their surnames. This information, like much else, is owed to Ruari Chisholm.
Introduction 5 for some days; nor is the subject quite exhausted yet. Indeed I would caution you to mind your ps and qs. In negotiating with his father on matters of finance and strategy (for example, the choice of expensive rooms in January 1838 (60)), Gooden manages to combine a clear statement of his preference, and arguments for sticking to it, with expressions of deference. The final decision is left to his father, who is however left in no doubt what Alexander prefers. The faith of the Goodens Something needs to be said of the role of religion in the life of the Goodens. In particular, there is a major puzzle about the nature of their beliefs. Both James and Mary Gooden had been brought up as Catholics, yet there is almost no reference in the letters to religious belief or practice, to priests, or to churches.22 Of the three references to Catholicism, one is to Catholic controversy as a subject of Gooden’s conversations with his closest friend, Robert Jenkins (39).23 A second comes in a letter from Alexander Gooden regretting that he cannot get back home from Cambridge in time to dine with ‘the Bishop’ (97). He adds, ‘I hope my mother does not intend to convert Vigurs24 into a Roman Catholic; religious flirtations are dangerous and she must take care she does not burn her fingers again. Finally, writing to Jenkins (now an Anglican priest) from Bonn in 1841, Gooden remarks jokingly that with his Catholic family he may pass for an English infidel [sc. in a protestant country] (158). At Trinity, he went to chapel as a matter of course, and gives no hint that he has any reservations about joining in Anglican services. Writing to his father in his first term, he remarks that he prefers morning chapel to the evening service, as it leaves his evenings free (23). In his reply (26), James Gooden enquires ‘Does the mor attendance exempt you from the Evening? Or is it optional? If so and you persevere for conscience’ sake, it will reward you with the feeling of moral approbation . . .’ It is also notable how matterof-fact and detached are Alexander’s comments on the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Undergraduates. This was formed in 1838 in response to an edict from the Master, Christopher Wordsworth, increasing the weekly number of compulsory chapel attendances from six to eight. The Society counted the attendance record of the fellows of Trinity and circulated the results each week in February and March, awarding mockpunishments to the worst offenders. Their campaign proved effective, as the circular for the week ending 24 March reported that the Master and Seniors had agreed to return to the previous requirement of six chapels.25 Gooden’s brief account begins ‘The 22 23
24 25
Can anything be read into James’s apparently anti-ecclesiastical Latin version, reported by Crabb Robinson? (See note 10 above.) The two probably met at the University of London, where Jenkins was in the year below Gooden. Jenkins was admitted as a pensioner at Trinity on 18 February 1834; BA 1841; MA 1844. He was ordained deacon in 1841 and priest in 1842. He spent the rest of his life as a parish priest and died in 1896, but found time to write a large number of theological works. He was appointed honorary Canon of Canterbury in 1869, and honorary curator of Lambeth Palace Library in 1881. His second son, born in 1867, was named Alexander, presumably after Gooden. A fellow student at Trinity: see Gooden’s first letter home (23). For the SPCU, see W. W. Rouse Ball, Cambridge Notes, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1921), pp. 59–69; and for the wider context, D. A. Winstanley, Early Victorian Cambridge (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 388–94;
6 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden undergraduates are in a state of considerable ferment . . . Placards and bills containing satirical verses . . . have been extensively posted up and circulated in the College; and worst of all a Society calling themselves “The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Undergraduates” has issued printed circulars with a record of the number of chapels kept by the dons themselves in each week.’ (62) These are hardly the words of one who chafed at either the Anglican or the compulsory nature of college chapel. The education of Stumpy Alexander Gooden began his schooling at home, taught by his father. As his mother recalled after his death, though the pupil was precocious, the teacher was at times impatient. Several years after his brother’s death, James asked his mother if Alexander had ever been beaten by their father, as he himself had been. She replied I now remember that when about 4 years old when learning the Classics, I came home one day, and found my darling rolling over the carpet, in an agony of grief, & drowned in tears, his Father had beaten him, and gone quickly across the way to the Institution [i.e. the London University] & left this blessed one, who only wished to make friends with him. On another occasion on returning home, I found the dear one in great distress, his Father as a mark of his anger, having deprived him of the key of the Square, his great privilege, & beaten him with his own stick, a present from Mr Slater; when I examined his back, his dear plump fair shoulders, which I had so often kissed with fondness was [sic] all in ruts.26 The exercise book into which Mary Gooden pasted this note ends with another reminiscence of Alexander’s early lessons: Alexander . . . between five and six years was learning Greek & Latin – On occasion of his Father becoming impatient with his juvenile pupil, the gentle & amiable Child appealed to him, in his amiable manner, with ‘Papa you should remember I am but a very little boy, and cannot know as much as you do, and have patience with me.’ Later on, Alexander was sent to a private school run by Dr Povah in Burton Crescent, and in 1829 he was enrolled at the new London University School, then housed at 16 Gower Street. This had been founded as an integral part of the ‘godless college’, but during its rather shaky early years was, surprisingly, run by clerical headmasters. In January 1832 the school was moved to the university buildings and placed in the care of two of the university’s professors, Thomas Hewitt Key (Latin)27
26 27
P. Searby, History of the University of Cambridge, vol. 3: 1780–1870 (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 258–76; V. H. H. Green, Religion at Oxford and Cambridge (London, 1964), pp. 230–4. The SPCU papers are in Trinity College Library, C 13 60–64. Mary Gooden to James Chisholm Gooden, 13 March 1849, ‘Reminiscences of the 1841’ [sic], Trinity College Library. Thomas Hewitt Key, admitted to St John’s 1816, migrated to Trinity 1819, elected Scholar 1819 BA 1821 (19th Wrangler), MA 1824; Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University at Virginia; Professor of Latin, University of London 1828–42; Professor of Comparative Grammar 1842–75; Joint Head Master of University College School 1832–42, Head Master 1842–75.
Introduction 7 and Henry Malden (Greek).28 In 1831, now aged thirteen, young Gooden transferred to the university classes. He won the Latin and Greek prizes for both junior (1831) and senior (1832) classes, and a French prize in 1833. He was now fifteen, and his parents presumably thought him too young to go away to university; though in a letter to his friend Robert Jenkins in 1833 (5) Gooden suggests that the University of Bonn was being considered. He was therefore coached, in mathematics by Augustus De Morgan, the university’s Professor of Mathematics, who had resigned in 1831, typically on a matter of principle,29 and in classics by George Long,30 Malden’s predecessor as Professor of Greek, who had resigned his chair in the same year to edit the Quarterly Journal of Education.31 In addition, both brothers were tutored in geometry between 1831 and 1835 by George Gillespie, who may have been one of the masters in the University School (2, 15).32 Alexander Gooden at Cambridge Cambridge in 1836 was a small and in some ways introspective world. Especially in the two largest colleges, Trinity and St John’s, a student’s daily round in term time might largely be confined to college bounds, except for walking, boating and such university events as examinations and degree ceremonies. The Cambridge Union Society, which had been suppressed in 1817, was allowed to resume its debates in 1821. This permission had come from Christopher Wordsworth, Master of Trinity, who was then Vice Chancellor of the university, on condition that no events of the twenty years before a debate should be discussed. This restriction had been abandoned by the time of the 1832 Reform Bill, and debates were actively pursued.33 There are only two references to the Union in the letters: in 1836, Gooden reports that his friend Spankie is ‘a great man at the Union’ (27), and in November 1839, he mentions that there is
28
29
30
31
32 33
Henry Malden, admitted to Trinity 1817, elected scholar 1821; BA 1822, MA 1825; Chancellor’s Classical Medal 1822; elected Fellow 1824; Professor of Greek at University College London 1831–76. For this stage in the school’s history, see J. K. Usher, An Angel Without Wings (London, 1981), p. 15. Augustus De Morgan, admitted to Trinity 1823; elected Scholar 1826; BA 1827 (4th Wrangler); did not proceed to the degree of MA or contest a Fellowship owing to a refusal to subscribe to the thirtynine articles; Professor of Mathematics at London University 1828–31; Professor of Mathematics at University College London 1836–66, resigning twice on matters of principle; first President of the Mathematical Society. De Morgan was an influential teacher, historian of mathematics and pioneer of mathematical logic. George Long, admitted to St John’s 1818; migrated to Trinity in the same year; BA 1822 (30th Wrangler), MA 1825; 1st Chancellor’s Classical Medal 1822; Fellow 1823–27; Professor of Ancient Languages at the University of Virginia 1824–28; Professor of Greek 1828–31 and Latin 1842–46 at University College London; Classical Lecturer at Brighton College 1849–71. Much of his money had been lost in the USA by a spendthrift son, and his teaching salary was reduced when Brighton College ran into financial difficulties. He was saved from penury by a Civil List pension given by Gladstone, and died in 1879. Long was widely respected as a classical scholar during his lifetime. He was very versatile, publishing on ancient geography and on Roman law as well as producing editions of Greek and Roman authors and a history of the Roman Republic; his best known work was a translation of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. See H. C. Mathews, In Memoriam: George Long (Brighton, 1879). This was published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK), a reforming body founded by Henry Brougham and his allies. The SDUK’s Penny Cyclopaedia (27 vols, 1833–43) was also edited by Long. Gillespie was the author of a Greek grammar (1842) and a key to William Smith’s Principia Latina, Part III (1864). Winstanley, Early Victorian Cambridge, pp. 26–8.
8 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden no need to send him newspapers, as he is now a member (106). Evidently he used the Society’s library and reading room, but there is no suggestion that he attended debates. Gooden’s letters to his father include accounts of local elections and political campaigning, but he seems not to have participated in such activity, though in 1839, at least, there was vigorous discussion in Hall: ‘We have a good Tory knot at our table where we discuss the election moves with great zest every day’ (97). Though small by modern standards, the university was now larger than it had been at the beginning of the century. The rate of admissions had risen steadily from then until the mid-1820s, when it levelled off at a rate a little above that of Oxford; the annual intake now stood at over 400, twice the rate it had been in 1800. Increased student numbers had prompted the building of additional college accommodation, not just to house students but to promote discipline. The social and political alarms of the revolutionary era, and in the 1830s of the Reform Bill and its associated debates, had strengthened both conservative and radical convictions, and both these and more moderate positions were represented in Trinity College.34 The Master, Christopher Wordsworth, was a conservative in university affairs, though he was willing to contemplate mild reform in order to avoid more radical change. Within Trinity his autocratic tendencies led him into conflict with both fellows and undergraduates in the 1830s.35 Trinity College played a leading part in the life of the university. This was not just because of its sheer size (its undergraduate body making up almost a third of that of the university as a whole). A series of reforms beginning in the 1780s had led to its fellows being selected by rigorous examination, where in some colleges favouritism and sectarian religious belief played a large part in their appointment.36 The results were soon apparent in classics, where the Trinity dons James Monk (Regius Professor of Greek 1810–23), Charles Blomfield and Peter Dobree (Regius Professor of Greek 1823–5) were among the leading scholars in the country. After the death in 1808 of their teacher and inspirer Richard Porson, also a fellow of the college, they strove to emulate his scholarship, and Monk and Blomfield produced an influential classical journal, the Museum Criticum (1813–23).37 The regular examination of undergraduates began in 1790, and this too must have encouraged the development of a more rigorous approach to learning in at least some students. In 1831 numerical marking was introduced in the Trinity examinations, thus permitting both a finely nuanced gradation of marks and comparison between successive years.38
34 35
36 37 38
The range of opinions is surveyed by Searby, History, pp. 444–71. For his differences with the assistant tutor Connop Thirlwall, which led to the latter’s leaving Trinity, see Winstanley, Early Victorian Cambridge, pp. 75–8; for his unsuccessful attempt to extend compulsory chapel attendance, see above on the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Undergraduates. The moderate conservatism of his policy toward the Union Society is mentioned above. Some of his actions might be ascribed in part to his constant battle with constipation, recorded in his diary – this was an affliction he shared with Gooden. See R. Robson, ‘Trinity College in the age of Peel’, in R. Robson, ed., Ideas and Institutions of Victorian Britain (London, 1967), pp. 313–35. For the journal and its successor the Philological Museum, see C. A. Stray, ‘From one Museum to another’, Victorian Periodicals Newsletter (2004, forthcoming). J. Smith, ‘Trinity College annual examinations in the nineteenth century’, in J. Smith and C. A. Stray, eds, Teaching and Learning in Nineteenth-Century Cambridge (Woodbridge, 2001), pp. 122–38; and for the history of marking schemes, C. A. Stray, ‘The shift from oral to written examination: Cambridge and Oxford 1700–1900’, Assessment in Education 8.1 (2001), pp. 33–50.
Introduction 9 Gooden at Trinity Alexander Gooden arrived at Trinity College on 16 October 1836, having been on the college books as pensioner (paying student) in January of that year.39 The college was a predictable choice: Alexander Chisholm, who succeeded as The Chisholm in 1828, had been there as a student, having had a fellow of Trinity as his private tutor while at Eton (1822–25). More importantly, however, there were close links between Trinity and the London University. All the professors who taught Gooden – Thomas Key, George Long, Henry Malden and Augustus De Morgan – had been fellows of the college; the first two having come to London via Virginia, where they had held chairs at Jefferson’s new university.40 At Trinity, Gooden came into contact with several dons in his chosen subject, classics. John Wordsworth, the austere son of the Master and nephew of the poet, was reputed to be the best scholar in the college;41 he was George Long’s first recommendation for classical coaching but was not available (34). Gooden was therefore booked in with Thomas Burcham, whose failure to attend chapel services did not endear him to the senior fellows, who refused to support his application for ordination (106).42 In recommending Burcham as a coach, his tutor Thomas Thorp43 had cautioned Gooden about his moral character (33). In 1839 Gooden went instead to the eccentric and arrogant John William Donaldson, with whom he got on very well (82). His first encounter, however, was with Thomas Thorp. The college was divided into three ‘sides’, each run by a tutor who employed lecturers to conduct college teaching.44 When Gooden arrived, these sides were run by Thorp, George Peacock and William Whewell (who in 1840 became Master of Trinity). Peacock’s side was the largest and thought to have most of the best men (24), and in addition Thorp was widely regarded as a bumbler of little intellectual distinction. In a memorial book Mary Gooden sent to Alexander’s friend R. L. Ellis45 in 1849, she remembered that ‘Mr Long was confounded to find his distinguished and favorite pupil placed under archdeacon Thorp’s surveillance, as he said he very much regretted he should, as Thorp was the greatest noddy he ever knew, and marvelled how he [had] such a position’.46 Nevertheless Thorp was basically a kindhearted man, as well as being honest enough to confess his own shortcomings (120); and on one occasion Gooden, usually dismissive, conceded that Thorp ‘spoke with more good sense than I gave him credit for possessing’ (68).
39
40 41 42 43
44 45 46
The date is one of several observed by his mother after his death in a series of memorial books. His first letter home (23) was written on 23 October. He matriculated on 14 November (University Matriculation Register, Cambridge University Archives, Matr. 16). On the ‘Cambridge group’ at University College London – Key, Long, De Morgan and Malden – see H. H. Bellot, University College London 1826–1926 (London, 1929), pp. 80–93. John Wordsworth, elder son of Christopher Wordsworth, Master of Trinity, admitted to Trinity 1823; Bell Scholar 1825, Porson Prize 1827; BA 1828, MA 1831; Fellow 1830–39. For Burcham see below, p. 67. In the SPCU’s tabulation of chapel attendance, Burcham and Benjamin Walsh, another fellow disapproved of by the senior fellows, had both scored zero. Thomas Thorp, admitted to Trinity 1814; elected Scholar 1817; BA 1819 (8th Wrangler), MA 1822, BD 1842; Chancellor’s Classical Medal 1819, Members’ Prize 1820, 1821; elected Fellow 1820, Assistant Tutor 1822–34, Junior Dean 1829–32, Senior Dean 1832–36, Tutor 1833–44, Vice Master 1843–44; Archdeacon and Chancellor of Bristol 1836–73. The undergraduate body had been divided into two sides in 1755; the third was added in 1822. Robert Leslie Ellis, admitted to Trinity 1834; elected Scholar 1838; BA 1840 (Senior Wrangler and 1st Smith’s Prizeman), MA 1843; Fellow 1840–49; editor of the Cambridge Mathematical Journal; died 1859. Trinity College Library, Add. MS a 223/54.
10 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden Friendships In a small college, an undergraduate might become familiar with most or all of his fellow-students. In Trinity, by some way the largest college in Cambridge, he was more likely to form a group of friends within the larger body. The etiquette of the day discouraged casual friendships, and Gooden several times discussed with his parents the proper course of action in cases where other students might or not be ‘known’ to him socially. At times, he felt obliged to defend his willingness to accept an introduction (63). On other occasions, he was offered introductions but preferred not to take them up (7). His own circle of friends came from three main sources. Some of them he knew from his early days at school, including his oldest friend, Robert Jenkins. Gooden’s earliest letter to Jenkins dates back to 1835, when he was fifteen; a series of letters gives us a good glimpse of their friendship (3–12). Others he seems to have met on holidays in his mother’s home country in the north of Scotland (e.g. Charles Stewart of Belladrum: 13–14, 19–21).47 Finally, he became friendly with some of his fellowstudents at Trinity, including Tom Taylor,48 later editor of Punch, Robert Leslie Ellis (Senior Wrangler 1840), and Edmund Law, who accompanied him on his last journey in 1841, and broke the news of Gooden’s death to his parents.49 Writing to Mary Gooden in March 1842, Tom Taylor listed those of her son’s friends who had been most active in trying to have a memorial erected in the college chapel: ‘Jenkins, Lawrence, Cockburn, Mansfield, Mate, Walton, Ellis, Law and myself’ (168).50 Apart from Mansfield, whose name occurs only here, all these names will become familiar to the reader of the letters.51 Rooms and lodgings In his first year, Gooden lodged in Jesus Lane with William Porcher and his wife Sybinea. He found his rooms comfortable and the Porchers obliging (24, 30), and refused an offer of rooms in college from Thorp in January 1837 (30).52 In the long vacation of that year, however, he moved temporarily into college rooms vacated by a fellow commoner.53 The rooms were a revelation in terms of size and comfort, but Gooden suffered from the decline into madness of Richard Stevenson, a fellow who had an adjacent room and whose ravings were clearly audible through the thin party wall.54
47 48
49 50 51 52 53 54
Charles Edward Stewart, University of London 1834–35; admitted to Trinity 1836; entered the East India Company 1837; died 1840 at Bombay. Tom Taylor, matriculated at Glasgow University 1832, admitted at Trinity 1836; elected Scholar 1838; BA 1840 (5th Classic), MA 1843; elected Fellow 1842; Professor of English Literature and Language at London University 1845–47; editor of Punch 1874–80. Edmund Law, admitted at Trinity 1835; scholar, 1839; BA 1840, MA 1843, admitted at the Inner Temple 3 June 1843; called to the Bar 5 June 1846; died in 1867. Taylor himself acted as executor for James Gooden. Information on those listed who have not already been described will be found on their first appearance in the letters. ‘Mansfield’ was probably Horatio Mansfield, admitted to Trinity from Eton in 1838. Gooden kept in touch with the Porchers after he went into college in his second year; after his death, his parents took them to see his grave in Highgate Cemetery (170). Fellow Commoners were affluent students, usually aristocratic, who dined with the fellows at high table. Richard Stevenson, admitted at Trinity in 1829; scholar, 1832; BA (3rd Wrangler) 1834, MA 1837; Fellow 1835.
Introduction 11 Gooden was forced to sleep in a friend’s room temporarily. When his condition abated, Stevenson was taken home by his friends (44, 46). Almost immediately, however, Gooden began to suffer from noise within his own rooms: the product of violent arguments between a fellow-student, Forbes, and Tom Taylor, who unlike the rest of their circle pursued Forbes in argument rather than avoiding him. Their ‘talking and screaming’ went on late into the night, and Gooden was forced to evict them (46). In January 1838 Thorp offered him a choice of three sets of rooms in college, and he chose the grandest and most expensive, Lord Napier’s old rooms in Great Court (50).55 The letter in which he explains to his father that the decision is a wise one in the longer term is a good example of the careful diplomacy he employed on such matters, setting out firmly his own preference but leaving a final decision (in practice pre-empted by himself!) to his father (61). Curriculum and examinations As a member of both Trinity College and the University of Cambridge, Gooden had a wide range of challenges, obligations and options to face. The college required its students to take examinations each year; these were dominated by classics and mathematics, the two major studies of Cambridge, the second-year examination being mainly mathematical.56 The college also held annual scholarship examinations, which Gooden sat three times. His failure to gain a scholarship in 1837 seems to have been due to his desultory performance in mathematics; in the following year, his mathematical answers were not much better. Nor did he send in any verse composition (67).57 In 1839, however, he was successful, coming second in the list of twelve scholars elected (88), and soon became used to the duties (reading in chapel) and advantages (more comfortable seats, better food) of the position (89). The university’s premier examination, established in the previous century, was the Mathematical Tripos. Originally called the Senate House Examination, it had been renamed when the Classical Tripos was founded in 1822.58 The domination of the
55
56
57 58
Francis, Lord Napier, belonged to a world very different from Gooden’s except for their (almost) intersection at Trinity: eldest son of the ninth Baron Napier, he had succeeded his father in 1834. He did not graduate at Cambridge, but later received honorary LL Ds from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Harvard. He served as attaché at Vienna 1840, and at Constantinople 1843, where he became a friend of Florence Nightingale and helped her in her work. Secretary of Legation at Naples 1848–49, and Chargé d’Affaires during the Sicilian insurrection; Ambassador to the USA 1857; to the Hague 1858; at St Petersburg 1860–4, where he was persona grata to the Emperor Alexander II; at Berlin 1864–6. PC 1861 KT 1864. Governor of Madras 1866–72; for a period Acting Viceroy. Temporarily Governor-General of India on the assassination of the Earl of Mayo 1872. He returned to England in 1872, when he was created Baron Ettrick, of Ettrick, Selkirkshire, 1872; of Merchiston Castle, Midlothian, and Thirlestane Castle, Selkirkshire. Chairman of the Royal Commission to enquire into the condition of the Highland crofters 1883. Author of Modern Neapolitan Painters. Died in 1898 in Florence. As a result, the second class he obtained was regarded as a very good result for those whose attainments were primarily classical. Compare the experience of Connop Thirlwall in 1817, whose second class was described as ‘a much higher rank than he expected from his deficiency in mathematics’: J. J. S. Perowne and L. Stokes, eds, Letters, Literary and Theological, of Connop Thirlwall (London, 1881), p. 32. This was presumably as a result of his bruising experience in the university scholarships: see below. A. Warwick, Masters of Theory: a Pedagogical History of Mathematical Physics in Cambridge, 1765–1935 (Chicago, 2003).
12 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden university by mathematics had led to the classical examination being emasculated. It was available only as an option for those students who had already achieved honours (as wranglers, senior or junior optimes – in effect, first, second and third class honours) in the Mathematical Tripos; and was taken only a few weeks after it.59 Gooden was, like many men from the public schools, faced with the challenge of struggling through the mathematics examinations in order to gain entry to their preferred subject.60 Like many talented classicists, he barely scraped through – he was near the bottom of the mathematical honours list in January 1840. In one important respect, Gooden was unlike the products of the public schools. They had been drilled in Greek and Latin composition for several years, and throve on the competition for classical prizes at Cambridge, in which composition, especially Latin verse composition, played an important part. It was notorious, in particular, that Kingsmen were supremely skilled in Latin verse, and they often walked off with the university prizes. The London University and its school, however, had turned their backs on composition: London was the home of scientific grammar and comparative philology, and Gooden had soaked up the values of what he called ‘sound scholarship’ (74). The result was that he failed to gain the university prizes for which he sat in 1837 and 1838. As his mother recalled in one of several memorial books assembled after his death in 1841: In October 1836, when eighteen and a half he entered at Cambridge, but soon found that his Scholarship was of too high a grade, and that such young men as came from those public Schools, under the special auspices of Cambridge, possessing a knack of composing Latin verse, & having had their attention particularly devoted to Mathematics, had the preference given them by the Seignority [sic], incapable of appreciating his superior mind, & high endowments. My beloved Alexr. found his superior acquirements unremarked, and sat for the Craven, & the Batty without attaining either. He bitterly felt his situation, not only as regarded himself, but as it disappointed his Father, & surprised his former Teachers.61 This was a clash of academic styles; and Gooden’s correspondence is of special value in revealing how his expectations, and his conception of scholarship, differed from what he found in Cambridge. In translating from Latin and Greek, he seems to have focused on absolute accuracy rather than on a smooth English style; he had been supported in this by John Wordsworth and John Burcham, but not by Thomas Thorp (68). It is interesting to compare Charles Bristed’s comment in 1852 that a Cambridge undergraduate might appreciate the difference between Aristotelian and Thucydidean Greek style, but saw no point in developing a fine English style. On this George Otto Trevelyan commented in his copy of Bristed’s book, ‘It was an immense help in the Classical Tripos. I knew a man who got 74 marks out of 75 for a Greek translation paper with a howling mistake in it.’62 When Gooden failed to gain prizes awarded according 59 60 61 62
C. A. Stray, ‘The first century of the Classical Tripos’, in id., ed., Classics in Cambridge (Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, supplementary vol. 24) (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 1–14. Hence the tuition he had received from George Gillespie and then from Augustus De Morgan. ‘Retrospections of the 1841’. Bristed, Five Years, p. 118. Trevelyan’s copy is in Trinity College Library, Adv c 25 54. Bristed’s comment relates to moral and theological essays, but seems to be intended to apply generally.
Introduction 13 to criteria he despised, he rejected the advice of George Long and his father, and withdrew from this kind of competition (83). Was this an admirable strong-mindedness, or arrogant stubbornness? Probably both principle and resentment played a part in his decision. His mother’s view, fuelled by love and by grief, was that he nobly resolved to leave no exertion untried to gain that distinction he felt to be his due, to gain which, he secluded himself from the society of his friends, spent the long vacations in the Cloisters, and only allowed a very brief stay at that home, he loved so much; & those relatives who in his absence barely existed; so that during the 5 years he was at Cambridge, he had not altogether twelve months under his own roof.63 The Cambridge curriculum Since the early eighteenth century, Cambridge had been the home of a mathematical school self-consciously based on the fame of Newton. The rigorous ranking and written examinations which had developed in the second half of that century had created a striking contrast with Oxford, where classical scholarship and oral examination remained central well into the nineteenth century.64 The domination of mathematics at Cambridge was reflected in the hurdles Gooden had to surmount at both college and university level. The annual examinations at Trinity all contained both classics and mathematics; but the second-year examination was notorious for being centred on mathematics. The Classical Tripos, the honours examination in classics, had been established only in 1822 and first examined two years later. The compromises needed to secure its acceptance by the Senate had produced an examination which, as mentioned above, was accessible only to men who had already gained honours in the Mathematical Tripos.65 It was common for talented classicists to scrape through at the bottom of this range. Gooden himself was one of these, becoming 69th Senior Optime (in a list of 72). Richard Shilleto, one of the most accomplished scholars of his generation, had come last in the list of Junior Optimes in 1834, before going on to be 2nd Classic. Another talented classicist, Thomas Evans, later Professor of Greek at Durham, had been unable to pass at all in mathematics, and so could not attempt the Classical Tripos.66 In Gooden’s own year, a serious rival for the post of Senior Classic was put out of the running by his failure to gain mathematical honours. This was John Neale, who was described to James Gooden by Thomas Thorp, after Alexander’s death, as ‘a person who always passed your son in the University Scholarships, and would undoubtedly have occupied his place as First Medallist and First in the Tripos, if he had not failed in getting a place in the Mathematical Honours’ (167).67
63 64 65 66
67
‘Retrospections of the 1841’. Stray, ‘The shift from oral to written examination’. Hence Gooden’s comment after the Tripos of 1841: ‘Our plucked men this year are going to Oxford to retrieve. I fear we shall frighten classical scholars away from Cambridge’ (145). For Evans, see the memoir by his son-in-law Joseph Waite, in J. Waite, ed., Latin and Greek Verse by the Rev. Thomas Saunders Evans, M. A., D. D. (Cambridge, 1893), pp. i–lii; ‘Thomas Saunders Evans’, in R. B. Todd, ed., Dictionary of British Classicists, 1500–1960 (Bristol, 2004). John Mason Neale, admitted to Trinity 1836, elected scholar 1839; BA 1840, MA 1845. Regarded by many as the best classical scholar of his year, he was unable to gain honours in mathematics and
14 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden The Medal referred to by Thorp was the Chancellor’s Medal, of which two were awarded each year after an examination which followed the Classical Tripos. Until 1869, it was open only to those who had achieved honours in mathematics. Like the other university prizes in classics, it was given primarily for proficiency in composition in Latin and Greek. It was this skill, cultivated intensively in the public schools, which Gooden lacked when he came up to Trinity. The idea of ‘sound scholarship’ with which Gooden was aligning himself flourished in London, as we have seen, more than it did in Oxford or Cambridge; yet it had been advocated most powerfully from within Trinity itself, notably in the pages of the Philological Museum (1831–33), a short-lived periodical edited by Julius Hare and Connop Thirlwall, both fellows of Trinity. In striking contrast to its predecessor the Museum Criticum (1813–26), run by two earlier fellows of the college, James Monk and Charles Blomfield, the Museum renounced the Porsonian stress on the linguistic minutiae of classical texts and an almost exclusive focus on Greek drama, and ranged widely over both the ancient world and comparative philology. By 1835 both Hare and Thirlwall had left Trinity, and the Philological Museum seems to have made little impact on classical teaching in Cambridge, but their followers clung to the wider definition of scholarship advocated and exemplified in the journal. Among them was Gooden’s teacher John William Donaldson, whose The New Cratylus (1839) was very influential in spreading the lessons of continental philology in England. It was this book to which Gooden referred in 1838 when he described Donaldson as ‘working on a book that is to make a great sensation and shake the Cambridge philologers in their pumps and white cotton stockings’ (76).68 In the year in which Gooden became Senior Classic, Donaldson published an article in the Penny Cyclopaedia on Richard Porson, the hero of the followers of the older style. In it he declared that Porson’s great reputation during his lifetime converted all the promising young scholars of the time into servile imitation of the great critic, and the ‘Porsonian school of critics’, as they have been called, threw many impediments in the way of sound and comprehensive scholarship. Every one was inventing some new canon, and then altering the text of Greek poets accordingly, to suit his own rule . . . most Greek scholars will, we think, admit that much harm, or at least little good, has resulted from this close and narrow imitation of Porson; and that it would have been better if his successors had endeavoured rather to do what he had omitted to do, but might have done, than to confine themselves to the narrow limits of his actual performances.69 Gooden’s letters make it clear that there were differences of opinion among the classical dons at Trinity on matters of scholarly style. In 1838 he wrote to his father, ‘John Wordsworth has expressed to me more than once his opinion of Neale as an elegant
68 69
was therefore unable to compete in the Classical Tripos. As an undergraduate, he helped to found the Camden Society; later he became well known as an extreme high Anglican and prolific author of hymns and ecclesiastical writings. The implication is that most Cambridge scholars held to the habits of a past age – one of ‘elegant’ rather than ‘sound’ scholarship. ‘Porson’, in The Penny Cyclopaedia [1833–43], vol. 18 (1840), p. 410. Identification from the marked set in the British Library, 733L.
Introduction 15 verse writer and his total distrust of his soundness and scholarship’ (63). Wordsworth himself, who died prematurely in 1839, was ‘reputedly the best scholar now at Trinity’ (27), and classed with Burcham and Shilleto (and possibly Donaldson) as a ‘first-class man’ (35). The Tripos and beyond Gooden’s determination and hard work paid off, and in March 1840 he was placed as Senior Classic (top of the first-class list in the Tripos), jointly with Francis France of St John’s (116).70 Soon afterwards he sat the examination for the Chancellor’s Medals, and gained the first medal (120–1). The examination included original composition – Gooden had conquered his old enemy, as indeed he had in the Tripos examination (116). What kind of future did he contemplate? Like several of his contemporaries, he entered at the Bar, a preliminary step for legal training (he entered Lincoln’s Inn on 19 October 1840).71 By then, however, he had settled in to the work commonly taken by first-class graduates: coaching younger students, as he had been by Burcham and Donaldson in classics, and by Walton and Heaviside in mathematics.72 The pace of mathematical discovery, the increasingly intense pressure of university examinations and the lack of adequate official provision for teaching had led in the later eighteenth century to a complex informal system of private tuition, and after the foundation of the Classical Tripos in 1822, this had spread from mathematics to classics.73 In May his old schoolfellow Thomas Cubitt asked Gooden to coach him, but was eventually persuaded that he needed help with his mathematics rather than in classics (123). Tom Taylor had already begun to coach (124), and in November Gooden reports that ‘Taylor is driving a considerable team and as vivacious and mirth-stirring as ever’ (138).74 At the beginning of the following academic year, however, he gained four pupils. One of them, Mate, was a friend;75 another was recommended by his friend Jenkins; a third was a freshman; a fourth was sent to him by Thomas Thorp (137). The other goal to which Gooden aspired was a Trinity fellowship. After the examination in September 1840 he was disappointed to find he had failed. In a letter to James Gooden senior, Thorp explained that Gooden had come very near being elected. He added that men were rarely elected at the first opportunity, especially as the claims of those whose last chance it was were taken into account; and that his pupil was almost certain of being elected the following year (135).
70
71
72 73
74 75
Francis France, admitted to St John’s 1835; elected Scholar 1836; BA 1840 when he was bracketed Senior Classic with Gooden; Fellow 1840–64; chaplain to James Henry Monk, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. Gooden’s named is listed under that date in W. P. Baildon, ed., The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn: Admissions from A.D. 1420 to A.D. 1893, and Chapel Registers (London, 1896), vol. 2, p. 185. The date was kindly confirmed by Hubert Picarda QC. For Walton, see (60); for Heaviside (42). On the changes in the examination system, see Stray, ‘The shift from oral to written examination’. The role of coaching in Cambridge mathematics is explored in the pioneering analysis of Warwick, Masters of Theory. Several years later Taylor coached Charles Bristed, who included vivid accounts of his boisterous teaching in his Five Years at an English University (New York, 1852): see pp. 52–60, 74–5. For Mate, see (34).
16 The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden In June 1841, Gooden set out for Germany with his fellow-student Edmund Law. The trip was planned as a combined tour and reading party which would give Gooden a chance to polish both spoken and written German; a way to combine some leisure and travel with preparation for the fellowship examination in September. He sailed on 16 June (155), and a few days later was established in Bonn (156). The following month he and Law met two other Trinity men, who had a six-oared boat (158), and Gooden became part of an informal team. His mother recorded their names in one of her memorial books: Members of the boat crew at Bonn 14 August 1841 Corbet gone into the Blues Alleyne son of Sir Reynolds Alleyne Bridges Capt Bridges, Oxford Gretton ———— Edmund Law esq. A C G who by strenuous rowing brought on his death. On 15 August, Gooden fell ill with what turned out to be peritonitis (162); at first he appeared to recover, but he suffered a relapse and died on the 22nd. We learn from his mother’s Retrospect book that ‘ . . . a friend [presumably Edmund Law] read to him from the Greek testament . . . the last words he articulated were about Greek’. On the day of his death his family were holidaying in Gravesend, where his steamer was expected to call on its way from Rotterdam. Gooden’s brother James was about to go down to the river to bring him ashore when Law’s letter announcing his friend’s illness arrived (163). Mr Gooden had been reassuring his wife – ‘You will see him again, don’t afflict yourself.’ When the letter came, she remembered, ‘I broke the seal, but felt too faint to read it, give it to me said Mr Gooden quickly, you shall see I was right, he took it but said nothing, why don’t you read out cried I impatiently, he sobbed and muttered something, I keened Oh God he is gone, while my heart sunk within me.’76 Last days Alexander Gooden was brought back from Germany, and buried in Highgate Cemetery on 24 November 1841.77 A memorial stone was erected which now also bears the names of his parents and brother. On 16 December 1841, J. W. Blakesley delivered a memorial sermon in Trinity College chapel. Blakesley, a fellow of Trinity, had been a tutor since 1839; he is mentioned by Tom Taylor (168) as one of the fellows who supported a campaign to establish a memorial tablet for Gooden in the antechapel. Unfortunately for Gooden’s family and friends, this revived a contentious issue which had already divided the Fellowship on more than one occasion. As Thomas Thorp explained in a lengthy and revealing letter to James Gooden in 1842 (167), the erection
76 77
Mary Gooden, ‘Retrospect book no 2’, July 1842. Yet another date recovered from his mother’s observance of anniversaries – in this case, five years later.
Introduction 17 of a memorial tablet to Charles Maitland, son of the Earl of Lauderdale, who had died in 1818 aged twenty-four, had led to dissension among the fellows. This led to an agreement on a very restrictive rule, which according to Thorp had been only ‘very grudgingly relaxed in favour of your son’s classical tutor, Mr Wordsworth, Fellow and Tutor, son of the Master, dying in the College, and perhaps the most promising Scholar of his time’. James Gooden had evidently suggested to Thorp that the college had been prejudiced against his son because he came from the ‘godless college on Gower Street’. In his concern to rebut this charge, Thorp, ‘tho’ divulging secrets commonly held sacred’ as he puts it, revealed that it was the Whig fellows who had voted against Alexander’s being elected scholar at his first attempt. As for the proposal to erect a memorial tablet to him, Dr Wordsworth, ‘the Tory Master’, had strongly supported it. And so the campaign failed; as did an attempt to have a memorial window set up in the chapel.78 Alexander Gooden lived on only in memory, the flame kept burning obsessively by his mother. A week after his death, while still at Gravesend, she dreamed that he returned saying ‘I am raised from death’, then vanished. Until her own death in 1852, as I have described, she kept the anniversaries of his birth, his death, his interment, his first day at Cambridge and several other dates. On 15 June 1848, for example, she wrote ‘my annual visit to his grave – on this day in 1841 he left his home and parents for the last time’. This note was written in one of a series of memorial books filled with sad regrets and with pasted-in copies of soothing verses, Mrs Hemans being a favourite author. One of the last entries, dated 24 November 1851, ends ‘When I feel particularly low, I resort to that dear one, as an artist relieves his eyes by resting his gaze on a green curtain.’ In Trinity, Alexander Gooden vanished into oblivion until quite recently, when the majority of the letters printed below were acquired by the college. Christopher Stray
78
An artist’s sketch for the proposed window has recently been acquired by the college.
EDITORIAL NOTE
This collection of letters tells the story of a young scholar and his time at Cambridge. We wished the story to be as readable as possible, and were concerned to avoid any curiosities of language which might interrupt the flow of the text. In fact, the spelling of all the correspondents conforms for the most part to modern practices, although we have taken the liberty of occasionally adjusting initialisation and spelling in order to help the eye follow the text more freely. For the greater part this has involved expanding common abbreviations and reducing upper-case initial letters to lower case, as it was common practice in the 1830s and ’40s to initialise many more nouns than we would today. Occasionally we have modernised the actual spelling, and in a very few cases, have inserted a word where it seems to have been omitted accidentally by the writer. Such insertions have been placed in square brackets – [ ]. Sometimes, words or partwords have been lost where a letter has been torn, often where a seal has been placed. Where the missing material has been conjecturally restored, angle brackets have been used – < >. In the footnotes we have aimed to provide basic information on Gooden’s friends and on the many other Cambridge men who are mentioned in the letters, often in passing and only by surname. The major source for this information has been the Venns’ Alumni Cantabrigienses,1 where further information on each individual may be found. The remaining footnotes are used to explain Cambridge terms and practices, Cambridge topography and major events and individuals alluded to but not explained in the text. A bold entry in the Index indicates the page on which a footnote on a name, institution or event is to be found: usually, but not always, at its first occurrence in the text. Most of the letters printed here are held at Trinity College Library in three volumes (roughly, letters to and from James Gooden, Mary Gooden and Robert Jenkins) bound up, presumably by the family, after Gooden’s death. Another cache was located in the possession of the Chisholm family, who have allowed us to publish this material. A further letter, from Gooden to Henry Crabb Robinson, is held by Dr Williams’s Library in London. The provenances of those letters not held by Trinity are as follows: Ruari Chisholm: 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20–22, 97, 107, 116, 118, 148, 153, 159, 165, 169; Dr Williams’s Library: 135 (Henry Crabb Robinson letters 1840/176).
1
J. and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: a Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900 (Cambridge, 1922–54).
THE LETTERS
Youth, 1831–36
1 George Long to James Gooden, 13 December 1831 5 Camden St Camden Town December 13 1831 James Gooden attended my class in the University of London during two years while I was Professor of Greek in that institution. He was always very regular in his attendance at the lectures or daily examinations, and his conduct also in the lecture room, where alone he came under my notice, was correct and praiseworthy. G Long 2 George Knox Gillespie to James Gooden, 19 July 1832 July 19 1832 Sir, At the conclusion of my engagement with your son, it may be satisfactory to you that I should give some account of the progress which he has made in his Mathematics under my tuition. When commencing with me, Mr Gooden Jun. had a slight knowledge of the first book of Euclid. The difficulties of the second book opposed an obstacle which he found himself unable to surmount. But his knowledge of the first book was so very imperfect that he concurred with me in the opinion that it was necessary to recommence the study anew. We accordingly proceeded with great care through the first four books, dwelling on each single proposition until a perfect knowledge of it should be acquired, and always keeping up by repetition the parts already gone over. My principle has been to consider the possession of a few clear ideas better than an obscure glimmering of many. I may safely say that your son now possesses a very competent knowledge of the first four books, being able not only to demonstrate any proposition in them but also to shew, by referring to the grounds of the proofs, that he really understands them. I wish I could say the same respecting the 6th and 5th books. We have indeed gone through the whole of the 6th and about a third of the 5th, but the difficulties attending the doctrine of proportion are so considerable that it requires much time and attention to understand them thoroughly. I have endeavoured to the utmost of my ability, by
20 The Letters employing numbers instead of lines in explaining the definitions etc. to communicate accurate ideas of the fundamental theory. But Mr Gooden’s yet at some loss in the most important propositions, a circumstance which has arisen from no other cause than the real difficulty of the subject, a difficulty which is invariably felt by persons who examine it for the first time. We have also studied a little of Algebra. Mr G’s now acquainted with at least the notations and the principal early rules. These will enable him to understand much of those sections of Euler which I have recommended to his attention during the vacation. There are some other matters connected with arithmetic, such as the extraction of the Square root etc. which have not been neglected. I have, by Mr. Gooden’s own desire, suggested to him some occupation for his leisure; particularly inculcating the necessity of preserving, by a constant rotation of repetition, the knowledge which he has so laboriously acquired, and of which the nature is often so evanescent. I have now to say a few words respecting your son’s assiduity and attention. He appears to me to have been unremittingly laborious in his studies, and I can say from my own knowledge that it would be impossible for anyone to be more attentive. The important point has certainly been gained. He is warmly attached to his mathematical studies, a circumstance highly conducive to success in any pursuit. I have the honour to remain, Sir, with much respect, your most obedient servant. George Knox Gillespie 3 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, [1 August 1833] Ryde, Isle of Wight Dear Jenkins In compliance with the promise I made you, before leaving town, of writing to you, I sit down with the desperate design of filling a sheet of paper for your especial benefit, but must previously forewarn you that I have not the least particle of news of anything by which I may hope to interest or amuse you. First and foremost however, in order to give you some idea of the position of the sequestered Island wherein I am at present domiciled, I shall premise somewhat concerning its situation in a geographical point of view. I shall not however begin like Polybius,1 by recounting the elements etc, but presupposing that you are acquainted with the form and position of our globe and the four quarters into which most geographers have agreed to divide it, and moreover premising, that the situation of our Island of Great Britain is not wholly unknown to you, and also that by reference to any map of England your optics may discern an island somewhat in the shape of a lozenge (a mathematical one I mean) situated off the coast of the county called Hampshire, I shall proceed to inform you that, towards the eastern end of the aforementioned island yclept2 the Wight, there lieth a town called Ryde in the which I am at present abiding. Ryde is situated on the slope of a hill and
1 2
Polybius, The Histories. Called. Compare ‘quicksilver yclept mercurie crude’, Chaucer, Canterbury Tales: the Canon Yeoman’s Tale, line 772.
Youth, 1831–36 21 consists rather of a number of detached cottages than of any regular row of houses, and most of these cottages or villas being surrounded by little gardens, the whole when viewed from the sea has a very pleasing effect. Directly opposite lies the town of Portsmouth with its arsenals and its docks and its hospitals and all the etcetera of a great seaport town. If you have never been in a fortified town, you would be surprised at the smooth banks of turf cut everywhere to receive cannons which meet your eye, and at the numerous drawbridges over which you have to rattle as you enter the town. The narrow strait of sea which lies between the Island and Portsmouth (about 5 miles in breadth) is Spithead, famous as a rendezvous for our ships in time of war. The island itself is laid out quite like a garden, and is quite full of gentlemanly seats; but the scenery is almost too park-like and the air too soft and relaxing to be altogether to my taste. As for Ryde, there are plenty of lodgings, and in price reasonable enough for a large family: the market is ill supplied so that you are obliged to plan your dinners for a week before, just as a general lays down his campaign. The place is altogether very saint-ish, a class of people whom I dislike fully as much as you, and there is but one sabbath breaking baker in the place who can be prevailed upon to bake upon a Sunday! So now I have told you candidly my opinion of Ryde, and if it should tempt you (if you have not already decided upon your place of residence) to come down, I need not say how welcome your company would be to me. I have, ever since the University3 closed, been and still continue to be desperately idle: it is some consolation, however, to know that we are all pretty much in the same predicament. I am reading the Medea, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Miss Edgeworth’s Tales4 and whatever else I have time or inclination for, not forgetting Heeren5 and the German. By the bye, amongst the wretched heap of trash appertaining to a circulating library, I have stumbled upon a little volume called ‘Songs of the Ettrick Shepherd’,6 which I assure you if you do not know already, would delight you. It is indeed ‘a sweet little book’ (v. Parke’s Poems)7 and amongst a good many sufficiently nonsensical and ranting are some songs distinguished for their beauty and pathos. I would, if I felt sure they would be acceptable, send you copies of one or two. As for Miss Edgworth’s Tales, they are beyond compare the most admirable lessons of morality and practical philosophy I ever met with. I have not got into a taste for Ovid yet but I hope he will improve, as I go on. I have been hard at work with the Greek metres this morning, they are very dry and require much study, all are vanity, in my opinion. Pray let me hear from you as soon as possible, let me know the place of your destination this summer, all the news, on dit’s, lies, politics etc afloat. It will be quite a mercy to such a rustic creature as I am. I have now come to the end of my paper, and as I was at my wit’s end when I began and have travelled so far without the assistance of those valuable companions, I hope this circumstance will be a sufficient excuse for the tissue of absurdities with which I have soiled my paper.
3 4 5 6 7
London University. Maria Edgeworth, Tales of Fashionable Life (1809–1812). Arnold Ludwig Heeren, A Manual of Ancient History, Particularly with Regard to the Constitutions, the Commerce and the Colonies of the States of Antiquity, English edition 1829. Pseudonym of James Hogg, poet, 1770–1835. Walter Parke, The Merry Muse, with Graver Moments: a Collection of Poems, Humorous and Serious, for Reading or Recitation (London, n.d.).
22 The Letters With best wishes and respects to all your family and wishing you all safety from the cholera which I am sorry to see has again revived in London, I remain Dear Jenkins, Yours very sincerely A C Gooden PS When you write have the goodness to address to Mr Stephens’s, Union Street, Ryde, I of W. Thursday August 1st 1833 4 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 15 August 1833 Ryde, Isle of Wight My Dear Jenkins I should not have troubled you again so soon, had I not been afraid that, if I deferred writing much longer, my letter would stand a chance of not finding you in town. I need not assure you that I received your letter of the 2nd ultimo with great pleasure, nor need I say how much I am obliged to you for your admirable compendium of miscellaneous intelligence, the essence, as it were, of all the columns of all the newspapers accompanied by your own valuable comments. Since I wrote you last, we have been on a two days excursion around the island: all mighty pretty, and abounding in villas etc. There is one part, however, which deserves more particular notice viz. the Undercliff. The name is applied to a tract of country extending about five miles along the coast and which is situated, literally, between the cliffs and the beach. It appears to have been caused by some great landslip or avalanche of earth which has fallen from the cliffs above, but it is now everywhere covered with the most luxuriant foliage and adorned with the most beautifully situated and elegantly fitted-up seats. The temperature here is, I believe, the nearest approach to Madeira which prevails anywhere in England; on account of its being protected by a lofty range of cliffs which defend it from the north and east winds. Sed haec hactenus8 and I am sure you will join me. I feel, I am ashamed to say, a kind of secret and malicious joy at the thin attendance of the vacation meetings of the Literary and Philosophical Society (I cannot spare room enough for its euphonious titles in full); verily, it must be a ghostly apparition now, as well as its alma mater the London University, where I see, they have removed their difficulties for a season, by a mortgage. As for your cruel taunt about my metrical labours, I haste to relieve your anxiety by assuring you, that I have not ventured to look at them ever since the morning that I wrote to you. I wish to defer as long as possible the fatal day, for, some day Alas! il faut absolument. With regard to your advice about my German studies, I would gladly follow it, but, as I cannot bring down the library here, and having unfortunately selected Heeren for my reading, I pray you, have me excused on this charge. But of all the pleasure your letter afforded me, I derived the most from the latter part, wherein you assure me that you have not read a line of Tacitus or Sophocles since I saw you: verily, it was as the balm of Gilead9 unto me.
8 9
But this is as far (sc. as I have got). Literally, the resin of the tree Balsamodendron Gileadense, esteemed as an antiseptic, but here used in the biblical sense of ‘consolation’.
Youth, 1831–36 23 I have lately been reading some pieces in the Greek Anthology, and heartily recommend it to you. It is extremely difficult to translate well, for, though always elegant, chaste and pointed like an epigram, there pervades it throughout such a great degree of simplicity, that the translator, in abiding too close by the original, is in danger of giving a bald and meagre version. In the last No. of the Quarterly Review (the 98th), there is an excellent article on the subject, which gives you a brief compendium of all that we know about the authors and their lives, and short criticisms on the general style of their writings.10 I recommend it to you; because I think it calculated to serve either as a good introduction to the subject, should you be inclined to pursue it farther, or to give you a good general idea of it. Notwithstanding the high authority however of such names as Sappho, Alcaeus, Anacreon, Archilochus, Callistratus and the whole tribe I do not think there is in all these writers and Meleager’s Garland to boot a more beautiful morceau than the Skylark by the Ettrick Shepherd (only think of a poet as having such a name as Hogg) which I have taken the liberty of enclosing together with one or two more of the same author. I heartily sympathise with you both in the beauties and (more particularly) in the difficulties of Dante. Facilis descensus Averni!11 says Virgil. He was wrong for once, you see. You have only read, you say – the Opera of Medea! Proh Pudor12 just as if having read the Othello would excuse you for not having read the original of Shakespeare. I am getting into a little better humour with Ovid’s smooth verse, but he has a great many instances of bad taste in his writings, and spoils many beautiful legends by a tedious prolixicity, which wears out, instead of keeping alive, the attention. The literary world seem still in a bustle about Horace Walpole’s Correspondence.13 I confess I do not see much to admire in his character either as a man or as an author, the former was haughty, petulant, capricious, selfish and parsimonious. And as for his writings they would never have attracted any body’s attention had it not been for the oddity of seeing a nobleman figure as an author! Nor has his character been much raised in my eyes, by the fact of his having left behind him a set of letters, in which he treats pretty freely of the characters of those, who have long since mouldered into dust, and who are, therefore, left entirely at his mercy. I hope your brother George is deriving as much advantage, from country air and exercise in body as your brother William must in mind from his studies at the British Museum. I should be very glad to hear from you, as soon as may be convenient to you, but do not put yourself out of the way to answer me – and in the meanwhile, with best respects to Mr and Mrs Jenkins, and my best wishes to the rest of your family I remain Dear Jenkins Yours very sincerely A C Gooden Thursday August 15th 1833
10 11 12 13
[H. N. Coleridge], ‘Greek lyric poetry – Merivale’s Anthology’, Quarterly Review 49 (July 1833), pp. 349–81. Cf. ‘Facilis descensus Averno’ (the descent to Hell is easy), Virgil, Aeneid VI, 126. ‘For shame!’ There were several editions of Horace Walpole’s letters published in the decade before this letter was written; the reference is perhaps to the 1833 edition of his Letters to Sir Horace Mann.
24 The Letters 5 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 16 September 1833 Union Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight Dear Jenkins I hope you will not attribute my deferring to answer your letter of the 19th of August so long, to any negligence on my part, but rather to my reluctance to trouble you with any of those epistles with which I have taxed your patience. Pray accept my best thanks for your very entertaining letter, and my profound admirations for the noble verses which adorn it: I particularly admire the descent of your Muse and the ‘dying, dying fall’14 which distinguishes her descent into humbler prose. I cannot pretend to offer you, who are situated at the head-quarters of all news, the agreeable miscellany with which you favour me, and must therefore rack my brains for matter wherewithal to tax your patience and your pocket. I am rejoiced to hear that you intend to finish your studies at the orthodox University of Oxford, both because I do not in that case despair of your becoming in progress of time a good honest Tory or Conservative or whatever you like to call it, and also because there will not be the same necessity for studying mathematics to which I know your heart inclineth not. With regard to my ‘future prospects’ (something important in the very sound) I am in a state of ‘glorious uncertainty’15 respecting them, and whether I return to the London University (which is very unlikely) or go to Mr Long or to the University of Bonn is quite undecided. I have latterly been more idle even than before (and that is something to say) having positively and literally done nothing but read novels and yawn for an hour or two over the difficulties of the Medea. We have been taking several trips to places in the neighbourhood, such as Southampton and Portsmouth etc and at the latter place saw the young Queen of Portugal or rather of two Portuguese Cities: Donna Maria16 is very like what the newspapers have described her, that is fat with a fair complexion and a figure remarkably full and womanly for her age. By the bye, two packets arrived yesterday afternoon (Sunday) from Portugal, and bring news which is said to be exceedingly unfavourable to the prospects of Donna Maria. The recognition of Her Most Faithful Majesty by King William’s most sapient advisors may perhaps prove to have been a little too precipitate. As you seem fond of raw-head-and-bloody-boned stories against that worthy old man the Emperor of Austria,17 I can recommend to you a book entitled Le Mie Prigioni by Silvio Pellico18 one of the Carbonari, which from what I hear, contains stories of 14
15
16 17 18
If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall . . . Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act I, Scene I An ironical phrase: apparently popularised after a toast to ‘the glorious uncertainty of the law’, given by the physician Thomas Wilbraham at a dinner given to the judges and counsel in Serjeant’s Hall in 1756. This dinner was given soon after Lord Mansfield had overruled several ancient legal decisions and had introduced many innovations in the practice of law. HRH Dona Maria Francisca married the Infante of Spain in 1816; he ceased to be heir presumptive in 1830 and was pretender to the Spanish throne from 1833. Francis I of Austria. As Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor 1792–1806, Emperor of Austria 1806–1835. Silvio Pellico, Le mie Prigioni: memorie di Silvio Pellico (Paris, 1833).
Youth, 1831–36 25 despotic power etc etc etc enough to set all the hairs on the head of a Liberal on end with horror and amazement! You will see by the papers, that we have had nothing here but fetes and breakfast and, what a lady of my acquaintance calls – shooting archery, and royal salutes and yachts and steamers, some coming from Portugal, and others going to Cherbourg, and, what with dukes and duchesses and queens and princesses, enough to turn the heads of all the good folks in this decent Island. There seems to be a kind of Victoria mania abroad which infects every town or village through which the Princess and the Princess’s carriage has ever passed, or been near passing. Every public place of amusement is named after her, there are Victoria Archery Grounds and the Victoria Theatre and Victorian Baths and Victoria Taverns: as for the trades people, they have thoroughly imbibed the disease, and one cannot enter a shop which does not contain a shoemaker or straw bonnet maker or dressmaker and, for ought I know, breeches-maker to the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria. In the list of amusements and dissipations I find I have omitted an important item – regattas, than which nothing can be more fashionable, and more stupid. We have not fixed what time we return to town, but we shall probably not stay beyond the end of this month; the season being almost over, and furnished lodgings not the best defence against cold winds and searching drafts and the country not looking particularly inviting when enveloped in a drizzling rain or a damp fog. I will not however fail to call on you, as soon as I return to town. With best respects to Mr and Mrs Jenkins and best regards to the rest of your family, I remain, dear Jenkins, Yours very sincerely Alexander C Gooden Monday September 16th 1833 6 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 17–23 May 1833 33 Tavistock Square Dear Jenkins I do not recollect having ever begun a letter which did not commence with the following formula ‘I have deferred writing to you’ etc. After this confession pray spare my negligence and accept my very best thanks for your most welcome letter. I have since you left been applying myself with tolerable diligence and may almost felicitate myself on having finished the 6th Book of Euclid. Thank Heaven ! I have at length engaged with Tennant19 to whom I paid an initiatory visit on Friday last. In spite of his pedantry he appears to be a good scholar and as his terms are none of the lowest I must exert myself to profit by his instructions. Pray pardon all this egotism and self chattering; if you were not a friend I should not trouble you with it. So much for the privileges which my friendship entails upon you. The distribution of prizes took place on Friday last for the
19
Perhaps Sanderson Tennant, admitted to Trinity 1819; BA 1824 (12th Wrangler and 5th Classic); Headmaster of Blackheath Proprietary School 1831–50.
26 The Letters middle classes.20 Lord Durham21 presided on the occasion and I understand intimated to the primates22 that the Charter was in a state of progress.23 The theatre was crowded to suffocation and having obtained a place I was glad to extricate myself which feat I accomplished with some difficulty. Pray suffer me now to leave London and the London University and all about it and turn to you and Hereford. I rejoice to hear that you find yourself so much better even after a short stay and strictly admonish you to abstain from malt and all other liquors which bring back your cough. I cannot conceive anything more delightful than your present situation in the midst of a charming country in perfect idleness health and purity fair. Picture the contrast: you rise at six and walk for appetite and enjoyment in the fields or pursue a meditative walk by the banks of the Wye conning neither Aristophanes nor Virgil nor Sophocles nor any other heathen that ever wrote or breathed – nunc audi alteram partem δυστηνος εγω24 am obliged to crawl at eight to the brick walls of Stinkomalee25 breathing noisome exhalations and pestilent vapours for by the Gods I think that London (bad enough God knows at anytime) is positively unwholesome in the morning. The smoke which has not yet risen still hangs about the houses and foggifies the glorious light of the sun is blended with the fumes that arise from beerhouses and taprooms redolent of stale mundungus26 while cesspools drains, gutters and pigpails all send up their fetid fumes to mix with this precious compound till it becomes pure-air!!! faugh! – There now is a somewhat disgusting but true picture of a London atmosphere in a summer’s morning I dare not sketch the rest for fear of disgusting you. Pray throw away all your books if you have taken any into the country with you and be out all day and take a mighty draught of pure air and lay in a large stock of health and you will be more of a poet than by staying all of your life in London. There is poetry in the feeling of perfect health and freedom of limb and pliancy of nerve and buoyancy of spirits will be learnt ten times more advantageously at Hereford than in Mr Angelo’s fencing Rooms in Bond Street.27 Verily on reading what I have written I am more than half inclined to destroy all this sad wash but pray forgive me for I am in a rhapsoditical humour. I fell in with something the other day to support your theory of rhyme in Greek and Latin verse which I will narrate to you if I do not fall asleep or run mad before I get to the end of my letter. And I really find that I have written such unmitigated nonsense that I must leave off to take a little hellebore.28
20
21 22 23 24 25
26 27
28
Not the bourgeoisie, but the ‘second’ as opposed to the ‘highest’ and ‘third’ classes at the University of London. Jenkins himself gained a prize for Latin in the Second Class this year; Gooden had been given the first prizes for both Latin and Greek in 1832. University College, London. Proceedings of the Annual General Meeting of Proprietors . . . (London, 1839), pp. 44–5. John George Lambton, MP for Durham 1813–28; created Baron Durham 1828 and Viscount Lambton and Earl of Durham 1833. The principals. The Royal Charter of the University of London, granted in 1836. ‘Wretched me’. A derisive name for the University of London, so called because it was built near a rubbish dump, but also because of its secularism. In 1828 Rev. Richard Barham had published a poem entitled The London University or, Stinkomalee Triumphans. Bad tobacco: jocular use of mondongo, a Portuguese stew. A fashionable fencing academy run by Henry Charles Angelo the younger, grandson of the foil fencer Dominico Angelo Malevolti, who came to England in 1755 with the celebrated beauty Peg Woffington, opened an academy and established a dynasty of fencing masters. A toxic plant-based substance reputed to be effective in cases of hysteria.
Youth, 1831–36 27 I began with a good resolution and end with falling into the very fault I deprecated. How long this letter has remained open and unfinished, I am ashamed to say, but being just now particularly busy I have sat down with the courage of despair to finish this awful epistle. My brother went on Wednesday down to Margate where he will remain perhaps about 10 days. He has not been completely well for some time past, and, as a change of air and scene was recommended him, we have sent him down there as the most convenient distance. We have just heard from him this morning, he is comfortably settled and I trust that a few days will recruit his strength and restore his spirits. My hands are so full just now, that I shall almost rejoice at the end of the Session which will set me at liberty, and enable us to spend in the country some of those fine sunny days in which I regret being obliged to vegetate in London. Respecting the Rhymes, there is a couplet in the Medea line 72 which rhymes ode and tode, decent enough, another in the same play some 30 verses before with pepamenoi and ennooumenoi rather lame, and two couplets somewhere about line 945 of the Suppliants of Aeschylus, which you may look for if you are inclined.29 There was only one circumstance which I was disappointed with in your very entertaining letter viz. that you sent me no rhymes. And as you would avoid my heavy displeasure for the future never be guilty of the like fault again. In fact, the best atonement which is in your power to make, is to write me speedily and send me therewith a budget of rhymes. Stewart desires to be kindly remembered to you. When you write next to Nottingham Place remember me to your brothers. I believe this is the readiest mode of communication, for they never come to visit me, and I can positively find no time to visit them. Pray present my best respects to Mrs Jenkins and best regards to your sisters. All at home join in best wishes to you and for you and Believe me, dear Jenkins, Yours most sincerely Alexr C Gooden P.S. A letter without a Postscript! Began Sat May 17 Finished Frid May 23 1⁄4 past 12 7 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 14 June 1834 33 Tavistock Square My Dear Jenkins I gladly embrace the opportunity of writing to you by your brother, who, I am sorry is to leave us so soon, especially as he had so good chance of obtaining honours in Mathematics, and moreover would have, no doubt, defeated our ancient ally Moses, whom I heartily wish in the same place as Pharaoh.30 You must have thought my silence very unaccountable, but I hope my self-justification will satisfy you. My brother, as you know, went down some weeks ago to Margate for the benefit of his health, but unfortunately fell ill there instead, a circumstance which rendered us so uneasy that 29 30
Lines 938 and 940, 942 and 943, 944 and 945 and 946 and 947 all form rhyming pairs. Angel Moses gained a mathematics prize in the lower division of the third class in 1833: UCL Report, p. 45.
28 The Letters my father and self embarked 10 days ago to join him, and after spending a week in that fashionable Cockney-watering-place returned to town on Tuesday last; and this is the first opportunity I have had of writing to you. My brother returned with us and is now I think much better than he has been for some months past. Many thanks for your kind letter. I hope Monmouth31 will agree better with you than Hereford which must be too London-ish. Pray shake off your cough, if you have not already anticipated my advice, and get as well as ever you can against Cambridge term when you will be able to resume your studies with the increased vigour consequent on so long a cessation from them. All has been going on very quietly at the L. U. not a word about La Charte!32 in fact the only novelty of any kind has been the celebration of the Fancy Fair33 for the benefit of the Hospital which bagged upon the occasion 500£ sterling of clear profit. I was not there, consequently none of the haut ton attended. Spankie34 is in town and has fared tolerably well in the College examination, being second in Classics, low in Mathematics and on the whole in the third class. But I think that he has received a stimulus which will awaken his energy, for I never saw him so inclined to exert himself as at present. As I am told that you contemplate returning to town about the month of August, I should think that it would be advisable for you to get a tutor to drill you in Mathematics (as far as you have gone), preparatory to going to college. I have resumed my attendance upon Tennant after this little interruption and I find that he improved so much in acquaintance, that, setting aside a little pedantry and his quaint and absurd tones, I have every reason to be satisfied with him. We have not determined as yet upon our course of proceeding this summer but I am afraid I shall hardly see you till Christmas if you do not return sooner than August and we shall, if we go anywhere, in all probability not return till the beginning of October. Spankie recommends your going on the first day of term and that you should not wait untill the lectures begin, about 10 days after. Town is exceedingly full and I daresay, what with Epsom, Ascot and the Musical Festival has been, and will be, very gay. What a splendid farce has been performing at Oxford on the occasion of the Duke of Wellington.35 I wonder how Lainson36 looked when they hissed his old Alma Mater and assailed it with opprobrious epitaphs. They must have been much at a loss to find persons on whom to confer Doctors degrees when they pitched on such persons as Lord Strangford,37 Sir Martin Shee,38 Lord Kilkenny39 and Wilkie.40 What a strange jumble of –
31 32 33 34
35 36 37 38 39 40
Jenkins’ home town: see letter 10 below. The Royal Charter: see note 24 above. A charity sale. Thomas Spankie, admitted to Trinity 1833; BA 1838, President of the Union 1836; Cadet in the East India Company 1837; Captain 48th Native Infantry 1845. He gained the first Latin prize for the highest class of the University of London in 1833: UCL Report, p. 44. The Duke of Wellington was installed as Chancellor of the University of Oxford on 9 June amid scenes of wild enthusiasm. John Lainson, matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, in October 1833. Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford. Sir Martin Archer Shee, portrait painter; President of the Royal Academy 1830–45. Edmund Butler, Earl of Kilkenny. Sir David Wilkie RA; appointed Painter in Ordinary to the King 1830; created DCL at Oxford 13 June 1834.
Youth, 1831–36 29 Theatre and concert and sermon and ball, And feastings and flirtings in College and Hall With your Knyvetts and Grisis your Brahams and your Nores Your Phillipoes Lindlays and eke Cavadores And then, to complete this great farce there’s the Mummery Of conferring degrees and besides that, the flummery ‘Bout the Old Bags and his grandson (which I’m sure you will own?) (d_d bad) And the man wot will do ‘what he likes with his own’ And what with the crushing the noise and confusion I’m sure that you’ll pardon my hasty conclusion – Now having set you a good example (tho a very bad sample) I expect you will send me some poetry in your next. All here join most cordially in best wishes to yourself and family and meanwhile, Believe me my dear Jenkins Yours faithfully untel deth Alexander Gooden Saturday June 14th 1834. 8 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 10 July 1834 My dear Jenkins I am afraid that I must lay the blame of your protracted silence on my own caution; inasmuch as in my last letter, I told you that I would write to you as soon as our plans were settled, and I have no doubt that I therefore prevented you from favouring me with one of your agreeable communications. I now write however to fulfil my engagement, and to inform you that we embark the day after tomorrow (Saturday) on board the Queen of Scotland, steamer, for Aberdeen, from whence we propose proceeding to Inverness, which we shall probably make our headquarters, whilst we remain in Scotland. Such being the case and should we absent ourselves from town as long a time as we usually do, I am afraid I shall be deprived the pleasure of seeing you before you go to College, and our meeting must be unavoidably postponed till the Christmas vacation: a weary time indeed to look forward to! Next, however, to the pleasure of seeing yourself is that of seeing your hand writing which I hope to have opportunities of beholding more frequently than I have been wont of late. The session, as you may conjecture, is virtually at a close, the examinations being over, and the Distribution of Prizes (on Saturday) being the only ceremony that remains to be performed. As usual, at the examinations the ‘Knowing ones’ have been taken in, and the winners have all along had the odds against them. Morell41 is ‘done up’ in Latin, being completely distanced by your Unitarian friend and admirer Kenrick Reid.42 Io
41 42
Perhaps John Daniel Morell, admitted to Homerton College 1833. Kenrick Reid gained the third Latin prize in the University of London examination in 1834: UCL Report, p. 44.
30 The Letters Paean for Mrs F. I have not heard the result in Mathematics, but Moses not being ‘the favourite’ will, I suppose, supplant your brother George.43 Excuse all my Jockey’s slang. Smelleth it not wondrously of the Turf? If you entertained any fears of my injuring my health by overstudy, pray, dismiss all anxiety on that head. For the last three weeks, having less to do than during the previous part of the Session, I have done the little that has to be done badly, and have lived somewhat the state of apathy described indifferently well in the Castle of Indolence by one James Thomson,44 not the flower of Stinkomallee. I have seen Lainson twice since his return from Oxford, but not at all for the last month; he crows and claps his wings as briskly as ever; but I am an old bird and not to be taken in with such chaff. (Poetic in the extreme!). He is I presume abroad now, or vegetated in the mountings of Vails. v. your namesake Win. of blessed memory.45 Amen! Spankie I have seen frequently, but he is also absent with his family at Sunbury or Sudbury, somewhere on the Thames. I am not quite sure whether he will return to Cambridge at all but ‘thereby hangs a tale’, and I will say no more about it, untill I hear from him how he is fixed. Stewart is likewise in the enjoyment of good health and spirits, but, as he is your debtor for a letter, I will let him render an account of himself. I have some notes on the Eumenides, the play you read at Cambridge next year, by Alcibiades Malden,46 which I shall be happy to lend you whenever I can find an opportunity of so doing. I have dismissed all my masters: with Tennant I have reason to be satisfied. He enquires occasionally after you and seems (ungrateful scoffer that you are) to entertain a high opinion of your talents etc. I am in a state of breathless anxiety respecting the Epic which you must have been writing. It is of course in the orthodox No (12) of books and writ in blank verse in imitation of one Mr Milton who lived about the time of the Charleses, and writ a large poem entitled Paradise Lost (extremely rare) together with other small pieces. Pray excuse all the tomfoolery herein committed, and grant me as large an indulgence as the Pope himself. All here unite in the most particular manner, in kindest regards to yourself and best wishes to the rest of your family in town and country, and I remain, my dear Jenkins, with great sincerity, Yours very truly, Alexander C Gooden 33 Tavistock Square Thursday July 10th 1834.
43 44 45 46
He did: he won a prize, and George Jenkins did not: UCL Report, p. 45. James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence: an Allegorical Poem Written in Imitation of Spenser (London, 1748). Wales; the reference may be to the humorous work by Winifred Jenkins, Letters from Winifred Jenkins to her Sister (Newcastle, n.d.), which presumably parodied Welsh speech patterns. Henry Malden.
Youth, 1831–36 31 9 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 7 August 1834 Falconer’s Royal Hotel, Inverness My Dear Jenkins, I have deferred writing to you for so long a time from a reluctance to burthen you with the postage of one of my worthless scrawls whilst you were at so great a distance as Monmouth but trust that the present will find you safely restored to your ancient domicile in Nottingham Place. We reached Aberdeen by the Queen of Scotland steamer and proceeded from thence to Inverness by the Brilliant where we have remained and continue at present. The weather although not of first rate brilliancy has not prevented us from diversifying our time most agreeably by visits to several families in the neighbourhood with whom we were acquainted and who have invariably received and entertained us with true Highland hospitality. We have amongst our other excursions travelled up Strathglass which if not my mother’s birthplace is nevertheless the seat of all her early recollections. The tenantry on my grandmother’s property assembled to drink my mother’s health and altogether her reception was extremely gratifying. The town of Inverness itself though dignified by the style and title of a Royal Burgh is nowise different from any little dull country town in England except that it is infinitely more dirty. The country gentry reside in the country adjoining and the town is therefore left in possession of a few very respectable ladies who have either passed the grand climacteric in a state of unenvied virginity or having been left by their dear departed with but a slender jointure are induced by the reasonableness of all articles of living to resort to the Northern Capital of Scotland. The town itself is prettily situated at a small distance from an arm of the sea yclept the Murray Firth, and at the mouth of the Ness which is a fine stream. The view from any of the eminences in the neighbourhood is very fine of which the fine bold and rugged outline of the mountains in the background form no inconsiderable nor uninteresting feature. And now, you are no less than three letters in my debt and were I not a merciful creditor, you would not be so many. But by the shade of Cicero, Pliny, Horace Walpole, and all the writers of letters from the Creation downward if you answer me not within four and twenty hours after the receipt of these presents I will never write another scrape to you as long as I live. I will add no thing to weaken the force of this awful denunciation, but ita me Di juverint.47 Pray give me a budget of political news and a double portion of personal. Tell me what you have been about in your studies; as for me miserum except an occasional flirtation with Catullus who is a prime favourite with me and a feeble ‘skrimmage’ with Lucretius I have had no intercourse with my classical acquaintance. Have you seen Spankie or Stewart? I have heard nothing from either although I wrote the latter a few days ago: if you should see him present my compliments to him and give him a broken head from me to teach him more regularity for the future.
47
‘God help me’. From Gooden’s classical reading: Catullus, 66.18.
32 The Letters All here join in best wishes to you and your whole family and trust that you have all derived much benefit from the country air in which hearty joining, I remain my dear Jenkins. Ever yours most sincerely Alexander C Gooden August 7th 1834 10 Robert Jenkins to Alexander Gooden, 8 August 1834 8 August 1834 24 Nottingham Place My dear Gooden I must begin my letter by explaining my long silence, which I hope your kindness will already have made excuses for. George and myself had been staying a week at Garway with a clergyman, a friend of ours there, and our time was so occupied by riding about, walking in every direction, and seeing all that a short space of time permitted us to see, that you will agree with me in thinking that I was quite unable to do anything else. I was about to write to you on my return to Monmouth, when I received your very kind and amusing letter, by which I found that your departure was to take place so soon that it would be impossible for a letter to reach you before you were on your journey. Having seen Stewart yesterday, he told me your address, and I now lose no time in telling you all our adventures up to this present moment which finds us all quietly fixed in our accustomed quarters, surrounded by chimneys and smoke, and every thing else which adorns or annoys our radical and savage borough. The air of the hills about Garway and Grosmont did both George and myself much good, and for such a poor rider as I am I accomplished great things in the way of horsemanship. The town of Grosmont is a beautiful object – it is on the borders of Monmouthshire surrounded by high hills, on one of which stands the castle, at a little distance from which, in the valley is the church, a very curious building with an octagonal tower and lofty spire. I fortunately found it open, and was very much pleased with the interior of it. But at the secluded village of Abbeydore, (which as its name implies was the site of a very wealthy abbey) I was delighted to find a really magnificent church. It has a fine screen of carved oak, with some very richly painted windows, and behind the altar is a very curious chapel. On our return from our visit to Garway we made another pilgrimage to Tintern, and were so fortunate as to see a most beautiful sunset while in the Abbey. A few days before we left Monmouth, George set out on his visit to Mr Dickinson, in Somersetshire.48 We have heard from him since his arrival, and he is full of spirits and enjoying himself much. I had a received a very kind invitation from my friend Mr Thrupp49 at Malvern, who having just taken priest’s orders and finished all examinations and such troubles, had a little more leisure than usual to shew the beauties of the place,
48 49
Probably William Dickinson of Kingsweston, Somerset, whose son Edmund was admitted to Trinity in 1838; BA 1843; called to the Bar 1849. Edward Thrupp, admitted to Wadham College, Oxford, 1827; BA 1830, MA 1834; Vicar of Feltham, Middlesex, 1848–77.
Youth, 1831–36 33 and as we all wished to see that part of the country we determined to spend a day there in our way home. Henrietta, Miss Thrupp, Catherine and myself mounted the highest hill, called the Worcestershire Beacon, on donkeys – (I think you would have laughed to see me on a donkey) – and I afterwards climbed one of the hills, which I found very fatiguing work. They are so very slippery and steep, that one slip would probably bring you rolling down to the bottom. You can judge from all these feats, how much stronger I am, and how my health is improving. We then went to Worcester with which city we were all very much pleased. We saw the porcelain manufactory there, which is really a most interesting spectacle. Returning from thence, I met Hill50 who was quite astonished to find me in Worcester, and was exceedingly civil and agreeable, much more so than I have ever found him at the L.U., though I never disliked him there, except when he muttered very nasally ‘You – may think so’. From Worcester we set out on our way London-ward, to Oxford, and drove through Blenheim, which is really an immense, and magnificent house, though I think it is not sufficiently high to correspond with its leviathan-like appearance – an immense column stands in front, enumerating Marlborough’s victories and rewards etc etc, and the town of Woodstock is almost included in the park. The site of Rosamond’s bower (if you are orthodox enough to believe that the whole story respecting her is true) is in the middle of the park. We spent Sunday at Oxford, which looks at present more like a collection of Mausoleums than anything else – I walked over the whole place, and the more I see of it and hear of its installation mummery, the more I rejoice that I shall never enter its walls as a student. I am at a loss to decypher your hints respecting Spankie – Stewart seems as ignorant as myself on the subject. I really hope that he has done nothing imprudent, or mixed himself up too much with the unreading society of Cambridge. With a tolerable degree of study, his talents promised great things indeed. I beseech you enlighten me a little on this matter in your next. I am more and more pleased with Stewart. I saw his mother yesterday and was very much pleased with her kindness of manner and affability. They seem together a most united family. I hope you are all enjoying yourselves as much as possible in the North – and that your brother is fully reinstated in health and finding benefit every day from the fine air, fine scenery and fine weather. Remember me most kindly to him, and tell him to ride about the country as much as possible, for I found real benefit from riding, and now I think it the best exercise any one can have. I hope you will become a horseman likewise. Mr Peacock sent me an epistle from Cambridge announcing the books which are to read this year at Trin. Coll. I will enumerate them for your b<enefit:> ‘the Eumenides, first book of Thucydides, Cicero’s Oration pro Plan, the first 6 books of Euclid, Arithmetic, Algebra, Trigonometry’. I think n that it is very probable that I shall not go to Cambridge quite so soon as I anticipated, as it is not thought of so much importance for me to enter immediately. I will let you know all our plans respecting my destination, as I know you are kindly interested in it. Have you seen Campbell’s life of Mrs Siddons yet? It contains the history of the poor man, their ancestor who is buried at Welsh Newton. I read a great deal of it at
50
Perhaps Thomas Rowley Hill, winner of a mathematics prize in the third class of the University of London in 1833: UCL Report, p. 45.
34 The Letters Malvern and was much interested in it. London as far as I have seen it yet appears exceedingly empty. I assure you the day of our arrival here, the bustle of the streets quite stunned me, so long accustomed to the quietness Monnow Streets and Wyebridge Streets51 and suchlike. How you must sigh for the beautiful ruralities of St Pancras! Sweete native borough! O’er whose classic ground The silvery tones of Hume so oft resound While Savage glows with Tully’s patriot flame And proudly puts Demosthenes to shame Where parish overseers indite orations And parish beadles read the laws to nations And shopmen as with patriotism they glow Harange the throng o’er bales of calico So common, of late years have patriots grown The world is peopled now by them alone The Maryboniad bk 6 l. 1874 I have not seen Mr Leslie yet since his return from America. I am glad for our own sakes that he is again in England. He is a very agreeable and clever man, and I hope you will see him here someday yourself to judge of him ‘in propria persona’. I went yesterday to the London University with Stewart but we found nothing but emptiness, and Mr Kennel, two very pleasant companions. I heard from my friend Signor Beolchi, while I was at Monmouth. His letters are quite beautiful, the language and style is so chaste and elegant. You know I am very fond of the Italian language as well as the people who speak it. I was glad to hear from him that the concert given for the Italian refugees was so successful. You know that they gave a representation of part of the life of poor Pellico. What do you think of the present aspect of affairs? In my opinion the country cannot prosper unless you and I are offered the seals of office. I think the throwing out of the Dissenters’ Admission Bill, gives the L.U. a greater chance than ever – and now, with my best respects to your Father and Mother, and every wish that you may derive great benefit from your excursions, believe me ever to remain, My dear Gooden, Your very affectionate friend R C Jenkins I forgot to tell you that we saw Ragland Castle, which the Marquis of Worcester held out in so bravely for Charles 1st; it is a very large ruin, but the weather was so hot the day we went that I did not enjoy it as I should have done. The thunder has been terrific in the part of the country we have been in. At Gt Malvern we had the most frightful thunder-storm I almost ever remember, and the country in all directions has been dangerously flooded. Mr Beolchi said that the heat of the weather in London reminded him [more] of Spain than any thing else. Vale.
51
Two of the major streets in Jenkins’ native Monmouth.
Youth, 1831–36 35 11 Robert Jenkins to Alexander Gooden, 10–11 June 1835 Brighton, 10 June My dear Gooden I am sitting down to begin a letter to you this morning, which I propose to compose in sections, a section to be written daily, as I am very sorry that there is not a sufficient influx of news for me to scribble off a letter boldly at one sitting. We arrived here on Monday evening at about six o’clock and had a most agreeable though rather wearisome journey. This abominable resistant, radical place is grown into a leviathan, and looks like a poor imitation of the west end of ancient Babylon. Yesterday we found it dreadfully hot, having encamped, unfortunately in the warmest corner of this ovenlike place. June 11 I begin again this morning to tell you that we have moved already into a delightful and cool house No 2 Oriental Place, to which if you favour me with an epistle you will have the kindness to direct. The change is most desirable from so oppressively hot a place as that I wrote from yesterday – this morning we have had a row52 (that is, I did not row, but only enjoyed it) which cooled us prodigiously. Yesterday we had a visit from our very old friend, (whom you have heard me speak of) Dr. Yates. He repeats Dr. Chambers’ advice to me and tells me even that I am to avoid going up and down stairs, to walk about as slowly as an old man, and all kinds of horrid information – and, what is most frightful of all, he ordains that I am not to go to Cambridge till the October after next or some such. I fought hard but in vain, brought up in my defence my age, the standing of a person depending on the length of time his name had been on the books etc etc but he laughed at me and my labour was lost, so perhaps (which almost reconciles me to the delay) we may enter the seats of learning together. I do not know what Mr Peacock will say, but I hope to see Mr Malden and have a gossip with him on this subject. Excuse such a dearth of news, as Brighton has nothing of that kind to offer. I think the sea-air is doing us all good. We intend to go to the nearest church where we shall hear Mr Roper who according to a friend’s (you know whose) report is ‘dark, dark, dark, dark as a dark hawthorn’. I was promised by another kind friend (anxious for my ‘safety’, doubtless) an introduction to a Mr Maitland here, who is one of ‘the Lord’s people’, and all in the clouds but I am not eager to take advantage of my friend’s kindness. Farewell, and believe me ever to remain your affectionate friend R C Jenkins. 12 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 19 June 1835 33 Tavistock Square My dear Jenkins, You will not feel surprised at my having allowed your letter to lie for a week unanswered, when you have finished the perusal of the sheet which I have undertaken to fill. There are only two things which make letter-writing interesting; first the having
52
At foot, ‘pronounced Pω not Pου’.
36 The Letters a variety of acquaintance and topics in common and secondly when the parties engaged take a sincere interest in one another. That this last is the case I flatter myself, and it is this consideration alone that induces me to take up your time with an epistle so very deficient in the first recommendation. Your departure has been the beginning of my losses; for Stewart leaves town tomorrow for Cheltenham, from whence he intends (after paying some visits on his road thither and making some stay there) to proceed by land to Invernesshire, so that I am not likely to see him until he again returns to London, which he is not likely to do until somewhere about October. I received a very warm and pressing invitation from him to visit them in the South; and how small soever the possibility of my taking an advantage of it at present may be, I rejoice very much to part on such cordial terms. He has been threatening to visit you with a letter and took down your address at Brighton for that purpose but the hurry of removing and the excitement of examinations have prevented him (I believe) from fulfilling his intention as yet. Of Spankie I have heard nothing nor am I likely to hear anything: all that I know (and perhaps that is too strong a term for what is only a pretty positive impression) of him, is, that he has not yet returned to town. I fear that he is not very likely to make any distinguished figure at college and I think you must have arrived at the same opinion as I have, sometime ago. I saw the name of your quondam plausible friend Mr E. Gordon53 in the list of Candidates for Honours at Oxford, at what I thought a very reverential distance from the top. Is it so? I have had a kind of holiday this week as Mr Long has been at Rochester; a circumstance which I do not much regret: for the weather inspires me with a kind disinclination for working, not at all accordant with a spirit of devotion for Greek iambics or Latin hexameters. Of Lainson I have neither seen nor heard anything but do not believe that he is in town. You see all my information (such as it is) is of the negative kind. And now I have deferred till the last what in truth was the principal object of my beginning this scrawl, namely to inquire into the state of your health and the progress which you have made since your sojourn at Brighton in the recovery of it. I cannot say (what I hope you will excuse me of saying) that I feel greatly disappointed at your being put off for another year. I can sympathise very sincerely in your disappointment; but the consideration of health is one of primary importance and, besides that it will give us, I trust opportunities of more convenient intercourse, the interval will, I hope, give you a opportunity when you are sufficiently returned to health of making some greater progress in those branches which are valued at Cambridge; I mean the Mathematics. My father and brother continue at Margate. My mother desires her best wishes to you, and with my kindest regards to all your family circle, I remain my dear Jenkins, Ever most sincerely yours A C Gooden Friday June 19th 1835
53
Edward Gordon, matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, 1831; BA 1835, MA 1840.
Youth, 1831–36 37 13 Charles Edward Stewart to Alexander Gooden, 1 July 1835 Cheltenham, Wednesday evening July 1st 1835 My dear Gooden, A frank is going to town to-night, and I fear there will be room for no more than half a sheet, so that you must at present be contented with a short note, and not unlikely a wafer, tho’ not a wet one which would no doubt shock you as much as it did ‘Sir Snobbie’! We did not arrive here till Friday night. On the Saturday on which I left town, and on which I received your kind note, we came down to Mr Bunbury’s near Newbury in Berkshire; where we remained until Wednesday (this day week), when we went to Chilton Lodge, a beautiful place, belonging to Sir William Cooper, who married the sister of my brother Simon’s wife.54 We left it on Friday morning at 10, and arrived her at half-past 4 pm – pretty considerably drenched: – it rained buckets from Cicester here, a distance 15 miles, and I was outside and could scarce hold the umbrella up. Have you heard lately from your father and brother; – and how are both they, and your home department? Are we to despair of seeing you at Belladrum? I hope not. We shall be there I fancy this night 4 weeks. I fear I must soon conclude, for I am necessitated to go out to tea with my sister almost directly, which I consider a great bore! How was Jenkins when you last heard from or of him? I hope you will write soon, and let me know about the marks at the examination, and the certificates. By the bye, I see by the Papers, that Waley55 is second in Greek. How will they manage? He got 2nd prize in both classes last year, and cannot get the same twice. I shall be very glad if he loses; and am only that such a conceited pair as he and Davidson should be prizers, (for I will not call them prize-men). Johnnie will be home in 3 weeks, and if he has time will, I am sure, do himself the pleasure of calling on you. Remember us very kindly to your mother, and to your father and brother if with you and believe me, My dear Gooden, Yours very sincerely Charles Edward Stewart Our address here is No 5 Montpellier Spa Buildings, Cheltenham
54
55
Rev. Sir William Cooper, a Prebendary of Rochester, had purchased the Chilton Lodge estate, on the Berkshire-Wiltshire border, in 1834. Mr Bunbury may be Henry Hill Bunbury of Marlstone House in Bucklebury near Newbury, who was High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1842. (Information from Paul Cannon, Newbury Museum.) Jacob Waley (born Levi), BA London University 1839; Professor of Political Economy there 1853–66.
38 The Letters 14 Charles Edward Stewart to Alexander Gooden, 6 July 1835 5 Spa Buildings, Cheltenham My dear Gooden I received your kind letter yesterday morning, (at least, I suppose I must call it kind, as you take such credit to yourself for the undertaking, although you attack my poor half sheet most unmercifully, which is not fair, considering that yours is twice that size: and as to your orthodox sheet, it was not surely orthodox to send a letter here, so as to arrive here on Sunday morning.) I have given you a tolerable share of parenthesis, for which I believe there is not the slightest occasion, but it may set your brains to work to find where the line of argument is taken up; so I am going on to say, that by your letter, I was most agreeably surprized to find that I had got a certificate, and especially one so high. At the same time I received a note from Chambers, with the number of marks gained by each motto at the Xmas and Easter Examinations: and I find that I am higher, – by two places – at Xmas (Livy) than at Easter (Horace) – at which I am surprized; and can only account for it by supposing that very few did any thing at all at Xmas: for the marks at the latter are – Waley = 474; Davidson = 470; these are very near; – but the differences then are considerable – the third I do not know, he marks 352, a difference of 118: I am 4th 318 a difference of 34: – at Easter; they do not run so much in pairs; and the differences are much more similar – the numbers are; 1st 634: 2nd 624; 3rd 602: 4th 562 the difference increasing: 5th 561: 6th 512: So that in this I am 6th but on both together I am still fourth: – and must therefore have lost at Midsummer. I must really not bother you about this stupid certificate, but somehow I feel glad to have gotten even it, tho’ not much worth. I feel rather annoyed at not having prepared better for the Livy examination; but no one had the most distant idea of so hard a trial. You surely could not fancy that the certificate was for me after all, as you say it is for Charles Edward Stewart, while you address your letter Charles Stewart. However, I hope you’ll never do so no more; as our deceased friend Mathews used to say. To whom did the Greek Prize go? And what were the Greek prizes? I sent Key a piece of paper with some Latin on it, (for I must not call it Latin Composition) but have not seen any critique on it. I shall try to send a fresh supply up today. I envy you your having heard the eloquent orations (or neat and elegant address, as the Chronicle styles it) of HB.56 By the bye, has the other HB, brought forward any Caricatures. My avowed purpose is to fill a sheet (as I do not wish to send a frank cover entirely empty), as was yours, but I fear I shall fall behind you in the execution. This place is very pretty, but so dull, that one day’s journal may serve for all, however, to give you something perhaps less stupid than other egotistical news: – you must know – that I am ready to go out in the morning at 8 – ahem! when I take a glass of the waters, to give you an idea of which you may fancy some nice warm chicken broth, with a proper quantity of salt! It is delightful: – but then there is a stuff called Solution which is the salt of this water, concentrated, and is most shocking, tho’ not so bad perhaps as Epsom. We walk for half an hour after our first glass: then take our second, walk for about 10 56
Henry Peter Brougham, Scottish advocate and English barrister, elected MP for Camelford in 1810, created Baron Brougham and Vaux 1830; Lord Chancellor 1830–34.
Youth, 1831–36 39 minutes, and then come home about 9. We have a cup of tea, and then breakfast at 10. After breakfast we generally read anything we please, till about 1. We then go out, and return to dinner at 4, after which, we go out for an hour or so in the cool of the evening, either to walk or ride, and have tea or coffee, between 8 and 9. I have been reading The Last Days of Pompeii: by the atheistical Bulwer; it is beautifully written, but there is that over-grown grandeur, so to speak, which I think spoils his writings. I hope your trip to Ramsgate will do you all good: has the sea-air benefitted your brother? I wish I could write to Jenkins (as you say, not Peter) today, but fear I shall not have time. I really have nothing to say, and feel so disinclined to do anything, much more to think. But I must write soon. The house will be rather empty this week, – the installation has drained town considerably. Can you give me any idea of the average yearly expense of a student at one of the colleges at Oxford or Cambridge, and whether Trinity is more expensive than another? A gentleman, a friend of my father’s wished to know the other day, but I never heard. Did you? This sheet is wearing to a close, but I fear it is full of little more than ‘emptiness’ – as it is however, you must receive it, tho’ I do not oblige you to pay for it, for which you thank the new Chancellor, for Charles Tynte passed through this town on his way to Wales, as an holiday excursion having paired off with (I think) Colonel Wood: and gave me this frank for you. Who is to be the new Lord Chancellor, or is it to be ever in abeyance? I suppose there is no chance of our seeing you in the North this year? I trust however, that I shall be up in town by the first of October, as I am very anxious to attend the class of botany which meets there. At any rate I shall endeavor to be up on the first day of the general classes; – as I should like very well to attend Key either in the senior class or in the third. Are you still studying very hard? I think you will be hurting yourself, if you take more holydays than you ever have; in fact I think by far your best way would be to come down to Belladrum with Jack, and meet us all there. With kind regards from all her to your circle, Believe me. My dear Gooden. Yours very sincerely, Charles Edward Stewart. NB Will you forward the enclosed to Jenkins, as soon as convenient – I forget his address. CES 15 George Knox Gillespie to James Gooden, 18 July 1835 July 18 1835 Sir, I enclose my account and will call at Tavistock Square on Tuesday next at 4 o’clock. I embrace the present opportunity of saying a few words on the subject of the progress of your sons in mathematics in which I have long superintended their studies. Mr James Gooden from a variety of causes, among which are to be numbered occasional absence and precarious health, has not been able to advance with as much rapidity as could be wished, and as has been often and anxiously desired by himself. He has, however, made satisfactory progress in Mechanics and continues to pursue the subjects of Trigonometry, Solid Geometry, Conic Sections and Algebra. The last alone presents him with an inexhaustible field of research as delightful when conquered as profitable in its application. I have often inculcated the paramount necessity of repetition
40 The Letters in Mathematics; without its aid the clear ideas which are once obtained (and no others are of the smallest value) become gradually more dim and must finally disappear altogether. It is better by untiring repetition to acquire the perfect mastery of a limited step of mathematical attainment, than to suffer ourselves to be betrayed into the more ambitious and abstract project of skimming lightly over an extent of surface. The first will serve as a solid nucleus upon which ulterior investigations may repose, the latter, however precious and flattering, offers absolutely no good result. I am happy to observe that Mr. J. Gooden exhibits a taste for the mixed mathematics which he will find much pleasure in cultivating, particularly if he never suffers himself to lose sight of the fact that the ultimate foundation for an accurate knowledge of them lies in the elements of pure science. The reputation for conspicuous talent which your second son enjoys renders it unnecessary for me to say more than that I cordially add my mite to the suffrages which he already commands. I hope he will not be offended at my assumption of the temporary and pro-tanto superiority implied in so doing. He has shown in his Mathematical labours the ready and sound apprehension which I was led to expect from him; and in the drudgery of his algebraical papers in particular, he has earned the praise of a patience truly invincible. To both your sons I owe much gratitude for their docility, industry and attention during the hours of my attendance. The first quality is seldom found in an equal degree in the relation of pupils to a teacher but little farther advanced than themselves. Their possession of it relieved me completely from the irksomeness which I should otherwise have felt in the task of dictating to young men of their age. You will I hope give me credit for the high sense of obligation under which I have been laid by Mrs Gooden’s kindness in recommending pupils to my care. In doing so, particularly in the case of Mr Hensly, she has rendered me essential service which will not easily be obliterated from my memory. I am Sir Very respectfully yours G K Gillespie. 16 Alexander Gooden to George Knox Gillespie, 23 July 1835 My dear Sir I beg leave to return the books with the loan of which you so kindly favoured us; and which I was accidentally prevented from delivering to you in person, when you called on Tuesday last. You will at the same time permit me to offer you, in my brother’s name and my own, our sincerest acknowledgements for the valuable instruction which we have received from you; and that instruction has been made doubly valuable by the manner in which it has been communicated, which has always been that of a friend rather than a preceptor. My mother and brother set off this morning for Ramsgate, whither my father and I intend to follow them on Saturday. With the sincerest wishes for your health and welfare. Believe me, my dear Sir, Ever most sincerely yours. A. C. Gooden 33 Tavistock Square Thursday July 23/35
Youth, 1831–36 41 17 W. G. Pennington57 to Alexander Gooden, 10 August 1835 Clapham, 10 August 1835 My dear Gooden I cannot describe the pleasure I experienced, at seeing your well known handwriting, which was still more increased on finding that you completely exonerated me from my self imputed negligence. I thank you for your candour; and in the mean time, not only do I grant you my unconditional pardon, but most thankfully accept your very kind letter as a renewal of our old acquaintance. I am sincerely delighted to find that you are prospering in your studies. I am sure that under Mr Long’s valuable instructions, the seed which has fallen on so good a soil cannot fail to expand into a goodly tree. I can assure that amidst the drudgery of an attorney’s office I often look back with regard to the λιγς Πυλων γορητης, το και π γλ σσης µ λιτος γλυκιων εν α δε,58 and envy you most cordially the high privilege you enjoy under his valuable care. I thank you for your expression of regret at the necessary separation of our acquaintance, which I most cordially reiterate. I can truly say that I often recur with satisfaction to our former acquaintance at the L. U., and am sorry that our necessary pursuits keep us so much estranged. To be destined for the same sphere as yourself, would be far more congenial to my own disposition, than my present monotonous career; but the fates, I suppose, have decreed otherwise. Do not imagine however, that in following legal pursuits, I neglect the far more agreeable ones on which you are engaged. By robbing my pillow of a few hours (perhaps necessary) repose, I can still find time for gratifying my natural propensity; and I hope my time is not unprofitably, I do not think it is unsatisfactorily, employed. My brother’s59 destination for the University was fixed just before I wrote to you last summer. My father then determined upon entering him at Trinity – to which he was partly persuaded on the recommendation of our rector, Dr Dealtry,60 who himself received his education there, and was for many years, a fellow and tutor of that college. I dare say you may remember he was not much distinguished at the London University for classical erudition; but as Mathematics are at Cambridge the ‘genius loci’, I hope he may be distinguished on the tripos, when the time comes for taking his Bachelor’s degree. He has met many of his old L. U. associates, that are now studying there, whom I doubt not, you well remember. I was at Cambr myself in the winter and had the pleasure<e of> meeting many of them on that casion. Our old competitor Christie, I do not know whether you are aware, has abandoned academical honours, after studying more than a year at Cambridge, and has accepted a civil appointment
57
58 59 60
Both this Pennington and his brother Arthur were contemporaries of Gooden’s at the University of London. This brother’s first name is unknown: in the prize listing (UCL Report, p. 45), where he is recorded as winning a Greek prize in the Second Class in 1831, he appears only as ‘Pennington, W’. ‘The clear-voiced orator of the men of Pylos, he from whose tongue flowed sweeter than honey’, Homer, Iliad I, lines 248–249; translation from Loeb Classical Library. Arthur Robert Pennington, admitted to Trinity 1834; BA 1838, MA 1841. William Dealtry, admitted to St Catharine’s, 1792; migrated to Trinity 1793, elected scholar 1895; BA 1896 (2nd Wrangler), BD 1812, DD 1829; Professor of Mathematics at the East India College, Haileybury 1805–13.
42 The Letters to India. He is now studying at the E. I. College at Hertford – but I hope to have an opportunity when we meet, of talking over some of our old recollections. I do not like to trespass on your valuable time particularly as it is being so beneficially employed: but I beg you to remember that I shall always be most happy to hear from you whenever your leisure allows – in the mean time I shall look forward to a personal renewal of our acquaintance on your return to London. Pray remember me to your brother – apropos of whose talents I was happy to see a favorable specimen recently at the Exhibition at Somerset House. Adieu, believe me, my dear Gooden, your very sincere friend W G Pennington 18 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 20 August 1835 2 Mount Pleasant, Ramsgate My dear Jenkins, I am sure it will not need many assurances to satisfy you that I have not through neglect allowed your very welcome letter to lie for a week unanswered; but after the receipt of that had relieved the anxiety I felt on your account, I thought that I might safely wait until something happened which might be an addition to my very small stock of intelligences and perhaps render my present scrawl a little less wearisome than it was otherwise likely to be. I have one thing to complain of in your letter; that you have not told me half enough about yourself, a subject which (no reflection on your topographical descriptions) would have been more interesting to me than any account of your journey, had it been through Greece instead of Wales. To punish you therefore for this neglect I shall tell you nothing in return of my excursions to Canterbury, Reculvers yea even unto Boulogne. Are not these things written in my Journal which is to come out upon my return to town, in a neat volume price 3/6d entitled ‘Wagaries from a Watering Place’ , and which is to be dedicated to Ramsgate Pier. I received about a fortnight ago a letter from W. G. Pennington whom you recollect of the London University, in which he paid me the most unmerited compliment of apologizing for the neglect of which he had been guilty in allowing our acquaintance to remain so long a time suspended. I believe I told you, that he addressed a letter to me at Inverness last year which owing to various circumstances I never answered and being ashamed of my conduct upon the occasion I had never the courage to call upon him and offer an explanation. I wrote to him in reply that the fault was entirely upon my side (which was true enough) etc etc and received from him a full pardon and remission of my sins. I am upon the whole much obliged to him for the candour and openness he has displayed, and which have relieved me from the embarrassment I should otherwise have felt in appearing to be neglectful of a person whom I really esteem and like. Of Spankie I have heard nothing. He seemed to me when I saw him last to be completely abroad with regard to his future prospects in life; his father having expressed something like a determination not to send him back to Cambridge. It may appear foolish, but I felt a little offended at his calling at our house, a little before we left Town, without bothering to take the trouble to ask if I was at home. In fact I am inclined to think that, unless something occurs to give it a fresh stimulus, our friendship is likely
Youth, 1831–36 43 to cool down to zero. I wrote to Stewart shortly before we left London, having a private opportunity of forwarding a letter, but have heard nothing from him. This place is very full, and the good people here are in expectation that their season will be protracted beyond its usual duration by the visit of the Duchess of Kent and the Princess; who will, it is supposed, arrive about the end of next month. Mr Long and his family have been staying here almost as long as we have, and have joined us in several very agreeable excursions. The Professor himself has extorted a few iambics from me which I have been obliged to put together by the light of unassisted reason, not having Dr Maltby61 with me. As for the rest I have made some impression on the Fasti62 and am in the eighth book of Herodotus. The prospect of a termination to my reading this way makes me think I have been very industrious, which I fear, is only a poetical fancy. I am very glad you all derived so much benefit from your tour in the West of England. To your brother George it must I am sure have been a well merited treat. When you write to me again, pray, tell me more about yourself; what you are about, and what you are going to be about. Present my best regards to your family and my respectful compliments to Mr and Mrs Jenkins. We shall probably prolong our stay here to the end of next month, but as, I am sure, you must be heartily tired of this tedious talk, Believe me till then, my dear Jenkins, Your sincere friend A C Gooden August 20th 1835 (PS) What fine work the Lords are making of the Corporation Bill!63 The House of Commons will scarcely know it again comes back to them. 19 Charles Edward Stewart to Alexander Gooden, 19 September 1835 Craigdarroch Cottage, Strathpeffer64 19 September 1835 My dear Gooden You will no doubt be a little surprised to find me inditing another letter so soon after having dispatched my last, which I regret to have been detained so long for a frank. But I am very anxious to ask you a question – You know (as Sir Christopher Hatton says) that I have long been wavering between an East India Writership, and a supernumary barrister-ship: – and I am now almost determined to give up (if possible) the former of these, as I cannot be sure of any thing for several months, and even then should be obliged to undergo a severe examination in competition for an appointment in which each candidate has only one chance in four, there being four nominees for each appointment. I am therefore not much inclined to run a risk (which I should fear,
61 62 63 64
Edward Maltby’s edition of Thomas Morrell’s Lexicon Graeco-Prosodiacum (1815). Ovid, Fasti. The Municipal Corporations Act, 1835. Postmarked ‘Bridgewater’.
44 The Letters however well prepared) of defeat, which would necessarily be discouraging, and might even affect me in after life, and have in consequence almost resolved, if I do not get an appointment to Haileybury on the old system, (of which I have not the least idea,) to give India up, and try my luck at home in some way or other. (I should wish you not to show or mention the subject of this letter to any one, as I am by no means decided what I am to do; in fact it has been hinted by my father, that the army was a better profession than the law, but I should not fancy it now, as there is so little to do, and, I fear, little chance of more for a long time, and if I were to turn soldier, I should be all day praying for war instead of attending to my duty; as that, I opine, is no go!) The question, of which I spoke at the beginning of my letter, is one which (if I mistake not) I put in my mysterious letter from Cheltenham, and which, from your not having noticed it, may perhaps need a longer answer than you feel inclined to commit to paper, or is perhaps one to which you are not able to give a decided answer: It was to ask you if you knew anything about the average expense incurred at Cambridge or Oxford, and what the Matriculation is? For my Father thinks a College life is so expensive and that it leads to such extravagance in after life, and he thinks, that if I do go into the law, that I should enter at one of the Inns, as a student, at once, instead of going to either of the Universities – now Kelly65 told me, that the usual sum paid by a student to the Barrister with whom he is, is about 100 Guineas – and that appears a great deal more for merely studying law, than three times as much at one of the Universities where one attends so many classes – and I know a person who says that he lived very comfortably (I think at Cambridge) on £300. I am however at all events to attend the London University this year, when I shall hope to see you frequently, as I am to be quite solitaire, in No 22, and shall necessarily feel dull and lonely. I suppose I ought to call on the Professors whom I attend, a day or two before the opening of the Session? – and indeed I do not know if I should do more good in the Senior, or the Third, Latin or Greek Classes. What do you think? We are now all over here, for the benefit of the waters, (although I do not touch {or taste} them), but I hope we shall soon return to Belladrum. They talk of going away from hence, in the first week of October, but in which case, I shall have a short allowance of Belladrum, as I shall need to leave it on Thursday evening the 8th October so as to get to Aberdeen on Friday night and get to London on Tuesday the 13th by the Saturday’s Aberdeen Steamer. This is a pretty enough place, for a person who does not care so much for home as I do, and, in fact, all the rest of the party seem to enjoy themselves very much – but they have a reason for coming here, which I have not – they come for their health – I do not: – they drink the waters – I do not: – and in addition to all this, I have a spite against the Strath, for having given me an attack of inflammation before! – Johnnie started this morning for Harrow – the Defiance from Inverness – and will be at school on Wednesday next: – and there seems to be some fatality attending his departure for school: – for last year – I went up to the hill before Belladrum to get some plants for him, and came down just a quarter of an hour too late to bid him good bye and sent them after him by a cart – and this time I went up
65
Probably Sir Fitzroy Kelly, called to the Bar 1824; MP for Ipswich January–June 1835, unsuccessful in 1837 but on petition sat from 1838–41; MP for Cambridge Borough 1843–47 and for Suffolk East 1853–66; Attorney General 1858–59.
Youth, 1831–36 45 to the hill behind this, also for plants for him, came down a quarter of an hour after he had gone, and sent the plants by a cart to Belladrum after him! Is that not odd? Your brother’s friend Miss Beech (alias B – h)66 has been here for a day – what a queer girl she is! – She spoke very highly of your accomplishments etc etc!!! I do not know how to send this to you, for I should expect a challenge if I were to send it to Chisholm to frank to you – and if I came through his hands unscathed, I should need to be shot at by you – so I believe I must give some other member a chance of being obliging for once in a life! I hope to hear from you soon – and if you have not yet delivered my message in Portman Street, you need not trouble yourself about it, as I am to be up so soon, and therefore run a risk of passing the parcel between this and London. I believe I have no more to say, but to beg pardon for sending such a stupid letter, and with kind regards from all our party to your circle, to subscribe myself, as. My dear Gooden, Ever most sincerely yours, Charles Edward Stewart P S Are you sure that BB’s name is Doyle? And is your authority good? Addio. PPS I have just re-read my letter, and beg pardon, in the 2nd (and I believe last) place, for the very parenthetical (not prophetical) character of it. Vale! (Vale inquit et Echo! ) 20 Charles Edward Stewart to Alexander Gooden, 19 November 183567 Belladrum, 19 November 1835 My dear Gooden I have just finished a long letter to Jenkins, and am afraid that I shall not have this ready by post hour. Your very kind and acceptable letter reached me about 10 days or a fortnight ago, and I am sorry to have delayed my answer so long. If you would, in your next letter, direct hither, by Beauly and never mind Inverness or Invernessshire. I shall receive it a day sooner, as otherwise it is stopped at Inverness for a post. I do not think I could have desired any thing more satisfactory, in the way of a letter, than yours, although of course a person can manage much better ‘viva voce’ than by letter, to impart and acquire information. I shall hope to see you in town about the 23rd of next month, and, indeed, I now feel very anxious to get South soon, for more reasons than one. I shall certainly see Key, (I had rather consult him than Malden) as soon as may be, after my arrival in London; but I do not know whether it would do for me to ask him about the expenses at College – what do you think? I have translated two of Cicero’s letters into English, about a week ago, and intend to exercise my ingenuity, in restoring them to their original form, tomorrow.68 As to what you say, of making sure work of what I do, I believe I have done so in the Terence, but when I was reading Herodotus, I found the idioms so difficult, and the history so interesting, that, I fear, I am not very sure about it. But that, I am aware, is what I want most. How is Gillespie? I have been going over Euclid for a short time back, – I wished, if possible, to get through the first four books before going south – but I began with the commentary, and as I am determined to go on with that, till I can go longer, I shall not
66 67 68
Presumably ‘Bitch’. On the cover: ‘This sheet is rather small!’ Thus using double translation: translating a piece of Latin into English and then back again, to compare the pupil’s prose style with the original.
46 The Letters get through any thing like it in that time – indeed, if I manage the first and second books, I shall consider myself very lucky. I have been already two days, (at upwards of two hours a day) endeavouring to master one of the corollaries to propn. 32 and have not yet succeeded; I shall allow myself 4 hours more and if it still puzzles me, I shall ‘give it up’. 20th. I left this off yesterday after post hour, and now resume my pen in great haste, as the carriage is going in to Inverness, whither this letter is going. I shall send it, whether finished or not, and perhaps add another in a day or two. I enclose two letters, one for the ‘old man in a dirty flannel jacket’ which you perhaps [will] put into any two-penny post as soon as convenient. The other is for Jenkins, which I should be obliged by your delivering to him, either in propria persona, of through the medium of the 2d. post.69 (You may see by my writing that I am in a desperate hurry.) I attacked the corollary again last night, but have not succeeded yet, tho’ I think I am gaining some insight into it – it is so marked (138) in Lardner;70 – Do you know it? What do you mean by the ‘First Part’ of Algebra? By the bye, what a beautiful specimen O’Connell’s letter, to the Independent (!)(?) Electors of Carlow, is! It deserves, as the stories of the Arabian Nights, ‘to be written in letters of gold’, (or brass) and to be set up among the archives of – Billingsgate! Perhaps you have not seen it. We take in the Sun – but say not a word about this in your letter! In one thing – nevertheless – I do agree with him, viz. in denouncing the Duke of Cumberland [face drawn in brackets] as every thing worse than other – but his attacks on the Duke of Wellington (by whom he got his seat in Parliament) is [sic] as base as it is ill-judged. You must not pay for my pleasure, in reading your letters. If you will send them to Portman Square, with the words ‘to be forwarded immediately’ the ‘old man’ will send them by the first frank or else send them direct, but ‘encore une fois’, direct them ‘by Beauly’ and not ‘Invernessshire’ as that saves both time and postage: and if your future letters are satisfactory etc as those already received, I shall not grudge the postage. In my letter to Jenkins, I have endeavored to give him some idea of the attraction of ‘Beauly’ – you know it and can perhaps give him a better idea of it than I have; – ‘Faites votre possible’. Whom do you mean by the Fairman? The carriage is come – With kind regards to your circle, Believe me, Dear Gooden ever Yours most sincerely Charles Edward Stewart Write soon.
69
70
Before the establishment of the Penny Post, postage was charged according to the number of sheets and the distance a letter had to travel. The charge was usually paid by the recipient. Abuse of this system, especially by MPs who allowed their supporters to mail their own letters under the MPs’ privilege of free postage, led to Rowland Hill’s introduction in 1840 of the penny post, whereby letters were charged by weight but not by distance and the sender paid in advance. This necessitated the introduction of postage stamps, the first of which, the Penny Black, came into use on 6 May 1840. Dionysius Lardner, A Treatise on Algebraic Geometry (London, 1831).
Youth, 1831–36 47 21 Charles Edward Stewart to Alexander Gooden, 28 December 1835 Monday 28 December 1835 Hillington Hall, Norfolk My dear Gooden Many happy returns of this season, many merry Christmases, and happy new year! Here we are, in this most hill-top county, of a hill-top country! After living for months in the land of mountains and vales, and, as a sort of dessert, passing through the splendid scenery of ‘The Grampian Hills’, to come into a country, where there is scarce slope to make a river run (!) is a terrible Bathos! – but the hope of meeting our friends in the South is consolatory. We shall start from hence on the 4th proximo and pass through Cambridge, where I think I shall pass a night, and endeavour, if possible, to see some of the dignatories there. Are you acquainted with any one there to whom you could give me an introduction? Or do you know anyone from whom you could get one? I have written a note to Key, on this subject, which I enclose. I have left it unsealed, and wish you would read it, and either seal and send it to him if you think it comme il faut, and [sic] if you do not, it is only to burn it. If I have time I shall write a note to Jenkins, to wish him the compliments of the season, and if I should not have time, perhaps you will be my proxy when you next see him. I received a letter from you just before I came South, which I did not bring with me, as I did not expect to write again before we met – when you write, will you enclose the letter, under cover to ‘Sir William Brown-Ffolkes bart MP Hillington Hall Lynn Norfolk’.71 In your letter to which I allude, you say something about something which you had sent to me – I shall really be afraid to meet you, if you go on making all these presents. I do not remember anything else about which you wrote. It was rather singular, that when we left Belladrum, there was no snow near us, and we scarce saw any (except on the hills) till we came to Edinburgh where there was a little. There had been still more farther South, and particularly in Northumberland; – the difference on the two sides of the Tweed was very marked. But still further on, in Yorkshire, there was yet more – and it increased as we came hither to this flat. We stayed half a day at York, and went to the Minster (vulgo Minstrel). I never was so pleased in my life. You know I am fond of those old places – and if you can fancy Westminster Abbey, trebled in size, in as perfect preservation, and in the chaste style of Henry VII’s Chapel, you have some idea of the nave of the Minster, but then the glass windows are really magnificent – for one of them – £2000 annually is bequeathed to keep it in repair and they have little or none of it! I have some views which you shall see when you come to town. I believe there will be a letter enclosed to the ‘old man’ which you will perhaps put into the T P P O72 for me. Remember us all very kindly to your circle, and believe me, my dear Gooden, Yours very sincerely, Charles Edward Stewart.
71 72
Sir William John Henry Browne Ffolkes, Bart., MP for West Norfolk 1830–37. Presumably Tavistock Place Post Office.
48 The Letters 22 M. Smith73 to Alexander Gooden, 12 September 1836 Leeds, 12 September 1836 My Dear Nephew It is with the greatest pleasure I acknowledge the receipt of your very affectionate and welcome letter announcing your approaching removal to Cambridge and the gratifying wish to hear of us when there, believe me dearest Alick it will give me much pleasure to exchange letters with you, as we shall be equally anxious to hear of your welfare and success in your studies and though it may argue great temerity on my part to address a scholar, and a Cambrian, I am sure your generosity will overlook all literary defects and give me the full credit of reciprocating with you in all the warm affections of the heart. The change will indeed be new to you and at the first not a little irksome till you have made some acquaintance, in the choice of which I hope you will prove fortunate but we hear so much of college dissipation I trust you will be very guarded and preserve those domestic and virtuous habits which now form your chief happiness the loss of which no elevation in life can compensate. I am sorry to hear of your dear mother’s attack of the bowel complaint and that you have hitherto derived so little benefit from the air of Ramsgate but tho the weather is cold and rainy with us, it possibly may be more favorable with you, and I shall hope to hear that this month has made you amends and that you all return home perfectly recruited and invigorated for the winter. My feelings have been much exercised on your poor uncle’s account who 3 weeks ago was attack’d with alarming symptoms of pressure on the brain, prompt and copious bleeding etc etc averted the threaten’d danger, and though much reduced and infeebled, I am thankful to say he is now resuming his wonted healthy appearance and will I hope eventually recover his usual vigour. You will be glad to hear that Lucy returned home last week very much improved in strength and appearance and tho she is not wholly rid of her complaint, her journey has been well bestow’d in promoting her general health, which I think will go far in assisting a local cure – while at Preston she was fortunate enough to meet with a fine sample of cranberries and forwarded from thence 12 quarts for your dear mother’s acceptance which will I have no doubt reach’d Tavistock Square ere this and appeared you a tart on dear James’s birthday which I can assure him is never passed over here without a hearty toast to his health and happiness, nor does the 4th of April escape our notice with prayers and good wishes for both your welfare. I have had no further intelligence of dear Mrs Meek but this may be attributed to my having not yet answered dear Fanny Birch’s letter. Mrs Hallsworth has been at Liverpool for upwards of a month during which I have no accounts of dear Rosa, up to that time she was well and pursuing her studies with the nuns much to the satisfaction of those accomplished Ladies, who were formerly at Heath near Wakefield but now at Princethorp St Mary’s Leamington. I do not think Rosa will be handsome, but she is well grown has fine intellect and promises to be a very clever woman. Mrs Lees will be glad to hear of you – she often repeats your sayings, when you took off the Yorkshire dialect, she is expected here at the end of this week.
73
Gooden’s aunt’s first name is unknown.
Youth, 1831–36 49 Mr Hines talks of going to Dover and Hastings this winter and proposes collecting his younger children at the latter place, he is obliged to vacate the house at Chapeltown before the 28th Inst. and as his new house cannot be ready for his reception till March or April he is compelled to take house in Leeds for the next six months. I was much amused with your account of Ramsgate, I suppose all those public resorts have their peculiar character, your uncle and Lucy join me in best affections to your father, mother and dear James, and believe me dearest Alick ever your affectionate aunt, M. Smith
Freshman, 1836–37
23 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 23 October 1836 23 October 1836 (Porchers) Jesus Lane, Cambridge My Dear Mother My father will probably have informed you how little I was at first captivated with the external appearance of Cambridge. Nothing material has occurred since his departure, and I may therefore as well record for my own amusement, and I hope they will not be unamusing to you, my first impressions of the place. If I had been asked my opinion on the first night after my arrival, I should have described Cambridge as a dull and shabby town. The colleges which present on the side of the street very much the appearance that our own Inns of Court do (especially the Temple) are of all colours sizes and styles of architecture. Here you have a fine, modern looking edifice, and there a dingy collection of brick towers; here the walls are on a line with the street, and there a college stands aloof from it in the midst of a garden. The shops and houses are without exception small and shabby; I have not seen one that looks like the residence of a private gentleman; indeed they seldom exceed 3 stories in height.1 The streets are narrow and of course the pavement is the same; so that you must skip along in the kennell2 and on the causeway as well as you can. The churches are numerous and old but not large. After entering the gate of a college you generally find a quadrangle (at Trinity a very fine one) from which you pass on to one or more, and so to the college walks which are commonly behind the buildings. This takes from the beauty of the colleges because the gardens are not seen until you actually enter them. The trees are very fine, the gravel walks very well kept, and the grass-plots very well rolled. The river Cam both in colour and width strongly resembles a ditch; but several bridges crossing it connect the different parts of the colleges with one another: and where it flows (I should rather say creeps) through the college grounds the banks are grassy and sloping and lined with elms and other large trees. The country round about is perfectly level, and setting aside the monotony occasioned by this circumstance, by no means unpleasing. The lodgings which I at present occupy consist of two rooms, a sitting and bed-room. The furniture of both is neat and perfectly new; my sitting room is about the size of our bath-room, contains no cupboard, and has only a few shelves which are fully occupied by my library: but it is warm and cheerful. The opposite side
1 2
33 Tavistock Square has six stories, including a semi-basement. Gutter.
Freshman, 1836–37 51 of the Lane consists not of a row of houses but a row of gardens together with the grounds attached to Jesus College. It is a long way from here to Trinity which is the greatest disadvantage of the place. For five minutes walk is a long way when you have to go travel that distance three times a day. The academical cap and gown must be worn in going to and from College where I have to make my appearance at the following hours. At seven in the morning to Chapel; at nine to Lecture; and at four to Hall or dinner. I prefer going to morning-Chapel (for there is also service performed at six in the evening) because it leaves the evening at your own disposal. You will wonder, I suppose, at the sudden transformation of my habits; from rising at half past eight to rising at half past six; but I find no particular inconvenience from the earliness of the hour, and the time it gives me counterbalances the temporary sacrifice of old habits. Breakfast and tea are prepared for me at my lodgings; the materials for those meals are brought from the College buttery. The dinner is laid out in the Great Hall, in which all the resident members of the College (about 400 in number) sit down at long tables. Meat and bread, beer or water, are the only things provided for you. Plates of pudding, cheese, and glasses of ale are brought to those who call for them, and set down to the account of the respective consumers. The meat consists of joints of mutton, veal, beef (fresh and salt) served up in immense round pewter chargers, and interspersed with greens and potatoes. The dinner occupies about twenty minutes or half an hour. I have seen Spankie, Stewart, Busk,3 Pennington, Stooks4 etc. and found Hue’s5 ticket upon my table yesterday. Busk told me that he wrote a letter to James some time ago from Brighton inviting the said James to pay him (Busk) a visit there, where he was staying alone. I hope my father explained the system of letter writing to be kept up among us. I will write frequently to you, and shall be delighted to receive in return letters from you. But whether you write or not, I shall not wait for an answer to be returned. My chum6 is a Trinity man named Vigurs7 from the West of England, a very handsome and gentlemanly person of about three and twenty. He seems to have no turn for dissipation and hitherto we agree and (I hope it is mutual) like one another very well. Remember me kindly to the Lamberts;8 to the Ladies present my love. I have materials enough for another letter which will be directed to my father or James. I am in no want of acquaintance here and they are needful occasionally to enliven the time which would else hang heavy upon one’s hands. Will my father send me down ‘Clinton’s Fasti’9 and ‘Paley’s Evidences’?10 I shall have to buy the latter else. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Hans Busk, son of Hans Busk, poet and scholar. Attended King’s College School London; admitted to Trinity 1834; BA 1839, MA 1844, LL D 1873; High Sheriff of Radnorshire 1847. Thomas Fraser Stooks, admitted to Trinity 1833; elected scholar 1836; BA 1837, MA 1841. Corbet Hue, of St Pancras, London; admitted to Caius 1836; scholar 1837–39; BA 1840 (9th Wrangler), MA 1843; Fellow 1842–59. Room- or lodging-mate. Louis Vigurs, admitted to Trinity 1836, migrated to Downing 1837; merchant of Old Broad Street, London, 1843–47; Chairman of the West Cornwall Railway. The Lambert family lived next door in Tavistock Square: John Lambert, merchant, and Katharine his wife with their children Thomas, Henrietta and Anne. Henry Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenici: the Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece (1830–34). William Paley, Natural Theology: or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature (1794), the backbone of elementary theological teaching in Cambridge.
52 The Letters With my best love to my father and James, Believe me, dearest Mother Your affectionate son A C Gooden Sunday October 23rd /36 PS Direct my letters Trinity College, not to my lodgings. How is James’s painting going on; if I were permanently fixed I should order a picture. Pray write to me soon. 24 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 1–2 November 1836 Jesus Lane Cambridge Nov 2 My dear Father My mother’s letter was very acceptable; for, though it is but a fortnight since we parted, the change has been so complete and so new that I feel as if a much longer interval had passed. When my situation has become more easy to me, you will not of course expect to hear from me so soon in reply, but I think it best to give you an account of objects about me before I am perfectly familiarized with them. First then with regard to the result of the examination with which you left me occupied; all that we know about it is, that no one has been sent back, but several of the class are remanded for examination at Christmas. The day after the examination concluded Mr Thorp addressed the class informing them that he much regretted that the necessity, under which he was placed of reading some lectures on extraordinary subjects, compelled him to resign the guidance of his freshmen to other hands, those of Mr Martin11 the mathematical and Mr J. Wordsworth the classical lecturer. By them accordingly we have since been lectured, and Mr Thorp we have seen no more of as our tutor than if he had been 100 miles off. The loss of Mr T’s instructions is not greatly lamented by his pupils for Mr Martin is a clever man and a man of sense without any of the flummery which infects his principal, and though Mr Wordsworth is rather a cool indifferent sort of lecturer, yet Mr Thorp’s address to his pupils on the day above mentioned was in a style which though very well-meaning was so extremely twaddling and oldwomanish as to give no very favorable idea of his judgement. Our class numbers about 34 which is fewer than usual: the total number of freshmen at Trinity this year is considerably diminished, the examination having scared many away. The lectures are poor – certainly not superior, and in some instances greatly inferior, to those I have been in the habit of listening to at the London University. The subjects we are reading at present are the Alcestis of Euripides, and Euclid; in the first our progress is very slow but perhaps only [on] a level with the attainments of the class which fall much below the standard I had expected to find. Mr Peacock’s pupils are the most numerous and are said to comprise the greatest number of clever men. Mr Thorp invited me ‘to wine’ with him on Saturday last. This means to partake of wine and dessert at his rooms after Hall or dinner. I
11
Francis Martin, admitted to Pembroke 1820, migrated to Trinity the same year; Bell Scholar 1821, Craven Scholar 1823; BA 1824 (7th Wrangler), MA 1827; Fellow 1825–68, Assistant Tutor 1826–37, Senior Bursar 1837–61, Vice-Master 1862–66.
Freshman, 1836–37 53 found rather more than a dozen undergraduates (generally freshmen) there; the whole affair was rather stiff with the exception of Prof. Sedgwick12 who came in and made himself very easy and agreeable. He is a great favourite, and I do not wonder at it. I persevere in my early attendance at Chapel, and, though the weather has been exceptionally cold for the last three or four days and the snow is not yet off the ground which fell on Friday morning, I manage it pretty well. A fortnight’s residence has brought me acquainted with College Bills; for, although not paid till the end of the term, they are presented weekly. I could not make anything of my first, but the comments of my landlord Porcher whom I called up for the purpose soon elucidated the matter. The woman of the house (Mrs P) is very civil to me: for I do not give her much trouble and generally speak to her when she enters my room, which, as she is apparently very fond of talking, is highly satisfactory to her. My tea and sugar go much faster than I could have anticipated, before I became an owner myself; but I have no suspicion of foul play. The wine and books came safe to hand. The former I have not yet broached. The books have not received the slightest rubbing owing to the masterly style in which they were packed. Vigurs and I are very good friends, and take tea alternately in one another’s rooms. He is desirous at the end of the year of becoming a fellow-commoner of Downing College: being studious of his ease and accustomed to a large allowance he finds the strictness of the Trinity rules a little irksome. His determination of quitting business to go to the bar has excited his father’s indignation, and he is accordingly restricted to 300£ p.a. Mother’s offer of a ham is tempting, but I have no keeping place under my own hands and, though my people are decently honest, it would not be fair to tempt their virtue by placing unlimited confidence in them. A few pots of preserve would be very useful, though not upon my account. I have plenty of acquaintance, but must reserve all I have to say with regard to them, until I write to James whom I shall next address. I hope the attack of cough you suffered from on your return to town has abated, and that you and my mother and James are as well at least (and as much better as you like) as usual. The Jenkinses have mentioned me to a friend of theirs Dumergue,13 who has called upon and been very civil to me. Please to remember me to the Lamberts. My best and most affectionate love to my dear mother and James. I remain, my dear Father, Your dutiful and affectionate son Alexr. C. Gooden Tuesday Nov 1 1836 PS I have called on Middleton14 but not seen him.
12
13 14
Adam Sedgwick, admitted at Trinity 1803; elected Scholar 1807; BA 1808 (5th Wrangler), MA 1811, Hon LL D 1866; elected Fellow 1810, Vice-Master 1844–62; Woodwardian Professor of Geology 1818–73. Francis Dumergue, admitted to Trinity 1832; BA 1838, MA 1840. John George Middleton, son of Admiral Middleton, admitted to St John’s 1836; BA 1840, MA 1844, LL D 1849.
54 The Letters 25 Augustus De Morgan to James Gooden, [late 1836] (Private) Dear Sir The sum due to me from you on account of your son from the middle of October till now (my terms being £5 per month of four weeks) is £45; the time (vacations deducted) being nine such months. Your son will go up to Cambridge better prepared than I was by a good deal, so far as reading and correct ideas of principles are concerned. He wants to be able to throw his mind more upon a subject which he is new to, so as to combine a little for himself. Though he counts most upon his classics, yet I am sure that if he could bend himself steadily to what we called problems, as distinguished from bookwork, he would distinguish himself. You will use your discretion how much or how little of this you will tell him. I rather recommend you should let him know generally that I am extremely well contented with his progress in reading and understanding, and wish him to endeavour to accustom himself to originate the solution of problems be they never so simple. The stimulus of Cambridge is the best thing I know to produce the desired effect. He must not be discouraged at seeing men his inferiors in knowledge doing harder questions in the lecture room Proprio marte, should it so happen. He will not want a private tutor in mathematics till the beginning of the second year: when I should decidedly recommend Mr. Hopkins15 of Peterhouse College. With respects to Mrs. Gooden I remain, Dear Sir, Yours truly A De Morgan 5 K G S16 26 James Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 7 November 1836 Tavistock Square, 7 November 1836 My dear Alick, Your letter of the 1st inst was impatiently looked for by us all, which must of course be attributed to the interest and anxiety we entertained in your regard, especially on this your first removal from our small circle. You will not however have had long to wait for the announcement of its having come duly to hand, as I presume, your mother gave you that intimation by return of post. My intention was to have replied in the course of the week, taking the chance of any occurrences, that might offer in the interim to give greater interest to my letter, and then to commit it to her for any additions she might choose to make: by which means I thought to guard you against such repetitions of the same intelligence as must otherwise occur from the different members of a domestic circle circumscribed to the same routine of events writing in ignorance of each other’s communications to one and the same correspondent. However, while
15
16
William Hopkins, a farmer, admitted to Peterhouse aged thirty in 1823; BA 1827 (7th Wrangler), MA 1830; President of the Geological Society 1851–53 and of the British Association 1853. Hopkins was the great mathematical coach of the nineteenth century, producing 17 Senior Wranglers. King George Street.
Freshman, 1836–37 55 your mother’s maternal feelings are in action, they are apt to drive her headlong, and if this circumstance should produce the inconvenience of a twice-told tale, or the omission of what may be supposed to have been already communicated, you will readily excuse it in consideration of so endearing a motive. I have been much amused with the apparent contrast between Mr Thorp’s apparent zeal for the interest and improvement of his pupils as expressed in our conversations with him, and his sudden transfer of you all to other teachers. The well meant twaddle exhibited in his communication of this arrangement to you seems to say more for his modesty, than his abilities, for it would require no ordinary share of the latter, to set such a precedent in a plausible light. From your account of the gentleman, however, to whom you are consigned, I suppose there is no reason for regret, and after all, I presume, it is an occurrence by no means unprecedented in the practice of the University, though it would certainly not be well received in minor establishments. Mr Wordsworth is the person whom he seemed desirous of recommending as a private classical tutor to you, and I am not sorry now, that I declined the proposal. You have no means yet I presume, of knowing what sort of competition you are likely to encounter in your own class; still less, who are the clever men in Mr Peacock’s, but I shall be glad to hear from you on this subject when you have. I have shown your communication on this subject to Mr Long, who smiled knowingly at Mr Thorp’s address, but at the same time found it (in the coach-guard’s phrase) all right. He seemed to be still anxious, that you should hold yourself in readiness to enter the lists for the first University Scholarship. The gentleman, whom Mr De Morgan recommends for your mathematical tutor in the second year, is Hopkins of Peterhouse, which I remind you of in order to your making any enquiries you may think necessary and keeping him in your eye. At present I fancy, you will have ample time on your hand, to practice Latin composition etc., as well as to try agreeably to De M’s recommendation, the institution of mathematical problems. Or ‘to originate the solution of problems, be they ever so simple,’ to enable you, as he says, ‘to throw your mind more upon a subject, which is new to you’. You will of course however use your own discretion, with regard to these hints. I know not whether you now read the newspapers – if not, it will perhaps be news to you, that De M. has accepted the appointment of mathematical professor to the London University. I spoke of it to Mr L. who made no comment whatever, but merely confirmed the fact, but with an air, that seemed to convey no approbation of the step. Lord Brougham met the Committee lately to announce to them Mrs Flaherty’s intended donation of £5000 3 percent Consols.17 Mr Key was present and says, that his Lordship looks feeble: of course no great confidence that he will be able to show much fight in the ensuing parliamentary campaign. It is said nevertheless, that he has arranged with Lord Melbourne for the Political Chancellorship, ‘provided’ they can either persuade or bully the House of Lords into a division of the office. Whilst talking about these persons, I must not forget to point out to you a rapid view of the principal events in the life of Cicero, in the last number of the Penny Cyclopedia.18 You will find
17 18
Consolidated annuities, government stocks. The donation referred to is presumably the capital which established the Flaherty Scholarship. The article was written by Thomas Key.
56 The Letters it useful as a cheap and convenient manual in the perusal of his works, as well as interesting on account of some remarks which will not be altogether new to you. There is one of these, that struck me as savouring of impressions somewhat too modern, too English, to be founded in fact, I mean where the writer says, that the ‘precipitate execution of the conspirators, without the form of a trial’, was an offence against ‘the laws of the country which the sanction of the Senate could not justify’. Now the only support I can find for this view, seems to be the Lex Sempronia, ‘Ne de capite civis Romani iniussu populi iudicaretur,’ which was carried at a very turbulent period and therefore under suspicion of some irregularity. But I do not find, that much regard had ever been paid to it, if indeed it were at all applicable to a case of parricide, such as rebellion was reckoned, and therefore I believe excepted from its provisions. On referring also to the narrative and speeches in Sallust, I find no plea on this head set up by Caesar in his argument against the capital punishment, not indeed the slightest advertence to such an objection in the whole of the proceedings. As for a formal trial, it was observed, that the Conspirators were Convicti and Confessi, which at that period would be deemed quite enough to supersede the necessity for observing any further formalities towards them. Neither does Caesar plead for any such observance; but on the contrary recommends their being exiled at once to the municipia of the provinces – whilst old Cato concludes, ‘de confessis, sicuti de manifestis rerum capitalium, more maiorum supplicium sumendum’. I could say more in confirmation of my view of this matter, but enough (in all conscience you may nod) for a letter! I am glad that you have had an opportunity of seeing Sedgwick and I hope, you will have many more. I am reading his Discourse on the Studies of the University19, and as I have no doubt, it is in many hands and that you will be easily enabled to get a perusal of it, I would beg to recommend it to your great attention. Mr Long speaks highly of his talents, and what surprized me, not so favorably of those of Whewell,20 who with vast arguments, it seems, is defective in arrangement and logical conclusions. Your mother is still confined to the House with her Cold, though like mine it is gradually relenting. I hope your early rising for the attendance at Chapel will expose you to no such unwelcome visitation. Does the mor attendance exempt you from the Evening? Or is it optional? If so and you persevere for con<science’> sake, it will reward you with the feeling of moral approbation, and becoming gradually <more easy>, giving you more time for your disposal. James is anxious for your promised letter, and joins Mother in kindest remembrance. God bless you, my dear Boy, and let us hear from you as often as you can. Your affectionate Father, J.G.
19 20
Adam Sedgwick, A Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1833). William Whewell, admitted to Trinity 1811; elected Scholar 1815; BA 1815 (2nd Wrangler), MA 1819, BD 1838, DD 1844; elected Fellow 1817; Assistant Tutor 1818–23, Tutor 1823–39, Master 1841–66; Professor of Mineralogy 1828–32, Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy 1838–55; Vice-Chancellor 1842–43 and 1855–56.
Freshman, 1836–37 57 27 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 13 November 1836 Jesus Lane Cambridge Novr 13 1836 My dear Friend You will easily judge what impediments have prevented my writing to you before. The business of furnishing oneself with crockery and hardware first, accustoming myself to college discipline and practising it secondly, visiting my acquaintance and receiving them thirdly, making myself acquainted with the localities of Cambridge fourthly, and a vast number of other things tedious to mention fifthly, pretty well occupied my first three weeks. Therefore did I desire Stewart, when he went to town, to call upon and inform you that I would write to you as soon as these avocations would permit. Your letter was most welcome, and still more so the intelligence Drummin gave me of your improvement in health and looks. Now I must describe my situation to you. To obtain rooms in college your first term being unattainable, I am located nearly at the bottom of Jesus Lane near unto the college of that style and title, and about five minutes walk from Trinity. The distance from college is the greatest disadvantage under which the situation lies. The bed-room and sitting-room are small but cheerful and neatly furnished, and the people of the house good-natured and very tolerably honest. Many situations in college are worse than mine; and many both in and out, better. Mr Tommy Thorp is, as you are aware, my tutor – nominally at least; his acting assistants to whom solely the class is committed are the Revd. F. Martyn and John Wordsworth. The former is a very sensible, straightforward, clever man without any of Thorp’s twaddle; the latter is reputedly the best scholar now at Trinity. Upon these gentlemen I wait every day from nine o’clock to eleven, and do not make my appearance at college again until four o’clock in hall to dinner. This last is a savage piece of business; every man mangles the joints for himself and if he would have ale, pudding etc. must pay for it extra. As soon as he has gobbled his fill he goes away, so that this primitive meal takes not more than twenty minutes. Christians find it impossible to dine under three quarters of an hour generally. Chapel you are required to attend once every day and twice on Sundays for the first year; after that the reins of discipline are relaxed and a less frequent attendance satisfies. The two meals of tea and breakfast are taken at home, the materials thereof being brought from the College Buttery. Trinity is a noble building altogether. I will endeavour to procure you some views which may give you some idea of the place. Your friend Dumergue’s card caused me some difficulty at first: it sounded like a familiar name to me, but it was for a few seconds out of my power to recall the person from whom I had heard it. He very politely asked me to his rooms, which invitation I accepted, and from all I have seen of him I am much pleased with his behaviour. His frankness, soundness of intellect and freedom from humbug and affectation are manifest. His acquaintance lays me under another obligation in addition to those for which I already stand your debtor. I am surprised to find Keightley’s books, the Mythology of Ancient Greece etc.21 recommended by the tutors here; his laudable endeavours in the art of puffing have been crowned with success in Cambridge. Spankie has been very friendly and civil to me, when I have seen him, but our meetings have been rare. I cannot much regret this; for he being an ‘uncommon fast’ 21
Thomas Keightley, The Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy (London, 1831).
58 The Letters character, we should suit little in our judgment of things. He is a great man at the Union22 and shows that ‘the ancient spirit is not dead’23 by combating Christie24 on all occasions with fierce invective. Stewart is, I am sorry to say, an idle personage (though he has a private tutor) but not likely to become ‘fast’.25 To me he seems considerably improved, since he has mixed more with his equals: I fancy that his consequential deportment and pedigree-pride are not sported so freely as heretofore. Saving a cold, I have been as well as usual since my sojourn in Cambridge: I hope you can make a better report than saying you are in your ‘usual’ health. It is a matter of no difficulty to make acquaintance here. I have abundance to my liking. In fact Cambridge has no society but that of undergraduates; there is no home, and you must make your acquaintance help to pass the time which is in general spent with your own family. I am pretty well reconciled to it now, but at first felt the hours hang heavy and uncomfortable. I hope your whole family are well; pray remember me to George and William and present my kindest regards to Mr and Mrs Jenkins and the rest of your circle. I should be delighted to do any thing for you, but I see nothing that can be done until you come to reside, and then everything will go on as a matter of course. Peacock’s side I find is considered the best; as for ours it is very so-so. I remain, my dear Jenkins, Ever your affectionate friend A C Gooden PS Please direct ‘Trinity College’ not to my lodgings. 28 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 1 December 1836 Cambridge, December 1st /36 My dear Mother I have postponed replying to your letter and James’s somewhat beyond the usual time, because I was desirous when I wrote to say something about the time of my return home. A notice was posted up a few days ago announcing that the Craven University Scholarship26 was vacant and there would be an examination for it on the 23d. of January: candidates were at the same time directed to signify their intention of standing by a letter to the Examiners to be presented personally on or before 31st. of December. This is the Scholarship which Mr Long advises me to offer myself, or (as the term is) to sit for. It requires as you will perceive my presence here on the 23rd of January: the lectures cease on the 10th instant and you may apply for leave to go away (technically an ‘exeat’) as soon as the lectures are discontinued. But most of the men stop for the Commemoration Day27 which is the 16th instant on which day the term properly speaking ends: it is celebrated with great splendour. Thus the college business closes 22 23 24 25 26
27
The Cambridge University Union Society, a debating society established in 1815. Cf. Whitehead, Ode for the New Year (1783): ‘Ye Nations hear! nor fondly deem Britannia’s ancient spirit fled; Or glosing weep her setting beam.’ William Dougal Christie, admitted to Trinity 1832, elected Scholar 1836; BA 1837, MA 1862; MP for Weymouth 1841–47; entered the diplomatic service in 1848: Dictionary of National Biography. Racy, open to excess. The Craven Scholarships were founded in 1649 under the will of John, Baron Craven of Ryton to support students at Oxford and Cambridge. In Gooden’s time there were five Craven scholarships each at Cambridge and Oxford, valued at £50 each and tenable for seven years. Commemoration of Benefactors of the College.
Freshman, 1836–37 59 on the 10th and from that day till the end of January I am perfectly at liberty as far as the college is concerned. As Cambridge however is, during the vacation, a much better place for reading than home, most of the Candidates remain here during that time in order to study with less interruption. You must understand how I am situated with regard to this same scholarship: I go in (if I go in) without the very slightest expectation of obtaining it: it is merely for the sake of practice, that I should go in at all. The University scholarships (one of which falls vacant every year) are open to all the colleges; and to all undergraduates whether in their first, second, or third years. Add to this that it is the most difficult of all the Classical Examinations which an undergraduate has to pass, and you will not think that it is either affectation or self distrust which makes me assure you of the utter impossibility of my being the very first (for there is only one vacancy) amongst men so much my superiors in age and University standing. The only thing to be considered is whether it is worth my while for the sake of the practice to enter myself a candidate. Mr Long decidedly recommends it and I need not say that he is the best adviser I have on these matters. If I resolve to offer myself, it would be unquestionably expedient for me to remain at Cambridge the greater part of the vacation. A visit of a week or ten days is all I could promise myself at home. I state the matter as distinctly as I can in order that I may have my fathers opinion and yours on the subject by which I shall of course always be regulated. I can add nothing to the facts I have stated, although it would be as great a disappointment to me as to you to spend my vacation here. I could of course explain myself more fully in person, but I hope what I have said will be sufficient to enable you to come to a judgment. Merivale28 has called upon me since I wrote excusing his former neglect on the ground of illness which I could well believe. He looked much reduced. I went to a party at Busk’s the other day and he was very civil and attentive to me: he has not yet received James’s promised epistle. Stooks has got the reading prize, which I must explain: the Scholars (i.e. the College Scholars) read the lessons morning and evening in chapel and Stooks being considered the best reader amongst them has obtained the prize which is instituted in order to promote a decent attention to that branch of polite education. I do not mean to depreciate S. but I do assure you he had no great competition; the majority read in a slovenly and rapid style. Spankie brought the book which I was very glad to receive. With regard to our lectures on which my father will doubtless expect me to say something I hardly know what to mention. They are tiresome and I shall be glad when they are over: in classics I am not afraid to rank myself the first of Thorp’s men as far as general acquaintance with the language goes: as to composition I do not know the comparative strength of the others having had no opportunity of judging. In Mathematics so far as we have gone I am better acquainted with the subjects than three fourths of them. Pray write to me soon for if I stay up I shall have some matters to arrange. I never intended to offer myself to my Aunt for the Xmas vacation but only to write to her which I have not yet done. Tell James I have called upon Rothery29 and seen
28 29
Alexander Frederick Merivale, admitted to Trinity 1831, elected Scholar 1833; BA 1835 (32nd Wrangler and 5th Classic), MA 1838; elected Fellow 1837; Assistant Master at Rugby School 1838–41. Henry Cadogan Rothery, admitted to St John’s, elected Scholar 1837; BA 1840, MA 1845.
60 The Letters him. He seems to be a reading man: I want very much to lionize James here but must defer it till fine weather and leisure. I think he would enjoy a visit, and I hope we shall make it out somewhere about Easter. Stewart is more with me than any one here except my neighbour Vigurs: and appears to me much improved. I am sorry he behaved so absurdly when he called. I cannot account for it unless by setting it down to a waywardness and volatility which are characteristic of him. He has got a private tutor but is not endangering his health by excessive application. James’s picture adorns Busk’s room; how does his painting come on? My best love to my father and James and believe me my dear Mother Your dutiful and affectionate son A C Gooden I have called upon Mr Thorp since writing the above, but not having succeeded in finding him at home I have nothing to add and am unwilling to keep my letter upon the chance of seeing him tomorrow. I had written a letter to Mr Long with the intention of sending it to him along with the Thucydides but on second thoughts altered my mind and shall therefore bring it with me to town when I come. I am much obliged for the John Bull, I very seldom see a paper and when I do think my loss very little. 29 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 5 December 1836 Cambridge Monday Dec 5th 1836 My dear Father Your hint as to the propriety of acknowledging a remittance by the earliest possible opportunity was no additional stimulus to the desire I instantly felt to reply to your most kind and satisfactory letter. I am perfectly contented, I should rather say most highly pleased with the plan for carrying on my reading at home, which happens, besides, to coincide entirely with the advice I have received from Mr Thorp. I have this moment left him having called by appointment; and as you will no doubt feel anxious to hear what he said, I shall write down as nearly as I can the substance of it. He informed me then that the last day on which my presence was necessary was the 14th instant, and that the ceremonies which formerly distinguished Commemoration Day having been discontinued there was no longer either any inducement or occasion to stay. On my mentioning that I had given up my design of staying here during the vacation he remarked that I was not situated like many for whom it was impossible to study at home but so far from it that the facility of consulting books, and the literary society I should find there rendered it rather desirable than otherwise. I said I hoped to have the benefit of Mr Long’s assistance and advice than which he said there could be nothing better. He next asked me if I intended to sit for the Craven and on my replying in the affirmative, did not dissuade me from it but observed that he only recommended it to those whom he thought likely to do well in one or other of the branches, composition or translation. He then gave me an exeat for Thursday the 15th on which day except the coaches be all full Tavistock Square will see me. There is to be an examination in Mathematics (as far as we have gone) on the Monday and Tuesday preceding and on Wednesday they are anxious that the men should be present to
Freshman, 1836–37 61 receive the advice of Mr Martin on the subject of their present progress and future reading. The Greek professorship will be vacant very shortly by the resignation of Scholefield and our classical lecturer J. Wordsworth will be a and I suppose the successful candidate.30 Mr Thorp told me that he should have recommended him to me to read with for a month before the Craven examination, but for that circumstance; for the future he said I had better be guided by Mr Long’s advice as to employing a tutor or not. This I think is all right as far as it goes and is certainly the sum and substance of my conversation with Mr Thorp. I had no idea that the hurricane had committed such extensive damage; several trees were rooted up in the College gardens; but the house I am in is very low and sheltered in its situation. I have no desire to shift my quarters except to exchange them for rooms in College. The people are very obliging and I am far more comfortable than I at first expected. Cambridge is enlivened by very few amusements. Wombwell’s menagerie was here for some time and the lioness being safely delivered of four cubs during her sojourn, an extraordinary notice was issued stating the portentous fact that they were the first cubs ever born in a University town! I have not seen Ellis at all since my visit which I described, nor Stooks lately. Many thanks for the Epigram which is so good in its English dress that I shall not venture to disfigure it by attempting to invest it with a Latin or Greek one. I am very sorry that mother should have felt either anxiety or indignation at my protracted silence and therefore inform her that unless some unlooked-for event should happen, I shall be the bearer of my next news in person. I shall of course adopt her advice with regard to my linen and yours with regard to the books. I am glad James has not given up his chance with the sylphs of York Place. The description of the Lamberts’ corps dramatique is not a little amusing though the distribution of parts does not seem to be regulated by the fitness of the personages destined to support them. My first object will be to secure a place for the 15th as the deflux of gownsmen is very considerable. Till the Telegraph31 therefore restores me to my dear mother and James they must accept my love whilst I remain, my dear Father, Always your dutiful and affectionate Son Alexander C Gooden 30 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 29 January 1837 Sunday January 29th 1837 My dear Father The examination for the Craven Scholarship has terminated at last and I felt its conclusion to be no small relief. It commenced on Monday and ended yesterday (Saturday) and as the best compendium I can give you I shall write down the order of the papers, the time allowed for them and their contents.
30 31
Scholefield in fact held the chair till 1853. The Telegraph coach ran at 10 o’clock every morning except Sunday from The Hoop Hotel via Royston and Ware to the Golden Cross, Charing Cross. Another coach left in the opposite direction at the same hour.
62 The Letters Monday ''
Tuesday ''
⁄2 past 1–4. Dr Turton’s33 Paper. Extracts from Aristotle, Demosthenes and Plato. 9 – 1⁄4 past 12. Prof. Scholefield’s34 Paper. A translation into Latin Asclepiads and another from a Greek chorus into Alcaics 1–4 o’clock. Prof. Scholefield’s 2nd Paper. A translation into Greek iambics and another into Greek anapaests 9 – 1⁄4 to 12. Dr Haviland’s35 Paper. A translation into Latin elegiacs. 1
Wednesday '' Thursday ''
A Latin theme, subject ‘Optimum elige; [sequare] illud et facile faciet consuetudo[’]. 9 o’clock – 11. A copy of Latin hexameters. Subject ‘Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum?’ 1⁄2 past 12 – 1⁄2 past 3. (both by the Vice-Chancellor) 9 – 1⁄2 past 12. Mr Crick’s32 Paper. Extracts from Homer, Theocritus*, Pindar, Aristophanes and questions
⁄2 past 12 to 1⁄2 past 3. Dr Haviland’s 2nd Paper. Extracts from Persius, Lucretius*, Terence and Lucan Friday 9 – 1⁄4 to 12. Dr Geldart’s36 Paper. Extracts from Livy, Cicero, Tacitus (2). '' 1 – 1⁄4 to 3. Dr Geldart’s 2nd Paper. Translation into Latin prose 1 Saturday ⁄2 past 10 – 1⁄2 past 1. Dr Turton’s paper. Extracts from Herodotus, and translation into Greek prose The candidates were 84 in number! and were examined in the Senate House. There was no fire and the weather has not been particularly warm, so I found my great coat during the whole time indispensable. The papers were altogether very fair ones. There were no pieces selected from out of the way authors or merely for the purpose of exhibiting a strange word. But Dr Turton’s papers were in my opinion the most judicious of all. The result will not I understand be known for a few weeks: but having no interest in it I shall not look with anxiety for its announcement. The only extracts which I had met with in the course of my reading are the two marked with an asterisk (*). The translation I did, I believe, well. I have detected some mistakes and I omitted a few words not choosing to guess at them; but on the whole I am satisfied. As to the composition I did as well as I expected. I
32 33
34
35 36
1
Thomas Crick, admitted to St John’s 1818, elected Scholar 1822; BA 1823, MA 1826, BD 1833; Fellow 1835–48, Tutor 1831–46, President 1839–46; Public Orator 1836–48. Thomas Turton, admitted to Queens’ 1801, migrated to St Catharine’s 1804; BA 1805 (Senior Wrangler), MA 1808, BD 1816, DD 1828; elected Fellow of St Catharine’s 1806; Lucasian Professor of Mathematics 1822–26, Regius Professor of Divinity 1827–41; Bishop of Ely 1845–64. James Scholefield, admitted at Trinity 1809; elected Scholar 1812; BA 1813, MA 1819; 1st Chancellor’s Classical Medal 1813, Members’ Prize 1814; Fellow 1815–27; Regius Professor of Greek 1825–53. Presumably John Haviland, admitted to Caius 1803, migrated to St John’s 1804; BA 1807, MA 1810; Fellow of St John’s 1810–20; Professor of Anatomy 1814–17, Regius Professor of Physic 1817–51. James William Geldart, admitted to Trinity 1799, migrated to Trinity Hall 1800; LL B 1806; elected Fellow of St Catharines 1808 but migrated back to Trinity Hall 1814; Regius Professor of Civil Law 1814–47.
Freshman, 1836–37 63 believe what I sent in was correct and the only part I entirely omitted was Scholefield’s first paper, which I did not touch. There were only about 7 or 8 Trinity freshmen in, but Johnians without number. I have walked about and talked with and sat next to Allan37 and Taylor (the Glasgow man) during the period of the examination. Of the latter I have seen a good deal, having read sometimes with him in the evenings since I have been up. He is a very good scholar; his reading is considerably more extensive than mine; but I think I can make out a piece which should be new to both of us as well as he. At composition he does not excel; in Greek prose and verse I can beat him, and in Latin prose I think I might. He is a clever good-tempered man some six or eight months older than myself, and not jealous or presuming upon his superiority over the bulk of his competitors. He has been reading with Burcham a fellow of our college, that is to say he has not construed any author with him, but merely written exercises to be looked over during the time he attends him every other day. I mention this because Mr Long remarked that a tutor might be of service to me in regard to composition. I have not yet delivered De Morgan’s letter to Hopkins but intend doing so tomorrow, in fact the examination has been so long and so fatiguing that I had neither time nor inclination for anything else. Archdeacon Thorp sent for me yesterday to speak to me about rooms in college, as he found my name stood pretty high amongst those entitled to the refusal of them. I told him fairly that I had never thought of changing my quarters, where I found myself very comfortable. He said that for the next two terms he could offer me rooms in the old court which were to be vacant for that period, and after that a good set (a ground floor set) in the new. He concluded however with saying that he was about to leave Cambridge for London, as soon as he was able to travel (he has been very ill with the influenza) and that on his return he would let me know further and definitely on the subject. I have, to say the truth, but little inclination to remove from my present lodgings, where I am just beginning to find myself at home. I should like to have Mr Long’s opinion about the matter, when it comes before me in a tangible shape: for the convenience and inconvenience of the rooms that might be offered to me make all the difference in the world; and I cannot tell whether I should like them or not till I have seen them. Thorp was very civil and I told him that it would give you pleasure to see him in town. He said that when he was last in town he was so hurried and so unwell that he could call nowhere, but that after Sir N Tindal’s38 ours was the first house where he was desirous of showing himself. I should write to let Mr Long know how I have gone, but I could add very little to the account I have already given of the examination. I did not however find the time allotted for the different papers too short, as I was afraid I should have done. There is a good deal of snow today and in a walk to Grantchester yesterday I found the fields all overflowed and the river looking quite majestic – for the Cam! Our lectures commence on Wednesday and the intervening day I shall employ in practising Dr Prout’s prescription. I saw Spankie yesterday in the street; he has been in town since
37 38
John Lloyd Allan, admitted to Trinity 1836; elected Scholar 1839; BA 1840, MA 1859; Headmaster of Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Cranbrook. Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, admitted to Trinity 1795, elected Scholar 1797; BA 1799 (8th Wrangler), MA 1802; Chancellor’s Medal 1799, Members’ Prize 1801; MP for the University 1827–29; Chief Justice of Common Pleas 1829–46.
64 The Letters his pluck,39 and is now reading for his degree, which he failed in obtaining a fortnight ago and which he goes in for again on Friday. He is not admissible to try for the Classical Tripos, and has therefore no chance of retrieving his credit. Stooks is, I understand, much disappointed at not finding himself higher, as his chance of a fellowship on such a degree without any classical one is very small. I have not time to acknowledge my dear Mother’s letter further than by mentioning that I intend in a day or two to answer all the particulars contained in it. The reckoning of the shirts is too important a matter to be performed otherwise than with accuracy and deliberation. I could not insist upon it today. I am very glad to hear that mother is getting out again: but the weather at present is the reverse of favourable. I have seen Busk and Stewart and Rothery. Vigurs is coming up on Tuesday. I am very sorry that James has been disappointed about his pictures: he need not however be discouraged whilst his real progress is as great as it has been for the last three months. It was John Middleton whom I saw at the coach office. There was a good deal of snow lying by the roadside when I came down which I did not expect to see. I found everything prepared for my reception by Mrs P, and a bookcase erected in my absence was very convenient for the accommodation of my new cases of books. Pray remember me to Mr Long and with my best love to my dear Mother and James. Believe me, my dear Father, Your dutiful and affectionate A C Gooden 31 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 2 February 1837 1837 February 2nd Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Mother, Having a private opportunity of saving you sixpence I take advantage of it to return an answer to the enquiries of your most welcome letter. The scholarship (Trinity) examination commences on Tuesday April 3rd. and concludes on Saturday. The result is announced on Wednesday or Thursday as the case may be. I have no doubt I could get away about the 26th of March but I should prefer staying here till the examination is over. I could therefore come home on Saturday the 6th of April. I confess that I would rather remain here until the affair is completely settled. My chance is undoubtedly as good as anyone’s; but there is so much uncertainty in all those examinations where the number of prizes is limited, the subjects of trial mixed and the examiners people of all shades that some anxiety must necessarily attend upon this one. I leave it however in your hands; after the 25th of March there is no absolute restraint upon my movements, but I should in prudence feel myself obliged to curtail any visit before the examination to a very brief period – two days perhaps. I need not trouble you with what I trust would be superfluous assurances of my great desire to be as much 39
Failure.
Freshman, 1836–37 65 as possible with my dear Father and yourself. I will not neglect your hint respecting < >40 at Leeds. I will make every exertion to procure the Davies Examination papers;41 they are lamentable testimony to the low state of scholarship here. In general I may say (in mercantile language) that [I ] remain as at the last quotation. I am quite free of cold. My love to my Father and James Pray excuse this hasty scrawl from my dear mother Your ever affectionate Alexander C Gooden Sunday Night 32 James Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 2 February 1837 2 February 1837 My dear Alexander I avail myself of Mr T. Stooks’s kind offer, to acknowledge your very acceptable favor of 29th ultimo acquainting us with the termination of your Craven struggle. It must have been a very fagging business, and I shall be anxious to hear further from you, to know, that it has had no material influence on your health, and what effect Dr Prout’s prescription has since had. I met him a few days ago at the Athenaeum, when he expressed himself with considerable earnestness, that you should be careful of that determination towards the head. Pray inform me particularly on this subject and in the mean time be temperate in your studies, and walk abroad, when the weather shall permit, in the full confidence, that the mens sana’s interests are indissolubly connected with the corpore sano. Avoid however the night air as much possible in such a season as the present and in so low a situation as Cambridge which the Doctor thinks liable to agues. Your account of the examination papers is very satisfactory and I regret that the extreme badness of the weather has prevented me from seeing Mr Long and giving you his remarks on the matters you wished for his opinions upon. In the mean time you seem to have adopted the right view of the proposal for your taking rooms in college: if you find yourself comfortable, where you are, be in no hurry to change; and do not change, but for a very manifest advantage. I hear, that the Archdeacon is in town, but I have not yet seen him. I am glad, that you have found a companion for reading with – it will make your studies more useful and interesting, and I think, may be of considerable advantage to both. When you write again pray give me some description of the scene, mode of application and stage effect of 84 candidates for the Craven stakes all making play through so many successive heats! All silent, with studious looks and pendent heads, I suppose, mentally whipping and spurring with Old Gooseberry42 take the hindmost!
40 41 42
Perhaps M. Smith, Gooden’s aunt. The Davies scholarship was established by the will of Jonathan Davies for proficiency in classical learning. The first award was in 1810. The devil.
66 The Letters James was at the Inglis’s last Evening – he went with Mr Graham Wilmore43 and returned with Glenny, who is going out, cadet, to India, having no hope of getting in here as a merchant. Mrs Long was there, not looking very well, with her daughters – Mr Long was absent. Your mother was not invited, and as James brought the word, that Mrs Stephen Leake44 was there, very gracious, and particular in enquiring after her, she is half inclined to be affronted. In other respects there does not appear to have been any great novelty in the affair. We have had Blackwood45 – the articles are chiefly political and of a dry complexion: but I am very desirous, that you should read the paper on historical painting for the sake of a chastisement inflicted on a certain Mr Seguier,46 who is, it seems the chief director at the British Institution, and to whom he attributes the rejection of his painting. The last number of the Cyclopedia has come in: but seems particularly uninteresting. I have read the article Copula, as being connected with metaphysics – I wonder what wizard they have got for that department – a more preposterous thing I have seldom seen: it is short indeed, but all that is to the purpose is comprized in the definition alone. A better subject however I have found in the library: Wiggers’s life of Socrates,47 a German production, which is admirably executed and calculated to be of the greatest service in reading Plato and Xenophon. I mention this for your information, when you shall be disposed to push your reading in that direction. You will perhaps have seen in the papers that Mr Kelly has accepted the invitation of the Ipswich Conservatives, and is to enter the lists in conjunction with a Mr Gibson.48 James called there a few days ago and found Mrs K. quite full of it, counting upwards [of] 400 promises already – they are to go thither during the Easter vacation. The influenza it seems, has taken a very unfavorable turn here, and often ends in typhus, carrying off its patients at 24 to 48 hours notice. The Lamberts returned in high glee from their theatrical campaign – Jas called on them the evening of their arrival and being seated between the two heroes, was so briskly charged on both sides at once, that he was glad to make his escape to the ladies. He is now preparing for the Ruos,49 whose affair comes off this Evening. He joins your Mother and me in every affectionate wish and I remain My dearest Boy, Yours ever JCG. 33 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 27 February 1837 Jesus Lane 27th February 1837 My dear Father As mother wishes that I should write once a fortnight, although that time has not quite elapsed from the date of my last communication, I think that a letter will perhaps be
43 44 45 46 47 48 49
Perhaps Graham Willmore, admitted to Trinity 1820; BA 1825, MA 1820; Barrister. Perhaps Georgiana, wife of Stephen Ralph Leake, whose son attended King’s College School. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. William Seguier, first Keeper of the National Gallery and Superintendent of the British Institution. Gustav Friedrich Wiggers, Sokrates (1811). Thomas Milner Gibson, MP for Ipswich 1837–39, Manchester 1841–47 and Ashton-under-Lyne 1857–68; President of the Board of Trade 1860–66. Possibly ‘The Rios’. Alexis Francois Rio was a French Catholic art critic who married a Welsh woman.
Freshman, 1836–37 67 more acceptable a little within than a little without the stated period. In addition to this this has been a spare day with me, although I could well spare such days: the fact is, I have got a violent cold and a disagreeable tickling cough which I am at this moment endeavouring to assuage by sucking liquorice; an operation which benefits the throat at the expense of the stomach. I believe I caught cold in going to chapel one rainy morning last week, but perceiving symptoms of its arrival yesterday I flanneled myself and took precautionary measures. Today I have not stirred out, nor shall I attempt doing so tomorrow, unless my grievances are considerably abated. I tell you all this, because I know that mother is rather apt to be fidgety in such cases, and that it will be satisfactory to all to know that I am taking care of myself under the infliction. Though I said that I would not involve myself with a private tutor until I heard from home, I was actually engaged to one before mother’s answer arrived. The person, under whom by Thorp’s advice and your kindness I have placed myself, is Burcham,50 a fellow of our College and one of the men whose names I mentioned in the last letter. I went to Thorp merely to ask him whom he would recommend, intending first to write and obtain your final sanction, and I am afraid that in what I have done I may appear to have acted rather precipitately. The Archdeacon however in his civil haste would apply to Wordsworth to ascertain whether he was willing to take a pupil, and upon the latter gentleman excusing himself on the ground of his occupation (though polite enough to say that there was no one whom under other circumstances he would more gladly have closed with) off bustled T. T. to Burcham. Burcham was perfectly willing to take me and desired I would call upon him in an hour. This rather astounded me; but reflecting that, if I was to have a tutor this term at all, it was high time to begin (half of it being now over) and that the conditions would be precisely those which I mentioned, I thought it better to keep the appointment. I am a half pupil, that is to say I am to go on alternate days to translate examination papers in Burcham’s room (just as I should be required to do in a university examination) and to have my composition exercises corrected etc. I have been to him twice and think it is likely to be of great service to me. Thorp at the same time that he recommended Burcham, gave me a somewhat needless caution with regard to his character. He does not stand high with the parson-fellows, being a man who never appears at chapel, and whose morality does not stand in the most unimpeachable foundation. Nevertheless Thorp’s caution that I should avoid the society of my tutor and his associates was somewhat superfluous and scarcely in character. I am exceedingly sorry that I omitted the mention of your kind letter by Stooks; and was no less surprised to find that I had not acknowledged it. I received it duly and fancied that I had particularly adverted to its contents in my last. I have not seen anything of the new bachelor so to say; though I left a card with him in acknowledgement of his politeness. I am sorry to find that the nuptials of Amy have so much mortified and displeased my dear mother: she has abundant reason to complain but I must confess it did not startle me much, when I came to the name though the first sentence took away my breath a little. It is perhaps the best thing that could happen for the individual in question as it was perfectly clear she was not made for an active and efficient servant? How does Betsy bear the insult to her slighted attr[ac]tions. 50
Thomas Borrow Burcham, admitted to Trinity 1826, elected Scholar 1829; BA 1830, MA 1833; elected Fellow 1832; Recorder of Bedford 1848–56, magistrate to Southwark Police Court 1856–69.
68 The Letters Stewart has been laid up again and is so still, so that he has serious thought of degrading i.e. quitting Cambridge for a year to make up for lost time. His views are anything but settled; India is still the focus to which both his father’s wishes and his own point. I hope James will be able to come down for a few days at the end of this term, that I may have an opportunity of displaying my freshman’s knowledge in his still fresher eyes. I should say more about it but that I do not know the exact day on which lectures cease and consequently cannot tell what time I should have to play the cicerone. The boat-races have begun and excite much interest, many bets and considerable quantity of swearing in general, and drunkenness in particular. The evenings of the race days are generally devoted to festivity which universally ends in the overthrow of the parties’ sobriety. I must tell James that the 3 first boats on the river Corpus, Caius and Trinity have been successfully ‘bumped’ by the Johnian Argo,51 and thereon is much exultation and delight in that ancient and religious foundation. Pray tell mother that I can get fish, broth etc. as long as I cannot go to hall, from the kitchens. The weather here has been very uncertain though considerably better than before. We had a slight fall of snow on Sunday week. The session seems to be very languidly proceeding; at least so my newspaper friends tell me. Thorp told me he was very unwell during his stay in London. With my best love to my dear Mother and James, I am, my dear Father, Your dutiful and affectionate son A. C. Gooden NB Lyttelton52 has got the Craven. I must tell you how I astonished Jemmy Scholefield when we met. 34 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 30 February 1837 Cambridge, Jesus Lane 30th February 1837 My Dear Mother My father’s most welcome note did not serve to remind me of my debt to you, as I intended to write in the course of the day, but acted as a stimulus to sit down immediately and pay it off. It is always flattering to find our communications have been looked for with interest, and always vexatious to hear that they have been expected with anxiety, but as I had no doubt of the former, and am very sorry for the latter being the case, I must trust myself to your forgiveness. With regard to the effect of Dr Prout’s prescription, I must say that twice that I have tried it, it has been very successful that is to say my sight has been much clearer after the operation of the medicine, and is I think better generally. During the last week I have been far better than for two months preceding; taking a good walk on the few fine days we have lately had has done me much good. I am afraid I have not tried the Doctor’s prescript often enough, but the
51 52
As the Cam was too narrow for boats to race abreast, bumps races were initiated between college boat clubs in 1827, in which boats set off at intervals and attempted to bump the boat in front. The Hon. George William Lyttelton, admitted to Trinity 1833; BA 1838 (Senior Classic), MA 1838.
Freshman, 1836–37 69 bore of attending lectures at 9 o’clock every morning prevents me; as I am obliged to wait for a leisure day. John Wordsworth called me up yesterday and begged I would do him the favour to construe the Greek when called upon instead of translating it; not as he said on my own account (with some complimentary remarks) but because a number of men in the room could not otherwise follow me! Pray tell this precious specimen of the state of a classical lecture room at Trinity College, Cambridge to Mr Long, when you see him. The aforesaid J. W. is very civil to me, and enquired whether I knew anything as to the result of the Craven examination, to which I answered in the negative. There have been plenty of reports in circulation, but they are not in the slightest degree to be depended upon. I cannot complain of any want of appreciation of my powers on the part of most of the men who have on the contrary favoured me much in their guesses. For the present, Taylor and myself are I believe considered the first Classics of our year at Trinity; at all events Taylor admits that I am the only man he is afraid of. I have been a good deal with him of late and like him very much. I have met Spankie twice or thrice who is staying up here to get his degree having been refused it a second time for ignorance of Paley. He seems not to be materially affected in spirits but talks recklessly: his idea is now to go out to India in the military line; the Serjeant has I understand taken his failure much to heart. I have not seen Merivale, but took a Sunday breakfast with Rothery a short time ago and was with Middleton the day before yesterday. These with the exception of my visits to Stewart, Vigurs, Allan, Taylor and Howson53 have been all my engagements and there you have the names of all my principal familiars at the moment. Stewart is much more regular this term than last, but is by no means well at this present time and has taken out an aegrotat; I do not think Fisher the surgeon who attends him a careful man. Vigurs has not been able to stir out once since his arrival and has been suffering severely from a simultaneous attack of Influenza and bile. My fellow lodger Mate54 has not recovered from an assault of that same epidemic which laid him up all the vacation. I must not forget to tell you that Mrs Porcher has reported the number of my shirts – 9; so that I fear the one a-missing is mine. The Venerable Archdeacon Thorp has returned, and I met him the other day on horseback but did not enter into conversation with him; he looks very poorly still. I do not think his opinion with regard to a classical tutor of much consequence, as he is no great scholar himself and has no actual knowledge of what I need. Burcham, Shilleto55 and Wordsworth (I don’t know whether Mr Long would recommend Donaldson56) are the only first-class men. I called on Mr Hopkins with De Morgan’s letter and he told me that he would take me as desired, our lecturer (Martin) who was perfectly well acquainted with his system of tuition thought I was likely to derive benefit from his instructions. This means that if Martin thinks I
53
54 55 56
John Saul Howson, admitted to Trinity 1833; elected Scholar 1836; BA 1837, MA 1840, DD 1862; Principal of Liverpool Collegiate Institution 1849–65; Dean of Chester 1867–85 where he was a benefactor to the cathedral and the King’s School. Richard Pike Mate, admitted to Trinity 1836; elected Scholar 1839; BA 1840 (14th Wrangler), MA 1843; elected Fellow 1842. Richard Shilleto, admitted to Trinity1828, elected Scholar 1830; BA 1832 (2nd Classic); the greatest Cambridge classical coach of his generation; elected Fellow of Peterhouse 1867. John William Donaldson, admitted to Trinity 1830, elected Scholar 1833; BA 1834 (2nd Classic), MA 1837, BD 1844, DD 1849; elected Fellow 1835; Headmaster of King Edward’s School, Bury St Edmunds, 1841–55. Returned to Cambridge as a private tutor.
70 The Letters am good enough to be his pupil, he will take me. I have therefore dismissed the subject from my thoughts as it will be quite time enough to ask Martin’s opinion when we get farther on, and I have not quite made up my mind what place I shall aspire to in the Mathematical Tripos. I am glad Mr Long thinks a classical tutor on the terms he has mentioned would be useful, but I shall not take any decided steps until I hear farther from home. Miss Mercy Colls’s finale is highly amusing! Just what was to be expected from such a course of education. Is B. B. Williams going to be married? I like very much the newspapers you send me, they are the only ones I see. James’s painting has been much admired by my visitors; I hope he is getting on to his own satisfaction with the ‘hart’ (v. Salter) for the approbation of other people does not seem to be of much value to him without it. Since writing the first part of my letter I have met Merivale walking; I could not help being amused at the obstreperous greeting with which he was hailed by a party of his friends as I passed. I have had some symptoms of piles this last week; but have got a high desk to stand at, and taken a little medicine which has entirely relieved me. This is a very stupid letter but it is business and therefore you must excuse it; so with my best love to my father and James, I remain, my dear Mother, Your affectionate son A Chisholm Gooden February 16th/ 37 35 James and Mary Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 2 March 1837 Tavistock Square 2 March 1837 My dear Alex. You judged very rightly that a letter from you within the period stipulated by your Mother would under the circumstances of your situation, be exceedingly acceptable to us all, notwithstanding the precise form of the contract offered on her part – [or] on mine. I disclaim all participation in it whatever, and beg that you will write as often as you can make it agreeable within the prescribed cycle with the assurance that the oftener you do it, the more pleasure you will cause. I was only prevented from answering you by return of post by finding that I had no letter paper at hand. My desire indeed was only to express the satisfaction I felt in your having adopted such judicious measures for getting rid of the cold you complain of and to suggest the additional one of keeping your bowels open by a recourse to Dr Prout’s pill. This however I hoped you would do almost as a matter of course as you must have heard more than once, that it is the predominant maxim with all the Faculty to direct their first attention in all attacks to the state of the stomach and bowels and in the case of colds this is generally more than half the battle. I have only now to add, that whatever course you may have pursued, I trust you have got rid of the complaint, and are charming well again. With regard to the tutorship into which you seem to have been precipitated headlong, you have acted quite naturally and properly, nor do I find the least objection, but on the contrary, to the measure itself. You could not commence more seasonably and the plan of your exercitations seems exceedingly judicious; you will therefore continue it as long as you may find it useful. I have had an opportunity of mentioning
Freshman, 1836–37 71 it to Mr Long, who dined with me yesterday, who expressed the same opinion of it. Apropos of your friend Mr Long, I must tell you, that he came to me not quite satisfied with the result of the Craven contest, which he had heard from the newspapers. He asked Mr Graham Wilmore, suo more, as if with a design of surprizing him, if he had heard that the son of a lord, had won the Craven. On the latter replying that the son was likely to become a lord himself very soon, since the father was in a very indifferent state of health, well after all, said Mr Long, I should not like to have been beaten by a lord. This however was rather as a set off against my remark, that Lyttleton was a classical family and that I was glad to see them assert their ancient honors in these nonaristocratic times. He was very anxious, that you should have given us some details about the other candidates and the comparative merits of their respective papers etc. You will think the sentiment of your partial friend sufficiently radical I suppose: but what will you say to the information communicated to me in the course of the evening by Mr G W57 in a whisper, that he is quite convinced Mr L will end in becoming a sound Conservative – that he is already a great stickler for Old Eldon58 and inveighs in no measured terms against the innovations put forward by some of his successors. I have spoken of our dinner yesterday; I must now tell you that the party consisted of Mr and Mrs Long, the Lamberts including the Thane of Fife (was this McDuff’s title in Shakespeare’s play) all the Wilmore’s – the two Stuarts – and [Shinker in] – the Evening your Mother procured the attendance of the rest of the Lamberts, the Nicholls, the McIntoshes etc. and she was wishing very much in the course of the morning, that she could have got Mr Green with his balloon to fetch a certain other ‘man’ of her acquaintance. She had procured also a special performer (a young lady – pecuniary59 of the neighbourhood) to preside at the piano forte and they kept it up till One o’clock – the dour Wilmore dancing with great spirit and siezing the youngest and handsomest partners for himself with all assiduous foresight, that produced no small mortification to his more youthful rivals. Again I say let us hear from you, in order that we may be enabled to satisfy the enquiries of your friends who have heard, that you are not well, and, will expect to know, how you are going on. Poor Mr Platt our neighbour has had the misfortune, we heard last evening, of breaking a blood vessel in his chest or throat I know not which and the knocker is tied. Yours ever my own Alick, your mother will finish. My dear Boy, Although in fact I have nothing to communicate, your father having anticipated the little that was to say, yet I cannot let my space remain unfilled, were it only to say let me know you are better, and take care your linen inclusives60 are well aired. I hope you have got a convenience in some spare closet, as it would not at all suit going out of doors when you are under any feverish influence. I saw Jenkins last Sunday who would hardly believe but you had got the Craven, and asked me whether the successful candidate was a second or 3d. year man? Of which deponent was ignorant. I was quite vexed to have a party and you not here, but your father suggested that we
57 58 59 60
Graham Wilmore. John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon; MP for Weobley 1783–96, Attorney General 1793, Lord Chancellor 1801–06, 1807–1827. In other words, she was paid for her services. Not in Oxford English Dictionary, but presumably ‘underclothes’ – cf. such euphemisms as ‘inexpressibles’ and ‘unmentionables’, both used in (65).
72 The Letters ought to have the Lamberts and I snatched at the idea, having been so long in arrear. However we can have some of your friends, and a few demoiselles when you come back, of which apprise me as soon as you can that we may have your bed here prepared; Pray ascertain the exact number of your shirts, and bring 3 day shirts, no night, and 2 prs stockings. What a grand flourish on the Bains marriage. I have had no plum-cake yet, but Miss Nichol has sent me a scotch bun, some consolation. Have the Stewarts arrived in Portman Square yet? Miss Fraser perhaps in spite pronounces The Bain a donkey of the first water. Betsy has been invited to May’s nuptials but happening on a Saturday scrubbing day puts it out of the question, the auspicious event is fixed for the 1st of April! Very appropriate to the occasion and the Parties concerned. James is out at present, and having fulfilled my promise of giving you the news, I remain with every kind wish Yours M Gooden. 36 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 9 April 1837 Sunday April 9th 1837 My dear Father I scarcely anticipated having occasion to write to you so shortly after my departure, but if I did not forewarn you that James will not be with you tomorrow as was at first arranged, it might occasion surprise and disappointment. The effects of his journey hither have been so disagreeable that repose for a day or two is advisable. The costiveness of his bowels at the time aided by the to him unusual length and confinement of his journey produced a swelling of the prostate gland which not being aware of the nature of the disorder he thought might be allayed at first by a dose of medicine. This however had not the desired effect, and after suffering considerable irritation and inconvenience during the whole of yesterday, leeches were applied in the direction of the peritonium in the evening. The number of the bloodsuckers was eight, and after they had remained on some time, he lay for about a quarter of an hour in a hip bath. The haemorrhage was not great, nor was there any renewal of it during the night. Today he has remained in the house and is a good deal better. He is in the same house as Mate and myself, a bed having been put up in my bed-room for my accommodation, and he occupying mine. That which Mr Porcher had provided for him on first coming down though perfectly clean and airy was a hard mattress and as you may conclude that circumstance considerably aggravated his complaint. His medical attendant is a Mr Abbott – a surgeon long-established in the place and a well educated man; so that there is no need for any uneasiness on that score. As he is taking cathartic medicine I have provided a convenience for him in his own bed-room. Both Porcher and his wife are as I expected extremely civil and attentive. I thought him rather dispirited and feverish when I left him to go to evening service today; but was agreeably surprised to find a great improvement on my return. The surgeon had visited him in the meanwhile and assured him that there was no reason for apprehension and that his feverishness was produced solely by nervousness. He left him an aperient draught and his opinion acted most favorably on the spirits of his patient. He has had abundance of company all day and his situation though dull enough has never been lonely. The weather is severe in the extreme; the snow flying about and the
Freshman, 1836–37 73 sun shining by fits; the evenings are bright and cold. I need say nothing of my disappointment at this unfortunate and untoward circumstance, because it is nothing beside his mortification and inconvenience. Taylor, Mate, Vigurs, Stewart, Jenkins and Rothery have been one or other of them with us the whole time and would I am sure have done anything in their power to alleviate the weariness of his confinement. He desires his love to you and begs you will not be uneasy, as the surgeon tells him that if he goes on quietly he may set off safely for home on Wednesday morning. I have no doubt he will be free of his complaint by that time if he follows the medical man’s directions and takes it quietly. I got an order from Thorp today for dinner at home which is an indulgence, and ordered for James barley-broth and rice-pudding the diet prescribed. So that we have ample means for executing whatever may be recommended. I think James will take a little gentle exercise tomorrow if it is fine, as he has been at home all day. I have written all this because my dear father and mother have a right to the fullest particulars and I trust that the more I am able to give the more completely will they be satisfied of the safety and prudence of the measures that have been taken as well as of the prospect of the patient’s recovery in a reasonably short space of time. I shall write on Tuesday at all events, tomorrow if anything occurs to render it necessary. Meantime don’t be uneasy and assure yourself that I am, my dear Father and Mother, always Your dutiful and affectionate son Alexr. C. Gooden 37 James and Mary Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 10 April 1837 London, 10 April 1837 My dear Alick, I have just received your letter of yesterday, than which I think nothing can be more judicious either in the conception or execution. We should have been angry if we had been disappointed of James’s arrival here in the course of the day, without being forewarned not to expect him, and the ample account you have given of his unfortunate ailment, together with the remedies in application, relieves us from any undue anxiety on that head. He seems to be in good hands both medically and domestically and I have great hopes, that the depletion may give more effectual relief to the local irritation he has been suffering for some time, than he could have received from a protracted course of medicine. I am therefore extremely desirous, that he should encounter no risk of disturbing the good effects of his present treatment by travelling again, till the symptoms have entirely subsided, and Mr Abbott can approve of his return. His remaining with you for a longer period, than you mention, may I fear be attended with inconvenience to all parties but himself, but if deemed advisable on account of the complaint, or even agreeable to himself (in order that he may not be wholly deprived of the object of his journey) I trust you will reconcile yourselves to the exigency: at all events there is no occasion on our part for his hurrying back to town and I hope he will notwithstanding this contretemps contrive to pick up some entertainment from his visit. I am quite delighted with the kindness of your friends and have at present nothing more to request than that you will let us hear from you in the manner you proposed. With my kind love
74 The Letters to James I have only to recommend that he will keep his mind free from anxiety. Your Mother will finish this, My dear Boy I was calculating on having all the Cambridge news from poor James this afternoon, judge then of my disappointment on receiving the notice of his having so severe and unlooked for an attack of illness, however, you have acted with so much prudence and promptness, that I trust in God a few days will restore him – excuse my suggesting that if he has any fever going abroad would be injurious to him, as well as being excited by having too many visitors. You may be sure your Mother would pack up a bundle and join you should you think it at all needful and be sure to inform me of this. I have taken the necessary steps with James’s painting, so he need be under no apprehension on that score. My love to James and with prayers for his recovery. I remain, my dearest Alexr. Your affectionate Mary Gooden. I have sent a few wearables which I hope will be useful. 38 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 13–24 April Jesus Lane, Cambridge 24th April 1837 My dear Mother, Your welcome letter along with the other documents which accompanied it were duly delivered to me by Merivale, from whom I was not a little surprised to receive them; I of course imagined that he had returned to Cambridge before James started for town. The note to James was of course got up by his companions, and cannot be applauded as a very witty or a very gentlemanly contrivance. I was very happy to hear that James did not suffer by his journey to town, as well as that he was not longer exposed to the mistreatment of Mr Barber. After that person had been called in, we heard some reports rather derogatory to his professional skill and that of his partner, but to have mentioned them in writing home would only have created great uneasiness, and it seemed the best plan to put his patient into other hands as speedily as possible. These were the reasons that made me anxious for James’s return when he appeared to be better, instead of wishing that he should use his health in seeing the objects of his visit. As for myself, I have not tried my Father’s prescription as yet for two reasons; first, because I have experienced no haemorrhage since I have returned to the possession of my old bed; and secondly, because I have had a cold. I believe that the bleeding was almost entirely occasioned by my lying so cold at night; at least since I have slept in my former bed I have experienced no return of it. As to the second count, my cold was occasioned wholly by the sudden change of weather last Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a warm spring day and on Sunday when I rose the snow was descending. I was at the same time annoyed by a tickling cough which was wholly confined to my throat. But now by wearing flannel round my neck and on my chest, having my bed warmed etc. I am almost completely free from both. I would have put on an aegrotat which would have excused me from hall and chapel etc; but I could not have gone to lectures in that case, which would have been a serious loss this term. I have been very explicit in recounting the origin progress and cure of my disorder, because I know you
Freshman, 1836–37 75 are an anxious old soul, and would imagine a hundred things if my details were not satisfactory and full. The receipt of my aunt’s letter gave me great pleasure, although I could well have spared the minutiae which filled a great part of it and related solely to the members of her coterie. Do you think she could write two pages without introducing some mention of the Birches, Robinsons, Hives’s and other interesting persons? However it was very affectionate and gave me great satisfaction. I would have deferred writing to you till Vigurs (who goes up to town on Wednesday) could have taken my letter had I not been aware that two days delay would not have been forgiven for the sake of the postage. I hope you will see him, for he was very friendly during James’s unlucky visit. I hope that my father will come down at the end of this term to see me, as soon as this pestilent examination is over, which will be about the 29th of May. I think I could render his stay a little more agreeable than it was in October when I was an utter stranger to the place: besides it would be very agreeable to me that he should see my tutors, and lay down some plan for my spending the vacation profitably. It is of great importance to my future prospects at college; as Burcham gives me hopes of the Craven this next year or the following. I am going on with him at present in the same way as before but must break off shortly as I find that to prepare for the College examination will soon take up all my time. I was sorry but not surprised to hear of the death of poor Eve Mitchell! humanly speaking indeed, she had no great reason to regret life, but there is something melancholy in the poor child’s early death, in her being cut off from all prospect of amendment, from all possibility of receiving any recompense for the evils of her youth. The remainder have no claim on one’s compassion and nothing that interests one about them, but their misfortunes. The books have not (as you suspect) disappeared, but shall be forwarded by tomorrow’s van. I suppose I may as well keep the linen that James has left behind him until I return to town. It now wants little more than a month of the conclusion of my Freshman’s year! All James’s friends desire to be kindly remembered to him including Mate and Taylor, Vigurs, Cockburn etc. he will be able to give you some account of them now. Have the pictures been received at the R.A.? I shall probably send some message by Vigurs, if there is anything that occurs to me in the meantime. He is going up to keep his term at the Temple. Stewart is laid up again with a bilious headache, yet his probable destination is India ! but taisez vous as to that. With my best love to my dear Father and James, I remain, my dearest Mother, Your affectionate and dutiful son, A. C. Gooden Sunday April 23rd /37 P.S. April showers are come with a vengeance.
76 The Letters 39 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 7–8 May 1837 Jesus Lane, Cambridge 7th May 1837 My dear Father I have to acknowledge the receipt of your half-letter together with the books and the accompanying packet, all of which were safely delivered to me by Vigurs on the night of his arrival and received with very great pleasure. As the conclusion of our Academical year is fast approaching, I think it as well to say something about general arrangements for the future. Our examination commences on Monday the 22nd and will be over on the Saturday. After that day I know not that there will be anything in the way of college matters to detain me at Cambridge; but I will take care to ascertain before I finish my letter as nearly as possible the day on which I am at liberty to quit it. With respect to the college examination now approaching I have as much as possible discharged all anxiety and though apprehensions sometimes start up I know not that I have any good reason for solicitude. Whatever be the result it will not affect my character here; the issue may show that I have not bestowed that attention on my college subjects which the examiners deem worthy of a place in the first class, but my general improvement and the solid progress that I have made and feel that I have made cannot be shaken or my confidence of final success abated. What is of far greater consequence is the disposal of my long vacation the profitable employment of which will be of the utmost importance to my future success. The mathematical subjects of the second year’s course break new ground; hitherto I have been trading with the stock laid in under De Morgan. It is a very great matter therefore that I should be moderately acquainted with some of them, at least, before they begin to be lectured upon. A proper attention paid to them during the vacation would give me a great advantage. The scholarship examination next Easter comprehends the second year’s subjects in Mathematics and though I may be reasonably expected to do very well in Classics, a decent knowledge of Mathematics would ensure my success. In fact, by employing the long vacation in reasonable study under guidance (for I could not stir in mathematics without the aid of a private tutor) will make my second year’s work much lighter. To live from hand to mouth in these matters is a laborious and a bad plan. I should not think of proposing to stay here during the whole of the vacation so do not imagine I am aiming at anything of the kind, but it would be very advantageous for me either to continue here a part of the time or go to some other place where I might have the requisite assistance. Thorp stopped me the other day to enquire how I intended to spend the long vacation. I answered that I did not know but that you had promised me the pleasure of a visit at the end of this term and would then probably decide upon some arrangement calculated to be useful to me. I now go occasionally to Burcham who designs to remain here during the long vacation. I am afraid that both mother and you will be alarmed at my writing thus, but it is a subject that has a good deal of my thoughts and as the time draws near it is better that I should say something about it. Pray consider that my feeling however is this: I have perfect confidence that you will second my reasonable desire for distinction and improvement and I place the matter wholly at your disposal thinking it right at the same time to mention one or two plans which without being bound to assent to it may be worthwhile to consider.
Freshman, 1836–37 77 Cambridge seems at this moment to occupy a good deal of the newspapers. Lord Radnor’s motion and several pamphlets on the subject have brought it under the public eye.61 One of our resident fellows (Walsh) has just published a pamphlet likely to bring him into disagreeable contact with the college.62 He is considerably a Radical and on that ground and likewise that his respect for college ordinances is not very great has probably not met with the favor he would otherwise be entitled to. I understand that he was recently refused testimonials for taking orders and his fellowship will therefore in a short period expire. He is a wild sort of chap in private and now engaged in translating Aristophanes whose obscenity he manages to preserve somewhat disguised in his translation. So if you see the long extracts from him in the Morning Chronicle you will be a little up to his character and – perhaps to his motives. Sunday – Since writing the above (yesterday) I have seen the Archdeacon; he tells me I may have an exeat on Saturday the 28th, the last day of the examination. If therefore there should be nothing to prevent it, it would be highly gratifying to me to see my dear father either on that day or Monday; and we might return home together on Friday or Saturday or whatever day may seem fit. May has ushered in delicious weather, though I have a fire still, for the evenings are somewhat chilly. I hope it will continue, as a recompense for a dismal April and an inclement winter. The reason for Turner’s not replying to James’s letter will be explained in a letter from Vigurs which he will probably receive along with this. I am strictly enjoined not to say any thing about it in order that my friend may have the matter all to himself. I am exceedingly glad that our Vanderveldt63 has the honour of exhibiting at the opening display of what the newspapers call artistical talent in the National Gallery! Stewart and his fellow-lodger Jenkins get on perfectly well together, saving for the lectures which the latter is forced to read to his most mercurial companion on his excessive ebullition of spirits. The meekness and moderation of my still [no] more than freshman friend has won him golden opinions from all his acquaintance; and on the other hand his mixing with the more general and robust society of Cambridge is likely to be of service in ridding him of little particularities which he had almost unavoidably incurred. The subjects of Catholic controversy and the fathers64 are exchanged for topics more general and suitable to his situation and associates. Vigurs and Taylor are rattling away as usual in their respective departments; Vigurs riding, cricketing and enjoying himself, Taylor reading laughing looking ugly and amusing and teasing every body about him. He desires his best respects to my mother and you and to be particularly remembered to James. Mate is fully occupied with rowing (in the sense of pulling a boat not making a riot) and the thoughts of the approaching
61
62
63 64
In this year the Earl of Radnor attempted to bring about an enquiry into the administration and finances of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge by a number of Parliamentary measures; to this end he proposed the appointment of a royal commission. Benjamin Dann Walsh, Historical account of the University of Cambridge and its Colleges, in a Letter to the Earl of Radnor, 162pp. Walsh did not attend chapel services, and the SPCU ‘fined’ him lines of Aristophanes ‘without the obscene passages’. He emigrated to the USA, became a farmer and later made a reputation as an entomologist: Searby, History, pp. 465–71. James Gooden, here likened to the marine painters Willem Van Der Velde, father and son. Presumably, the early Christian Fathers.
78 The Letters examination which employs his hopes and fears, his wishes and his despair. He believes he does not read half enough but is unable to carry out the plans of hard study which he meditates. He has neither been accustomed to hard reading nor could his own constitution support it, so I laugh at him and we are very good friends. I will reply to your letter if there be need before the examination commences, otherwise you must give me a little scope and consider that I am very busy. I do not intend to read during the examination. ‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ With best love to my dear Mother and Giles,65 I remain, my dear Father, your dutiful and affectionate son Alexander C. Gooden 40 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 24 May 1837 24th May 1837 My dear Father, You were desirous that I should drop a line to you sometime before Saturday and having cut the paper of this afternoon rather short I have leisure to comply with your wish. Our examination commenced on Monday and ends, Thank God! the day after tomorrow. It is rather hard work for we have two papers a day of four hours each (viz from 9–1 and 4–8) and as their peculiarity is that of being too long for the time allowed, those who do best have most need for it. I can now tell you my own opinion on what I have done; first then in the mathematical part I have decidedly failed and that for many reasons, my inexperience of written mathematical examinations, the little attention I have given to the subjects and the too great quantity of ground which De Morgan carried me over. I can tell you another thing too; that I shall not come out first in this examination, as I certainly could have done had I given the subjects the degree of study which some have. But I am not in the least disappointed and I trust that you will not be so either: I knew perfectly well that my reading with Burcham would be of no great service to me in a college examination such as this, but I am assured that it will be of the greatest with respect to those great contests which are far more important. I think it almost certain that Taylor has beaten me now; but Burcham has made me quite easy on the subject of what we should do in a university examination. He places me equal to him in translation and decidedly superior in every branch of composition. In fact I have good reason to believe that I am ‘facile’ the best scholar of my year at Trinity. Burcham advises me to make a vigorous push at the Craven next time, and I think I shall at least run it very close ‘quicumque victor evadat’.66 I give you candidly my opinion because I am sure it is best to place the matter on the proper footing by at once pointing out where my path to success lies and where a victory is not to be expected. I heartily longed to be in London today to witness the celebration of the Princesses coming of age; we have fireworks an illumination and a Radical dinner at half-crown
65 66
‘James’ might have been expected here. ‘Whoever emerges victorious’.
Freshman, 1836–37 79 a head here in honour of the occasion.67 I have applied for leave to stay up in a letter to Thorp which he will lay before the Master. There is no doubt that it will be granted. Tell James that I discovered his symbolical message by mere chance, as I had not time to look over the newspaper on its first arrival. Why does he not write to Turner?68 What is the ‘warmest afeard on, do rot him’ as Mr Higginbottom acutely remarks in the Rejected Addresses?69 I should be very glad to know by what coach I may expect you on Saturday in order that I may meet you. The Hoop70 is the most convenient house and a good one, I believe. Pray give my love to my dear Mother whom I hope soon to greet in person and to James and believe me, my dear Father, Ever your dutiful and affectionate Alexander. 41 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 30 May 1837 30th May 1837 Jesus Lane. Cambridge My dear Mother, The only impediment to our writing sooner has been the state of suspense in which until this morning we have been kept. The application to the Master for permission to remain has however at length received a favourable answer which Mr Thorp communicated to my father about an hour ago. Our places are taken by the Times coach71 for Thursday morning and we hope to have the pleasure of sitting down to dinner with you at the usual hour or perhaps half an hour later to allow room for contingencies. The weather has been delightful up to this afternoon when there is a little thunder and some rain falling, otherwise we have been most fortunate. My father dined at the Inn on Saturday, at Downing College with Vigurs on Sunday, yesterday at Trinity, today again there and tomorrow at Mr Thorp’s private rooms. I hope he will not regret his visit nor find the time has hung heavily on his hands. He has likewise access to a good reading room. The result of our examination will be announced either tonight or tomorrow afternoon, but the greatest part of the men have already quitted Cambridge and closed shutters are everywhere to be seen. I shall not want to return here till the end of June so that I shall enjoy a full month at home and ‘thereafter as may be’. 67 68 69
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Princess Victoria’s eighteenth birthday was on 24 May. Cambridge celebrated the occasion with a dinner in the Town Hall and fireworks in the grounds of King’s College. Possibly the painter J. M. W. Turner. ‘ “What are they fear’d on? Fools! ’od rot ’em!” Were the last words of Higginbottom.’ Higginbotham was a fire chief who lost his life trying to rescue a comrade when the Drury Lane Theatre caught fire in 1809. He figures in Horace Smith’s ‘A tale of Drury Lane’, printed in his and his brother James’s Rejected addresses. The book, which first appeared in 1812, consisted of parodies of the prize poems marking the reopening of the theatre: 69 of the 112 entries invoked the phoenix. The Hoop Inn in Bridge Street was a coaching inn mentioned in Wordsworth’s The Prelude. It was the terminus for many Cambridge coaches. The Times coach ran every morning except Sunday at 6 o’clock from the Eagle Inn by Chesterford, Hockerill and Epping to the George and Blue Boar at Holborn and returned at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
80 The Letters I was very sorry to hear that you were confined to bed the morning that my father came away but I hope you have taken good care of yourself since and that I shall find no traces remaining of the effects of juvenile dissipation on elderly ladies. James’s move rather surprised me; for I thought that the varieties of Margate had lost their charm for him and Friar John; and more particularly was I afraid that the said John’s imagination would not again suit our august brother’s somewhat excitable temperament. I hope however that it will thoroughly recruit him and that he may meet with more enjoyment than usually attends him when he leaves home. I have done nothing but walk about since the examination was over, the conclusion of which has been celebrated by the examiners with innumerable breakfasts and suppers of thanksgiving. By the bye Vigurs who like the last bud of summer is flourishing in solitary beauty at Downing will do himself the pleasure of dining with you on the 8th.. You had a pleasant example of Tol< > our last waiter whose catastrophe must been infinitely annoying. I am practising my steps for the grand fete at 32,72 but have unfortunately little room for my exhibition, and no partner. The trees are making amends for their very poor display hitherto and really give a somewhat rich appearance to our walks. My father called with me on Stooks yesterday. Stewart comes up with us on Thursday, he will not go north yet for about 2 months. We have seen Burcham by whose invitation my father dines at Trinity today. You must excuse this scrap of paper but it is the largest I have and I cannot persuade myself to be guilty of the extravagance of purchasing half a quire at this period of my stay. My father’s best love accompanies that of, my dear Mother, Your dutiful and affectionate Stumpy. Tuesday 30th May. 42 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 8 July [1837] Trinity College. Saturday July 8th My Dear Mother, I promised to write to you by today’s post and it happens opportunely enough that this is the first day I can call my plans arranged or myself settled. I had a delightful journey hither; not indeed that the company was very entertaining (for not a word was uttered all the way) but the fields and hedges and cottages were in perfect beauty, a delightful though rather cool breeze was blowing, and the smell of the hayfields made me long every moment to stop for a fortnight in this charming country. You do not know what you are losing by confining yourself to London at such a season. Taylor met me at ‘the Eagle’73 and my baggage being consigned to the care of Porcher, we adjourned to his rooms for supper. That and the two following nights I slept in my old lodgings and last night took possession of my new temporary quarters in College. They are on the next stair case to Burcham and very spacious and well furnished. They belong to a fellow 72 73
No. 32 Tavistock Square, home of the Goodens’ neighbours the Lamberts. The Eagle Inn in Bene’t Street.
Freshman, 1836–37 81 commoner and are therefore of larger dimensions than any pensioner’s. I wish I could keep them for good, but that is hopeless. I saw Thorp just for a moment on Wednesday morning: he was of course sinking under a load of business with the cares of I know not what upon his shoulders. He has since gone to his charge at Bristol. Our table at present consists of six men and one of those (Forbes)74 is going away; a circumstance very little regretted by anyone as he is a consummate egotist and voted a great bore during the Long Vacation. I saw Burcham this morning. He was very civil and it is arranged that Taylor and I shall go to him 3 times a week for an hour and a half viz 1 ⁄2 past 8–10 instead of attending separately: he likewise promised to speak to Mr Heaviside75 who is recommended as my mathematical tutor about taking me on the other days. The place is dull enough, but not insupportable and I do not look forward with anything like dismay to my sojourn here. I think I am already better than I was in town. Rothery is staying here and has been our companion in our walks today and yesterday. Taylor (in whose rooms I am scribbling this) is very near to me and we are continually together without any prospect as far as I can see of our intimacy diminishing our good understanding. I found that the charge for the bookseller’s bill was (as I expressed my belief to my father) a mistake. The bill was already paid and the receipt is in one of the drawers in our bed-room at home. Pray have the goodness to look for it. It is for 2£ 6s. and the name of the tradesman ‘Hutt’.76 The man did not make the least difficulty in acknowledging his error and recalled the circumstance of my paying the bill but I should still feel a satisfaction at having the receipt in my possession. Pray let me know how you are all going on when you write: when does James start? are you still resolute not to take a peep at the green leaves? Our walks are in full beauty and really look fine. The shops are all closely shut today and the bells tolling which renders it rather more than usually dismal, but we do not stir much out of college where we are not jostled and have the empty courts almost to ourselves. Pray remember me to Jenkins when you see him which I hope will not occur in a two-hour visit. I shall write to him soon. Have the goodness to send me a paper every day whilst the elections are actually going on; they will not last long and I am very anxious to hear of the ministerial defeats. The Tory candidates are very active here and I hope Mr Rice77 will have to look out for lodgings elsewhere. My best love to my dear Father and James I am of course, my dear Mother always, Your affectionate Son Alexander
74 75
76 77
Francis William Forbes, son of Sir Francis Forbes, Chief Justice of New South Wales, admitted to Trinity 1835. James William Lucas Heaviside, admitted to Trinity 1825; migrated to Sidney Sussex 1827; BA 1830 (2nd Wrangler), MA 1833; 2nd Smith’s Prizeman 1830; Fellow of Sidney Sussex; Professor of Mathematics at the East India College, Haileybury; Canon of Norwich 1860–97. Richard Hutt, bookseller and binder of Cambridge. Thomas Spring Rice, Lord Monteagle, admitted to Trinity 1809; MP for Limerick 1820–32, for Cambridge Borough 1832–39; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1839–65.
82 The Letters 43 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 19 July 1837 Trinity College. Cambridge Wednesday July 19th/37 My dear Father, Though I have no news to give you I do not consider myself discharged from the duty of letting you know how I am going on, nor does it at all diminish the pleasure of a letter from home that I do not expect to receive any news by it. Whilst the present torpor prevails here I assure you a letter is as refreshing as a fountain in the desert, come from what quarter soever it may. My handsome and spacious apartments have not yielded me all the pleasure I expected: in fact they have been rendered exceedingly uncomfortable by a very singular circumstance. My next neighbour from whom I am separated only by a lath and plaster partition is one of our fellows – Mr Stevenson. This unfortunate gentleman was much distinguished as a mathematician but he has completely undermined his constitution by habits of drinking and is now in a deep and incurable consumption. On the very day I took possession of my rooms a new evil was super-added: he became delirious and so has continued ever since. He is continually talking and vociferating and as my bedroom happens to be on that side his ravings were heard with a most disagreeable distinctness there. I was obliged twice to go over and sleep at Taylor’s rooms who most goodhumouredly gave up his own bed to me. I have now got a bed elsewhere so that I only come here in the daytime and having got accustomed to the noise I do not mind it. My poor neighbour was at first confined in a straight-waistcoat,78 but, as he is not violent and it seemed to irritate him, he has been set at liberty. Two keepers are constantly with him though he is so much reduced by disease that one would not have the least difficulty in managing him. His father and aunt are likewise with him. I was told of a saying of the poor fellow’s the other day which in spite of his melancholy situation was irrisistably comical: when they were preparing to shave his head the patient exhorted the operator to lard it well before they began. Burcham was in town amongst the deputation who presented the address the other day.79 He described very drolly the eagerness which made some of the old country parsons jump up whilst the address was reading in order to get a sight of the Queen: a proceeding which made Her Majesty laugh most heartily. The behaviour of the University men he indignantly termed barbarous and bad in the extreme. He was much struck with the voice of the young lady the tones of which he says are the most beautiful that he ever heard and conceived a highly favourable opinion of her intelligence and grace. Taylor and I heard all this and a great deal more from him yesterday evening when we fell in with our little tutor. He was extremely communicative and stood in the middle of the road for some time talking to us. Taylor darkly insinuated that he was a leetle strung, though I did not perceive it. I am quite surprised how seldom we go into the town: we are really cloisterers and very rarely go out of our own grounds. We were however drawn forth some days ago
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A strait-jacket. The loyal address of the University was presented to the new Queen on 14 July. See J. P. T. Bury, Romilly’s Cambridge Diary 1832–42 (Cambridge, 1967), p. 124.
Freshman, 1836–37 83 by the prospect of witnessing the entry of Messrs Knight and Sutton80 the Tory candidates for the town. There was a very large and respectable muster, and a long line of horsemen with painted sticks and election ribbons, a band of music, a cart-full of butchers (who are stanch81 to a man), and a great number of pedestrians some very gravely drunk and endeavouring to support green boughs, preceded the carriage-andfour which slowly paraded the candidates for popular favour. Sutton who is much the younger man did his part admirably and smiled and bowed as if convulsed with rapture. The other who is a lawyer and has seen something more of these things was rather less fervent. The canvass has been carried on with great spirit and it is decidedly doubtful whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be again returned for the town of Cambridge. I have commenced with Mr Heaviside (alias Merywether) and like him so far very well. He is very frank and offhand in his manner and I hope we shall get on to our mutual satisfaction. I had a letter from Mate the other day who wants to come here during the months of September and October. I wrote to him in reply that he had better either come sooner or not come at all. Pray tell mother not to be afraid of damp sheets: I have ascertained that they were carefully aired in every bed that I have slept in and my bedmaker is very attentive in that respect. Let me hear soon of all of you and with my affectionate love to my dear Mother and James, Believe me, my dear Father, ever, Your dutiful and affectionate Stumpy. P.S. I have not heard from Vigurs nor written to him yet. The bed I occupy is Stooks’s; I did not expect ever to be in such near relationship to him. How is Mr Long? 44 James Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 22 July 1837 London 22 July 1837 My dear Stumpy Your favour of Wednesday last was most acceptable, altho’ fraught with the disturbing narrative of your situation with respect to your next neighbour. But what strikes me as something extraordinary is, that instead of retreating only during the night to Stooks’s apartments, you should not have removed altogether, as I suppose you are clearly free from annoyance during the day. I can conceive nothing more distressing than the ravings of a maniac at all hours, but in the silence of the night and the seeming solitude of a cloister, they must be quite horrible – almost infectious. I shall be extremely desirous therefore of hearing, that you have packed up and made your escape from your present situation, whatever annoyance that may afford you in other respects. This is my feeling but your Mother is not quite so patient, and should your present annoyance continue, I am not just sure, as our Scotch friend at Inverness used to say, that she may not set off and give the Master of Trinity a rating for permitting such an abuse in his administration.
80 81
John Henry Thomas Manners-Sutton, elected for Cambridge in 1839 but unseated on petition; sat for Cambridge 1841–47; Sheriff of Nottingham 1847. Staunch.
84 The Letters James left us on Wednesday and we have not since heard from him. He took a few lessons before his departure, from Chambers,82 and from the specimens he has left us of what he performed under that tuition, I think he has made great improvement. By the Times, which we forward you fairly regularly during the electioneering which has commenced, you will be put in possession of all we know on those matters, except what has been communicated to me respecting our own Borough, since I began this, by our friend Mr Key. He came to canvass for Hall, and hoped to extort my second vote by threatening me with the certainty of Sir Samuel,83 as the only alternative since Lord Teignmouth,84 he says, is secure. I was glad to hear so much from such a quarter. Sir William Horne85 and his friends, it seems, have done nothing, and there is no hope for Young.86 I told him that I am at all times averse to tampering with principles, and being diametrically opposed to those professed by Hall, I could only give a plumper87 – were it otherwise, I must vote either for Young, who would render the vote innocuous, or for Sir Samuel, whom I considered so disreputable, as to be less dangerous in the House, than a man of better character. Charles Robertson88 is in town, having come to see his Father, who has been seriously unwell, but is now pretty nearly recovered. I sent him an invitation for dinner tomorrow: but with the usual carelessness of provincial visitors, he keeps us still in suspense, whether he will come or not. Mr Long went with the Wilmores into Warwickshire, as I heard a few days ago from Jacob – we sent to invite Mr Long for tomorrow: but he has declined on the score of a previous engagement by a note so illspelt and so ungrammatically constructed, that I supposed it to be Jacob’s performance – your Mother thinks, that one of the boys had been left to concoct it. This reminds me of the old adage ‘the nearer the Church, the farther from God’. Your Mother has been making a Forenoon Cake89 at the Mansion House. She went with Miss Laforest, and was so graciously received by the Lady Mayoress, that she talked of nothing else for some days; nor is the subject quite exhausted yet. Indeed I would caution you to mind your ps and qs when you next come in contact with her, for she seems to have imbibed the contagion of high rank from the interview. The Lady Mayoress, it seems, was sorry that she could not invite her to dinner: but the present mourning precludes all junketings for the present. I am glad that you find so agreeable a tutor in Mr Heaviside and if you do not confine yourself too much, I trust, you may experience some relief in the change of occupation even in so severe a branch of study as Mathematics. We have not yet formed any plan for leaving Town, and as it is, with the exception of the momentary stir caused by the Election, excessively dull, we shall be delighted to have your own report; the res gestae and gerendae in our department as often as you can make it agreeable. Remember me kindly to Mr Burcham as well as to your good friend Taylor. Papa. 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
George Chambers, painter; taught J. C. Gooden to paint. Sir Samuel St Swithin Burden Whalley, MP for Marylebone from 1832 to 1838, when he was disqualified after being returned. Lord Teignmouth unsuccessfully contested Marylebone in 1837, but sat from 1838 to 1841 on the disqualification of Sir Samuel Whalley. Sir William Horne, appointed Solicitor General in 1830; MP for Newton, Hampshire, 1831–32; MP for Marylebone 1832–35. G. Ainslie Young, who had also unsuccessfully contested Marylebone in 1835. To vote for one candidate only when one has two votes. Perhaps Charles Nice Robertson, of Queens’ College, Cambridge. Presumably a light cake, such as madeira.
Freshman, 1836–37 85 45 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 28 July 1837 Trinity College, Cambridge July 28th 1837 My dear Father, I shall make no excuse for writing again so soon because I know that my letters are valuable for their own sake alone, as their news is either a cypher or a negative quantity which mathematicians set forth to be less than nothing. You seemed moreover solicitous that I should change my quarters, and so I should have done long ago had I not contemplated some such event as has happened. Poor Stevenson was removed by his friends on Tuesday morning last to my very great relief. Up to that time I slept at Stooks’s rooms as I told you and as I only came here in the day time and did not mind the noise then, the chief inconvenience was removed. I was delighted however when I was informed that he was considered strong enough to bear the journey home. For the last few days the violence and restlessness of his frenzy had abated and he fell into a state almost of idiotcy which rendered him pitiably helpless and an object of disgust to all about him. I am now the inhabitant of my own rooms and not obliged to anybody for a bed so I sport myself in90 and do what I like with my own. My reading has been sadly interrupted by the contested election this last week; I never witnessed one in a country town before and as it has been all very peaceable the appearance of the place was extremely lively. Both my tutors, I am sorry to say, are on the wrong side, that is to say on the right side for success but what we consider the wrong one for principle. Tommy Burcham was so very active a member of the Whig committee that he was deemed worthy of special and grave rebuke by Mr Knight91 in his speech as you have doubtless remarked. We had a discussion on the state of the elections the other day in amoebaean fashion, I quoting instances of Conservative triumphs in opposition to his ditto Whig. He is very goodhumoured so that we did not end with a battle-royal. You have been shamelessly done in Marylebone, in fact in all the Metropolitan boroughs. However it is something to have floored such pestilent Radicals as Roebuck92 and Took93 and Hutt94 and Ewart and to have given Grote95 such a singeing in the City. The Tory candidates here were I believe grossly deceived, Knight was much irritated but Sutton told them he would come and fight the battle again he is perhaps personally the most popular of all the candidates. It was a pity our Tory candidates were complete strangers to the place. Pryme96 is an inhabitant of the town which gives him
90 91 92 93 94 95 96
Traditionally, college rooms had two doors, an inner and an outer. The practice of closing the outer door when one did not wish to be disturbed was known as ‘sporting the oak’. James Lewis Knight. John Arthur Roebuck, MP for Bath 1832–37 and 1841–47, for Sheffield 1849–69 and 1874–79. William Tooke, MP for Truro 1832–37; candidate for Finsbury in 1837, but did not proceed to a poll; joint founder of London University. Sir William Hutt, MP for Hull from 1832; was unseated in 1837. He was MP for Gateshead 1841–1874, and Vice-President of the Board of Trade and Paymaster General 1860–65. George Grote, MP for the City of London 1832–41; joint founder of London University and author of, inter alia, a history of ancient Greece; MP for the City of London 1832–41. George Pryme, admitted to Trinity 1798; elected Scholar 1800; BA 1803, MA 1806; elected Fellow 1805; first Professor of Political Economy 1828–63; MP for Cambridge Borough 1832–41.
86 The Letters a strong hold upon it. The season was likewise most unfortunate: all the Tories connected with the colleges were absent so that there was not the slightest aid received from the conservative spirit of the University. Our society is just the same as it was except that we have amalgamated a little more. That chap Forbes who came up with us on the top of the coach last time is a most perverse individual and holds the most strange paradoxical opinions, maintaining them with invincible obstinacy and consummate imperturbability. Taylor engages rather more freely with him in argument than I do and they stay up talking and screaming for two hours at a time: as they do not commence till about 10 in the evening when their work is done, their discussions are sometimes prolonged to a very late hour. I fairly turned them out of my rooms the other night at half past 11 but they disputed for an hour after in Taylor’s rooms where they adjourned to. Present my respectful compliments to that gracious woman my much-honoured mother and say I hope her recent elevation will not operate to my disadvantage; nay, she may, perhaps slip in a word for me with the Lord Mayor so that I may even get appointed sword-bearer to that ‘potent personage’. Where does James hang out at Margate? When did you hear from him? Pray let me know in order that I may write to him. I receive ‘the Times’ with regularity and it is a most welcome draught to my inextinguishable thirst for election-intelligence. Taylor is astonished at my becoming on a sudden so great a politician; he was not aware of the ‘latent fire’, ‘volcanic isle’ and so forth. My love to my dear old mother (I hope she will not be offended) and I trust she will not forget her dignity and sigh for the rank of Lady Mayoress. Ever, my dear Father, your dutiful and affectionate son Alexander 46 James Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 29 July 1837 London, 29 July 1837 You are quite right, my dear Boy, in the estimate you form of that cordial welcome with which your letters are here received, and you have conferred great delight on our present solitude by the participation of your sentiments and feelings in the stirring events, which you have so lately witnessed. I was afraid, that you would not find the crisis very favourable to your studies, and joined in your mother’s wish, as often expressed in our conversations about you, that you had come to Town for the week now expiring, as we might have had the pleasure of your society in the midst of events, which would be quite as interesting to you, as those at Cambridge. They have proved indeed sadly at variance with our wishes and in many respects too, reasonable expectations. I cannot help thinking however, that we have failed in these quarters chiefly from our not taking a bolder position and playing for a greater stake. I told Scadding at one of our meetings attended by Lord Teignmouth, that he ought to have another Conservative candidate to carry the entire votes of the party and to leave no room for splitting. He avowed the same opinion, but observed, that it was overruled in the Committee, from the apprehension that the attempt to engross the whole, would excite too great an opposition. Conscious of the perfidiousness and profligacy of the party opposed to us, I would have observed no terms with them whatever, and was
Freshman, 1836–37 87 surprised to find in the Times one day some sort of intimation, that the Conservatives should give their second votes to Hall. I exhorted all who spoke to me on the subject to give plumpers only, and I was at the poll long before it opened to register my vote in that shape if possible first on the list. When I last wrote to you I omitted to mention that Mr Pratt, Coleridge and other good friends to the cause with whom I had conferred were generally in bad spirits as to the results of the whole of the Elections, thinking that we should come off worse than before – hitherto however it is the reverse and if we do not lose in Scotland and Ireland, where Mr Pratt expected to gain, we shall save the House of Lords, I think for a few more Sessions at least. I am happy to hear, that you are at length relieved from the painful annoyance in your chambers, and able to take complete possession of them for the remainder of your tenancy. Pray do not sport the oak too freely. Your Mother has an idea, that you contemplate giving her a week here, at the end of the month, which I believe, she has already counted out, and she therefore declines all proposals for going to the seaside, till that matter is at last set at rest. James found Mrs Orrocks, as he says, very bumptious in consequence of having had her lodgings occupied ever since we left, and at present by a Sir – Somebody’s family. He therefore went over to Margate (No 2 Andrews Place, Margate): but contemplated a ship to Boulogne about the present time or tomorrow, if his funds will enable him to take it. I have very little news for you, as the Square is left almost desolate. The five Lamberts went off last week for Antwerp, and I have not heard anything further about them. The Platts,97 you may have observed, have lost their youngest child, which appears to have died suddenly, they do not say, of what complaint – it was buried this morning. In the law proceedings of today’s Times you will see what a mess one of the Leathleys has got himself into. You would see (if you read advertisements) that poor Littledale’s98 books have been all sold by Evans – the sale occupied about 10 days – I just looked in on one of the days and found few persons bidding for them, besides old-book sellers. Some of the lots would barely clear the binding. We are engaged to pay our respects today to a haunch of venison at Mr Chisholm’s in Highgate, where I suppose we shall celebrate the accession of another member to the family in the recent birth of a son and heir to Mr John H. Robinson and Wordsworth, I hear, got no farther than Rome, being deterred from proceeding to Naples by the cholera – they then returned, by way of Venice and were last heard of at Heidelberg on their way down the Rhine homeward. You have an extract in the Times from the last Quarterly Review – the Article, a very clever one I am told, is by Croker– ‘you would know it at once (said my informant) from the false quantities and false quotations – he is so fond of quotations, and not even the quantity can keep him right’.99 Your Mother desires me to say, that she will be glad to be informed of your plans. If coming for a week at present would deprive her of the pleasure of your company for a fortnight out of the month promised her in September, she would not make so bad
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Sir Thomas Platt and his family occupied No. 39 Tavistock Square from 1832 to 1846. Edward Littledale, whose books were sold by R. H. Evans of Pall Mall. James Gooden’s informant was right: J. W. Croker was the (anonymous) author of ‘Laborde’s Journey through Arabia Petroea, Etc.’, Quarterly Review 59 (July 1837), pp. 87–133.
88 The Letters a bargain, but she would like to have your determination. Accept the assurance of our most affectionate remembrances, My dearest Alexr. Ever yours, JG I hope you recovered the Bookseller’s bill £2.13.– paid in Mr Thorp’s account. Tell me what you are reading. 47 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 6 August 1837 Sunday August 6th 1837 My dear Friend, Your letter was most welcome to me, and that I have not sooner replied to it must be attributed to the noiseless manner in which weeks and days slip away here unmarked by events or characteristics of any kind. If it were not for the chapel service on Sundays the weeks would run into one another as unobservedly as though there were no such divisions on the great stream of Time. But though we are so quiet and vegetative I can assure you I never felt my time less irksome or Cambridge less dull. In fact I never spent any time in Cambridge so agreeably – no offence to yourself whose society would be a great additional pleasure. I believe I told you who were staying up of the freshmen, from Taylor’s report. We yesterday received an addition to our numbers in the shape of Mate who finding it impossible to study much in his ‘Land of the West’ 100 had become uneasy and having obtained permission through Thorp, has come to reside here for six weeks. We have not had much intercourse with the rest of our party except Empson101 with whom I have become acquainted and whose acquaintance seems likely to be worth something. Marsh102 is a prig, Wright103 not very interesting and Forbes such a bore with his perverse and paradoxical opinions that we have given up attempting to argue with him altogether. I am not altogether without intelligence at this stirring time. They are kind enough to send me from home a daily paper from which as from a fountain I quench my ardent thirst for election intelligence in great and inspiring draughts. The counties are going gloriously and on the whole we are decidedly gainers in spite of court influence and ministerial patronage. Our election here was very much a surprise to those who expected a close run, but the Cambridge Chronicle of this week gives a full account of the manner in which the scale was turned and affords a very curious analysis of the individual votes.104 You have of course seen the disturbances which followed including the unheard of desecration of the tribunitial person of the Deputy Proctor. It was very laughable but one cannot, I think, acquit the Mayor of gross partiality. I hope they will make him pay well for it in the Courts of Law.105
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Mate originated from Somerset. William Henry Empson, admitted to Trinity 1834; BA 1840, MA 1844. Henry Augustus Marsh, admitted to Trinity 1836; elected Scholar 1838; BA 1840, MA 1834; Fellow 1841–49. Philip Wright, admitted to Trinity 1836; BA 1840, MA 1851. The votes for each candidate were as follows: Spring Rice 690, Pryme 673, Knight 614, Sutton 599. Ebenezer Foster, the Mayor of Cambridge, sat on a panel of magistrates together with other Whig supporters in judgement over John Parfitt, a Tory supporter who was accused of fraudulently claiming the right to vote in the election. His son was one of the witnesses. Despite Parfitt’s claims
Freshman, 1836–37 89 Fancy what will be the indignation of Joseph Hume Junr. at the rejection of his respectable parent.106 Your friend Mr. Dickinson107 has not behaved well, and unless a little more spirit gets infused into him I hope will not be again brought forward. Two Conservatives might have been returned if he had exerted himself properly. I am sorry to hear you have reason to complain of Stewart’s intelligence but I cannot but concur in your opinion. I have heard not a word from him though I asked him particularly to let me know the results of the Haileybury trial. As for the rest of this set I wish they were all transported to Nova Zembla108 for the term of their natural lives. I could have it in my heart to sail Miss. C. about on an iceberg like one of the migratory bears. Did you observe the defeat of Sir W. Folkes in Norfolk; that with the addition of both the Tyntes109 would rather act as a sedative, one would expect. I hope you will get out of town directly and regret you have not budged already. Let me hear from you where ever you are. Wheatley110 has been staying a week here on his way to Mr. Law’s (10 miles from here) with whom he is going to read during the vacation: he has been down in Devonshire. Taylor and Mate both send their kindest rememberances. PS. Don’t be afraid I am overworking myself – I am very well but for the fruit which is sometimes too tempting for my prudence to resist. Fac valeas!111 is what I have to say to you. This is a horrid scrawl but not sufficiently bad, I hope, to render undistinguishable my sincere respects to your excellent parents and best wishes of every kind to the rest of your circle. I remain, by dear Friend, ever yours, A C Gooden. 48 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 10 August 1837 Trinity College Cambridge August 10th 1837 My dear Mother, You little know the value of a letter here if you imagine that it does not receive a second reading; my having neglected to answer my father’s last letter earlier proceeded, I assure you from no such cause, but simply from this, that I did not then perceive that it contained any expression of a wish that I should reply to it more speedily than usual. Now as for your last epistle let me briefly assure you of this – that if you are desirous of having my company at any time, you have only to name the day you wish to see me and the time you wish me to stay. It would be better as far as my reading is concerned that I should stay here without intermission till the time I first proposed, then to return
106 107 108 109 110 111
that the rate receipts for the property which qualified him to vote were signed by the Mayor himself, he was convicted. Joseph Hume, MP for Weymouth 1812, for Montrose district 1818–30 and 1842–55, for Middlesex 1830–37 and Kilkenny 1837–41. Perhaps Edmund Dickinson, with whom Jenkins’ brother George had stayed in August 1834 (10), and who entered Trinity in 1838; or one of his two brothers. Otherwise known as Spitzbergen. Charles John Keymes Tynte, MP for Somerset West 1832–37, and Charles Keymes Keymes Tynte, MP for Bridgewater 1820–37. Edward Balme Wheatley, admitted to Trinity 1836; migrated to Downing 1839; BA 1841, MA 1844; JP for Westmorland. May you be well!
90 The Letters home for the 4 or 5 weeks between that period and the 21st of October, but I am afraid you are very dull and therefore if it is in my power in any way to alleviate that dullness, my studies must for the present be thrown aside. Do not imagine for a moment that I am indifferent or averse to paying you a visit but feeling myself engaged in what I believe to be a profitable and important course of reading I acknowledge a sort of reluctance to interrupt it. I am sure that my dear parents are too reasonable to mistake this for coldness or alienation. Only name your day and your time and I will be with you, but take into consideration the course of my studies and the necessity (especially in my mathematical reading) of the interruption not being too long. Taylor’s departure has a little broken the thread and for that reason had I known of it before I should have preferred spending this week with you: as that however is out of the question now, the next or the next one after that would be the most suitable. Pray let me hear by return of post what you have to say to it. The seal did not escape me and I approve highly of it: the thanks I shall reserve till another time. I assure you I am much indebted to ‘The Times’ for amusement: I know not how else at a time like this I could satisfy my eager curiosity. Burcham acknowledges, as I suppose everyone but the Globe and Chronicle does, that the ministers are in a very ticklish position. If the Tories had had fair play everywhere their position would have been quite certain. For my father’s information I must mention that I have been reading Plato and am now engaged with Plautus which Burcham recommends as good for enlarging one’s knowledge of the Latin language. I have been working at my composition too the progress of which encourages me to persevere. With Heaviside I have been reading trigonometry and conic sections. I have not at all exhausted myself with work, pursuing what I believe the finally successful course. I believe you think I work enough but I never exceed what you see: no sitting in for days together or all night through, I can assure you. I am sorry for poor old Dr McLeod’s112 loss, but he ought to have known better, as the Whigs would say than to take a watch and seals into the midst of a Tory crowd. We are all going on in the most peaceable manner possible here; the only event that I have heard of was announced to me with great pomp by my bed maker this morning, to wit a tea drinking in honour and glory of Messrs Rice and Pryme by the wives of the Whig voters. There’s corruption and ex-post-facto bribery for you! The bookseller’s bill 2. 5. 0 (the rest is legally due to another person) should be deducted from the whole when my father pays the bill for the term. Thorp shall receive notice of the mistake as soon as he returns here. Therefore it had best be deducted at the same time that he shall be informed of the cause. I hope James will prosper at Boulogne-sur-Mer where I shall address to him shortly. With my best love to my Father, I am, dear Mother Ever your affectionate and dutiful Stump PS I congratulate you on your friend Dr Lamb’s elevation.113 Report says that Burcham is to be made a peer (?) He says not yet. Christie my old (L.U.) friend has been
112 113
Perhaps Roderick MacLeod MD, Goulstonian Lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians 1837. Perhaps John Lamb, Master of Corpus Christi 1822–50, who became Dean of Bristol in 1837.
Freshman, 1836–37 91 playing a woeful trick on the august John Donaldson, it was certainly a very improper one but I could not help laughing at Mr D.’s discomfiture. It has been of a public nature and therefore the more mortifying, but I will explain it as Miss Grant says ‘in my next’. Thursday Aug 10th. 49 James Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 11 August 1837 London, 11 August 1837 My dear Alexander Your mother being busily occupied in the important office of directing and superintending the preparation of some preserves, I expect to be excused for seizing the opportunity her absence below affords me, for answering your letter of yesterday and bringing the subject matter to a speedy decision. The matter therefore stands thus. We were, both, unwilling to interfere with the course of reading you might deem necessary for the object you have in view, however reluctant in other respects to be deprived of the pleasure of your society during this vacation: but as your mother understood, that you intended coming up for a week or ten days about the end of last month, she was unwilling to form any plan for leaving Town till that point should be settled, and she refrained from fixing any time for your intended visit, lest it should be found incompatible with your plans of reading. As it now appears however, that you would have come with Taylor, had you been apprized of his journey in time, it appears that a week or ten days intermission, would still be of no great detriment to your course and in that case, your not having come to us before, is the less to be regretted, because your Mother has been in great measure confined to the house by a severe cold. She now appears well enough to travel. I have therefore proposed, that we should take a ship to Calais or Boulogne, for both of which places steamers leave this place at a convenient hour on Wednesday next, and return to Ramsgate at the end of a week or ten days, to remain there as long as may be agreeable. If you like to join us in the excursion, you will be able to return to your studies, when you may think proper, and by coming up on Monday or Tuesday at the latest, you will have a vote in the arrangements. James is I suppose still at Boulogne and will naturally be anxious for a letter in answer to the last he wrote us: but your mother wishes to be able to apprize him of any prospect we entertain of beating up114 his quarters, which she cannot do satisfactorily without your determination. If you should find it convenient to join us on Monday, you will therefore inform us by Sunday’s (Cambridge) post, and take your departure by one of the early coaches on Tuesday: but if we do not hear from you on Monday, we shall conclude to expect you at some period of that day. As we hope to have the pleasure of seeing you so soon, I do not reply to other points of your letter at present. Your mother unites with me in every affectionate wish and I remain My dear Alexr. Papa.
114
Beat up: to visit unexpectedly and informally; a slang usage.
92 The Letters 50 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 23 August 1837 Trinity College, Cambridge 23d August 1837 My dear Mother, I made out my threat and slept here last night. As I know you will be anxious to hear that I did not overfatigue myself in the attempt, I lose no time in assuring that I am safe in wind and limb with more animal about me, I think, than when I left a week ago. The voyage passed much as usual with occasional showers. I had no acquaintance on board and was as silent as Harpocrates115 all the way brooding on my own rather uncomfortable reflections; in fact I was blue-devilled116 rather more than I like. We arrived about 1 ⁄2 past four, though the Princess is by no means a rapid goer and I should not recommend her to you. As my baggage was not unwieldy I speedily forced my way to land and after getting ensconced in a cab was jammed up for half an hour by the press of vehicles; a Margate boat crowded with passengers had got in just before us. My first care was to ascertain at the Bell and Crown in Holborn whether I could obtain an inside place by the Lynn mail,117 and having secured and paid for it I drove on to 33. I found it all topsy turvy, the workmen being in full activity and Betsy apparently quite in her element, rather anxious I thought that you should not return till all was ready. I got tea in the drawing room and as I looked round upon our dismantled home felt rather rejoiced that I had not to stay all night. The weather did not brighten the matter much; for it was raining heavily and the clouds were dark and spungy. At 7 o’clock I was off once more, and at 1⁄2 past, snugly seated in the mail with (to my joy) only one other passenger. I did not feel at home till we were rattling on from the P. Office. I was pretty well tired and so I dozed at intervals all the way waking whenever the coach stopped to admire the stillness that reigned everywhere except amongst the group at the Inn door. The lanterns in the hands of the rough looking hostlers, the rattle of the harness and the single blaze from the window of the inn parlour made me think it not a little picturesque. In fact I enjoyed the ride very much knowing that I did not lose anything in the way of scenery owing to the darkness. The mail stopped about 1⁄2 past one at ‘The George’ a third rate house here. But I got a cup of coffee and a clean bed for which by the bye I only paid 1s.6d and so slept on till 9 o’clock this morning; my head a little confused betwixt mail coaches and steamers and I not quite sure where I was when I woke first. I breakfasted very fairly (for 1s.6d) and then walked to my apartments. I found a very cordial reception from all my friends and two letters from Vigurs and Jenkins awaiting me. The former had not received my letter at the time he wrote, as they must have passed on the road. As it contains full satisfaction on all the points he wanted to hear about, I shall not take the
115
116 117
Harpocrates was the Greek name for the Egyptian god Horus. He was usually represented as a child holding a finger to his mouth, which to the Hellenistic Greeks represented mystery and secrecy and to the Romans, silence. Depressed. Used by Whewell a few years earlier in a letter of 1 July 1832: ‘Do not wait till I become blue-devilled with hard work.’ I. Todhunter, William Whewell (London, 1876), vol. 2, p. 143. The Lynn and Wells mail coach left the Bell and Crown in Holborn at 7.30 each evening and arrived at The George in Cambridge at 1.30 in the morning. In the opposite direction it left the George Inn every midnight.
Freshman, 1836–37 93 trouble to answer him at present. Jenkins has just returned to town from a very short trip in South Wales. I must just give you an account of my travelling expenses in order that my father if he finds I have paid too much for anything may put me up to it next time. Porter to Steamer Fare per Do Crew Sandwiches Cab to 33 Do to Holborn Fare per Mail Coachman and Guard Porter Expenses at Inn
My friends are all very well and both my tutors at their post. I am afraid that there is a decided break in the weather and tremble for your situation at Mrs Sanford’s during a week of rain. I found a few letters etc. which I took the liberty of examining. The only card was that of Mr H. C. Robinson who called during Churchtime on Sunday like a reprobate. There was a note I took the liberty of opening, addressed to you from Miss J. Stewart at Greenock: I did not read it and merely opened it in order that I might tell you whom it came from. There was likewise a paper from Newcastle and a note from Mr R. J. Marsh notifying that he has entered the coal trade and would be happy to enjoy your patronage. Pray take care of yourself and give my love to all enquiring friends. Let me hear as soon as your plans are made up that I may know where to address you next. I hope James begins to uncrust. My best love to my dear Father and him. I remain, my dear Mother, Ever your dutiful and affectionate son A.C.Gooden Wednesday August 23d/37 The only signs of life I observed in Tav. Square was a party at the Shepherd’s where no less than 4 Cabs delivered their burthen. All else looked dismal and dirty. 51 James Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 4 September 1837 London, 4 September 1837 My dear Alexander, I suppose you will have some anxiety to know what has become of us all since your Mother’s last communication, which left us all still under the potent charm of Mrs Sanford’s authority. We remained there crowded almost to suffocation in the hot weather, and when the northeasters with rain set in, exposed to the chilling gusts, which the necessarily open door of the dining room poured upon us, whilst we sat elbowing and incommoding each other at table. It was really a great trial of patience, though
94 The Letters nobody dared (in so much good company) to utter a murmur. We still however hoped for some relief as one and another gave notice to quit but all in vain – the vacancies were instantly more than replenished with new comers and the table on the last day of our sojourn was so crowded that I suggested to my neighbour the arrangement of sitting sideways and helping ourselves with one hand, since there was positively so little room for both. In the meantime Capt. Allan, our carver, was seized with a violent cold, the result of his exposure to the air from the open door behind him – your Mother too was obliged to take to her bed from a similar cause, and though in consequence of a humble representation to the lady patroness of the institution we obtained a removal, it was only at the expense of a separation of our own party, so that we sat in three several places, hardly in sight of each other and as there was such inadequate attendance for the party, we were compelled to an establishment of so many bottles of wine. With all this squeezing the company continued highly respectable and the evenings were enliv[en]ed with quadrilles and music both instrumental and vocal. Mrs Richards and her daughter officiated in both ways – they brought also their relations the Pounsetts, beautiful and accomplished girls, fresh from a long residence in Switzerland, and brothers and cousins, no match, just finished at Edinburgh or elsewhere, and ready to commence with the approaching term at Oxford. Oh had they spared us at the dinner tables! The evening however in great measure compensated us for that previous discomfort, and we protracted our sojourn till Saturday, when your Mother and James took their departure by the steamer at 7 o’clock in the morning for Boulogne. How long they may remain will depend much on the pleasure your mother may receive from her visit – but as she took but a small portion of her wardrobe and proposed returning by the same conveyance the following day to Ramsgate, or in the course of a day or two more direct for London, I shall expect them, if not this evening, in the course of the present week at farthest. For my own part, I was weary of the constraint of inns and boarding houses, and came off the same morning, bringing all the heavy luggage with me; and I am so delighted with recovered liberty that I cannot persuade myself as yet to go even to the Athenaeum for a dinner. It seems a renovation of existence to have emerged from such a state to the solitary luxury of my own house [and] have the whole table to myself. I order my own dinner and eat what I like, without waiting for George118 or Mary to bring me after a disheartening pause, not what I asked for, but what they were able to get for me: then in the evening I have a long arrear of periodicals and other entertaining hash to keep me alert. But you will ask if I have no news for you. Yes, Jenkins has just called to enquire, when you intend coming up; he has written to you and expects that you will let him hear from you in due course. There is a note for you also from Charles Edward Stewart written at Broadstairs and forwarded by his father, which I do not think it worth while to forward; as it only regards your promise to lunch with them, and enquires, where you are staying. Have you seen Spring Rice’s verses on revisiting Trinity College?119 They have been very flatteringly reviewed in the Times and the Standard – but most amusingly in yesterday’s Bull, where they are illustrated by a pretended memorandum
118 119
George Hammond, one of the Goodens’ servants. No Mary is listed in the 1841 census. Thomas Spring Rice, ‘On revisiting Trinity College, Cambridge, after twenty years’ absence’, in Lord Northampton, ed., The Tribute (1837).
Freshman, 1836–37 95 in the shape of a private soliloquy with himself in continuation of the subject. I am sorry that I did not get the paper to send you; but it is too good a thing, not to attract notice at Cambridge, so that you will no doubt hear enough of it: pray remember me kindly to Mr Burcham, and let me hear, how you are going on and when you expect to get released from Mr Heaviside, as I am very anxious to see you here again. Always, my dear Boy, Your affectionate Father J.G. The newspaper obituary has no doubt acquainted you with the death of poor Admiral Middleton.120 52 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 5 September 1837 Trinity College, Cambridge 5th September 1837 My dear Father, If I were only to consult your appetite for news I should spare you the postage of this letter; but I suppose mother would not be quite satisfied, without knowing it, that my silence proceeded only from the dearth of novelty – but immediately conjure up a host of fears up [sic] and choose the biggest. I therefore write to tell you that I am in my usual health with nothing to complain of but the sourness of the weather which makes me load the fire with coals when I am going out and afflicts me whilst abroad with a thousand apprehensions that an overdose may have stifled the source of light and warmth. Talking of fires by the bye you perhaps may have observed that we have had a flare-up on rather an extensive scale for the size of the town – to wit a conflagration of oil-cake at our Radical mayor – Mr Ebenezer Foster’s.121 It broke out about 10 in the morning and soon became the centre of attraction to townsmen and gownsmen alike. The latter exerted themselves most delightfully and pumped at the engines and handed buckets along the lines and got on the roofs of the houses and flung furniture out o’window and made themselves very busy very wet and very tired in the most philanthropic manner possible – the proprietors of the damaged premises have expressed their gratitude by the circulation of bills of thanks. As for the thunder-storm as it was not an exclusive affair of our own like the fire I shall say nothing about it except that it was the heaviest and most terrible I ever remember. The reverberation in the cloisters contributed not a little to the effect. I am going on tolerably with Heaviside, tho’ he gave me a greeting that showed he thought I had been quite long enough absent. ‘He was very glad to see me back,’ with particular emphasis. With Burcham we have been reading the Ethics of Aristotle. Having been (so) lately employed upon Plato the styles of the two writers are brought into strong relief, and the effect of the contrast is that, if Coleridge spake true, I was born an Aristotelian.122 The didactic,
120 121 122
Father of John George Middleton, first mentioned in (24). Ebenezer Foster was a corn-dealer and miller who in 1813 established a bank with his brother and nephew. ‘Every man is born an Aristotelian, or a Platonist . . .’. See S. T. Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk (London, 1851), 2 July 1830. Cf. Edward Strachey on Maurice’s view on Aristotelian Oxford and Platonic Cambridge, 27 October 1836, used as the epigraph to D. Newsome, Two Classes of Men: Platonism and English Romantic Thought (London, 1974).
96 The Letters demonstrative style of Aristotle rather tending to the dogmatic, suits my taste infinitely better than the tedious fanciful discursive unsatisfactory manner of the Dialogues. I will give up the graces of language and beauty of particular parts, for the dry satisfactory through and through style of the praeceptor of Alexander. I have my doubts where this letter will find you and should therefore be glad of a early reply in order that I may have your locale in my mind’s eye. There is something satisfactory in knowing what sort of things one’s friends are employed about. I do not know anything about Mr Raymond, probably you are now satisfied about it. Our society has received an addition in number in the person of another Australian, named Laing123 who will be a freshman next year. These chaps from New South Wales are queer fellows I do not know one that is perfectly human. Chisholm Anstey124 is like a New Zealander, ergo scarcely human; Forbes partakes of the kangaroo and this fellow is extremely like a parrot. I wonder if it is the same in all the colonies or whether they are a link between the two orders of creation, a sort of march of intellect class of beasts. Of the University and all matters concerning the course he is about to enter upon he is as ignorant as an opossum. Rothery leaves in about 10 days; when I shall see you, I cannot exactly fix but shall be better able to determine when I hear from you. I am rather anxious to make some further progress in the mathematical subjects. The man to whom these rooms belonged has taken his name off the boards125 and if they belonged to Thorp I should apply for them; as it is I believe, I shall have to return to Porcher’s. My best love to my dear Mother and James. I remain, my dear Father, Your affectionate son ACG 53 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 12–13 September 1837 13th September 1837 Trin Coll Cam My dear Mother, Your letter was very welcome to me, for as I had directed my last to Sackett’s126 and could not be sure that it would be duly forwarded to Tavistock Square I was in some fear that my silence might cause uneasiness. I receive it as a prosperous omen, that you say you could willingly have been absent a month longer; for as I never heard such a confession before I conclude and hope that you did and do find yourself much the better for it. Your reservation of your ‘Journal of a Visit to France’ however is rather tantalizing; I suppose that I must keep my curiosity for the present. With regard to my coming to town, as you say it was the object of your last letter to enquire about it, I will
123 124 125 126
John Lang of Sydney, admitted to Trinity 1837. Thomas Chisholm Anstey, born in London, emigrated to Hobart in 1827. He returned to London and entered University College. See ‘Thomas Anstey’ in Australian Dictionary of Biography. The noticeboards which acted as a running register of current college membership. The man in question had thus ceased to be a resident member of the College. The Sackett family had links with both Marylebone and Ramsgate.
Freshman, 1836–37 97 tell you at once what I intend – and that is to be with you on the 27th tomorrow fortnight. I am afraid you will remember with too much exactitude that this is later than the time I originally named but I am induced to protract my stay thus much by a desire to get a little more of Heaviside. I have lately commenced a mathematical subject called the Differential Calculus (that’s not for you) which I am anxious to make some progress in, before I leave. A week will not allow of this and therefore I think of extending my time as long as Heaviside remains here, which is until that day. Burcham also knocks off (according to James’ phraseology) at the same time so that I hope you will not have any great objection to this arrangement even though it prevents me from reaching you so early as I had hoped. I should be happy to see James for a day or two before that time; so that we could return together. But I will not put it in the form of an invitation because if it does happen to suit, there will be no want of future opportunities and there will be no need of a formal discussion. I can easily get him a bed in college as there are plenty unoccupied and my bed-maker is very attentive to airing everything. As for the rest he knows the extent of our society; it is a good time for looking about you because you may make quite sure that if you stand still in the middle of our usually most crowded streets nobody will run against you. Then he need not if he comes pay anything for his quarters or board, and so that’s the state of the case. I should be most happy to see him but I will not press the matter because it may occasion discussion of which there is no need. Yes or No? Our Australian friends have been figuring on a new scene within this last week and have extended their knowledge and name considerably by it. As events are very ‘rare birds’ here indeed, we have been quite in a ferment, though the matter was simply this that Forbes, Lang and some friends of his were locked up by the police for kicking up a row at the unseasonable hour of one in the morning. It was of course the finish of a quiet supper party. But as the people did not fancy being wakened by obstreperous beating at the door, ringing at the bell and vigorous assault and battery upon their shutters and window frames they requested the police to capture these sons of Momus.127 The matter was aggravated by a rescue effected by Forbes of one of his companions, the former gentleman’s attitude making him a very eligible person for giving a leg (as it is called technically) over a wall. The case was brought before the Mayor but finally dismissed for want of evidence. Burcham and Barnes (who is up here) both made use of their influence in favour of the party and the whole affair ended with Barnes admonishing them with a laugh to remain quiet at least for the remainder of the vacation. Rothery leaves us on Friday having imposed upon himself the apparently very needless task of walking into town alone in one day. Every body who remains in statu quo except little Mr B128 who has got a sore throat which I hope for a double motive he will soon get rid of, for it stops the Aristotle. The new Bishop129 has been up here on a visit to us. I shall write to Jenkins and
127 128 129
Momus (Momos) was the personification of fault-finding in classical literature. Burcham. Thomas Musgrave, admitted to Trinity 1804; elected Scholar 1807; BA 1810 (14th Wrangler), MA 1813, DD 1837; held a number of College offices; Lord Almoner’s Professor of Arabic; Vicar of Great St Mary’s, Cambridge, 1825–33; Bishop of Hereford 1837–47; Archbishop of York 1847–60.
98 The Letters probably to Stewart also in the course of a few days. With my best love to my dear Father and James I remain ever, my dear Mother, Your affectionate and dutiful son Alexr. C. Gooden Tuesday 12th Sept 1837 PS I had almost forgotten to thank my Father for his kind letter. I hope town is not desperately dismal. 54 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 9 October 1837 9th October 1837 Malvern Worcestershire My dear Mother, As I suspect that in spite of your magnanimous declaration that you should not expect to hear from us, you will be imagining all manner of moving accidents and perilous ‘scapes to have befallen us, I beg to assure you that we are both in a state of animated existence at this present date and I think considerably improved already by our trip hitherward. To give you a systematic account of our proceedings however, we reached Oxford in safety at about 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon having met with nothing to disturb our equanimity save a monstrously heavy shower that most ill-naturedly descended on us by pail-fulls at about 8 miles distance from our journey’s end. It cleared up however very soon and gave us an unobstructed view of the splendid entrance to that most stately city. Of Oxford we saw but the outside, but such an outside as perhaps few cities present; Cambridge can not for a moment enter into competition with her sister university. We put up at the inn where the coach stopped – the Angel, where we were indifferently entertained at first-rate expense, and sacrificed the comfort of our dinner to the splendour of the coffee room. However there was no help for it, as the two principal hotels in the town this and the Star are the property of the same man and therefore the second-rate must be our aim next time. At two o’clock on Saturday afternoon having spent the morning in the survey of the Colleges under the guidance of a Cicerone, we took the Cheltenham coach passing through from London and after a four hours ride through a high open country, where the air was as fresh as could be desired, we arrived at the Anglo-Indian watering place.130 It was in vain that my father sought for some trace of the village which he had visited 25 years ago, amongst the crescents, terraces and walks of the Brighton of the west. Brighton is indeed the only place I know that resembles it in character size and style, with this very important difference however that the neighbourhood of Cheltenham abounds with wood and the country about is rich and picturesque instead of the barren sea and the more barren shore of the other place. We spent Sunday at Cheltenham lodging at a very respectable house called The Fleece to which we were recommended by Whittaker131 the publisher whom we fell in with at Oxford, and where instead of being fleeced we were very well entertained at a reasonable rate. As you may imagine we spent the day in looking about us; my father even drank your healths (as Mrs Win Jenkins did Mary Jones’s)132 in a
130 131 132
Cheltenham was popular with retirees from service in India. George B. Whitaker. The reference is probably to the work mentioned in (8 (n.45)).
Freshman, 1836–37 99 bumper of Cheltenham water. I did not, having been cured of my curiosity by the disappointment not to say disgust I received at Harrowgate. At 10 o’clock this morning we left Cheltenham for this place, the journey taking something less than four hours. The season is over here, but the place has not lost all its charms; for the trees are still sufficiently clothed to make it a charming spot. The houses are close under the hills – as close as in the Undercliff;133 Which indeed it appears to me most to resemble of any place I know – save that there is no sea to leave it bare but a most living landscape. The wells and the walks up the hills are the only sights here; but the view is magnificent over the rich valley of the Severn and from the summit of the hills (which we valorously climbed today) there is an equally extensive prospect on the other side bounded only by the Welsh mountains – Think of that Mary Jones ! The air of this place is excellent, but we have tumbled by recommendation into an hotel that makes us quake a little; no coffee-room and wax-lights are pretty sure to make a handsome figure in the bill. We observed the Pratts’ names down here in July. All the folks here walk about with long sticks or staves (like pilgrims) to help them in climbing; I should dread one in your ladyship’s hands, for even the ladies carry them. We take the coach tomorrow to Worcester and shall sleep at Birmingham; where will be our course then we have not yet determined, but we shall probably take Leamington and Warwick in our way back, so as to return probably on Friday possibly on Saturday: I only mention the latter in order that you may not (in case we do not make our appearance on Friday) fancy that we are necessarily smashed or otherwise damaged. The weather hitherto has been most propitious for the season. It would be unreasonable to desire better for the remainder of our tour. My father joins me in kindest love to yourself and James (against whom I hope you have not yet sworn the peace) and so at Malvern or Jericho or Popocatapetl Believe me, dearest Mother, Ever your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden PS. I shall probably post this at Worcester or Brummagem as it is too late for the post here. Monday October 9th 1837
133
On the Isle of Wight: described in (4).
Junior Sophister, 1837–38
55 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 25 October 1837 Porcher’s, Jesus Lane, Cambridge 25th October 1837 My dear Mother, As this is the day on which I promised to write to you I make it a point of conscience to fulfil my engagement and if I have nothing to communicate shall at least feel satisfied that you have no cause for uneasiness. I am very anxious to hear that my father is recovered or recovering from that most violent attack and that James’s apprehensions of a cough coming on have not been followed by the results which he predicted. I have not escaped the general contagion and from the moment of my arrival here have been suffering from cold and during this morning from a hoarseness and tickling of the throat which I am taking proper measures to check. I was siezed upon at the end of my journey by a posse of my friends including Taylor who carried me off to spend what remained of the evening with them. I found Cambridge (as I anticipated) extremely crowded, the number of freshmen at our college being unusually large: last year we numbered 120, but this 150. The hall and chapel are accordingly thronged to a degree I had not seen before, and proportionally uncomfortable as a matter of course. As second year men we are of course very high and take our revenge for the quizzing which was I daresay vented upon us, by behaving as charitably to the freshmen whom we now have under us. I have seen Turner1 and Busk and Merivale, the latter worthy as stout and brown as usual, but only the first to speak to. I find Johnny has become acquainted with our Australian freshman Lang, to whom in details of his experience he dilates upon the changes of prospect which reduce a man from Senior Wrangler and Senior Medallist, as he pathetically remarked, to the poll.2 Mr Heaviside in answer to my note informs me that ‘any sum may be paid through Messrs Smith, Payne and Smith to his private account with Messrs Mortlock, Cambridge’. His full description is Revd J W L Heaviside, Sidney Sussex College, and his bankers are in Mansion House Place. I found Tommy Burcham in lively existence. He had been in Norfolk, but not to London. We soon made our arrangements which were such as I already have described to my father. The other and greater dignitary Tommy Thorp I have not seen. Our lectures which commenced on Monday are only one hour a day and exclusively mathematical. Taylor who is established with me here 1 2
Henry Wall Turner, admitted to Downing 1835; migrated to Trinity 1835; BA 1840. The Poll Men were the men who did not achieve honours, from the Greek ο πολλοι, the many.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 101 is very well and has already adorned Mate’s late apartment with more appearance of comfort than it has yet worn. How very lucky it was that the deal-box was not irretrievably forgotten! I am as much indebted to Thomas for his activity in running down with it, as I should have had occasion to complain of his carelessness if I had set off without it. Let me assure you that I have commenced with temperance abstinence and early hours so that I hope to get on very well when I am rid of my cold. It rained furiously last night and Cambridge is as filthy as a pig-sty today. Tell my father that I carried off the 3rd volume of Plautus and the 5th of Cicero’s Orations so that they are to be counted in the list of ‘absentees’. I hope to hear from you very soon, and so with kindest love to my dear Father James and yourself remain, my dear Mother Always your affectionate Son A Chisholm Gooden Wednesday October 25th /37 Please direct your letters to me either at ‘Trin. Coll’ or at Porcher’s Jesus Lane as if you omit Porcher’s name they have to carry them round to the different colleges, and so delay is occasioned. 56 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 5 November [1837] Guy-Faux Day Cambridge My dear Father, I looked forward to our friend Vigurs’s arrival with considerable impatience; for, hearing that he was in London, I concluded he would be the bearer of despatches from home. The handkerchief and letter reached me in safety and I was very gratified at James’s considerate kindness, although the enemy was pretty nearly subdued before the red flag was hoisted. I sincerely hope that you have by this time completely recovered from the abominable cough-nuisance (as the newspapers would call it) and that the sound of barking is departed from our household. The cold and hoarseness from which I was suffering have all but departed and in other respects I am in the enjoyment of my usual health. Matters here proceed in the ordinary routine, though this last week has been distinguished, as you will doubtless have observed, by the ceremony of laying the foundation of the Fitzwilliam Museum.3 It was a very dull affair and the only enlivening part of the proceedings was the cheering of the undergraduates and the cries of ‘encore’ which saluted the conclusion (impatiently waited for) of Mr Crick’s oration. The language, as Burcham emphatically remarked, was intended to be Latin but you may conclude from this observation was not of Augustan purity. Our Vice-Chancellor for this year is the Master of Downing,4 not a very great favorite with our ‘Louis-Le-Bel’.5 The denizens of Downing are harassed by rumors
3 4 5
Laid by Gilbert Ainslie, Vice-Chancellor and Master of Pembroke, on 2 November 1837. See R. Willis and J. W. Clark, Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1886), p. 211. Thomas Worsley, admitted to Trinity 1815; elected Scholar 1816; BA 1820, MA 1824, DD 1859; migrated to Downing 1824; Fellow of Downing 1824–36, Master 1836–85; Vice-Chancellor 1837–38. Louis Vigurs.
102 The Letters of changes and reforms which will reduce them to the lot of ordinary mortals and break the blissful dreams in which they have been lulled. Taylor and I are going on as usual with our obese little man and I have struck out a new spark of genius by a flourish of Alcaics. Burcham is pleased to say that I shall be very successful with them. I am reading the private orations of Demosthenes, Cicero and Lucan; the two latter chiefly with a view to composition; though Lucan may perhaps not be the best of models, still his language is copious and his style powerful and by no means easy, so that it is doubly useful as an exercise in the language and a storehouse of verses. I am working pretty hard and am satisfied with the success of my application so that come what may, I shall have been making head. I have not called as yet on Thorp but shall make a point of doing so, as soon as the Audit6 begins to flow, which will be sometime about the latter end of this [month]. I can get 6 instead of 3 doz if you like, so pray let me know. Jenkins is pretty well and regularly attends Chapel twice a day, a thing unexampled I imagine even amongst the Saints. He does not however think too highly of himself to shun those who are less scrupulous and is universally applauded for his gentle tolerance though a little laughed at for his ecclesiastical mania. You may tell James he may expect to see Turner in town this month. Pray excuse the nothingness of this letter, which is merely intended to forestall mother’s apprehensions and the forerunner I hope of something better. With my best love to my dear Mother and James Believe me, my dear Father, Ever your affectionate son A C Gooden 57 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 19 November 1837 November 19th 1837 My dear Mother, I sit down to discharge my periodical debt with pockets as empty as usual, but I know that you are indulgent enough to accept any sort of paper provided it be a renewal of the engagement. I have in the first place to acknowledge your very kind welcome letter as well as to return my best thanks to my dear Father for his interesting share in it. You cannot imagine how much gratified I was to find that you had so good a view of the spectacle of the 9th,7 I should really have been mortified if you had been the only people in London that did not witness so splendid a pageant. The arrangement at the Scottish Union could not have been better, and that patriotic body deserve the gratitude of the visitors so well entertained. I have had no trouble from my cold since I wrote to you last; in fact every symptom has disappeared not, I hope in spite of damp and frost, to return again. In consequence
6 7
Audit ale, a strong ale brewed at Trinity and other colleges to celebrate the completion of the yearly audit. On this day Queen Victoria processed to the Guildhall to dine with Sir John Cowan, Lord Mayor of London, amid a great show of loyalty by the general populace.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 103 however of certain signs of torpid action in the liver, I thought it prudent to provide myself according to Dr Prout’s directions with Mawe’s syringe and have made use of it with benefit, though I found that cold water produced some hemorrhage. I have since tried warm without any of those disagreeable effects. I dined with Vigurs at his own rooms on the 9th and breakfasted with him this morning. He is quite well and enjoying himself in company more suitable to his tastes than that which he had at Trinity. Turner and Cockburn returned on Friday in high spirits from London, so high in fact that they made a most tremendous noise both on the top of her Majesty’s mail and in the streets of this learned town. Cockburn defends himself on the grounds of being conscious that ‘time was up’ and determined to make the most of what remained. He has however been gated 8 by Barnes9 in consequence of declining to call upon that gentleman when he politely sent him a message for that purpose. Taylor has been rather flighty of late so that I have been compelled to remonstrate strongly with him on the subject and last night gave him a downright rowing which he took very submissively and promised to reform incontinent. Turner and co. told me that James is looking fat and hearty and that Stewart is very low. I am sorry to hear this, as I am afraid there must be something at the bottom of it. Burcham has been going on very satisfactorily of late though I thought at one time he was going to be irregular, in which case a tutor is worse than useless, at least it always makes me nervous and fidgety which is the greatest possible impediment to steady and wellregulated reading. I shall have something to say about my finances in my next, so I give you fair warning; but it need not disturb your rest, as it does not open any frightful scenes of extravagance and delinquency. You will see from my letter how little I have to say and therefore not think me hurried when I conclude with my kindest love to my dear Father and James and the assurance that I remain, my dear Mother Always your affectionate and dutiful Son ACG Porcher’s Jesus Lane Cambridge PS John Ellis10 I am told is at last hard at work reading for his degree as likewise Mr Merivale of that ilk, tho it is not so sure as to prevent strains of the loudest possible pitch consistent with melody being heard by his neighbours. Tell my father there is a son of old Tate of Richmond11 come up as a freshman; he has commenced rowing man immediately, upon the strength of all his brothers having been so before him.
8 9 10 11
Gating was a punishment traditionally meted out by the College for misdemeanours. It was effectively a curfew, restricting the student to life within the bounds of the College within certain hours. Joseph Watkins Barnes, admitted to Trinity 1823, elected scholar 1827; BA 1828, MA 1831; elected Fellow 1830; Junior Dean 1836–38. Probably the John Ellis admitted to Pembroke in 1834: BA 1839, MA 1843. James Tate, headmaster of Richmond school in Yorkshire. The pupils he sent to Cambridge ‘were so successful, admired and feared that they were known as “Tate’s invincibles’’ ’: L. P. Wenham, James Tate, Master of Richmond School, Yorks., and Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, London (Northallerton, 1991), p. 94.
104 The Letters 58 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 24 November 1837 November 24th 1837 Jesus Lane Cambridge My dear Mother, As you particularly requested in your last kind letter of the 21st. that I would return a speedy answer to your enquiry, I think I may as well now tell you all that I know with regard to the period of my return and all that I can know until within a few days of the time. The term ends on the 16th of December and on that day or the next (I am not sure which) the prizes are distributed to the men in the first class at the Midsummer examination.12 After that I do not know of anything that makes my stay here necessary and I shall therefore be able to see you on the 17th or 18th. The announcement of the examination for the University scholarship and the day on which it will take place has not appeared as yet but will be promulgated next week. I do not expect to be the winner this time, but at my third and last trial twelve months hence. I do not at present see any obstacle to my success. You are not to suppose from this declaration that any change has taken place in my chance for it since the beginning of the year, but I without hesitation express my doubts because if they are fulfilled the issue will not come as a disagreeable surprise, and if otherwise the victory will be all the more pleasant. I know moreover that my dear father is too wise to estimate progress invariably by success and that he will feel no disappointment at the result even if my efforts are unsuccessful. I have seen Hutt the bookseller and he offered to pay me back the money. I told him that I should recommend him to call upon Mr Thorp first and endeavour to obtain the payment of his bill now instead of October next. He seemed afraid of trying the experiment but I thinking he might screw his courage up sufficiently during a day or two, told him I would call at the end of the week again. Tomorrow therefore, I shall receive the money at any rate: but I suggested the trial to him because being a poor man comparatively I thought it rather harder that he should pay away the money he had not received than that Mr T. should lose the interest on 2£. 5s. for a twelvemonth. Jenkins is going on much as usual here except that he is getting more into general society amongst the freshmen which is a better thing for him and will rub off his peculiarities more than continual intercourse with those who know his amiabilities and indulge his weak points. See what a thing I have made of this letter but you have brought it upon yourself and must not therefore blame me for all the tediousness I have bestowed on you. With my best love to my dear Father and James I remain, my dear Mother, Ever your affectionate A.C.G. PS. I would write to Stewart but I do not know whether his papa and mamma get hold of his correspondence which might contain allusions they would not wish to know of.13 My Aristotle is at the binder’s, the college pays 1£ 15s. of the money I understand, so that on the whole getting the first class is a losing concern. 12 13
Trinity College annual examination. That is, to plans for his future which they might not agree with: see (19).
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 105 59 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 23–24 January 1838 Tuesday January 23rd 1838 My dear Father, I did not expect that I should find matter or occasion for writing so soon but you will see I have in a sort of way plenty of both. To begin then like Aristotle at the beginning, we had a very cold and comfortless journey hither in spite of all defences and I did not stir out on Sunday in consequence of the inconvenience I felt from the journey. The cold at Cambridge was I think on Saturday night more severe than I had felt in London and literally every liquid whatever in my bed-room was turned to ice. However I need not herald to you the comfortable intelligence of the thaw which came just in time to ameliorate our prospects for the week. I found that a great many plucks had taken place and amongst the number (alas! for the Commodore) Jack Ellis! I believe his bad state of health for the last year has been the cause of this discreditable accident which seldom befalls men of his natural acuteness. Merivale was 7th on the Poll and I saw him yesterday in a very shabby B.A. gown which denoted that it was not intended long to decorate its wearer. Heaviside14 has the blame of all the mischief for which he got heartily groaned at on Saturday, doubtless much to the edification of his affiancée15 who was leaning upon his arm. One of the most savage jokes during the Saturnalia of the degree was calling out the names for Baines16 (the proctor) and Greenacre17 as bracketed together (which is done when men are equal in an examination). I found Taylor Allan and Cockburn here; the two former I have the satisfaction of sitting by in the Examination. We have had two days of it and so far I have done very well; as I am not harassed by expectations I am in much better spirits and humour than when the trial was in prospect. There are lots of candidates and we are accommodated in the Schools (the place of examination for degrees) instead of the Senate House and have a large stove which though not very diffusive of its warmth renders it much more endurable than last year. I have seen Thorp several times, and he has offered me the choice of several sets of rooms; that which he most rests upon and appears desirous I should take is in the Gt. Court and the rooms are large, airy, quiet and – what is the rub – almost unfurnished.18 They require new-papering and new-furnishing and it is the expense of these operations that stops my choice. He represents to me that the difference betwixt buying new furniture and taking old at a valuation is in the first payment and that I shall be more comfortable by getting myself properly fitted out at first than by making alterations afterwards. The truth is that the rooms are superior to the common run and if the 14 15 16
17
18
One of the examiners. Heaviside married Mira Skrine on 17 October 1838. Edward Baines, admitted to Christ’s 1819; elected Scholar 1821; Bell’s Scholar and Browne Medallist 1821; BA 1824, MA 1827; Fellow 1825–41; Senior Proctor 1837–38; member of the Cambridge Conversazione Society (The Apostles); Vicar of Bluntisham, Hunts., 1841–59 and of Yalding, Kent, 1859–82. James Greenacre, a celebrated criminal who had been hanged on 2 May 1837 for his part in the ‘Edgware Road murder’: see J. L. Rayner, ed., The Complete Newgate Calendar (London, 1926), vol. 5, pp. 286–90. Students were responsible for the decoration and furnishing of their rooms, for example, taking wainscoating with them as they moved. Furniture was often sold on second-hand by incumbents to their successors.
106 The Letters expense of furnishing does not appear too great will be permanently more comfortable. To settle in any of the other rooms will I understand cost about 50 or 60 £; to fix myself in these nearly 100£. I dwelt considerably on the great outlay in speaking to Thorp, so much so that he seemed to think I was not sufficiently sensible of the eligibility of the offer: he repeated two or three times that he conceived ready money was not an objection with us (as he had probably found in the payment of his bills). The upholsterer and furnisher is to inspect the rooms tomorrow and I will then write all I hear from him of the matter. I leave the case, however it may stand, entirely to your discretion, when I have fairly stated the particulars. Adieu for the present! Wednesday. I have seen the upholsterer Metcalfe and what I learn from him is this. There are three sets of rooms at my disposal which I will characterize by the na<mes> of their late inhabitants: Lord Napier’s19 in the Gt. Court and Buckworth’s20 and Playfair’s21 in the New Court. The fitting up of the first will cost about 100£ most of the furniture being necessarily new; that of the second taking the old furniture about 70£; that of the last about 50£. The first set is by much the largest and capable of being made the most comfortable: the second is very good and also the third but this last is in a disagreeable stair-case where there are a good many noisy dissipated men; in other respects it is as good as the second. Two-thirds of the original cost of the furniture is deducted when a man leaves his rooms. I will send up Thorp’s bill which I found here on my arrival as soon as I have corrected a mistake in it with regard to what is due to Burcham’s account. Would you let me know what is set down in previous bills to his account especially in those for the Easter and Midsummer terms ie not the long vacation. As it will take a week or more to put any set of rooms in order for habitation and the term commences on this day week do not think me unreasonably impatient in asking for an answer by return of post as I shall be bothered sufficiently about my choice by those who are anxious to get what I reject: I have the first claim to rooms at present; so now or never! I have just seen Burcham and am going to give him a call tomorrow: I am doing well in the Examination. My kind love to my dear Mother and James. I remain, my dear Father, Ever your affectionate son A.C.G. 60 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 30 January 1838 Tuesday 30th January Trinity College 1838 My dear Father, Both your communications (the latter of which I have just received) were, you may be assured, most acceptable and the latter more particularly so as it did away with the only disagreeable passage in the first – that in which you informed me of your disagreeable 19 20 21
Francis, Lord Napier, admitted to Trinity 1837; career diplomat. Charles Buckworth, admitted to Trinity 1836; BA 1840, MA 1844. David Playfair, admitted to Trinity 1834; BA 1838.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 107 attack. I hope that the weather will now be more favourable to your complaint, and it will melt away with the ice and vanish with the snow. I write from my new rooms which are those I first mentioned under the name of Ld. Napier’s: I must tell you the reasons which have induced me to take up with them. The second set (Buckworth’s) I found under repair, papering and painting, and the bill of course ready made to my hands without my having been consulted. I have at present incurred no expense; because I have taken the rooms as they are, and the furniture is lent by the upholsterer. Whatever alterations may appear requisite hereafter, can be made in the summer vacation. I am moreover convinced that I can be comfortably settled for much less than the sum assigned: repairs which the upholsterer spoke of as indispensable I can see no necessity for, or at least no need at present. The paper and hanging which he would have replaced, I find will serve me abundantly well for a year to come and above all I am not dragged into unknown expenses but can find out my wants and provide for them accordingly. I hope this will convince you that I have not been led by any foolish vanity or ambition for larger rooms than usual and show you a reasonable prospect of the expense being considerably less than I first contemplated. I saw Thorp today and had a long talk with him; he was excessively civil (although he accused me to Mate of keeping him in a state of nervous agitation by the tardiness of my choice) and even affecting when he spoke of the probability of his vacating the tutorship. I showed him in his Bill an item of 10£ 10s. to Burcham as having been omitted at Midsummer and reminded him that I had read only half the preceding term with B. The account. stands thus: Easter term Midsummer Do.
10£ 10s. not charged for in the bill for the terms but inserted in the last Midsummer Vacn. 15£ 15s. October Term 10£ 10s. The insertion of 10£ 10s in the present bill for the Mids. Term is perfectly correct. But to charge 10£ 10s. for the Easter Term during half of which only I read with him is incorrect. I mentioned this to Thorp and he has promised to speak to B. about it. I shall not send the bill till I hear from him. I think I have made the matter clear. The examination ended on Saturday; we, having had two papers each day and three the first, were not sorry to be done with it. I have done very satisfactorily in all. Taylor along with some gross blunders has made some lucky guesses where I was content to confess my ignorance. The Greek verse paper contained extracts from The Odyssey. Sophocles. Euripides (2 pieces) and Aristophanes The Greek prose do. from Thucydides. Herodotus. Plato. Aeschines The Latin verse do. from Ovid’s Fasti. Lucretius. Juvenal. Horace. Plautus and Martial The Latin prose do. from Cicero de Natura Deorum. Ammianus Marcellinus (I believe) Cicero (Orations) and Tacitus. Besides these we had Pindar into Alcaics. Shenstone into elegiacs. Greek iambics elegiacs and anapaests. Greek prose. Latin do. original copy of hexameters on Caesar’s Invasion of Britain. Original theme on Plato’s treatment of poëts (and very original I dare say the compositions of many were) and a paper of miscelleneous Greek questions.
108 The Letters I did everything except one third of the Alcaics and some of the miscelleneous questions; what I did was of course not immaculate but barring some blunders committed from haste I am very well content. Freeman22 is the favorite for the Craven as to the rest I do not know except that the third-year men are most looked up to. Six weeks must elapse before the decision is known. Taylor is left like a lone widow as he declares in Porcher’s lodgings but I hope that he will be transplanted next term into rooms in College. I think Stewart was well off in getting through, I never expected that he would make a very splendid figure in the examination. I am going to read Mathematics this term with a B. A. of this college named Walton23 and as my scholarship depends upon it I shall make play in good earnest. To Burcham I of course do not go any more at present. What a strange state public affairs are in! I relished Harvey’s24 sauce for the Ministers and his apostrophe to Peel. I wish they would hang Hume! I have not left myself a line to gossip in, but things of high and regal argument have forced to give way to them. I shall want some of James’s Vanderveldts25 to adorn my walls and furnish employment to my speculative friends. Many thanks to my dear Mother for her kind share which I have had scarcely time to acknowledge and with best love to her, James and yourself I remain my dear Father, Ever your affectionate son ACG. 61 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 6 February 1838 Trin Coll Cambridge, 6 February 1838 My dear Friend, I have deferred writing to you till the return of our friends should enable me to give you something more than a mere history of my own doings and intentions. As our muster here is now nearly complete I can tell you what our noticeable folk have been about. To begin with the new arrivals I reckon Joyce26 the greatest stranger; he having been like you, a truant last term. He has not been out of England, as far as I can learn; though the cause of his absence was reported to be business in France. He comes back without any very settled views as far [as] I see, only there is to be something which is to occupy him in such a way as to prevent his reading or pursuing any very steady course. I queried whether it was an epic poem or a law suit, but as the reply was in the negative pursued it no further. He has been writing a pamphlet entitled an answer to the letter to the Queen (at first attributed to Brougham and now to Mr. Place the tailor)27 which has been published nay more has sold. He was kind enough to give me a copy which I have not yet found time to read, it seems however done with some spirit and ability. 22
23 24 25 26 27
Philip Freeman, admitted to Trinity 1835, elected Scholar 1837; Browne Medal 1837–38, Craven Scholar 1838; BA 1839 (Senior Classic); Fellow of Peterhouse 1842–53; Archdeacon of Exeter 1865–75. William Walton, admitted to Trinity 1831, elected Scholar 1834; BA 1836 (8th Wrangler), MA 1843; Fellow of Trinity Hall 1868–85. Daniel Whittle Harvey, Chairman of the East India Company and MP for it 1818–34; MP for Southwark 1834–40; appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police 1840. That is, James Gooden’s own marine paintings. Thomas Joyce, admitted to Trinity 1836. Place started Pamphlets for the People in 1836.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 109 You are probably aware that Ellis has not rejoined us; he is expected however tomorrow. Pearson passed through London on his way hither, but was only one night there, he says he is ashamed to show his face to you but intends to write a very long letter of peace making. He is looking much better than when he left Cambridge; his habits elsewhere are, I suppose must be more regular than here. Mate arrived nearly about the same time as myself and Cockburn and Jebb28 dropped in at their proper places. Everybody I think is refreshed by their temporary absence from this scene of excitement – physical and mental. Your packets were forwarded to their several destinations; that to the Professor I accompanied with a note requesting to know what measures would be necessary to exempt you from the Little Go29 at Easter. He sent me a prompt and polite answer that a certificate stating your absence from Cambridge this term and the last and the reason of it from your ordinary medical attendant, to be sent up just before the Examination would be all the Ceremony required; you would then be enabled to go in in the month of October, when there is a second Examination for all who are prevented from passing their first. If such a certificate be forwarded to Peacock about the middle of next month, the matter will be settled. I hope all those who received your ‘Defence’30 may get as much good from it as it is capable of giving them. It is very clear and well-written and shows extensive reading in a not very common walk. I did not go in to the University Scholarship Examination, although I came up in order to have the opportunity of doing it. When I came to consider all the circumstances attending it I made up my mind that I could not get it and under those circumstances did not think it worth the trouble and anxiety of a contest. My father was much disappointed at first but I believe is now reconciled to my step; indeed the papers (which I have seen) entirely support my resolution. The translation papers are wretchedly low and the quantity of Latin verse composition as usual preposterous. Your friend Boyce’s31 patron Neale is in high spirits as to the result; I do not think he will get it – Balston32 and Cope33 (of this College) I think have a better chance. Taylor and Allan kept me company in my withdrawal. I must intreat you to forgive me this very dull and ill written scrawl which I would not have allowed to represent me but for the multitude of things which this term brings with it – amongst the rest the horrors of a declamation which I shudder to contemplate.34 The best revenge you can inflict upon me is to send me a reply as different in all respects as possible from the provocative. Let me know particularly all that relates to your health a subject which – by a very uncommon omission – you always contrive to forget.
28 29
30 31 32 33 34
Cornelius de Witt Jebb, admitted to Trinity 1834; BA 1840. The Previous Examination, or ‘Little-Go’, was a University examination established in 1822 and first held in 1824 for students in their fifth term. The subjects examined were Greek, Latin and Paley’s Evidences of Christianity. R. C. Jenkins, A Short Defence of the Eucharistical Doctrine of the Church of England (1838). Edward Jacob Boyce, admitted to St John’s 1836, migrated to Trinity in the same year; BA 1840, MA 1843. Edward Balston, admitted to King’s 1836; BA 1841, MA 1844, DD 1865; Browne Medallist 1836–39; Headmaster of Eton 1862–68; Vicar of Bakewell 1869–91, Archdeacon of Derby 1873–91. Edward Meredith Cope, admitted to Trinity 1837, elected Scholar 1839; Porson Prize 1839; BA 1841 (Senior Classic), MA 1844; elected Fellow 1842; Tutor 1845–69. Declamations were something of a relic of the Cambridge of previous centuries. However, each Trinity student was required to attempt at least one during his university career, as they were thought to promote the art of public speaking.
110 The Letters I have the good wishes of so many to communicate that I must makes short work of it, only the importunity of Joyce claiming particularization.35 My kindest respects and regards to Mr and Mrs Jenkins and the rest of my friends at 24.36 Believe me ever your affectionate friend A C Gooden. February 6th 1838 NB the shirt in my next. 62 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 25 February 1838 Trinity College Cambridge Sunday February 25th, /38. My dear Father, Though I have nothing particular to make the subject of a letter yet as I am about to forward to you the bill for last term after having kept it by me for this month past, I am bound as a man of business to account for my reasons for having deferred it so long. As I heard nothing from Mr Thorp respecting the overcharge in Burcham’s account that I mentioned to you, I thought it high time to take the matter into my own hands, and accordingly wrote to Mr B. to let him know that I was charged for reading with him half the Easter term last year the same sum (10£ 10s) as though I had read with him during the whole. I received no answer for a week but the little gentleman called one morning to inform me that he had forgotten the circumstance of my having begun half way through a term but would set it right by giving me a check for 5£ 5s. This was the only course left as Mr Thorp had already paid him and it was too late to deduct from the sum due for the following term, that being inserted in the present bill. Shall I therefore get the check from B. or let it stand over to be taken into account the next time I read with him? I do not think of such a thing till next Oct. at least; it would be important to rub up the composition with him or some one else before the last struggle for the University Scholarship. By the bye the announcement has not yet been made, and there is no farther trustworthy intelligence to be picked up in any quarter to which I have access. The undergraduates are in a state of considerable ferment in consequence of a proclamation by the Master of the College,37 to the effect that in future 8 Chapels a week at least instead of 6 as heretofore must be kept. Placards and bills containing satirical verses on the aforesaid enactment have been extensively posted up and circulated in the college; and worst of all a Society calling themselves ‘The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Undergraduates’ has issued printed circulars with a record of the number of chapels kept by the dons themselves in each week. In pursuance of the scheme, impositions are laid upon those who have not kept the number prescribed to the undergrads. And such notices as the following are sent to the different parties. ‘Mr Whewell lost his week, to write out the first chap. of the History of the Inductive Sciences’ 35 36 37
Singling out. 24 Nottingham Place, London. Christopher Wordsworth, admitted to Trinity 1791, elected Scholar 1794; BA 1796 (10th Wrangler), MA 1799, DD 1810; elected Fellow 1798; Master of Trinity 1820–41; the leading figure in the establishment of the Classical Tripos.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 111 —- Peacock do. to write out and correct do. of his Algebra. Dr. Wordsworth do. to write out the first pp. of ‘Who wrote Eikon Basilike?’ etc. etc.38 Such are our flying criticisms, of which I dare say you have had enough. Many thanks to my dear mother for her affectionate and welcome letter; I wish I could give any decisive answer as to the period of my seeing you. In a sh time I hope to be able to do so. I am working pretty well at mathematics and have every reason to be satisfied with my tutor. I have just broken ground with Turton but as the chief difficulties depend on a proper anticipation and understanding of the first principles, Walton encourages me to be as slow about them as I please. Taylor, I am afraid, is rather idle just now; the dissolution of our reading partnership seems to have unsettled him. I was introduced the other day to a son of Serjeant Wilder’s who is here at present and who requested it through Taylor; he is a very gentlemanly man and asked me to a very handsome dinner, so that thus far James gains. It is understood that he leaves Cambridge at the end of the year to join unto himself a lady of 2000£ a year. So at least they say. I did not decline the introduction, because in the first place I thought it as a general rule unwise to do so unless there was a special objection, and in the second if I should find anything disagreeable in the acquaintance his short sojourn here would soon relieve me of any embarrassment on that score. Vigurs is better than I have seen him before. For myself I am, thank God, as well as usual; though for 3 weeks after I came down I was very much distressed by indigestion and closeness. By the bye the charge in Thorp’s Bill under ‘Apothecary’ is for the lavement apparatus. I have, tell mother, a very good bedmaker and am altogether as comfortable as slush and mire will allow one to be at Cambridge. Let James know I expect to hear from him before the end of the year, sometime. With my best love to my dear Mother and James, I remain, my dear Father, Ever your affectionate and dutiful son, A C Gooden. 63 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 5 March 1838 March 5th /38. Trinity College. My dear Father, The University Scholarships were declared this afternoon and the result is as follows. Craven Scholar, P. Freeman. For the Battie39 scholarship the names of 7 men were sent up to the Vice Chancellor as pretty nearly equal – Eddis,40 Hopper,41 Neale, 38
39 40 41
William Whewell, The History of the Inductive Sciences from the Earliest to Present Times (Cambridge, 1837); George Peacock, A Treatise on Algebra (Cambridge, 1830); Christopher Wordsworth, Who Wrote Eikon Basilike? (London, 1827). The Battie Scholarship was founded in 1747 by William Battie, who had himself held a Craven Scholarship. Arthur Shelly Eddis, admitted to Trinity 1835, elected Scholar 1837; BA 1839 (4th Classic), MA 1842; Senior Chancellor’s Classical Medal 1839; Fellow 1840–44; QC 1869. Augustus Macdonald Hopper, admitted to Trinity 1835; BA 1839, MA 1842; migrated to St John’s 1842, Fellow of St John’s 1841–45; Rector of Starston, Norfolk, 1845–78, Archdeacon of Norwich 1868–78.
112 The Letters Penrose,42 Cope, Trin Evans43 St Johns – Balston and Williams,44 King’s. I believe however that it has been awarded to Balston since. Of these 7, Eddis Hopper Penrose and Evans are 3rd. year men; Neale is a man of my own year and in Thorp’s lecture room; Balston and Williams are likewise my contemporaries; and Cope is a freshman. I cannot deny my disappointment at seeing such a list as this; none of them except Eddis are more than tolerably good scholars and yet Latin verse has placed them in a situation above men of far greater knowledge and attainments than themselves. John Wordsworth has expressed to me more than once his opinion of Neale as an elegant verse writer and his total distrust of his soundness and scholarship; yet such a state is produced by the influence of the public schools – Evans is known to have failed completely in his translation papers and Penrose was never looked upon even as a reading man. I can only hope for the credit of the University of Cambridge that such a set will never be seen in such a place again. I told you that my own expectations were laid asleep and nothing in the result has in fact surprized me but the appearance of this batch. The preference in favour of King’s men and the great quantity of poëtical composition had led me to expect that a King’s man would be the successful competitor but I did not imagine that the mere knack of writing Latin verse would enable men so much my inferiors to pass me in such a manner. I have made an arrangement with Burcham for his superintending my composition in future and instead of reading with him I shall carry him only exercises to look over. I should not have taken such a step as this without letting you know of it beforehand had I not felt the imperative necessity of bearing up against the disappointment for the sake of my own expectations and those of my family. I have not overexerted myself since I have been here and shall therefore buckle to with unimpaired vigour once more with the determination of at least showing these foolish Professors that they have passed over a man worthier than those whom they honoured. Would mother have the kindness to send Pennington’s prints addressed to ‘A.R. Pennington Esqu. Clapham Common’ by the carrier? He called upon me some time ago being then in Cambridge to request it; he has had the offer of a tutorship in a gentleman’s family. I have sat down to write this so hastily that I shall not attempt an answer to your last excellent letter farther than to thank you and my dear Mother for it. I am very well and comfortably situated in all respects; I shall not forget Busk. My best love to my dear Mother and James. I am, my dear Father, Ever your dutiful and affectionate son AC Gooden
42 43
44
Charles Thomas Penrose, admitted to Trinity 1834; BA 1839 (2nd Classic), MA 1842; Rowing Blue 1839; Headmaster of Sherborne School 1846–55. Thomas Saunders Evans, admitted to St John’s 1835, elected Scholar 1838; BA 1838, MA 1845; Porson Prize 1838; Master at Shrewsbury and Rugby Schools; appointed Professor of Greek at Durham University 1862. Rowland Williams, admitted to King’s 1836, Battie Scholar 1838; BA 1841, MA 1844, BD 1851, DD 1857; elected Fellow 1839; Professor of Hebrew and Vice-Principal at St David’s, Lampeter, 1850–62.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 113 64 James Burcham to James Gooden, 16 March 1838 Trin Coll 16th March 1838 My Dear Sir, You are undoubtedly much disappointed at the result of the examination for the University scholarship. I therefore thought that it could not be amiss if I was to trouble you with a few lines upon the subject. The result I assure has both surprised and disappointed me in reference to your son. Notwithstanding, my opinion remains unaltered. If he had been less industrious and attentive, I might have been not so much astonished – even then I should have expected that he would have had a high place in the examination, but I know that he has not slackened in his exertions, that he has extended his reading in classical literature and improved much in his composition since last year. The result therefore is to me quite unaccountable. I am perfectly aware that he is still deficient in Latin composition, and that several men would in all probability surpass him in those exercises. I had expected that he would have been able in other papers, especially in translation, to beat down their superiority. He may not perhaps do himself justice in public examinations. I have no reason for thinking so; but of this I am sure, that in the late examination he has either not done himself justice or not had justice done to him. However, as I stated before, my opinions respecting him, with which you are acquainted are unchanged. There is no reason in my judgement to despair of his ultimate success in the University. I feel sure that he must get if not the first at least a very high place in the next University scholarship examination, or at the Classical Tripos. Give, if you please my best wishes to Mrs Gooden, who is I hope quite well, and believe me, Yours very truly J B Burcham 65 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, [18 March 1838] Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Mother, I hope my guest reached you in such a state as did not impeach the hospitality of our friends; though I really believe that considering the influx of engagements, flight was the only safeguard against the attacks of a digestion less powerful than that of an ostrich. I was thinking all the time and talking (as James will tell you) of the visit of the wise men to the moon related in some juvenile collection or other, wherein it is set forth that a set of philosophers after getting there spent their time in feasting and good living untill they got into a quarrel which kept them engaged during the rest of their stay so that at the expiration of their time they had seen nothing. The comparison holds good except the circumstances of the quarrel. The effect of my father’s letter45 was I confess discouraging, although I cannot wonder at it considering that it must have proceeded from his own expectations having received the same sort of shock. James will have informed you of my interview with Thorp and the impression it left upon my mind; since that time I have seen him and he stopped to inform me that what he had been able to gather from Scholefield in the
45
Perhaps lost.
114 The Letters interval was this – that neither Balston nor Neale nor any other man of my own year had beaten me; but that he should have voted for Eddis in preference to me, even if Williams had been out of the way. Upon what principle the selection of the six men sent for was made does not appear. I think however that this acknowledgement, proceeding from no partial judge certainly, goes far to do away with the unfavourableness of the first appearances. I was perfectly satisfied myself that the fault was not on my side in the first instance, and I hope that this will show that there were some grounds for believing it. With respect to the whole matter however I reserve myself for the time when I can talk it over with my father and I shall therefore make a point of being home for three days at least at Easter. It is more easy to clear up these matters by a little conversation than in a quire of correspondence. The same with Long. I cannot furnish you with much news as James will have given you the summary of intelligence down to so recent a period but you may tell him that the Vice Chancellor has refused to sanction the establishment of a Reform Dinner46 amongst the Undergraduates whereat Vigurs being one of the Committee and the person through whom the application was made, is exceeding wrath. The judges are here at present and as they sojourn at the Master’s Lodge right opposite to me,47 I hear plenty of trumpet flourishes and see the scarlet gowns twice a day. I have not seen Kelly yet but shall make a point of finding him out tomorrow. I really think it would do you good to pay us a visit down here in May for the weather makes the place very pleasant even now. I hope I shall be able then to receive you as a scholar of the college – but all things are doubtful here except the bills. I suppose you have observed the unfortunate termination of the prize-fight at which James might have been on Tuesday last. I hope my dear father will not imagine that I was hurt by his letter which was too full of good sense to cause any such feeling but I was sorry to find that the thing had made so great an impression on his mind and seemed to him so greatly to affect my future prospects. My best love to my dear Father and James from, my dearest Mother Your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden 66 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 27 March 1838 27th March 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge My Dear Mother I am afraid I must begin by deprecating your wrath at the length of time your most kind letter has remained unanswered; but I have had several things to occupy my attention and could not very well obtain the exact information which you required of me before. Tomorrow I go in for what is called by the refined ‘the Previous Examination’ by the vulgar ‘the Little-Go’, which is confined to two or three easy
46 47
Either a dinner to celebrate the passing of the Great Reform Bill in 1832 or to raise funds for further electoral reform. In the north-west corner of the Great Court of Trinity.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 115 classical subjects and Paley’s Evidences; it is generally voted a bore and in fact serves merely to frighten the determinedly idle and to interrupt the studies of the reading men. It only lasts one day and has therefore the merit of conciseness at least. I shall be with you on Saturday the 21st which is the last day of the scholarship examination by the 2 o’clock coach, and must stay no longer I fear than the 26th or 27th – the day of election; when if I am fortunate enough to get one my attendance will be requisite. I hope however to see you down here during next term as, depend upon it, I should never have expressed a desire to show you Cambridge had I not looked forward to it as a very great treat. If the spring proceeds as auspiciously as it has opened, I can really promise you an agreeable visit; for the place is actually very pleasant which is a great deal of praise I can tell you to come from me. I called on Burcham immediately to present the acknowledgements you charged me with from my father; and he expressed his gratification that my father had not thought it necessary to send a pro-forma letter in reply. I am working at Mathematics now rather more than I have hitherto done since I have been at Cambridge as the Scholarship is a mixed examination.48 I have been really very much out of order for the last fortnight in consequence of costiveness and general derangement of the digestion and find it absolutely necessary to adopt more active exercise in order to keep the machine going; I have therefore worked at the oar and the fives court lately and hope to set things on a better footing without the doctor’s aid. At present I am much better and free from inconvenience. I saw Ellis yesterday he has plucked up very much and looks in a very much happier mood than any time since his accident. Cockburn is still an invalid and looking forward with great impatience to a reading-party49 which he contemplates joining at the Lakes the next long vacation. He has been earnest in his exhortations to me to pursue the same plan and somewhat provoked that he could not get me to treat it seriously. All the rest are as usual. I have caused strict inquisition to be made touching the shirt and can safely assure you that it hath not been put in amongst my linen. My best love to my dear Father and James I hope the latter continues sunshiny. I remain, my dear Mother, Ever your affectionate and dutiful Stumpy Wed March 27th. /38. 67 Thomas Thorp to James Gooden, 26 April 183850 Trin Coll April 26, 1838 My dear Sir I am sorry to say your son is not elected Scholar this morning. I have some consolation in thinking it is in some degree attributable to his neglect in sending in any verse
48 49 50
That is, a mix of mathematics and classics. See J. J. Smith, The Cambridge Portfolio (Cambridge, 1840). Envelope addressed to ‘Gooden Esq’, postmarked 26 April 1838 and annotated ‘T. Thorp 26 Apr 1838. Trinity Scholarship A’s defeat’.
116 The Letters composition (at least that would have put him with me above a man of his year very decidedly elected), and from his doing so little mathematics – in which he had not got up his early subjects, contrary to my universally urged advice. There is enough in him yet to make a Fellow of Trinity of: and I am satisfied that he has got a lesson in this Examination which will enable him to do better than he would have done in the next Craven Examination. I am my dear Sir Yours very truly T Thorp There are only 4 of his year elected. 68 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 27 April 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Father, Finding that Thorp had already communicated to you the result of the Scholarship Examination I thought it unnecessary to write yesterday, as well as inexpedient in the disordered and uncertain state of mind into which I was thrown by the result. The names of those elected out of my own year I presume you are already acquainted with; they are however (if you should not have been already informed) – Ellis, Hodson,51 Marsh and Taylor. I do not attempt to conceal my great disappointment at not being amongst the number, I feel it severely but when I find that there are some so much worse off than myself, that the general feeling amongst my private tutors and friends is that of extreme surprise and I believe regret and when above all my closest enquiries convince me that I have been sacrificed to the caprice or taste of examiners I cannot but feel that I have many things to support me under it. With regard to the expectations which you of course entertained of my success I feel that I have in no way contributed to disappoint them farther than by pursuing with pain and constraint a style of translation which has been fatal to me in the present instance. The doing so was an error into which I was led by the exhortation of Burcham and Wordsworth and which perhaps in the eyes of another set of examiners would have been a merit instead of a defect. I stated to Burcham this morning some of the objections which Thorp had made to my style of translating and in every instance my translation was confirmed and Thorp’s disapproved by him. I have had moreover abundant experience of Taylor’s classical acquirements and neither by the decision nor any other consideration can I be induced to recognise his superiority. The style and not the superior correctness of his versions has gained him the scholarship supported no doubt by the zealous advocacy of his tutor: of the others I say nothing because as they were superior in mathematical attainments I readily concede to them the benefit of that superiority; but the number of mathematical marks obtained by Taylor was no more than 6 or 7 greater than mine. The favorable impression produced by the spirit and freedom of his translation obtained him the suffrages of the 7 scholarlike seniors who elected him. I have a right 51
George Hewitt Hodson, admitted to Trinity 1836, elected Scholar 1838; Bell Scholar 1837; BA 1840 (3rd Classic), MA 1843; Fellow 1841–60; Vicar of Enfield 1870–1904, Rural Dean 1882–1904.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 117 to feel disappointed at the result because the answer to the enquiries made by myself and my friends from the tutors has been this – that I had encumbered myself by too close an attention to the strictness of translation and a parenthetical way of inserting comments in the text: but I am not disco in spite of everything. I am resolved to persevere in my course and I have now an additional stimulus to exertion. My experience will not be thrown away and I shall endeavour to prove to these splendid judges that they have made a mistake in more than one instance. Hopper who is a 3d. year man and was one of those sent for at the late University Scholarship Examination has lost his last chance, as well as Penrose another of Scholefield’s batch. Allan likewise who most diligently and assiduously worked for it is also obliged to postpone his pretensions. I had a long conversation last night with Thorp who spoke with more good sense than I gave him credit for possessing, and I have seen Walton and Burcham this morning. Poor Walton really was much annoyed at my disappointment and Burcham told me that the opinion of the examiners was not worth a farthing. The college examination takes place in a month; as it is this year almost wholly mathematical I can experience no fresh disappointment. I am going on however with Walton to mechanics and shall read for my own benefit and final improvement as much as the time will allow. Pray do not imagine I am out of spirits; I have received a great disappointment without doubt, but I am never nevertheless determined to prosecute my own course for my own advantage with a full confidence that my mind has received and will receive a training that fits one for any situation in life, and that I shall carry away more power and knowledge than my most successful competitors. Pray let mother know that I had an inside place and therefore suffered no more from the journey than the cramped state of my limbs rendered inevitable. With kindest love to my dear Mother and James I remain, my dear Father, always your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden 27th April 1838 PS Peacock speaking I presume the opinions of the so-called Classical Examiners told both Taylor and Jenkins that I had proved myself an excellent scholar and that he only regretted that the claims of a number of men of the upper year prevented my election. 69 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 3 May 1838 3d. May 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Father, I send you along with these lines the bill for last term; the first copy of it which was sent to me before I went to town was mislaid among my papers (I cannot suppose it was stolen, as I never heard of any sane person stealing a bill) and I have been obliged to wait until a second was procured. The amount is at first sight startling; but I think, when you examine it, you will not find any grounds for thinking me extravagant. The cost of the furniture I forewarned you of and large as it may appear I can assure you there is nothing that can come under the head of needless luxuries. If this is deducted you
118 The Letters will find that the regular bill is not at all larger than the average – I will enclose the particulars of the furniture hoping that mother will be good enough to keep them in her safe custody. Your very kind letter gave me great satisfaction as it contained exactly the views that I was desirous you should take of the circumstances. I have heard from Burcham that the other classical examiner (Mr Browne)52 spoke very highly of my performance in his paper, and Burcham expressed his belief that he had voted for me. Having had the votes of the two classical Examiners (Thorp and Browne) in my favour is some palliation of the disappointment. I have reason to think also that two third-year men were elected, who by their performances were not entitled to be chosen in preference to myself, but the circumstance of one being the nephew of the Vice-Master 53 and the other a sizar54 on Thorp’s side and the only sizar who was within the reach of chance, overbalanced my deserts. As for Thorp himself, I believe him imbecile – with lucid intervals – I shall not allow myself to be disheartened by this disappointment, I will not call it failure because I do not believe that the fault rested with me, as a proof of this determination I have been pursuing my reading with increased vigour since I came up. The examination comes on on Monday 3 weeks and lasts till I believe Friday; on Saturday therefore I am at liberty to quit Cambridge. With regard to the Midsummer vacation I have but one scheme and that is to spend the greatest part of it here. I do not know where I could carry on with so little interruption or receive the assistance that I want. As you have said nothing about your views with respect to the Summer (at last set in apparently) I only state this for your consideration. I need not of course say which way my inclinations bend but I see no other place where my reading can be carried on with any certainty but Cambridge. Pray let me know soon what you have to say to the matter. I hope this delightful weather is not making you already impatient of London but it really does make even Cambridge pleasant. Give my best thanks to Mr Long for his advice and tell him I have received a stimulus that will not easily cease to act upon me and that the consciousness of it gives me a confidence that it will require something more to break down. I am reading Latin and Mathematics – and be assured I shall not forget the lesson that I have rather dearly though undeservedly [been] taught. My best thanks to my dear Mother for her very kind letter. I have not seen Vigurs but he called upon me on Monday. With kindest love to my dear Mother and James, Believe me, my dear Father Ever your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden
52 53 54
George Adam Browne, admitted to Trinity 1791; BA 1795, MA 1798; elected Fellow 1797, Junior Bursar 1808–23, Vice Master 1842–43; Chaplain to the Duke of Sussex. The Vice Master was John Brown. His nephew’s identity is unknown. Robert McNeill, admitted to Trinity 1835, elected Scholar 1838; BA 1840, MA 1843. A sizar was originally a poor student who worked his way through college by doing jobs for the Fellows. By the nineteenth century the requirement to perform such duties had been removed, and the sizars were rewarded with an emolument smaller than that of a scholar.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 119 70 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 16 May 1838 Trinity College Cambridge May 16th /38 My dear Mother My friends returned in high spirits and were not at all the less welcome for being the bearers of a letter from you. You expressed a wish before to know precisely when I should be with you; I can now name Monday or at farthest Tuesday fortnight as the day of my departure from hence. The college examination comes on next Monday week and lasts till Saturday – omitting Tuesday the day I believe of the Restoration or some such antiquated jubilee. I do not at all afflict myself with the prospect of it, as I am perfectly prepared for the second class, the acknowledged and long consecrated receptacle of Classical men in their second year. There are five Mathematical subjects one Classical one Divinity and one Moral subject, you need not therefore be much surprised at my ambition being limited in a field like this. I have been going on steadily with Mathematics but not with a view to the examination; that is to say I have chosen rather to make myself properly acquainted with one subject, than to cram three or four. Burcham has been in town for the last three or four days. With regard to my health I cannot boast myself very first rate; pills do not produce any effect upon my obdurate interior and the consequence of this sluggishness is that dimness of vision and general discomfort of body which are my only real complaints. If I find myself going on worse than at present I shall obtain leave to take myself off before the period mentioned in the first page. I should not care however to take so much trouble as would be necessary to obtain it, unless such were really to be the case. The tutors do not admire cutting the examination and I am not solicitous to do so; although I promise myself neither pleasure nor profit by it. Jenkins has been in a state of very great excitement lately owing to the misconduct of his friend Tate.55 He is so very weak a young man so very relaxed in character and so much a prey to temptations which it would cost no ordinary person the slightest pain to resist that his absence from home for any considerable time causes the most anxious apprehension in his aunt; she dispatches a note to Jenkins and out the poor fellow turns as late perhaps as 10 or 11 o’clock at night to spend two or three hours in rambling through Cambridge in search of this hopeful pupil. If found at last, he is sure to be at least three parts drunk and the other part desperate so that it is no easy task to get him back again. These however are revelations. The weather here is cold and my own fire being out I am scribbling in the rooms of a friend whose Penates are luckily more attentive – a pretty exposure that in Gordon Place! I trembled to see the name of the late Mr Frampton mysteriously mentioned in a late action for libel. Doubtless my Father observed the case. I am sorry to hear of James’s disappointment at the Royal Academy; he may however console himself with the general sentence of condemnation pronounced on this year’s exhibition and publicly (at least) thank his stars he has nothing to do with such a low concern.
55
Feilding Wallis Tate, admitted to Trinity 1836; migrated to St Alban Hall, Oxford.
120 The Letters The beautiful sugar you gave me is unfortunately indissoluble in tea and after having attempted in vain to use it in the sweetening process I am compelled to return to the white loaf. My kindest love to my dear Father and James in which believe me, my dear mother is included by her affectionate and (I hope) dutiful Stumpy 71 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 20 May 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge 20th May 1838 My dear Mother It would be difficult for me to assign the point at which your letters, however little news they might contain, would become tiresome although your last kind epistle smelt a little of the doctor’s shop. I should not be in such a hurry to answer you were it not that you seem to be rather under some misapprehension with respect to what I said about my state of health. I have not had to complain of anything like constipation as you seem to imagine but merely of that occasional though recurring derangement of the stomach which shows that the system is disordered and that some change must be made either in diet or general regimen. I have accordingly been taking a good deal of exercise and occasionally following Dr Prout’s prescription. I hope by these means to correct the complaint by degrees, or at least to keep myself tolerably well until I have time to commence a more regular reform at home. I got a slap on the face yesterday in playing at fives, which gave me a bloody nose; and the process was voluntarily renewed twice this morning which was rather more than agreeable. I hope however that this will not continue, though the warm weather makes me suspect that something is to be attributed to the effect of the change on my system. Now this is pure egotism, but I do not think I could tell you anything more likely to be satisfactory than just what I have written. Our examination commences on Monday (tomorrow) week. I have told you my expectations about it and even if I had more prospect of success, my indisposition would prevent me from making much exertion. So pray let it be understood – that wherever we are we are not out of our calculations. Jenkins has had no farther perambulations and would never have undertaken them save from regard to the feelings of his poor aunt whom you may easily imagine to be completely helpless in such circumstances. I hope that by this time James has returned as you find the irritation on the whole beneficial. I really have no news so do not think I have neglected the opportunity of telling you any. With my kindest love to my dear Father and James I remain, my dearest Mother, Ever your affectionate Son Alexander C. Gooden
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 121 72 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 28 May 1838 28th May 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge, Sunday Night My dear Father, I shall have the pleasure of dining with you tomorrow week; I have taken an inside place by the 10 o’clock coach so that in all human probability I shall be trundled up to the door before 5 o’clock. I shall be very glad to have done with college business for the present and to lie up for a little while in ordinary. I have had a cold and a slight cough but both are disappearing and my only complaint against the body corporate is the ‘dura ilia’.56 I consulted Thorp about going into the examination (which commences tomorrow) and told him I was rather apprehensive of the consequences; that I could not produce a medical certificate having never employed a medical man at Cambridge, and that it was impossible to ask our town physician for one upon a matter not before his eyes. What I alluded to was of course the fear of haemorrhage and its consequences from so long sitting in the examination. I told him at the same time that my indisposition during the last fortnight had hindered me from making even such preparation as I intended. His answer was that exemption could only be granted on the ground of ill-health attested by a medical certificate but that I might do as I liked with regard to staying in the hall and in the meantime if a certificate were procured it might be laid before the examiners and be of weight sufficient to prevent them putting me in any class at all. I do not think there is any positive need for applying for one at all, because I could not sink below the 2nd or (at worst) the 3rd class but it would be satisfactory to have such a reserve and I do not think there need be any scruple in asking Dr Prout for such an attestation as is required. All that would be needed would be this – that Dr P. thinks ACG prone to certain complaints which render long sedentary occupation unsafe and inconvenient; no more particularity than this is requisite and I think so much might safely be affirmed. I leave the matter however entirely to your own excellent judgment with only this peroration – I do not believe the certificate to be necessary because my class cannot be low enough to discredit an unmathematical student (it would be such a situation as many good scholars have had before) but as there seems to me no obstacle to applying for such a certificate, it would be satisfactory to have a reserve in case of need. Jenkins leaves on Friday and will therefore (if you are desirous to know) supply you with an information down to Thursday. Let my Mother be assured I am perfectly free from an<xiety> with regard to the contest as the examination lies quite out of my line and is a matter of small moment altogether. We get callous to these things at Cambridge. Pray excuse the slovenly haste of this letter for I am writing against the time having seen the Thorp only about an hour ago. With kindest love to my dear Mother and James, I remain, my dear Father, Always your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden
56
Constipation, Gooden’s perpetual complaint.
122 The Letters 73 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 11 July 1838 Trinity College, July 11th 1838 My dear Mother, You must blame your own expressions of anxiety to hear from me for the barrenness of what is to be my letter, for as to any events here they are things out of date. I really do relish the profound quiet of all things around; so different from the shuffling, bustling, loitering busy-ness of term-time. The day of my departure turned out favourably in spite of the gloom of the morning and I had on the whole a pleasant ride but you know I do not relish coach-travelling. The bleeding at the nose I flatter myself I have left in town as I have had no symptom of its return since I have been here; I believe I shall be better here by far than in London for the weather is delightful and the air refreshing. I intend to avoid all fruit whether dressed or raw; of course I take no lunches. The rhubarb will continue to form a part of my diet as long as I find it necessary. I found those whom I expected to find here viz Taylor, Allan, Cockburn, Jebb. Besides these Rothery is up and a man of the name of Gordon57 whom I know. Taylor and Jebb have taken possession of rooms in one of the towers at the corner of the court and have made themselves extremely comfortable by taking care to concentrate in their own apartments all the articles of luxury to be found in the unoccupied rooms in the neighbourhood such as easy chairs, books etc. We form pretty much a society for one another so that we are very well off and can afford to pity the rest of the party in hall who happen not to know either us or one another. I have commenced with Burcham but have not as yet engaged a mathematical tutor. The Archdeacon is here but I have not called upon him, as yet I shall do so however before the end of the week. The book called Zumpt58 was not forgotten but left behind because there was no room for it; I should be glad enough to have it but you need [not] give yourself any trouble about it unless an opportunity occurs. I am under obligations to the Griffin59 for his valuable offer. There is to be a performance of a private theatre here tonight which is to be honoured by the attendance of Messrs Taylor and Co. I shall avoid it as likely to be very hot, my policy being to keep as cool as maybe. My friends are arrayed in various eccentric costumes – straw hats, calico blouses, shooting coats of shepherds plaid etc. Allan in a calico brown holland blouse hath been compared not inaptly by our facetious friend to a pudding in a bag. I shall be glad to hear from Jenkins provided he does not copy the newspapers to make out a letter which I very much dread. I have a fire in an unoccupied room above which is more convenient than sweating under one here. My kindest love to my dear Father and James with remembrances to the Lamberts! and all enquiring friends. Believe me, my dear Mother Ever your affectionate and dutiful Cub.
57 58 59
Probably Hastings Gordon, admitted to Trinity 1835; BA 1836, MA 1842. Probably John Kenrick’s English translation of Karl Zumpt’s A Grammar of the Latin Language, first published in 1823. Perhaps William Nathaniel Griffin, admitted to St John’s 1833; BA 1837 (Senior Wrangler), MA 1840; Fellow 1837–48.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 123 74 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 24 July 1838 Trinity College, July 24th 1838 My dear Father, Not being quite sure where a letter would find you, I deferred answering my dear Mother’s letter until it was probable you were settled at Ramsgate whither I presume this letter will be forwarded. I have been very well since I last wrote until yesterday which brought me a severe headache, which is not quite shaken off today. The only medicine I have taken is the rhubarb according to Mr Long’s prescription which acts as a mild aperient and has only one disadvantage that it usually sends me out at 11 o’clock at night. I have had no bleeding at the nose whatever. The weather here since Sunday has been very cold and I have therefore established a fire in my own room, which almost makes me think that it is February rather than July. I have been making a great effort since my return at Latin verse and have resolved to do so no more. I shall not give up the reading or practice of Latin verse occasionally, but I will not again attempt a subject which almost disgusts me with classical studies altogether. I would sooner leave the University than subject myself to the harassing drudgery that I have been going through for the last fortnight. The University scholarship must take its chance and reward the accomplishment of some sixth form boy. Do not imagine I am giving the pursuit of classical honours up; I mean to be satisfied to be a bad writer of Latin verse, but I will make no more efforts to gulp it such as I have been struggling to do. I have suffered more in health and tranquillity from this than any bodily cause and should have made my appearance in London in a week more just to escape its influence. There are no good mathematical tutors here who have a vacancy for a pupil and I have therefore resolved to take one next term instead. I hope I shall get my friend Walton who showed very great interest in my progress and took a great deal more pains than any one else did with me. Burcham wished me to read with a Mathematical man during the vacation and drop him next term. I found however last year that acting on this plan I forgot what I had learnt in the vacation and had to get it up afresh which is a disregard of the economy of labour which I cannot afford to indulge in. Whether it will be worth my while to go in for the University scholarship at Christmas is a subject I have considerable doubt about; but I shall on no account put myself out of the way to read for it. I have made every exertion to supply any defects in composition but my health and spirits must be regarded; and if that distinction is reserved for excellence in composition I must forgo it. There is no undergraduate at this moment with whom I am afraid to compare myself in sound scholarship and knowledge of classical authors; industry and abilities cannot have been thrown away and it is with the consciousness that I have not been wanting in these respects that I make this confident assertion. I disentangled for Burcham the other day a passage in Aristotle which Scholefield could most assuredly never have mastered. Haec mea militia est; . . . Dextraque non omni munere nostra vacat.60
60
Ovid, Fasti 2, 9–10.
124 The Letters I hope this matter is settled and that you will wait with patience and confidence until my abilities can be displayed on a more worthy field. I need not say that I hope you are well accommodated by James’s commissionaireship61 and that I am most anxious to hear about that and whatever else concerns you. Thorp is absent just now, and the chapel closed in consequence of repairs; so that we are left to our own lights. My neighbour Mr G. A. Brown has got a valuable living though his Whig connexion; he having been tutor to Duke Buggins. When promotion comes so near, one begins to be alarmed, so that I have looked with anxiety to see lest they might have made me a Grand Cross in order to purchase my support. Happily however Whig profligacy has not gone so far. I have not heard that Burcham is to be a bishop but he has got a blouze though not an apron and looks very like Mr Punch. My under-neighbour Greathead62 a fellow, a mathematician, and one would have imagined consequently an inevitable bachelor went off the other night by the mail to be married to his cousin very much to the surprise of all the gyps and bedmakers and to the great joy of all the B. A.’s who are looking out for vacancies. Being a little, shy, silent, squeaking voiced man no body ever suspected him of such a design and his only intimation to his college friends was that ‘he did not intend to reside’. The window-curtains arrived quite safe but look too smart for my room. Many thanks to mother for her kind attention. With my kindest love to her and James, I remain, my dear Father, Your affectionate and dutiful Son ACG 75 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 31 July 1838 Tuesday July 31st 1838 My dear Father, I scarcely know how to begin an excuse for not complying with the affectionate entreaties with which you and my dear Mother urge me to join you without delay at Ramsgate. I was almost afraid when the disgust under which I wrote my last letter had somewhat subsided, that I had expressed myself in a manner calculated to arouse more uneasiness and suspicion than were reasonable. With regard to my health I can assure you that I am much better than I was in town and have in fact no reason to complain of anything but the caution I am obliged to exercise in regard to my digestion. With regard to my spirits I have been perfectly cheerful and busy since I threw off the pressing load of annoyance of which I so bitterly complained. Having rather secluded myself from company I could not get my work out of my mind and this constant action made me so fidgety that I could not stand it any longer. I am enjoying my reading at present and keep it pretty well divided between Latin and Greek. My reasons for hardening my heart against your kind and flattering solicitations you may easily comprehend, as however there are some of which you cannot be aware let me state them. There are 61 62
Acting as a messenger or porter. Samuel Stephenson Greatheed [sic], admitted to Trinity 1831, elected Scholar 1834; BA 1835 (4th Wrangler), MA 1838; elected Fellow 1837; Rector of Corringham in Essex 1862–87; editor of the Cambridge Mathematical Journal; composer of a number of musical works.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 125 several subjects which I have read but the interval has been so long that they require a thorough reperusal suited to a different and more advanced state of intellectual progress as well as scholarship. I am very desirous of getting over this heavy but profitable work in a period comparatively unoccupied. I cannot bear to be pressed upon an emergency and to read over things hurriedly is disgusting to me. Aeschylus Sophocles and Aristophanes, Thucydides Herodotus Lucretius Plautus etc. I have read almost entirely but at different times and much without making any notes of difficulties. This therefore is a tract without a beacon of which I cannot be sure and of which my tenure is uncertain. A thorough revision at the same time that it is exceedingly useful requires a good deal of time, though a great part of course presents no new difficulties; but I require books about me and to have my time to myself. If I lose this vacation I have but one more and it would make me very uneasy to think that I should be hard pressed. Another thing is that I could not quit without embarrassing Burcham and he of course looked upon me as a pupil for the Long Vacation. As I have commenced therefore I do not see that I can fairly break off without a more urgent cause, and I should not feel satisfied with myself for attempting it. At present I am working well and cheerfully and I cannot express how greatly I should be disconcerted by an immediate breaking off of my studies. I look forward to making a visit to Ramsgate before the end of next month provided you remain there and I hope that if not satisfied with the shortness of my stay you will at least be so with my reasons for making it so. Taylor’s cousin a chancery solicitor named Walker has been down with him for a few days. Of course with an interested view I made myself specially agreeable to him and hope to carry a few causes for him when he is ready to put them into my hands. He is a very nice quiet mild man independently; and advised me to go to the Chancery Bar; so we parted on excellent terms. We are enlivened at present by the company of the Judges. Kelly is of course here but as I have not been about the courts I have not seen him. I have not called as I could not conceive any compliment to him would be the consequence of it. A lawyer engaged all day in the courts and a student at his books have no opportunities of communion and very little to say to one another. I recollect your present lodgings perfectly well and also the objection that we made to them when inhabited by the Burchetts viz. the smell of the shop and works, an annoyance which I hope we unjustly saddled them with. My society here (though the chance is not so great) is more numerous than yours and quite as pleasant as I expected to find it. Your next letter will probably give me some farther account of your intentions and by it therefore I shall regulate the period of my visit to you which I look forward to with as much pleasure as you can imagine. With my kindest love to my dear Mother and James Believe me ever, my dear Father, Your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden PS many thanks for your remarks on composition, which are as well founded as they are well expressed.
126 The Letters 76 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 9 August 1838 Thursday August 9th (I think) 1838 My dear Mother, The month of August must not be let slip, although the weather would not remind us it was passing on. I hope therefore to be with you tomorrow week which will allow me to spend 10 days in Gilling Lodge63 and send me back by the 1st of September. Burcham, I suppose, will go away about the 22nd or so of next month and it would not be worth my while to return for less than 3 weeks. I dont know how you will like this arrangement but unless you have any prima facie objections to my coming down to Ramsgate you may keep them till I come. Don’t, pray, write that I may have a bed in Tavistock Square which I should abhor; I intend to take the mail which passes through here about 12 o’clock at night to town. I shall breakfast wherever it happens to stop and be down at London Bridge by 9. I should be completely blue devilled even for a few hours in an empty home. In the way that I propose to take, very little time will be lost and I shall not grow torpid for want of motion. I took the same course last year from Ramsgate and was not in the least fatigued. So pray consider that settled. I don’t know whether to be glad that you have got into our old quarters or not – for I have a distinct recollection of certain inconveniences which rather diminished the pleasantness of the situation. For poor Mrs Orrock’s sake I am very glad of it and hope that she has not overestimated the consolation she expected to receive from the sympathies of Betsy and Meg. I suppose the appearance of John will create a decided impression in spite of his not very imposing demeanour and that our old and obliging landlady Miss Farley will be dreadfully chagrined by her loss. I hope this wet weather will produce a considerable crop of acquaintance; for nobody is to be overlooked at a watering place however small their intrinsic value. Has not the old Commodore turned up at Sackett’s? I mean the Worshipful William Ellis. His son told me that the ‘governor ‘intended to make a trip to Ramsgate this season. Taylor has gone up suddenly to town to see the opera. The fit came upon him about ten minutes before 12 and finding I presume that he could muster enough of the ready to qualify him for a passage in the 12 o’clock coach and defray the expense of an opera ticket he started off without delay. As he is not much of a musical connoisseur the whim would be apt to surprise one but for previous experience. I condole with James on his bump which is likely to leave an impression on his purse as well as the pier (I hope not on his temples); it is a pity too that it was not in the service of some lady more wealthy or fair than Miss J, perhaps it might have afforded some consolation; as it is, it can only be classed amongst the misplaced efforts of benevolent gallantry. I have no doubt these remarks will make him grin after a twofold manner. We are all very much as at the last quotation in Cambridge – inspired indeed but deadly tranquil. Nobody is up but Burcham and Donaldson who is working at a book64
63 64
Probably a guest house in Gilling Place, Ramsgate. The New Cratylus: or Contributions Towards a More Accurate Knowledge of the Greek Language (Cambridge, 1839).
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 127 that is to make a great sensation and shake the Cambridge philologers in their pumps and white cotton stockings. I have given up the rhubarb for the present having worked my way through the first lump and remembering my father’s advice that I must be ware of it as a luxury and so I am not going to spoil my digestion. I am trampling dear Aeschylus in great style and all together committing great havoc amongst the ancients. I shall keep all the news that I have not already told you till we meet which I look forward to with triumphant satisfaction as the newspapers say on Friday (tomorrow) week. Hurra !!! A bundle of best loves to my dear Father, James and the Old Scotch Woman. Given at our rooms Great Court Trinity. A C Gooden 77 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 4 September 1838 Tuesday Sept. 4th 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Father, The essence of what I have to communicate to you might be concentrated into three words ‘Here I am’ with the Cambridge postmark; it would be in vain however to wait until something occurred worth the postage and therefore having once forewarned you that the principle is developed and exploded you must be prepared to find the rest all smoke. My transmigration to these studious bowers naturally divides itself into two parts; the voyage – and – the journey. Of the former I can only say that I enjoyed it about as much as usual, which means that I should prefer for the same space of time to be walking up and down a window like a blue bottle waiting to get out for an appointment; and for the latter that four insiders including two fair ones would have been gladly exchanged by me for one out. There is suitably enough a small landing place between these two divisions of the subject – even as in a sermon there is an impressive spot at which the parson blows his nose and all the congregation cough and groan – and which in the present case corresponds to one hour and 30 minutes spent in the Great City (for the smoke-boat65 arrived not till 1⁄2 to 6) during which time I secured and paid for my books made a flying visit to 33 where I washed my hands sneezed and evaporated. (NB. I looked at the letters and was surprized to find that one had been lying there for a fortnight which bore upon the cover an express direction to be forwarded.) A quarter to two heard my tintinabulary summons at the gates of Trinity. My rooms were standing well open mouth and ears gasping for air i.e. with doors and windows patulous, a prevailing smell of paint, no fire, no light either in room or staircase, no blinds, no curtains. The windows and door were of course open to expedite the departure of the paint smell; the day had been warm so there was no fire; the lamp on the staircase had been burning at 12 o’clock and the gyp had faith till it would burn till two; Taylor was at a supper party so that he had not looked in to see that all was
65
‘Smoke-boat’ was an old sailors’ scornful term for a steamship.
128 The Letters comfortable; the blinds and curtains were to be faithfully put up on Monday and so there was I without fire candle or grub for very excellent good reasons. I was however savage and not philosophical having eaten nothing all day except 4 pears and 3 plums on board the steamer. A friend of mine had fallen asleep over his books and so I happily procured a light and went to bed as amiable as could be expected under the circumstances. I did not breakfast till 10 the next morning – now I call that a decent stretch 25 hours by all the clocks barring the confounded pears and plums. I was not very well however or I should not have fasted so long; having little appetite I determined to starve my stomach into good order – telling it it should have no more till it had digested what it had already. Cockburn had been gone a week. The rest were here though visibly going to seed at a most alarming rate. Taylor is moped and exhausted so his departure which will not be very long delayed will be no great loss to me. I do not however feel any suicidal tendency and if I should will take a trip to Ramsgate to drown myself, and you must look sharp. Town (at last our part of it) looks desperately empty. Our excellent neighbours however at 3266 still cling to the pleasing ruralities of the Square. Burcham has been on another small excursion from which he returns tonight. My reading, thank heaven! does not depend on his presence so that I care little provided he is here two hours in the week. My curtains are now up and the room looks habitable; the bedmaker paid it a compliment this morning on its appearance: Porcher’s wife is very ill, poor woman: and I am afraid has got a complaint that will carry her off, if not this time at least after no very long run. I hope that you will find yourself a debtor to your favourite Ramsgate air instead of drawing upon it merely for a day to day supply of health; and that my dear Mother and James will benefit by it, as much as I wish them. I have no complaints myself since the fast day and a little medicine after it and do not seem (although out of wine) likely to run short of spirits from the quantity of trash I have scribbled for which I beg you will forgive Your affectionate Stumpy. 78 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 12 September 1838 Wednesday September 12th. Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Mother, Let me assure you that I stated the full amount of my discomforts in my last letter and have not a grievance left to render the present one interesting. The bed was properly aired as I infer from having found no bad effects from sleeping on it. My friend ‘Jingle’67 took himself off in the way I expected, disappearing two days after the date of my last epistle in a wind of his own raising. You will understand the allusion as implying both the suddenness of his departure and the wings of credit which wafted him hence. I do not feel the loss of his society much as the spring-tide of his spirits has been succeeded
66 67
The Lambert family. Tom Taylor.
Junior Sophister, 1837–38 129 by dead low water; he would have lent an additional charm to Sandwich; from ‘mad Tom’68 he had become a ‘mopping ool’.(v Gray’s Elegy. Scotch Edn.)69 To my surprise and horror on Saturday last who should bounce into my room but the excommunicated John Lang.70 As he is a bore of the first rate description I was naturally filled with the most dreadful apprehensions of his company, especially as I was the only one of his acquaintances in the place. It pleased Providence however to remove him this morning by the Telegraph: I was not so much afflicted as in my first alarm I anticipated – but his egregious, naked and importunate vanity is so tiresome that it ceased to be ludicrous and one gets weary of playing on it especially solo. He has been travelling in France on the Rhine and in Switzerland and is returned with as many new ideas apparently as he set out with; he is constantly reciting his own squibs, verses and lampoons which though written with ease of verse and some humour are so perpetually and unseasonably exhibited for applause that nothing but the utmost stretch of my good breeding and patience could endure it. Allan sets out with a friend for Leicester on Saturday next; I meditate departure on this day fortnight; which will be the 26th of September – Where will you be? If at Ramsgate I shall set out on Tuesday so as to be in at the consecration of the goose.71 If, which I deem not highly probable, you should be in London Wednesday morning will be time enough. In the former case let Mrs Bailey be apprised that I shall sleep at 33 on Tuesday. I half expect to have the aforesaid Allan as my compagnon de voyage at least as far as Gravesend as he returns through London to his home at Rochester. I should nowise regret it as the steam boat is a penance to me. My friends here now are Allan, Jebb, Robinson72 and Bayley73 so after all I shall not perish for lack of society. I wish you could have told me of some agreeable addition to your own. Imperial James seems to regard the sea and sky as a great pallet whereon colours are rubbed for the use of painters conformably with which I trust he has found something to dip his brush in of late. Otherwise I fear that there will be considerable glare in his views and a sort of savage dash in his composition. Poor Mrs Mitchell’s death can scarcely be a subject of regret; it is the only circumstance that could make her respectable; though her skein was a tangled one. I look forward to an answer to determine my plans which I trust you will see no objection to. With kindest love to my dear Father and James I remain, my dearest Mother, Ever your affectionate Son A. C. Gooden P.S. My devotion to Miss Laforest 2PS. Beg James will kindly remember me to Miss Morginn should she inquire after the sweet singer of Gilling Place. 68 69 70
71 72 73
Shakespeare, King Lear. Edgar, Lear’s son, flees his father’s house and wanders the heath in the guise of Mad Tom. Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: ‘Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain’. John Lang, entered Trinity as a pensioner on 26 August 1837; matriculated in Lent term 1838; perhaps the John Lang who was admitted at the Middle Temple, 18 April 1838, and called to the Bar, 28 May 1841. Goose was the traditional fare at Michaelmas (29 September). Ottywell Robinson, admitted to Trinity 1837; BA 1841, MA 1845. Charles John Bayley, admitted to Trinity 1834; elected Scholar 1838; BA 1839, MA 1844; Governor of the Bahamas 1857–64.
130 The Letters 79 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 17 September 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge. Monday 17th September /38 My dear Mother, I should not have thought it necessary to trouble you with another letter had I not been afraid that you might interpret my silence as an acquiescence in your kind invitation to join you at an earlier period than I mentioned. It is an ungracious task to decline it but I think it is better to abide by my original determination; I shall be able to finish what work I have in view and which I have adapted to the first mentioned period viz. the 26th. I have made more use however of the fine weather than you would give me credit for: by deferring my walk from the afternoon to the evening i.e. between the hours of 5 and 7 – I have had pleasanter and more refreshing strolls than any hitherto – and found the Cambridgeshire villages more interesting than I expected. You have not at Ramsgate any walks so rural as those I have been lately taking. I presume that the earliest steamer now starts at 8 o’clock if so mention it to Mrs Bailey when you write to her as I would not willingly miss the first conveyance. The fellowship examination which comes on next Monday is bringing the B.A.’s up in proportion as our ranks are diminishing. I expect my friend Walton up soon and should be glad to make an engagement to read with him next term as I found him exceedingly attentive and friendly. Amongst the rest hath arrived that small pedant Tom Stooks74 with whom I had an amicable conference the other evening. His family are at Cowes in the Isle of Wight and his sister Mary’s health is quite restored. He asked me to my astonishment whether a report he had heard was correct, which assigned the authorship of the recently published translation of Kant’s Critick of Pure Reason to my venerated parent.75 I replied that I doubted the accuracy of the rumour but had no authority to contradict it. As the report originated in a quarter where my father’s philosophical attainments and personal agrémens are equally unknown, I was the more surprized as I have no doubt he will be. I expect to see Allan in town as he has promised to come and spend the evening with me. The theatre here opens this evening with the great attraction of Farmer’s services during the week. ‘Unfortunate Tom Taylor!’ So the Chisholm76 has disappointed all matrimonial speculations; I daresay however the prudent folk o’the North will find all his good qualities mirrored in his brother, now that he is so good a match. I am sorry Kent faces do not more abound but trust that James will not be a heavy loser by backing Margate horses. With kindest love to my dear Father, James and the Ancient Woman, I remain, my dear Mrs Gooden Very sincerely yours. ACG
74 75 76
Thomas Fraser Stooks, admitted to Trinity 1832; elected Scholar 1836; BA 1837, MA 1841. F. Haywood, A Critick of Pure Reason; Translated from the Original of I. Kant (London, 1838). Alexander William Chisholm, The Chisholm, died unmarried on 8 September 1838. He was succeeded by his brother Duncan Macdonnell Chisholm, who also died unmarried, in 1858.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40
80 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 29 October 1838 29th October 1838 Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Father, I know that it would be preposterous to begin with any excuse for writing so soon, and that I have rather reason to fear your kind anxiety has forestalled my haste. To begin then with what I know will be mother’s especial enquiry, my cold has almost disappeared; I have not discarded the flannel but this with a slight hoarseness is all the memento I have of my disagreeable visitor. My stomach, I judge, is not yet in good order – but this only from the state of my eyes; I must however rather take systematic measures than doses of medicine. The journey hither was as pleasant as could be expected under any circumstances, although my companion was outside – a situation which the warmth of the evening and the clearness of the night made me envy him. We were received upon our arrival by a crowd of gownsmen amongst whom struggled forth Taylor, Mate, Turner and some other friends to shake hands with us. The rest I have seen since mostly but some few are not yet returned. I saw Busk in hall today and exchanged a few words with him. He has been travelling in Switzerland and came over in a hurry to keep his term leaving his mother and sisters at Boulogne afraid of the boisterousness of the weather. He says he has enjoyed himself very much and looks a great deal better. All preparations needful had been made this time for my arrival and the College was quite alive with arrivals from all quarters. I have commenced with Walton1 a task not to be deferred or treated εκ παρεργου2 and which promises to be made all the pleasanter by the friendship and kind interest of my tutor. I had a strange visit yesterday; a man i.e. a gownsman – entered my rooms whilst I was dressing and enquired if Mr Gooden was engaged?; not knowing him in the least and suspecting him to be a subscription collector, I answered truly enough that I was and begged he would favor me with a call at another time. He looked awkward enough but after scribbling on a card left it – and the room. To my surprize however I found that it was inscribed with the name ‘Mr T. Cubitt3, St. John’s’. I could not recall him and therefore resolved to find him out today. I did so and found that he was the little dirty nosed boy whom I used to bully at Dr. Povah’s alas! alas! 10 years ago. He is a very modest youth and not in the least like what he was of old; I suppose that knowing, as he told me, no one he was 1 2 3
William Walton, admitted to Trinity 1831, elected scholar 1834; BA 1836 (8th Wrangler), MA 1843; Fellow of Trinity Hall 1868–85. Incidentally. Thomas Cubitt, admitted to St John’s 1838, migrated to Trinity 1839; died at Cambridge 1841.
132 The Letters driven by despair to the enterprise of seeking me. He thanked me for my call and though I cannot say that I looked for the revival of an acquaintance with him, I shall be glad to show him any civility that humanity dictates. He comes from the University College where he has been a candidate for the Flaherty Scholarship. The successful one was my Ramsgate friend the Jew Waley – but the examiners gave Cubitt a handsome certificate of proficiency. The competition was mathematical. The place is very crowded though the entry of Freshmen is not very great. Vigurs is not yet arrived; Mate will as I anticipated accompany me to town whenever it is arranged as to be most convenient, to keep a term. Allan is looking in the opinion of those who have not seen him for 3 months, fatter than ever so that he must soon be the subject for a caravan. I believe I have scribbled all that presents itself of stale or new and have only to hope a speedy reply and that soon from whomsoever it may suit best and write my kindest love to my dear Mother and James. Believe me, my dear Father, Ever your affectionate and dutiful AC Gooden 81 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 6 November 1838 Trin Coll Cambridge Nov. 6th 1838 My dear Friend, As my thoughts pay you a daily visit, I should perhaps have forgotten that a more visible communication was essential to your understanding them, had I not been seasonably reminded by a letter from home that the fulfilment of a substantial correspondence was looked for. Cambridge is so much the same, saving your absence, that I could almost bid you refer to your recollections for the most accurate representation of what is around me. Hall chapel and walk in alternate monotony – plucks freshmen and supper parties are the literature philosophy and science of a Cambridge continuation, I do not call it life. I have let three or four days elapse since writing the preceding lines in hopes of receiving an answer from Barton as to the matter you requested me to mention: I should have begun the letter anew in consequence of this delay, did I possess a sheet of letter paper for the purpose; as it is I have had no reply and therefore conclude that he has no banker in London and sees no means of getting at his money. I can relieve him, you know, by bringing it down with me after I have seen you and shall therefore say no more to him about it. Our friends, I think, are much as usual. Taylor has been hitherto very idle, dissipating with a new round of acquaintance and especially with the favourite of the hour, one Irish Mr. Sheehan4 the Editor of the ‘Independent’ paper here. I have not seen a great
4
John Sheehan, admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, 1829; a newspaperman and barrister, arrested as sub-editor of The Comet, a satirical Irish paper, in 1833; called to the Irish Bar 1835; proprietor of the Independent newspaper of Cambridge and London; admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, 1839.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 133 deal of him and as he is in no longer under my guardianship leave him entirely to his own courses which are not the most profitable in the world. Your friend Warner5 has been visiting Ellis and those two most unwarlike characters find a common amusement in the martial exercise of fence. Backgammon, cup and ball, battledore and shuttle cock I could have imagined but the antecedent improbability of their being cunning of fence seemed to me insuperable. Allan is working away as usual and Mate just released from the horrors of a Latin declamation in which he was triumphantly successful having recited it in such a manner that it was quite out of the reach alike of criticism and hearing. Cockburn is I am afraid not very industrious mingling the sweets of Turner’s society rather too freely with the ‘dry seasonings’ of mathematics. I see a good deal of Ellis; he gets on better than I should have expected without Joyce6 who is still in England. Hume is receiving instruction on the piano and has relinquished boat-clubs. Wheatley has returned from his tour without any very perceptible impressions as far as I can see, one way or the other; and Vigurs is still amongst the expected. Forbes not having courage to face the Little Go has left as I believe for good; for the present at least he has gone to Paris. Birkbeck7 and almost all the pluckees have passed;8 amongst the exceptions however may be reckoned Spooner9 and Jeremie.10 Pearson is lodging in Jesus Lane leading a life of harmonious indolence. I will bring your natural daughter ‘B.’ with me. I have filled my letter with negative gossip until I find that I have no room to talk to you. The satisfaction however of a ‘real presence’11 will not I trust long be deferred, as I intend to apply for an exeat to keep the term on Saturday. I shall start early in order to be in town in time to dine at the Inn that day: on Tuesday I shall have to return. You may be sure it will not be very long before I present myself at Nottingham Place I have no room to make enquiries about your health to which I cannot expect to receive an answer. I most sincerely hope that it is mending and that you will be strong enough long before January, to fulfill the wishes of your friends here who all send their sincere regards to you. There is yet room in spite of the ‘crowded state of our columns’ for me to bundle up in this little space my kind regards to Mr and Mrs Jenkins and your circle in general to whom I present my most cordial good wishes. Quid multa? I remain, my dear friend, Your most sincerely attached A C Gooden.
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
George Townsend Warner, admitted to Trinity 1833; BA 1839, MA 1844. Thomas Joyce, admitted to Trinity 1836; did not graduate. John Birkbeck, admitted to Trinity 1835; did not graduate; banker; JP for the West Riding of Yorkshire. There was a second sitting of the Previous Examination on the second Monday in Michaelmas term for all those who had failed at their first attempt or had not sat it. Lucius Henry Spooner, admitted to Trinity 1836. John Robert Jeremie, admitted to Trinity 1836; did not graduate. The ‘real presence’ was the actual presence of Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
134 The Letters 82 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 22 January 1839 Trinity College, Cambridge Monday 22nd January 1839 My dear Father, It gave me great pleasure to hear that you had obtained a truce from your old and troublesome enemy, which seemed determined by its last point of attack to upset you altogether. I hope you will have no farther annoyance from it at present. I have to acknowledge the receipt of the packet which my dear Mother was so kind as to forward and the arrival of which was of no consequence earlier. Everything here is going on in such a tranquil and uneventful course, that I have nothing even of ordinary interest to communicate, and I have been myself so engrossed with my studies that my ideas of a visible world are becoming daily more and more narrow and my feelings of things exterior more sluggish. I have been valiantly fighting my way into Plato’s Republic but it is such a long job that it requires perseverance as well as ardour. I made a great mistake by the bye in bringing Spens’s12 uncouth version in preference to the French one which I understand is very good both in matter and manner.13 My reading of Plato I find is a little in advance of what it was formerly and I cannot help perversely regretting that I should have read so much which was but dimly understood and has therefore made no powerful impression in my memory. I am very well satisfied with Donaldson, much better than with any private tutor I have had; we begin to understand one another better and though he is very tender with regard to any difference of opinion, I think he does his best to put me in possession of his knowledge. He has gone off for a few days to attend a friend’s wedding in Nottinghamshire but is to be back on Thursday or Friday. I am going on better with Walton, but can say nothing of the final result. In fact when examinations draw near voices are hushed which were loud enough before and boasts of success change to hopeful wishes and dubious hopes. I have received a great many compliments on my Aristotle paper, far more than the exe<cu>tion is entitled to; but John Wordsworth sent me messages by Burcham and Donaldson before he had an opportunity of paying his praise in person which he very kindly did with very flattering wishes for my future success. I have been working very hard but am taking it a little easier now and was never better. My hours, you will be surprised to hear, have been earlier than six which remarkable improvement is due to the faithful but provoking tintinnabulation of my little Dutchman.14 I dare not promise myself the pleasure of visiting you for some time to come; the great importance of my reading at present will I trust render it unnecessary for me to make any other excuse and it would be superfluous I hope to assure you of the sacrifice which it compels me at present to make. I suppose you have James back by this time. I should like very much to hear how he has been amusing himself. I trust you will not let your arrangements with regard to leaving town, if you have any such intentions, be influenced at all by my situation. The great inexpediency of interrupting my reading at present makes my getting away so
12 13 14
H. Spens, tr., The Republic of Plato in Ten Books (Glasgow, 1763). J. N. Grou’s translation of the Republic of Plato (Paris, 1765). A Dutch alarm clock.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 135 unlikely that I hope you will not hamper yourself by taking it into consideration. I am pursuing an honorable and I believe a profitable course but the sacrifice is only to be made once and must be submitted to. I am very sorry I did not see poor William Fraser. I trust to hear from you or my dear Mother very soon and in that hope remain, with kindest love to James and her Ever your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden 83 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 28 January 1839 January 28th 1839 Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Father, I have no doubt that you will be somewhat surprized at seeing the Cambridge postmark so soon again; I cannot however settle myself to my regular occupations till I have communicated to you the change of purpose which according to the best of my judgement I have come to. I do not intend to present myself as a candidate for the Davies Scholarship. The few days which I have had to look about me since I returned hither I have employed in considering what course it would be advisable for me to take. It has been I assure you a painful struggle and after I had dismissed the consideration of chances on either side from my mind there still remained the bitter reflection that my resolution might give you uneasiness and regret when it was past recall. If I had taken the advice of those about me my determination would have been different but beyond the force of importunity I could not recognize in their counsel any strength which ought to guide me. I hear on all sides that the examination will contain more Latin verse than even the generality of University scholarship examinations. That is that I should be more unfavourably circumstanced on this occasion than even on those preceding. When I look to my own state of preparation for such a contest I see no greater probability of my doing better in proportion this year, than last. I am conscious of an increase in strength in other departments but I can not say much of this. My attack upon this sort of composition during the long vacation ended in disgust and despair and there my essay concluded. With such an examination what reasonable prospect of success could I have? What then would render my going in desirable? The practice I do not want – for I have been in at two already without any perceptible benefit. I look upon my tactics as those of a prudent general who will not show his weakness where he is not forced into a battle; who is content to await a favorable opportunity and in the meantime must patiently endure the triumph of his opponents. I have on the one hand the almost certain prospect of defeat on the other the power of avoiding it without disgrace. I resign the University scholarship to the sons of King’s; I confess myself unequal to meet them on that ground. I do not see how I can be fairly blamed for such a line of conduct. Another consideration not devoid of weight with me was this – that entering the contest with the reluctance I could not help feeling, I was not prepared even to do myself justice. If I deserve censure it is for having neglected Latin verse composition, not for declining to expose my deficiency. I am afraid my proceeding may not be palatable to my kind instructor Mr Long. I beg him to consider my reasons and make
136 The Letters all the allowances he can for my feelings. As to the question ‘What harm could have been done by going in?’ I answer ‘The damage would have been the waste of time, the waste of labour, the waste of hope; for it would have been impossible for me to have divested myself of all expectation however remote the chance of success.’ I have taken up so much room with the subject uppermost in my mind that I have left little for any other. I have seen Walton and made arrangements with him for commencing immediately; the same with Donaldson whom I have hopes of making useful. Taylor returned the day after me; I do not think he intends to present himself tomorrow; Allan though qualified to be a candidate likewise declines. They will have the glory of not having a single good scholar of our year at Trinity amongst the candidates. Besides Balston and Symonds two Kingsmen, there is a good Shrewsbury man of the year below.15 I do not know whether this will reach you while my excellent Aunt is still with you; if so, I send her my kind love and promise not to forget that I promised to write to her. We have a little snow upon the ground and a prospect of more. I am sorry to say my rooms are full of all manner of draughts so that I am forced to sit close to the fire, scorched on one side and frozen on the other. My arrival had been expected and I found everything in good order. Busk called upon me the day before yesterday with full details, of course, about his misadventure. One hears such strange stories that one does not know what to believe. His bearing however is philosophical. You cannot imagine how much lighter I feel since this horrible Scholarship is off my mind and especially since I have disburdened myself to you on the Subject. I shall never repent the step if it does not vex you. It has given me great uneasiness, I assure you. I have not said a word to my dearest mother but I have been thinking of her equally in all that I have written. My kindest love to you all. Believe me, my dearest Father, Ever your affectionate and dutiful son, ACG. [Enclosed with the above is the following, in James Gooden’s hand, probably a copy of a note from George Long.] My kindest love to Alick – I am sorry to have added to the distress he seems to suffer from the disappointment of his endeavours to obtain academical honours: but I see no reason for despondence, if he will adopt the true means for acquiring them, by conforming to what is expected of him, and not pursuing a course of his own devising. Let him keep up his spirits, undeterred by past failure and miscalculation. Enter confidently into all contests and not fling all chances and opportunities into the single cast of the Classical tripos – which may otherwise by some unforeseen contingency slip thro’ his fingers. Above all, let him prepare earnestly for this by a vigorous study of Mathematics in order to prevent his exclusion on that score, and assiduous exercise in Latin composition.
15
Thomas Saunders Evans.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 137 84 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, [29 January]– 3 February 1839 Trinity College Cambridge My dear Mother, I am very sorry to hear that my letter had not the effect of reconciling my father to the step I have taken. Whether it is right or wrong I can assure you that the view he takes of it is quite mistaken; to consider my going in as a point of honour is an idea which never entered the mind of anyone here. I can point out Burcham as an instance of similarly dishonourable conduct; for he never was a candidate for the University Scholarship but in his freshman’s year. A gentleman whom my father met at B’s rooms and who was at the head of the Classical Tripos – Mr Bunbury16 – was never a candidate at all; being merely an excellent scholar he declined a contest of versemaking. Taylor and Allan the former at least in as conspicuous a situation as myself, are liable to the same reproach. With regard to its being a symptom of my declining all future examinations I can only say that it appears to me a groundless conclusion. If he thinks that it was a sudden failure of moral courage, he is mistaken; I have looked upon it as a matter of very little moment whether I entered the lists or not ever since the result of last year’s examination. My object in coming up a few days earlier was to consider upon a nearer view of my course and prospects. I was aware that the impression that I left behind was that I certainly intended to enter the examination. To meet the disappointment which I was apprehensive my resolution would create was my chief anxiety. That I have not succeeded in doing so, I deeply regret. My own views remain unchanged; the examination proceeds very much as I expected – the translations easy, the compositions difficult. As it is now half over, it would be the height of absurdity to appear there. I am not at all apprehensive of Mr Long’s judgement on the subject; he may think it imprudent in me to have declined a contest in which my classical attainments would be shown, but I am quite sure his disapprobation will go no further. Sunday February 3rd The preceding lines were written immediately on the receipt of your letter. I have attentively watched the progress of the examination during the remainder of the week and feel perfectly satisfied that it is the very worst examination for me that has occurred since I have been in residence. I cannot believe that such schoolboy translation papers were ever set before. I have also been trying my own particular strength in Latin composition and the result is an entire confirmation of the line of proceeding I have followed. I will just mention one instance of the stolidity of the examiners; a piece was set for translation into Greek verse which was set two years ago for the Porson.17 The successful copy had been published and in the hands of all who chose to read it during
16
17
Edward Herbert Bunbury, admitted to Trinity 1829; elected Scholar 1831; BA 1833 (Senior Classic), MA 1836; Chancellor’s Medallist; elected Fellow 1835; MP for Bury St Edmunds 1847–52; 9th Baronet Bunbury. The Porson Prize for translation into Greek was founded in honour of Richard Porson, Regius Professor of Greek (died 1808), and was first awarded in 1817.
138 The Letters that time and as prize poems are a very important study for those who are ambitious of similar distinction themselves, it is most probable that all the good versifiers would recollect large portions of the elaborate translation of Mr Kennedy. The thing is altogether unheard of and has created quite an outcry against the foolish examiner who set it. I should thus have been completely thrown out in my best verse paper. I trust I may be able to procure a set of the papers which I shall certainly forward to Mr Long as a complete vindication of my conduct. Almost all our men are reassembled and college has recommenced again. I shall be glad when the whole affair is over, for the state of things at present is so unfavourable to those in my situation that I am heartily tired of a life which I have always disliked. I very much grudge you the postage of such a letter as this; there is in it so little that can be agreeable. Whether it may tend to satisfy my father’s discontent with me I know not, but I solemnly declare that to the best of my judgment the case is not overcharged; I do believe that my complaints of the Examination are well founded and my anticipations of its result neither desponding nor unreasonable. Believe me, my dear Mother, Your ever affectionate Son ACG. 85 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 17 February 1839 Sunday February 17th. 1839. My dear Mother, I am afraid you will think I have left your kind letter of the 5th too long unanswered; I have not done so however without reason, for as you desired me to give a full account of my corporeal sanity, I was unwilling to tell you that I had a bad cold and cough; as they have now disappeared, I need not be afraid of awakening your solicitude respecting draughts and passing airs. The cure of the cough was effected by certain drops – some kind of syrup and antimonal wine – which my good friend Joyce prescribed and brought to me. The cold was not troublesome after its companion had been dislodged and I am now happily delivered from both. I have found it necessary once more to take a couple of Dr Arnott’s boluses, but they made me so sick both prospectively and actually that I am reluctant to have recourse to them again. At present I have no need of medicine and am, thank God! as well as usual. This letter is favoured by our friend Busk, who having obtained and taken his degree is on the point of quitting Cambridge finally. Events lately have not been very gratifying to him, but I still think he leaves with some lingering regrets. I do not know what his path in life is to be, but his listless indolence is very unsuitable indeed for any pursuit of active exertion. In other respects he is a very nice fellow and capable enough, if he could rouse himself or be roused by others. I have been making merry ever since yesterday afternoon, in consequence of being happily delivered of and from a Latin declamation in which Allan and myself were the actors. The scene on these occasions is the college chapel; the performers have to learn and recite their compositions – to their great discomfiture and annoyance if they be modest persons apt to colour like myself. The subject was the policy of making Caesar dictator, the form, a speech as though addressed to the Senate – I took the Conservative side of the question (the only
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 139 one in which my Father is a Radical) and maintained the cause of a strong executive with all the ‘flagitisissimes’ ‘perditissimes’ and strong superlatives which my Ciceronian knowledge could supply. I pay Donaldson occasional visits and find profit in them. His taste in composition is not good, but he finds more subject for encouragement and commendation than the more refined and experienced criticisms of Burcham would do; as this encourages me in a branch where I have no great courage myself, I think it an advantage. I have been reading Cicero and writing some Latin verse. My Greek verse is above Donaldson’s power of correcting. I have been going on decently with Walton, although the declamation has cut up my last week abominably. I suppose politics either are or are to be soon very interesting: we are here, however, much more greedy of news about the Classical Tripos, than the probability of a revolution in France and should be more surprised if Freeman were not Senior Classic, than if Lord Melbourne were to be driven into a resignation. I hear, sub rosa, that Spring Rice has behaved very ill to Burcham and justified the shuffling and faithless character which Mr Long ascribed to him. I have seen Middleton but had not any opportunity of talking to him, so that I have no news from that quarter. Turner is still in residence, having a term to keep before he can take his degree. One of his friends came up the other day to dispose of his mathematical library which produced the magnificent sum of 2£ 10s. I doubt whether Turner’s whole collection would be more valuable. Pray tell me whether you have heard of my aunt’s safe arrival at Leeds or anything thereafter ensuing. I have played 2 rubbers since I have been at Cambridge in which I lost and won a shilling, so that it was difficult to determine the balance. My kindest love to my dear Father and James. Write to me soon and believe me, my dearest Mother Ever your affectionate Son AC Gooden Trinity College Cambridge 86 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 8 March 1839 10th March 1839 Trinity College Cambridge My dear Father, The reason for my silence was indeed what you conjectured; I was waiting in expectation of a letter from you and was unwilling to write as long as it was in abeyance, because I thought that I could render my letter more interesting if I knew what was most likely to interest you. I certainly do not labour under a dearth of news but I am afraid that it is such sort of news as nobody beyond the reach of St. Mary’s chimes cares to hear. The University scholarship as you have observed has been given to Balston. The second and third were Symonds of King’s and Neale of Trinity a man of my own year and as you may perhaps recollect, one of Thorp’s pupils. By one of those strange anomalies which seem to be almost the distinguishing features of the examinations no mention whatever has been made of Cope, although his tutor who was likewise Balston’s tutor thought him the more likely of the two to be successful. I have little
140 The Letters doubt that the men were arranged according to their performances in the Latin verse: Balston having written what is esteemed a very beautiful copy of Alcaics, a species of composition in which Neale is also exceedingly expert. I fear that the latter gentleman will scarcely be qualified to enter the lists at the Classical Tripos by reason of his extremely limited knowledge of mathematics. If he obtains a place in the Mathematical Tripos however I shall be delighted to break a lance with him in the other. I have succeeded in getting a set of the Davies Scholarship papers in order to forward them for Mr. Long’s inspection. The only one which I have not been able to obtain is Prof. Scholefield’s; as I consider this one of the most curious and instructive of the batch, I shall wait for an opportunity of getting it and bring up the complete set along with me. Mother seems not to have understood what I said about coming home; indeed I expressed myself vaguely about it on purpose to let her make what arrangements she liked. As however she thinks proper to have it in my own hands I will promise her the pleasure of my company on Saturday April 6th. I am anxious not to break off my present occupations which have immediate reference to the scholarship examination in which I wish to leave as little as possible to chance. I believe no-one is thought to have a better prospect of success and with the extreme uncertainty of these contests that is all that can be said at present. I am getting up my mathematics and progress[ing] in Latin composition. Stewart spent a few days in Cambridge the week before last. He stayed with our friend Vigurs and I managed to see as much as possible of him without wholly throwing aside my serious occupations. He was very cheerful and seemed to enjoy the change of scene and return to old associations – what was perhaps more generally satisfactory he contrived to pay most of his old scores. Vigurs is still much an invalid, not indeed that he has any specific complaint but he feels his constitution is so much shaken that he is resolved to try a warmer climate. He sets out therefore in the summer to pass a year abroad. He talks of making Constantinople the limit of his tour. In the meantime he is really taking care of himself: he declines all invitations and rarely ventures into the open air. The slightest rawness of the atmosphere makes him cough. Turner quits Cambridge for good tomorrow; he is going to have chambers in the Temple. He is heartily glad to be off and complains bitterly of the dullness of living in Cambridge with 18d in your pocket and 13d of that engaged for bills. So much for the dregs of amusement. Mr Griffin’s grandson Simpkinson18 has slipped into the first class of the Classical Tripos: which I have no doubt will be very gratifying to his friends the more so as it was very uncertain. I am tolerably well but shall be better when this abominable weather changes: I cannot get any out of door exercise on account of the snow. My kindest love to my dearest Mother and James. I trust to hear from you soon. Meantime and always Believe me, my dear Father, your dutiful and affectionate son A C Gooden. Sunday March 8th
18
John Nassau Simpkinson, admitted to Trinity 1834; BA 1839 (10th Classic), MA 1842.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 141 88 Robert Jenkins to Alexander Gooden, 11 April 1839 Trinity College Apr 11 39 My dear Friend Let me be the first to congratulate you heartily and sincerely though in breathless haste having just run from the chapel door19 to Allan’s rooms from whence I write – the names are Law Gooden Neale Allan Mate Blenkiron20 Watt Preston21 Cope Wickes22 King23 Jones24 Ever your most affectionate friend Robert C. Jenkins 89 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 17 April 1839 April 17th 1839 Trinity College Cambridge My dear Father, I am in doubt whether you have heard anything from Thorp or not; if you have, it would have leave me nothing to add; if not, it is high time that you should hear from me. I must give you the order of events since my return to the intent that you may be made acquainted with the pomp and ceremonies of a scholar’s installation. I found a notice at my rooms on the night of my arrival requesting my attendance in the College Chapel at 1⁄4 to nine the next morning. After getting my white cravat and bands adjusted by the elegant hands of my bedmaker I proceeded thither and after we had been left 19 20 21 22 23 24
The discussions leading to the election of Scholars took place in the College chapel, the door of which was used to post the names of the successful candidates. Bartholomew Blenkiron, admitted to Trinity 1836, elected Scholar 1839; BA 1840, MA 1843. Theodore Preston, admitted to Trinity 1836; BA 1841, MA 1844; Fellow of Trinity 1842–82; Lord Almoner’s Professor of Arabic 1855–71. William Wickes, admitted to Trinity 1836; BA 1840, MA 1844; Professor of Mathematics at McGill College, Montreal, 1841; Principal of Huron College, London, Ontario, 1867–71. Charles William King, admitted to Trinity 1836; BA 1840 (6th Classic), MA 1843; elected Fellow 1842; Collector of antique gems. Henry Cadman-Jones, admitted to Trinity 1836, elected Scholar 1839; BA 1841 (2nd Wrangler), MA 1844; elected Fellow 1841.
142 The Letters for some time to decypher the monuments in the ante Chapel in came Thorp with his hand full of letters and a countenance radiant with satisfaction to shake hands with his successful pupils – eight out of the twelve. A circumstance, by the way, so gratifying to the Archdeacon that he declared it to be the proudest day of his tutorship. After a little more delay the eight seniors25 entered and we were requested to arrange ourselves opposite to them. The senior scholar – Law – then read the Latin oath26 and we smacked the calfskin in token of our assent thereto. Each one separately then ascended the Vice Master’s27 pew and kneeling on a stool before him placed his hands between those of the V.M. and was admitted a Scholar in the name of the Father etc. We then signed our names, which were read over by the V.M. who wished us joy and so the ceremony ended. Being second on the list in order of seniority, the Senior Dean28 has obligingly put me in waiting this week; that is to say I have to read the Latin grace to the Fellows after dinner and one of the morning and evening lessons in Chapel. I did not behave like a neophyte on ascending the desk and monopolise the instruction intended for the multitude, but read boldly in an audible voice to the delight I trust of the Dean and the edification of the audience. I have not been very solicitous about gathering gossip, feeling pretty sure that my classical papers must have made an impression since they were unsupported by mathematical evidence. Peacock however spoke very highly of my performance and said that I had beaten Allan out and out. Donaldson came to congratulate me and told me that Sedgwick praised my papers and noticed the great improvement in style since last year. The point was just what I expected and if I had known it last year, I might have joined my friends Ellis and Taylor earlier. Peacock had not a single man among the twelve, but contended stoutly against Mate and Watt29 being elected, being by no means contented with their mathematical deeds. The scholars table is certainly better provided than the pensioners and the seats in Chapel more comfortable, but I have left some friends behind me whose company would have been an agreeable addition. The disappointed candidates have returned to their seats in hall and chapel from whence they fled at first through hatred of beholding their more successful competitors. So much for the advantages of competition! I suppose James will be setting off for Ramsgate and till he returns and I know his plans I do not say a word about his coming down to witness my dignity. I trust to show my dear mother by personal inspection the system of management in the College; I have threatened my laundress with an avatar of my respected parent. I am in capital spirits for reading and altogether <extre>mely bumptious although a year ago I should have td up my nose at the idea of being put off to the next time. However experience maketh wise! and I do not think it has been thrown away
25 26 27 28
29
The governing body of Trinity consisted of the Master and the eight senior fellows. Both Scholars and Fellows had to swear an oath to hold to, and not to profess opinions against, the scriptures, and of allegiance to the College. John Brown, admitted to Trinity 1795; elected Scholar 1798; BA 1799 (2nd Wrangler), MA 1802; elected Fellow 1801; Tutor 1807–24; Senior Dean 1809–16, 1824–25, 1828; Vice Master 1830–42. William Carus, admitted to Trinity 1821; elected Scholar 1825; BA 1827 (28th Wrangler, 9th Classic), MA 1830; elected Fellow 1829; Senior Dean 1829–50. An evangelical and friend of Charles Simeon, he spent his last years as a cleric in Winchester. Robert Watt, admitted to Trinity from Marischal College, Aberdeen, 1834; elected Scholar 1839; BA 1840 (13th Wrangler), MA 1843; Fellow 1842–48.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 143 upon me. Pray give my kindest regards to Long and let him know that I cropped the Rochester youth, in spite of the difference of weight. Jenkins is in excellent spirits, going about talking and making acquaintance and chirping about Ecclesiastic history and popish plots in a most gratifying manner. I am sure he was as much delighted at my election as I myself was. Pray let me hear from you soon. With kindest love to my dear Mother and James, Believe me, my dear Father Ever your affectionate and dutiful Son, A C Gooden PS My love to the Platts and Lamberts and all other poor Alick-Gooden-ing folks. 90 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 2 May 1839 Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Mother, As I believe that in a month from the present time I shall be allowed to escape from the precincts of Trinity College I trust I shall not give any occasion for complaint by my present timely notice of it. Our examination will conclude on the 1st of June and I must then manage to get an exeat as soon as possible. The Dean is rather hard pressed sometimes, as it is necessary that one scholar at least be always in attendance; everybody is very anxious to escape and it is therefore de’il tak the hindmost on these occasions. I mention this in order to let you understand my position. I must take care to make my application in time and get my leave of absence unconditionally, as for instance without the obligation to return in a fortnight and so forth. Will not the fine weather tempt you and my father down to take a look at our grey towers and leafy screens? About the 20th of this month or so would be a convenient time as far as I am concerned; for it is not possible to be very busy in the immediate neighbourhood of an examination. I am indeed under no great concern about it, as it is disproportionately mathematical and a classical man is not expected to make his appearance beyond the second or third class. I have been wasting some days on a translation intended for the Porson. I soon found out that it was not a good piece for me and that I should make nothing of it. I persisted however in order to leave no room for censure, in spite of very bad success; and sent it in at last with great unwillingness. However, I have satisfied my conscience and may dismiss the subject from my recollection, as I am not likely ever to hear of it again. My father asks who are likely to be my principal competitors at the Tripos. I believe that France of St John’s (the Captain of Shrewsbury), Taylor, Marsh and Neale of Trinity are the most notable. The last is not likely however to get through his mathematical degrees and the other two of this College I am not afraid of. I dare say France is a good man – there is also Hodson of Trin who I believe is reading for his classical degree, he came up as a mixture. I have seen Vigurs once and cannot say much for his looks. I am afraid his own imprudence in living is very strong against him, and I am sorry to say he does not exhibit much self-control in spite of his ticklish situation. I have set to work again at mathematics, since the iambics were dismissed, having no intention to accompany Mr Neale in his attempt to cross the gulph.30 30
‘Gulph’ was used in Cambridge to indicate the divide between those men who achieved honours and those who were only awarded the ordinary BA.
144 The Letters I do not think I can spare time to keep this term at the Inn31 and unless my father wishes it, shall consider the idea as laid aside. If you have seen Long in the mean time, you will have heard that he has written to me. His letter was to make some inquiries with regard to the Law Studies here. I answered them as well as I could, but could not do much as I have no acquaintance here just now who is attending the Professor’s Lectures. He was very kind in his congratulations and still more flattering in his encouragement. Peacock is, I suppose, by this time Dean of Ely; the other Cambridge news is newspaper matter. I am having recourse to the ginger-bread of Mr Long’s recommendation once more, as I find my bowels rather affected by the change of weather. In other respects I am as well and cheerful as I can wish to be. Pray let me know soon whether you will honour me with your arm in a turn through these groves of academe. I can promise you a bean or two besides your humble servant. How is James getting on? and the element he resembles and delights to depict. I will lay out for a copy of Whewell’s hexameters32 for my father. I should not like to beg one, though I dare say he would be polite enough to accede. Thorp is writing an answer, I believe, to S Smith but I do not know whether in verse or prose.33 My kindest love to my dearest Father and James. Believe me, my dear Mother, Ever your affectionate and dutiful Stump May 2nd /39 91 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 19 May 1839 May 19th Trinity College Cambridge My dear Mother, As I have a baddish head ache this evening, you will excuse me if my letter be somewhat shorter than usual. It arises from a little imprudence in the way of an ice yesterday; I must foreswear them henceforth – at least till the next ball. I have taken my place by the afternoon coach on Wednesday the 30th and trust to be in Tavistock Square about nine o’clock. I think you had better have come down this fine weather, The place is full of visitors and I would fain be gallanting my honoured mother about as well as my fellow gownsmen their fair or plain sisters and sweethearts. The period of the Examination – namely from Wednesday next to the Tuesday following – will really be very idle time with me; for the papers run in that line that I shall have absolutely nothing to do till Monday when the Aristotle comes on. Astronomy, optics, dynamics and other mathematical matters are the subjects of examination. My father must not suppose that I am neglecting my Mathematics, I have been working at them very fairly for the last three weeks and Walton considers my Senior Optimisation safe if I continue at the same
31 32 33
Lincoln’s Inn. William Whewell, Nugae Bartlovianae (London, 1838). Sydney Smith wrote The Ballot in 1839.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 145 pace. You will I dare say be both surprised and pleased to hear that for the last three weeks I have been up to morning Chapel every day. I have determined to decline invitations for the next six months and notified the same to such of my friends as I thought likely to feel the absence of my enlivening company. They all agreed to the reasonableness of concentrating my powers for the grand effort but hoped I did not intend to give up society altogether which they appreciated would have as bad an effect as the excess of it. I intend this of course merely for a season and for a purpose; I think the sacrifice is wholesome and called for by the circumstances – I cannot expect the Classical Tripos should do me justice unless I first do myself justice. Jenkins has been very well up to this sudden access of warm weather which seems to produce a very bad effect on his nervous system. I see him constantly and owe everything to his devoted attention and kindness. I am almost afraid he will spoil me. Cockburn has been heard of; he wrote from Toulouse, where he is laid up. My friend Joyce is to spend the long vacation with him in the Pyrenees or wheresoever else their romantic eagerness may tempt them. Pray tell me if James is gone and what his arrangements are. I did not see the notice of his picture in the paper; if it proceeded from the quarter which I conjecture I can easily believe it might have been exaggerated and repugnant to James’s feelings of good taste but I do not thing it is likely to do him any injury. What extraordinary testimony it bears to the stability and ballast of the English nation, that with such disaffected spirits abroad and actually no government in possession, the country has yet remained in a state of comparative tranquillity. They say Macaulay34 comes down here to supply Spring Rice; it will however be contested by a son of Lord Canterbury’s. The Whigs have behaved contemptibly and the Morning Chronicle ought to be d_d. Burcham has been in town watching the progress of affairs from having, I fear, no pupils to engage his attention. I do not think a visit to Leeds practicable this vacation, I will write to my aunt when I am in town or before if you will let me know the number in Brunswick Place. You see I have shown you a pretty long yarn in spite of my headache and that is the best evidence I can give you of the pleasure I have in writing to my dearest Mother. My best love to my dear Father and James whether present or absent from your affectionate and dutiful A. C. Gooden 92 Thomas Thorp to Alexander Gooden, 7 June 1839 Trin Coll Cambridge June 7 1839 My dear Pupil You know by this time that you are in the 2nd Class, a place very honorable to you and gratifying to me; but I cannot get forward with any other work (which is pressing enough at this moment) till I have communicated to you the very favorable impression
34
Thomas Babington Macaulay, admitted to Trinity 1817; BA 1822, MA 1825; Fellow 1824–52; MP for Calne 1830–38, for Leeds 1832–34, for Edinburgh 1839–47 and 1852–56; author of a famous History of England (1849–61).
146 The Letters made upon Mr Wordsworth by the examination you passed in the Aristotle paper, to which I believe there has not been an equal on the occasions on which he has examined in that subject. The confirmation this gives to my expression of opinion of your Scholarship last Easter but one, as well as the hope it holds out of further and greater success, is very delightful to Yours faithfully and affectionately T Thorp I go to Bristol on Monday for a fortnight. 93 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 7 July 1839 Trinity College July 7th /39 My dear Mother, My ancient custom of paying off my arrears of correspondence on Sunday afternoons will I trust exactly coincide with your expectation of hearing from me. My journey hither was pleasant and enlivened by more conversation than one can reckon upon meeting with generally in a Cambridge coach; and the account I received from a friend outside of the coldness of his position made me think very gratefully of your kind precaution. I found Taylor, Cubitt and Allan already here. Robinson was my fellow passenger and Hume and Jebb had been up for some time. My friend Mate arrived last night so that my visiting list is a tolerably strong one. He had been staying for his sister’s wedding which took place last week. I had a long chat with Donaldson who came down on Thursday and called upon me that evening. I have arranged to go to him on Monday from 2 to 3: the afternoon just now is so hot that I think it will be better to walk in the evening and I shall endeavour to get as much out of the morning as, by help of an alarum, I can. Walton is also extant in these regions, and I have made a similar arrangement with him for the alternate days. I have set to work vigorously, as the occasion demands; for a man can take his degree but once and there is nothing afterwards to make up for failure in that examination. I am not strong enough to take any liberties with myself and I should soon be stopped if I were to attempt any extravagant labour. You may rely upon it I shall not suffer on this account; so pray make yourself and my dear Father easy about it. I am already much better than when I left town and cannot help attributing it to the change of air. I trust my dear father is recovered from the indisposition from which I left him suffering; I will not undertake to prescribe for others but I really think London at this season unhealthy. I am sure that in summer all other places agree better with me. I conjecture that James is by this time on his way to Vigurs’s; the weather could not be finer than it is at present, for an excursion. It is in my opinion far too fine to be sitting sweating Plato’s Republic and theoretical optics. I think my practical ones are better and I intend they shall still further improve by having no candlelight labours. Would you be so good as to tell me Jenkins’s address at Dundee? I left his letter on the library table when I came away, by mistake. I know you would abuse me for this if I were within earshot. Poor Lady Flora!35 What a tragical end for the abominable gossip to have.
35
A reference to the scandal of Lady Flora Hastings at court. The signs of her scandalous ‘pregnancy’ were in fact the symptoms of cancer from which she died in July 1839.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 147 Pray let me hear soon from you whether you have anything to say or not. The latter alternative does not prevent my writing, you see. With kindest love to my dearest Father. Believe ever, my dear Mother, Your affectionate son A C Gooden. 94 James and Mary Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 24 July 1839 London, 24 July 1839 My dear Alick, I need hardly tell you, how much pleasure your letter communicated by the information it gives us of your excellent health and spirits in despite of your close application to the subjects of your approaching examinations. I am quite charmed with the marvellous improvement you have derived from the society of your little Dutch monitor, and trust you will continue to lend a willing ear and prompt obedience to his calls: as you seem already sufficiently impressed with the advantages of the discipline he recommends, it is needless to enforce it by any of the common places which have abounded on it since the days of Solomon to Poor Dick.36 But we are not quite so well pleased with the caution you think it necessary to give us as to the period to which your present absence from us may be protracted and we are to be deprived of the pleasure of seeing you again. Under the circumstances however I cannot impugn the justness of your views, which you will continue to regulate by your own judgment and feelings, and we will reconcile ourselves to the privation in the best manner we may, tho’ still with the trust that you will find some intermission, or change of scene sooner or later desirable even for your greater success – ‘Reculer pour mieux sauter’37 as the French proverb says. One consolation indeed there is under this dispensation, tho’ of the negative kind, viz. that we have no great inducement to offer you for a visit at present if you were ever so much at liberty to indulge us. The town is becoming very empty – in the course of a fortnight Parliament will be up, and we shall not even have the wonted smiles of our trades people to cheer us as we pass. In the mean time your Mother and I are quite in the same state of uncertainty, whither to go, or whether to go anywhere or not. James has shown no such irresolution – he returned on Saturday evening from his visit to Vigurs and last Evening again took his departure in order to sail at an early hour this morning for Rotterdam. His companions for this trip are Chambers, Hammerton and one Harris38 (the artist) from Swansea. Busk, with whom he had arranged to go, disappointed him it seems, in consequence of being called to attend his mother and sisters on a visit to Spa. I don’t think, he has much to regret in this mischance and I hope he will return from this trip better satisfied than he did with his Welsh excursion. You desire to know something of it and I am glad, that your Mother during his short stay here (for the only letter he wrote was not very communicative) pumped
36 37 38
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard (1757). ‘To retire in order to advance better’. James Harris of Swansea, marine artist, for whom see Christopher Wood, A Dictionary of Victorian Painters (Woodbridge, 1971).
148 The Letters enough out of him to enable me to gratify your curiosity. I ought however to mention first, that he regretted very much his inability to write you himself, before his departure, being fully occupied with getting passport, taking his passage and other necessary preparations, and he requested this apology to be given with his kind remembrance the first opportunity. I have intimated, that he had not derived much pleasure or profit from his trip, although he deferred his departure one day in order to avoid the ill luck of setting out on a Friday! He started then on the Saturday morning by the Bristol coach, which was run away with about 4 miles on this side of Bath and had the narrowest escape of being overturned; the adventure terminated however in a horrible fright – the horses which were highly spirited, having been irritated by the Coachman’s imprudent teasing, took the bits in their teeth, and set off at full speed from an eminence on the road, passed the coach sheer over a loaded truck or hand barrow, nearly demolishing the conductor, and having been nearly overturned with the shock the coach was beheld rolling and hurrying on with frightful velocity to the horror of all passengers on the road, who fled in all directions – it got another hitch in passing a toll gate from one of the side posts, then was whirled close to a high stone wall, a collision with which would have infallibly demolished both the vehicle and its freight etc. – finishing at last by the team voluntarily drawing up at the foot of a hill which leads into Bath. One of the passengers leaping off in his fright sustained a sprain of the ankle and was obliged to be left behind – another fainted, and of the rest some two or three were so terrified, that they gave up their places and declined proceeding farther. The following day James proceeded on from Bristol by the mail – on his arrival at Neath a labouring man who was standing by the side of the road, came up, it does not appear for what purpose, to the horses heads and suddenly dropt down – he was taken up and found quite dead. A surgeon, a passenger by the coach, opened a vein, but there came no blood. He got at length to his journey’s end and was kindly received by Vigurs: but he represents the town as a very dull, unsightly and in other respects uninteresting place, covered with slags, the refuse of the smelting furnaces, and surrounded with their smoke. It rained for the most part during his stay and he found very few subjects with equally few opportunities for sketching. The party, when all assembled, were the two Fishers, Mr Dashwood, Mr Lucas, etc. – they were hospitably and handsomely entertained – a well-served table with a capital cuisine, and wines of the choicest quality, which had ample justice done to them by some of the party. On the Sunday after his arrival James was accompanied by his host to Swansea, where the following day he took the steamer for Bristol: but the weather came on very stormy and after buffetting it for some hours, unable to make head, and threatened with the dangers of a lee shore, the Captain was obliged to put back. Another night of course at Swansea, and the next day a place outside the coach to Cheltenham, where he arrived completely drenched the day having proved one of incessant rain. He had no farther mishaps, but he passed Oxford, as he had done Chepstow Gloucester and Cheltenham without seeing more of them, than the streets that were visible on his way through them. I could not help reminding him at the end of his narrative, that if he had set off on the Friday, he would have escaped at least the fright of his journey to Bath and I hope he will be wiser in future than to treasure up such idle superstitions. – I must make an end for your Mother’s sake, if she can find room for any addition, which I think will be somewhat of a puzzle. I shall endeavour to send you the Abbé Grou’s translation of La République if you desire it. God Bless you, my dear Boy –
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 149 [Mary Gooden] How much at variance is my straggly characters to your Father’s elegant style. However never mind I must say a word or two to my dear Stumpie, and to begin remember to take a little wine to keep up your spirits as it is good Sherry, none of your heating Marsala.39 I hope you can give us some little time if you can specify when all the better. If not, I shall stop the supplies! Think of that radical measure and be submissive – I had a melancholy letter from my afflicted friend Captain D. Chisholm40 announcing the death of his only son, whom you saw last year of consumption. May God grant him consolation, poor boy, he could only have weathered the Indian climate three or four months, he died with the resignation of a Christian, only lamenting his family at home. I daresay his father will not long survive so severe a shock. I tap my knowledge box for news to no purpose. I have got all my preserves made under the most happy auspices so you can command jelly strawberry raspberry gooseberry of this years crop. Did you find your rooms and bed had been attended to in your absence with prayers for your welfare, Ever yours, M Gooden. 95 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 4 August 1839 Trinity College, Sunday Aug 4th. /39 My dear Mother I am indebted to my dear Father for a most amusing and excellent letter, although poor James’s mishaps and disasters are much more entertaining to read than encounter. I trust that this charming weather will make him some amends for the train of ‘disagreeables’ which belied his nautical superstitions so grievously. The weather at the close of last week and the beginning of this exceedingly disconcerted me in many ways. In the first place it robbed me of that cheerful light beneath which my studies always prosper most, in the second place it forced me to keep a fire, a thing most uncongenial to my feelings at this time of year, and in the third place it disordered my stomach the climax of my horrors. For want of exercise begetteth want of physic, and the evils of physic extend over both brain and bowels. – But however I rejoice in the present sunshine and wish it a happy reign. I am very sorry you have not settled anything for changing the scene, which I conjecture must be rather dreary just at present. I intreat you not to let yourself be influenced by any absence here in any degree. I really cannot come away just now without great inconsistency and actual folly considering the posture of affairs. Where I am, I assure you, I cannot be better off. I have good air and change of scene and society within my reach so that under the circumstances I could not be more comfortable. As for novelties indeed they are quite out of the question; and I have sometimes thought that a tale of real life, an Eastern story, or a remarkable incident fresh from the writer’s turning imagination would be an amusing substitute for one of these dry, effete letters. I would not however that you should look for the postman in vain and therefore find in my heart to bestow all my tediousness upon you. I have not indeed had the courage
39 40
As in ‘cooking wine’, poor quality wine used in cooking. Perhaps Donald Chisholm, Captain in the 42nd Highlanders.
150 The Letters to disburthen myself of it on any one else, save those whom I have a natural right to bore, and therefore my response to my excellent friend Jenkins is amongst the things abeyant. I should like to know when he is likely to be back as I might perhaps find courage to send a letter so short away as London – but as for Dundee, fancy the postage. I have one favour to ask of my dear Mother and that is a fresh supply of green tea; my stock has disappeared with marvellous rapidity which is partly owing to my having had to pay back a loan which I contracted last term when my stock was waning. Don’t imagine I use it as a stimulant – I regard the practice as unlawful. Burcham with whom Taylor is reading is of opinion that he will be a long chalk behind me; the general voice seems to point out Neale as the most formidable of my competitors. He is a good verse-writer and a man of considerable acquirements but a slovenly scholar. Donaldson thinks the more of him because he did well in his paper at our first year examination. However he is a Sim41 and a sloven and I trust a gentleman in creed and cleanliness may beat him. I am going on steadily in mathematics and have a reasonable hope of accomplishing my object in that line. Thorp has gone to Bristol to every body’s exceeding joy. He conscientiously thought himself bound to tease every body with lectures about Sunday-Chapels, the enormity of blouses and the grievousness of overmuch playing on the piano. His great patron and prelate Simon of Gloucester42 was up here a few days since on a visit to him and I understand the Archdeacon was not a little profuse of ‘my lord’ and ‘your lordship’. I hope to hear from you very soon, for a letter is at all times a very great pleasure and now a gratefully-to-be acknowledged blessing. With kindest love to my dear Father and James, wherever he be, I remain, my dearest Mother Ever your affectionate Son A C Gooden 96 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 18 August 1839 Sunday August 18th 1839 My dear Mother, As I feel pretty sure that Monday morning will not come round without bringing with it the expectation of a letter from me, I consider myself bound not to disappoint you although I sit down with as barren a prospect before me as usual. The parcel containing the tea and other unmentionable articles came very opportunely, and I can speak with satisfaction of all its contents save the above-mentioned inexpressibles which I bravely essayed to prove and was extremely satirized for my hardihood. The translation I am greatly indebted to my dear father for remembering; as far as I have seen it is both a faithful and elegant one. The original of it I have been working through with great
41
42
A Simeonite, a supporter of Charles Simeon, Fellow of King’s and Vicar of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, 1783–1836. Simeon was a bulwark of the evangelical cause in Cambridge and founder of the Christian Missionary Society. Presumably James Henry Monk, admitted to Trinity 1799; elected Scholar 1801; BA 1804 (7th Wrangler), MA 1807, BD 1818, DD 1822; elected Fellow 1805; Regius Professor of Greek 1808–23; Bishop of Gloucester 1830–36, of Gloucester and Bristol 1836–56.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 151 perseverance and as I near the end of my undertaking am more and more anxious to get through with it and less and less to get on with it. My curiosity is satisfied and my ambition is not. I am not greatly surprised at your despairing leaving town this year altogether, although I should very much have rejoiced at your being able to find any agreeable place of sojourn at this fine season of the year. There is to be a dahlia show here – against all England – on Friday the 5th or 6th of next month.43 It is to take place in our Cloisters44 and there may probably be something else in the way of gaiety joined with it. I need not say how delighted I should be if this should be any inducement to you to think of paying me a visit. Farther than the pleasure of seeing you there would be no great attraction in running up to London, and here there would be something to occupy a few days perhaps agreeably at any rate a little differently from your usual routine. If the weather be promising and I hear anything more likely to be attractive I will let you know; in the meantime you may perhaps keep it in view. I have been very busy and am still as much as ever so; indeed there is no prospect of anything else till next March. But I have no reason to complain of my health and my spirits always rise in proportion to the work I get through. I have reason to congratulate myself on not being under the auspices of my little friend Burcham. For the prospect of an election (it being quite certain that Spring Rice is to be transplanted) is anything but favourable to the prospects of his pupils. He has already been up to town to beat up for a candidate, and the report is that the Ipswich runaway Mr Gibson is to be ‘suffectus’.45 A son of Lord Canterbury’s is the Conservative candidate, and they say that one section of the Liberals here are desirous of a representative in Mr Roebuck.46 I should think the Conservatives have a very good chance, as Sutton is very well known in the town and personally popular. However, Mr B’s influence will not be exerted in his favour. I had a letter from Jenkins a few days ago with some account of his journeyings but – thank God! – no sunsets nor scenery, Fancy his walking six miles and getting wet! I am sorry to hear James is not a more regular correspondent but not much astonished. I presume he is by this time returned or that you have at least some knowledge of his movements. I would have addressed this to my Father but considering it practically the same, I thought it better not to put him to the trouble of a reply until I had got something worth saying or worth answering. With kindest love to my dear Father and James whether in London or the Netherlands, Believe me ever, my dear Mother Your affectionate and dutiful son A C Gooden.
43 44 45 46
This actually took place on Friday 13 September. See Romilly’s Cambridge Diary 1832–42, p. 177. An alternative name for Nevile’s Court, Trinity College. Substitute. The Hon. John Arthur Roebuck, MP for Bath 1832–37, 41–47; MP for Sheffield 1849–69, 1874–79.
152 The Letters 97 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 29 August 1839 Thursday 29th August /39 My dear Father, I am delighted to find that what I propose coincides so much with your own convenience and that I may anticipate the pleasure of seeing you and my dear mother on Wednesday or Thursday. I trust that the weather may prove propitious to our fête for a seriously wet day is here a serious evil. The Dahlia Show has certainly assumed a most exaggerated air of importance for considering that it is only an arrangement of pots in an open court, the six-foot yellow and red bills announcing the surprising condescension of the Master and Fellows of Trinity certainly put a very bold face upon it. You may imagine the sort of busy no-business state that Cambridge is in at present with the election which is to take place on Wednesday or Thursday next. It has been so much, for lack of more amusing matter, the cheval-de-bataille of the Times lately that I have no private intelligence that is not already public. I am afraid Gibson will be successful, as there is a strong liberal party here comprising the most substantial tradesmen; the Tory party is all odds and ends and besides they want a good strong purse. I would back the best payer against the field whatever his politics might be. In the mean time Mr Burcham is winning very bitter words for his open interference in the matter. Gibson and Sutton both dined in hall the other day and chatted apparently with great good fellowship across the table. The former was a low Wrangler in Burcham’s year. I don’t think Manners Sutton in other respects the best candidate they could have got; he is a swaggering raffish sort of fellow and as one of his opponents remarked the other night ‘if the ’Ouse of Commons were a free-and-easy, he would make a reg’lar good Chairman of it’. We have a good Tory knot at our table where we discuss the election moves with great zest every day. I have not however attempted to coerce anybody yet, although I think I should be almost justified in commencing with Porcher, who I strongly suspect is – a Whig. They are trying to agitate the Wesleyans on the score of the Education Scheme which is by no means a bad handle. I certainly should have dined with the Bishop on Tuesday if I had been able to get a five-minute leave of that celebrated carpet in the Arabian nights, which is as yet unrivalled even by the ‘stupendous discoveries’ of Watt.47 I hope my mother does not intend to convert Vigurs into a Roman Catholic; religious flirtations are dangerous and she must take care she does not burn her fingers again. I am jogging on very comfortably with my reading, although I don’t find the closing evenings so favorable to my studies as the glorious long scorching days of July. I try to make the most of my time and must leave the rest to Providence and the examiners. My friend Mate went off to visit his friends at Taunton for a fortnight on Saturday last his tutor Mr Hopkins having engagements with the Peripatetic Philosophers at Birmingham.48 They will soon eat their way through the towns of England and I should think that they would then either become stationary or die of starvation. Pray assure my dear Mother that I do not intend to cheat myself and her of a visit before the commencement of term. I rather meditate two than one, viz. at the end of September and immediately before the 47 48
James Watt’s steam boiler of 1785 was the ancestor of those used in the first railway locomotives. A meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 153 commencement of term in October. I wish however to be here for a fortnight in the beginning of October. I would whisper sotto voce that if her boxes be not full she may bring me a pair of black cloth inexpressibles and the fascinating boots, as I am in no condition to make my appearance in decent company at present. Any news of James? I hope you don’t think too much of his bad correspondence; it is a very common sin in young men and with James’s inaptitude with a pen, I think it should not be too severely judged though it be a very gross neglect. The Bull49 is the only house for you; the Hoop and Eagle are the camps of electioneering forces. Pray let me know precisely when I may expect you a day or two before and excuse this frivolous gossip from, my dear Father, Your affectionate and dutiful Son Alexander A C Gooden 98 Charles Edward Stewart to Alexander Gooden, 18 September 1839 Belladrum, 18 September 1839 My dear Gooden I am really and truly ashamed to display my handwriting to you, after having so long neglected to answer your very kind and friendly letter of the end of June last: however, I can safely declare that I should have answered it within two days of its arrival, if it had been possible at that time for me to write at all. For two or three days before your epistle arrived, I had been suffering from flying attacks of rheumatism, and the very night before I received it, the cold settled itself in my right groin, and brought on what they call a sympathetic bubo, no less injurious than the L.V. species, but in its consequences less injurious. From that night I was laid – almost wholly – on my back, and had no small difficulty in ‘scraping’ out of College; and from thence to the 5th of August, when I arrived here (nay – for some time after) I only put pen to paper once – to decline an invitation to the country. Thus for a considerable portion of the time, I have an excuse to offer; but none for the continuance of my silence, for the pardoning of which I must trust your mercy. – So much for my apologetic exordium! Pray accept my warmest thanks for the very kind strain of your letter to me. I am confident that you will believe me, that the attachment is entirely reciprocal. I shall leave this place for the South on the 29th of this month, and be in London on the 8th of October: as I suppose you will then be there, before your return to Trinity, I shall hope to see as much of you as I can do in a fortnight. I intend paying a visit to my sister in Norfolk, in the early part of November, and shall contrive to pass a day or two at Trinity with you, – either going or returning. I hope that your reading during the vacation has been satisfactory, and you intend being ‘facile princeps’ in the Tripos of 1840. I fear from your report of the scholarship examination, that Mate will be rather a failure: Hume appears to have made a grand ‘spirt’ the first year, and done nothing since to keep up any character he might have acquired. I am very sorry to receive so bad a bulletin of Cockburn: if he is in the Bas
49
The Bull Hotel, now part of St Catharine’s College.
154 The Letters Pyrenees in the beginning of December, I shall in all probability find him out. Have you seen or heard anything of Vigurs; and can you give me any clue to his ‘whereabouts’ now and for the winter? Inverness will be very gay this year: the Meeting will be very well attended, and the great cattle show of the Highland Society is expected to bring together a large concourse of Southrons as well as Northmen. I am however in haste to get South, and shall start immediately after the Northern Meeting. I hope your Father and Mother are very well; has your brother been sailing or painting much this autumn? and will he think me impertinent if I remind him of an ancient promise to use his brush in my favor? I find myself obliged to conclude, by the arrival of the post hour. Forgive the stupidity of this epistle, which however is what you asked for – very egotistical. With kindest regards from all here to your circle, Believe me always, my dear Gooden, Yours most sincerely Charles-Edward Stewart PS Queer doings in Downing Street, are they not? Popery is in the ascendant there, at all events! I congratulate the Cambridge town, for having shown the ‘marine’ Gibson the ‘ back o’ the geth’. Do you see anything of ‘Slip’ or his handsome daughter? If they are permanently in town, I shall take the benefit of some of his franks, and should do so with this, for I candidly do not think it worth postage. Adieu. 99 Alexander Gooden to [Robert Jenkins], 20 September 1839 Friday September 20th 1839 My dear Friend, My long silence with regard to you has lain very heavy upon my conscience and if anybody but you were concerned I should scarce have the courage to break it now or know how to begin my apologies for so long a suspension of our intercourse. This is however the very first time that I have sat down to write to any one except my father and mother, this whole vacation. I have been very, very hard at work and how ever great my forgetfulness of you has apparently been, believe me not a day has passed that I have not had you in my thoughts. I should be wronging our good understanding of each other if I were to lay more stress upon my apparent neglect but you may depend upon it that it has arisen from nothing but an overpressure of that employment which leaves nothing but moments without their task. The fruits I hope will appear in due season; but my diligence with whatever degree of success it may be attended, will never be matter of regret to me. I have not suffered in any respect as to health in consequence of my close application, although I am a little thin and out of condition. Most of my companions are dropping off now to recompense themselves for the self-restraint they have been under for the last three months. I have got work cut out which will keep me here till the 12th of October; in fact my requirements grow with my acquirements and a couple of years would not bring me to the end of the subjects a knowledge of which now appears indispensable to my success. However I believe acquisition is always the pleasanter part of possession and my classical labour is anything but distasteful to me. Pray excuse all this ‘self-seeking’ prate and remember where I have been in bonds.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 155 We have had a very pleasant party up here all the time; though my intercourse with them has not been very great. Taylor, Allan, Mate, Sheehan, Cubitt, Novelli50 and Pearson51 protem are no bad cohort of acquaintance. My friend Robinson too has been here sulking with his tutor and avoiding his society altogether for the last six weeks. Cubitt has just left us and the rest are going in the course of the week save Mate who has been down for a fortnight enjoying the piscatorial beauties of Taunton. I do not think any of them have been reading very hard; Taylor has been the most industrious but he begins to be afraid he has been taking it rather too easily. I have been reading with ∆οναλδσων52 and we have got on very fairly considering that our circumstances were likely enough to produce ‘friction’ if not ‘impact’ (You will see by this that my studies have been mechanical of late.) I will not tell you his opinion or any of the current reports of this lying place; for the fulfilment is so near at hand that prophecies may be spared. When do you come up for your phantom of an examination? Pray do not say or sing or sing another word of your turns; or I shall insult you for a nervous old gentlewoman. My good ‘forbears’ were with me last week. I hope you see enough of them not to make it news to you. I want a much fuller account of your Caledonian campaign than I have yet had. So prepare with anecdotes, journals, sketches etc. Above all write to me soon and give my kindest regards to all my excellent friends at 24 Nottingham Place Pray let me hear from you ere long – Ever affectionately yours A C Gooden 100 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 22 September 1839 Sunday. September 22nd 1839 My dear Mother, I trust you saw in the weather on Saturday and Sunday last nothing to make you regret leaving Cambridge sooner than you had intended; for my own part thinking that a good walk would be no bad conclusion to my week’s relaxation I set off with Mate and Allan for the fens and we had a stretch of 12 miles to the full, a very unusual circumstance with me lately and therefore I think worthy to be recorded. The rain did not come on till a little after 4 o’clock here, so that I trust my father did not experience any inconvenience from it. I sincerely hope that you find no reason to regret your visit to Cambridge and that my desire to procure you a little amusement will be taken for the ability. I have been very hard at work this week to make amends for the leisure I enjoyed last. I consider myself bound indeed to the utmost diligence whilst I stay here, and the moment I find myself tired out and unable to exert it, I shall transfer myself with all speed to Tavistock Square. Cubitt left on Friday for Brighton and the days of most of my friends are numbered; Mate however will not go away and I shall not want a ‘fen’t53 face’ or two besides. The result of the dahlia show was highly satisfactory to the charity
50 51 52 53
Augustus Henry Novelli, admitted to Trinity 1836, migrated to Pembroke 1839, re-admitted at Trinity 1840; BA 1843, MB 1846. Henry Hugh Pearson, admitted to Trinity 1836; composer of operas, oratorios and songs, under the name Pierson. J. W. Donaldson. Familiar.
156 The Letters for whose benefit it was devised and which was a gainer to the amount of some 200£ by your liberality. The theatre has been open this week and has proved so attractive to my friend Taylor that he has graced it with his presence, I think, every night. You would, I suppose, guess from the postmark that the letter which you were kind enough to forward me, was from Stewart. It appears that during the whole of July he was laid up with rheumatism, so severely tormented indeed that he could not hold a pen. He leaves Belladrum, soon after the Northern meeting and is to be in town by the 8th of October when he is anxious to see me. He pays a visit to his sister in Norfolk in November and intends to be in Cambridge for a day or two some time during that month. From what he says, though he does not directly state it, he seems to intend going overland to India, towards December or thereabouts. I wrote to Jenkins on Friday making my unfeigned apologies for so long a silence, which I hope will sit me right in that quarter. The B.A.’s whose Fellowship Examination begins to-morrow have been flocking up hither since last week and the Dons have gathered in the same proportion. The object of your long-deferred curiosity, Archdeacon Thorp is amongst the number in all his original bloom and vigour of mind. What news of Margate with James and how did his sketching prosper? was he, as usual, persecuted by the demon of the fog and the mist? I should have addressed my dear Father, had I had anything but these trivialities to communicate as it is, pray excuse them and do not think yourself insulted by my dedicating them to you. With kindest love to my dear Father and James Believe me ever, my dear Mother, Your affectionate and dutiful Son A C Gooden Trinity College Cambridge 101 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 6 October 1839 Sunday October 6th 1839 Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Mother, I trust you did not seriously expect me yesterday and were therefore not disappointed at my non-arrival. As I found I could without distressing myself pursue my reading for a few days longer, I thought it better to abide by my original resolution now that you had made your minds to it. Believe me I look forward with great pleasure and impatience to seeing you on Saturday and enjoying a short respite from my somewhat laborious vacation. These few lines are favoured by Stooks who now leaves Cambridge for good, his last chance of a fellowship having past. He says he was noway disappointed at the result and had certainly no right to be so, because there never was a probability of him succeeding. He is consoled however by the assurance of having distinguished himself in one of the subjects: and he has good reason for satisfaction in his own mind, in reflecting that his time and talents have been conscientiously and honourably employed during his residence here. He is going abroad, I believe, for the winter and for next summer too.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 157 Taylor has at length returned to the bosom of his family for a brief period; no doubt they were anxious to see him after an interval of 12 months from his last visit. He was very assiduous here in his attendance at the theatre and in writing critiques in the ‘Independent Press’ upon the performances there. It must be allowed that he is a very indulgent censor. You may judge after the disappearance of such a luminary that our society is somewhat dull; I have been very busy however and am therefore not so liable to feel these vicissitudes of companionship. The tradespeople are all painting, the rooms in college are being cleaned up, the bachelors have all vanished after receiving their quietus in the result of the Fellowship Examination and all is dull, meddling and uncomfortable except one’s own fireside. I enjoy the quiet of the place myself instead of missing the bustle. Cockburn was at Jersey, a fortnight ago, so far on his way homeward. His fellow-traveller Joyce, fired with a curiosity to visit regions more remote, is on his journey to Italy forgetting for the present Cambridge and its momentous distinctions, which will in all probability return the compliment and forget him. I intend to be very dissipated when I come to town and I therefore recommend you to qualify the household for late hours by an additional dose of sleep regularly administered each night this week. What a sleepy headed menage you must have, if John’s somnolency be a family complaint. I do not expect an answer to this, unless a marriage, earthquake or other unnatural event occur in our immediate vicinity. If so pray let me know in time, in order that my mind may be properly prepared. I wonder if James has been to ‘Madame Vertus’. Everybody here is raging like chained wild-beasts – because they know they cant get there. Meantime we too have a company who execute Shakespeare and no mistake! Pray excuse all this trumpery and give my kindest love to my dear Father and James whom I trust soon to embrace. Believe me, my dearest Mother, Your undutiful Son A C Gooden 102 Alexander Gooden to [Robert Jenkins], undated My dear Friend, You are indeed quite right in supposing that nothing but the torrents of rain this afternoon prevented me fulfilling my purpose of devoting it to you. Of your packet I know not what to say; the tracts I expected with pleasure but the beautiful present with which you thought fit to accompany them I received almost with pain. The kind words of your note would alone more than sufficiently repay any little service which it has been in my power to perform, the rest so much overpays them that it leaves me with almost a painful debt. I trust that I may have an opportunity some day of showing how deep an impression your kindness has left. Your commissions I shall with the greatest pleasure perform and it will not be long before I acquaint you with their results and other matters touching our common parent.54
54
Trinity College or Cambridge University.
158 The Letters Our united kindest regards to your circle; pray remember that you have no one out of your own family more deeply interested in all that regards you than your Affectionate friend and debtor Alex.r C Gooden. Monday Night 103 Alexander Gooden to Robert Jenkins, 6 October 1839 Sunday, October 6th 1839 My dear Friend, I have not been forgetful of the subject of your enquiries though my delay in satisfying them might seem to argue that I had been so. After various enquiries at the butteries, the clerk pointed out to me amongst the regulations for the Little Go printed in the calendar one article in which the second Monday in the Michaelmas term is appointed as the day of examination for those who have not undergone or passed that which takes place in the Lent Term. Now the 10th is the first day of term and consequently the second Monday in it is the 21st. If you are down here on Saturday therefore (the 19th) you will be in very good time; as for the rest, if you were to see the tranquillity with which Knox55 (who cannot be so well prepared as you) awaits this much-dreaded event, it would I think assuage your groundless apprehensions. With whatever degree of success it may be attended it will never be matter of regret to me. With regard to the second part of your interrogatories, ‘aliptes’ means ‘the attendant who used to anoint those who were going to bathe’, from λειφω, to anoint; of the second passage which is a little difficult I will transcribe a translation I got of it from Ottiwell Robinson, who has had it twice set viz. in the Little-Go and again in the College examination in June. Beginning ‘dixi me facere’ etc: ‘I said that I was doing something of the same kind as the Parasite recommends in Terence’s play of the Eunuch ‘Whenever your sweetheart mentions Phaedria, do you immediately talk of Pamphilia’; when she says ‘Let us introduce Phaedria to banquet’ do you say ‘Let us call on Pamphilia for a song’; if she praises Phaedria’s person, do you praise Pamphilia’s; in a word give her tit for tat, to annoy her’.56 I hope this will remove all your difficulties, but if there be anything more to solve I shall have an opportunity next week at looking at it beside you. I adhere to my original determination of being in town on Saturday next. You may perhaps have seen in the list of newly elected fellows the name of Brownlow Maitland57 inserted. It is as you may suppose a mistake for John G. Maitland58 the
55 56 57 58
Alexander Andrew Knox, admitted to Trinity 1837; BA 1844, MA 1847. In the Eunuch, Pamphilia is the object of desire for a soldier and Phaedria the soldier’s rival for her affections. Brownlow Maitland, admitted to Trinity 1833; elected Scholar 1836; BA 1837 (7th Wrangler), MA 1840. John Gorham Maitland, admitted to Trinity 1835; elected Scholar 1837; Bell Scholar 1836, Chancellor’s Classical Medallist 1839; BA 1839 (7th Wrangler, 3rd Classic), MA 1842; elected Fellow 1839.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 159 man who was 7th Wrangler and a medallist last year. Poor Howson is very much disappointed and no wonder after receiving so much encouragement to hope for success. Most of our friends have departed for the present, Taylor and Allan are gone; but yesterday brought up R. Ellis who has been staying at Dover and complains much as usual. I have had no opportunity of talking to him since his arrival as his father accompanied him here and has of course not left yet. Joyce was the latest of accounts at Turin, on his way to Italy; you will easily conclude that he is not to be here next Term. He says he intends to ask leave to degrade, but it will be very uncertain whether he will obtain it and even if he does there will be but little inducement for him to go out in honors. Cockburn was at Jersey a fortnight ago, so far on his way home; he intends, I believe, to take his degree at Christmas. So that there is a regular pair of shipwrecks. Jebb returned here on Friday, a fortnight sooner than he expected and also Hume under similar circumstances. I might add there is another pair of shipwrecks by way of pendant. Novelli is on the eve of migrating to Pembroke. Pearson and Nox 59 remain as at the last quotation; the latter really deserves to lose the initial K, for his unnatural preference for darkness over daylight. With kindest regards to all your circle, believe me, my dear Friend, though in very narrow compass, Ever yours A C Gooden 104 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 28 October 1839 Trinity College, Cambridge 28th October 1839 My dear Mother, The Telegraph deposited its valuable charge here in perfect safety on Tuesday last as you may infer from once more seeing these erratic characters wandering in search of something to say over this borrowed sheet. The only consolation I can offer you for the atmosphere of London (supposing it is to continue as I left it) is that we retained the same obscurity all the way hither and emerged at last as Children of the Mist. My accomplished faiseur Mr Thompson occupied the box-seat and was really much pleasanter company than many who disdain the shears. I found all ready for my arrival and was in time enough moreover to dine in Hall, which presented a very different appearance from that under which I saw it last. It is disagreeably crowded at present and betwixt freshmen and waiters you have enough to do to elbow your way. I found Cockburn here looking very well and in very good spirits notwithstanding the blank prospect of subjects which have not been read and those which have been read only to be forgotten. Neither he nor his companion could find time for reading so Joyce has pushed on to Italy to avoid ‘the gulph’ (v. James) and Cockburn has returned to reap the laurels of a Senior Op. I wish we could manage to join forces as we might eke out something respectable between us but I am afraid the examiners would not recognize this principle of incorporation. Taylor returned from the tranquil bosom of his native Sunderland positively blooming – a little of the coal-bloom too – and Allan Robinson and all my other friends look as if they have been recreating themselves with astonishing
59
A. A. Knox, mentioned in (102).
160 The Letters success. I must tell you too that I got complimented on my looks and candidly I think I deserved the compliment. I am now very well and in the best of good spirits notwithstanding my mathematical cares present and to come. I can only tell you that I have been up at 7 every morning since I came and have not opened anything but mathematical books till today which being Sunday I thought it but fair as a recompense to resolution for his good behaviour, to indulge in a mild draught of Tully’s entire.60 I have got much to do that requires a good stomach – for it is unpalatable stuff to my classic taste – and a strong purpose. I think I can answer for the latter and I hope the former will use me genteelly. Likewise I have taken a walk every day and hope to be able to continue it. I walked the other day to Trumpington in a shower of rain and a heavy great coat and spoiled my hat; which however will be an encouragement to wearing my cap and gown. I should be glad enough of the boots which were to come for my stock is not very strong and scarcely comes up to water-proof. My aunt was going to give a letter of introduction to a certain distinguished member of Trinity College, to the young man at Caius – Kendal61 I think his name was. If she has, neither he nor it have come yet. If it was expected or would relieve the bearer of any embarrassment I would call first. But I cannot until I know more of the matter. Jenkins is all a-blowing and a growing having sprouted into a Senior Soph and passed his Little Go. I have got a souvenir for my dear father from the Archdeacon, which I wait for a private opportunity of forwarding as I deem 8d an unnecessary addition to the impost. You see how empty a letter I have written and have yet managed to get so far as this, I am very much afraid that it will justify the general character which is given to ‘easy writing’. With kindest love to my dear Father and James Believe me, Ever my dearest Mother Your unfortunate Son A C Gooden Questionist 105 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 10 November 1839 Monday November 10th 1839 Trinity College Cambridge My dear Father, Days and weeks roll on without bringing any novelty or trait worth mentioning and yet with unperceived marks of variety that only have the effect of making the time seem to pass quickly. At present I mark the progress of time only as bringing me nearer and nearer to the all-important trial of January and though this is of course the uppermost of my thoughts, it does not thank God disturb my cheerfulness or distract my attention. I have allowed myself rather too brief a space for making preparation for this contest, but I can comfort myself with the reflection that my time has been taken from the subjects of mathematical examination only to be employed on those where success was much more valuable and certain. I am working away for a Senior Optime with the
60 61
Tully, a nickname for Marcus Tullius Cicero. Daniel Burton Kendell [sic], admitted to Caius 1837; MB 1847.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 161 consciousness of running great risk of disappointment, but my only chance is to persevere in my effort, which may possibly be successful. I cannot spend the same number of hours in mathematical as in classical reading; but this is not peculiar to me and I put on as much steam as the engineers consider safe at present. I was at a wine party at Thorp’s a few days ago, where I met Donaldson and various others. Both he and the Archdeacon were very polite and talked most flatteringly of my probable success at the Classical Tripos examination. The latter gave me a gentle reminder too on the subject of the more immediate danger, where he confessed however he has no fear of me but rather quaked for his dirty genius – Neale. My friend Walton has an intention of offering himself as a candidate for one of the masterships at Sandhurst, not however with the intention of accepting it, but in order to obtain an introduction to some of those concerned with it in case he should feel inclined to take a situation there at some future period. He is going to town tomorrow to reconnoître the place from thence. I am afraid he is too much a philosopher to become much addicted to practical gunnery or the science of fortification. I have exchanged cards with Vigurs – not in a hostile sense62 – but have not been fortunate enough to meet him. I called at his rooms again yesterday evening and was informed by his bed-maker that he was expected back in the course of the evening from town – where it seems he had gone up a few days before. I suspect his concerns with the harbour are important and require constant attention. Most of my friends are like myself in various states of trepidation and preparation. Ellis girding himself up – I hope to be Senior Wrangler. Mate preparing something 7 or 8 places lower. Cockburn endeavouring to redeem the time which he spent in studying Spanish and climbing the Pyrenees; and Taylor a little worse off, I take it, than myself. Jenkins, as usual very busy in running about from one room to another and rather scandalised when told that he is never to be found at home. He introduced me some little time ago to a young friend of his named Dickinson63 whose father was for many years M.P. for Somersetshire. He seems a fine lad, but I have seen but little of him having no time, this term at least to cultivate new acquaintances. I read a little classics at odd hours, as after 10 at night, on Sundays at breakfast and so forth; and have been at Chapel every morning this fortnight till today when I found it necessary to take some medicine. Having told you all my state physical and intellectual you must not complain if this is a very stupid letter and a great tax upon your time and patience. With kindest love to my dear Mother and James and in the hope of speedily hearing from some one of you. Believe me, my dear Father Ever your affectionate and dutiful Son A C Gooden
62 63
That is, not for a duel. Edmund Henry Dickinson, admitted to Trinity 1838; BA 1843; JP for Somerset.
162 The Letters 106 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 24 November 1839 Sunday November 24th /39 Trinity College Cambridge My dear Father, I am certainly to blame for not putting you in full possession of my situation with regard to Walton before this, although not so culpable as you seem to think. The extract from the Statutes applies only to college bills and not to accounts with private tutors. As a last resource I wrote to Mr Thorp requesting he would permit the sum to be paid in to his banker’s under his (Mr T’s) name for Walton’s use. He very politely and promptly assented and remarked that it would have appeared in its proper place in his quarterly bills, if Walton had sent in my name as he does those of all his other pupils at the end of every term. The original fault therefore rests with Walton although I ought certainly to have seen it set to rights before. What remains is due to him for the Long Vacation and shall make its appearance in the next College Bill. I took advantage of the above mentioned worthy’s visit to Sandhurst to catch cold and as my stomach got wrong at the same time I was very unwell and dispirited all the week. Castor oil however and other strong measures killed and cured me and I have been as well as ever since Saturday week. I have indeed need of good health and good spirits to battle against the approaching examinations. That for mathematical honours commences on the 6th of January and as it is of vital importance I cannot please myself with the idea of visiting home except it be to take my Christmas dinner with you, which I shall by all means endeavour to accomplish. The interval between that and the Classical Tripos examination is very brief and I must make the most of it by rubbing up my Classical reading which I am necessitated at present to discontinue. I trust however that the importance of the occasion and the circumstance of its never occurring again will reconcile you to an absence in which I am indeed equally concerned. Walton was the best of the candidates for the vacant situation at Sandhurst and intends to accept a similar situation which will become vacant in July. In the meantime the present appointment goes to one of our B.A’s named Barton64 who was an old school-fellow of mine in Gower Street. Burcham has applied for testimonials to the College previous to going into orders and been refused; he is to be ordained however by his friend the Bishop of Hereford65 who waives the usual etiquette and has a better opinion of his conduct and future than Dr Wordsworth and Mr Carus. He is, I doubt not, very much annoyed both at the necessity he is in of taking orders to keep his fellowship and at the affront he has received, which he ascribes to political hostility and private enmity. I am very sorry for the situation he has placed himself in, but his conduct cannot be defended as a matter of principle. My dear Mother need not trouble herself about sending papers as I am now a member of the Union. I am very sorry to hear of James’s reception at the Busk’s; but I do not see that he has any occasion to blame himself. I think he has acted throughout with perfect propriety and gentlemanly delicacy of behaviour. I cannot conclude
64 65
Charles Howard Barton, admitted to Trinity 1833; elected Scholar 1836; BA 1837 (12th Wrangler), MA 1848. Thomas Musgrave.
Senior Sophister, 1838–40 163 without expressing how deeply I feel all the kindness and affectionateness of your last letter and how exceeding a happiness I account it that such love and confidence exists in those to whom I am indebted for everything I possess. With kindest love to my dear Mother and James, Believe me my dear Father, Ever your affectionate and dutiful Son A C Gooden 107 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 9 December 1839 Monday December 9th 1839 My dear Mother, There were several reasons which induced me to violate my established order of writing according to which you would have had a fourpenny forfeit this morning. The chief amongst them was my desire to let you know with certainty the day on which I could arrange to be with you, as I have since last writing seen grounds to alter my purpose with respect to spending my Xmas day at home. It is exactly four weeks from this day to the Degree Examination and to divide that period on the 25th would not be a very good or harmonious distribution of the time. Walton recommends a break of a day or two, earlier, and on considering his advice I think it will be more advantageous to me and I trust in no way inconvenient to you. I purpose therefore to be at home on Friday evening next and on the road to Cambridge again on Monday. This will give me a day longer than I should get on the other plan and I hope will not occasion any disturbance or confusion in your arrangements. Excuse all this prolixity about so apparently unimportant a matter and consider rather the nervous anxiety to economise time and gratify ones inclinations incidental to an incipient B.A. Archdeacon Thorp – to add the weight of tutorial authority to my proposals – approves of my having a little relaxation. I cannot say I have worked very hard this term, because I think that a man never does his energies full justice unless he works con amore and it is too much to expect that I should fall in love with the mathematical sciences on so short and compulsory an acquaintance. I have done however all that I could and at least not allowed other pursuits to interfere with my studies in that direction. The Examination lasts, with two intervals of a day, from Monday the 6th to Monday the 13th of January inclusive. The lists are out on the Thursday following and the degrees taken by such as are entitled, on the Friday or Saturday I rather think. When you consider that this is a purely mathematical examination where all however various their attainments are submitted to the same rigour of scrutiny, you will not wonder that men in my situation are fidgety and anxious about it. I formally notified my friend Walton of the payment of the £35 and cautioned him to be on his ps and qs with men of business who were not sufficiently mathematical to be negligent of arithmetical sums and cases of compound interest. I was surprised on Saturday evening by a visit from my little flaxen-haired friend Elliot.66 He stopped here on his way to Bury whither he proceeded this morning to bid adieu to his sister who is married to a gentleman of property in that neighbourhood. He is now an ensign in the Company’s service and will in all probability be Stewart’s
66
Edmund Elliot, admitted to Trinity 1838; did not graduate; entered the East India Company’s service.
164 The Letters companion in his voyage down the Red Sea. How strange a feeling to think that the person you shake hands with at the corner of Jesus Lane will in six weeks be gazing on the pyramids – that the boy you have been accustomed to look around for in the College Chapel is to be the denizen of almost a different world and familiar with scenes and society which are never destined to meet your eye. He is certainly a kind-hearted fellow and a very pleasant companion. I hope however to have one more glimpse of him on Saturday or Sunday next. I need not say, I hope, that I rejoice at the prospect of even a brief sojourn at home. The first idea of it which did not occur till yesterday put me in high spirits, but thinking of changes past present and to come has somewhat over-cast my pleasurable feelings. My friend Jenkins is my companion inside on Friday. With kindest love to my dear Father and James to whom indeed alike I regard my scribblings as addressed, I remain, my dearest Mother Ever your affectionate and dutiful Son A.C.G
Alexander Gooden BA, 1840–41
108 Robert Jenkins to Mary Gooden, 18 January 1840 Nottingham Place, Saturday morning My dear Madam I cannot and I am sure I need not tell you with what excessive delight I received Alexander’s note this morning. There is this feeling without [sic] one of great thankfulness to the Almighty for crowning with such even unlooked for success the meritorious labours of my dear friend for so many years. May he go on and prosper as he so well deserves and may this reward of his exertions sweeten and encourage his future labours – I am so overjoyed that I scarce know what I wrote but I trust you will excuse the imperfections of this letter which far too inadequately expresses my feelings and Believe me, my dear Madam, Your very faithful and obliged Robert C Jenkins 109 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 19 January 1840 January 19th 1840, Trinity College Cambridge My dear Father, I hope you will not be alarmed at hearing from me so soon or imagine that I have become infected with a cacoethes scribendi1 in consequence of my newly acquired dignity. You owe this letter I can assure you entirely to these abominable P.O. regulations which tempt one by the cheapness of postage2 to scribble when in the humour for it ‘quodcumque in hiccam venerit.’3 I got here at about 2 o’clock yesterday morning after a not disagreeable journey. My companion – Law – is one of the disappointed (and with reason indeed) and I therefore had no one to share my selfish joy at obtaining the distinguished honour of 69th S. O.4 Ellis’s triumph has been complete. He headed the Caius champion by 300 marks and the Johnian Senior Wrangler elect by nearly 1000.5 The Examiners were all greatly struck by his extraordinary knowledge and philosophical maturity of mind. We gave
1 2 3 4 5
‘Verbal diarrhoea’. The penny post was initiated in 1840. ‘Hiccam’ is a mistake for ‘buccam’, literally ‘whatever comes into one’s mouth’. The phrase is found in Cicero’s letters. Senior Optime. Cambridge honours examinations of the mid-century, especially in mathematics, were marked out of a total mark of many thousands.
166 The Letters him yesterday a long continued and stormy thunder of applause.6 The congregation in other respects passed off more quietly than was anticipated; the tutors of the several colleges had previously used their influence with their pupils to spare the obnoxious proctor and his most active enemies were none of them up. The Father of the College Mr T. B. Burcham gave a breakfast to his sons on Saturday morning, at which I was present. Thorp came into the room to speak to some of his pupils but Burcham treated him so uncivilly that he soon took himself off. I was sorry to see so little restraint observed between them. Burcham attributes to the Archdeacon the refusal of his College testimonials and has ceased to keep any terms with him. Thorp’s appearance in the circumstances was certainly in very bad taste as Burcham was to all intents and purposes the entertainer, though not in his private capacity. My friends are all satisfied with their places except Mate who came to see me after my arrival at about 3 o’clock in the morning. He had been at a supper party sipping away his cares and drowning his mortification in punch. The party was so extremely disposed to mirth that they had all blackened their faces and Mate among the rest wore a pair of smudgy moustachios and most Persic eyebrows. I endeavoured to console him but could scarcely refrain from laughing most uproariously at the contrast between his rueful expression of half-crying disappointment and the truculent ferocity of the rest of his visage. He has plucked up his spirits however and is resolved not to give way to his disappointed feelings. I must say that although he is lower by four or five places than he might have been, his own mortification is much greater than the surprise of other people. Pray excuse this rambling letter and with kindest love to all, Believe me, my dear Father Ever your affectionate and dutiful Son A C Gooden PS For Mother. I have left some things behind amongst the rest Cicero’s ‘Brutus’. Pray be kind enough to send it with the chapeau. 110 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 3 February 1840 February 3rd 1840, Trinity College Cambridge My dearest Mother, I have not time to write you the full complement of a sheet this evening but in order that you may not swear at me tomorrow morning, I send you this jury-rigged epistle to excuse myself. I really cannot tell you the precise day when I may be expected. All I know I will lay before you. Tomorrow week the Classical Tripos examination commences and ends on Friday; the Monday next following I believe is the examination for the medals7 and that is over also on Friday or possibly Thursday. I am working away to the best of my ability but there is little to be done in so short a time. I will write my father a full account of my prospects as far as I can divine on Sunday next. But he must not be disappointed if I am anywhere amongst the first three.
6 7
The Senior Wrangler was customarily received with great clamour. The Chancellor’s Classical Medals were established in 1751 by Thomas Holles Pelham, Duke of Newcastle. Each year gold medals were given to the two best classicists from among the Wranglers and Senior Optimes of the recent Mathematical Tripos.
Alexander Gooden BA, 1840–41 167 With kindest love to my dear Father and James, believe me my dear Mother, though in haste, Ever your affectionate Son, A C Gooden Sunday Evening 111 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 9 February 1840 Trinity College, Cambridge Feby. 9th. /40 My dear Father, I am very much your debtor for the affectionate and interesting letter which so much overpaid my hasty scrawl. If I had wanted anything to make me easy with respect to the examination I am so soon to enter upon, the manner in which you express yourself with regard to it would have completely assured and encouraged me. As I now feel quite confident that be the result what it may you will feel no disappointment or vexation I shall go in with a light heart and cheerful resolution to make the best possible fight. Tomorrow being the marriage day of Her Most Gracious Majesty the examiners have gallantly resolved to let it be a day of good-humour and enjoyment to all classes of her subjects and have consequently deferred examining operations till Tuesday. This I am rather glad of because the ringing of bells and other testimonies of public joy are not the most agreeable sound to be dinning in your ears whilst seated at an Examination paper. With regard to the prospects of this important examination I do not know exactly what I can add of new to the information you are already possessed of. The man who has the public voice with him for head of the Tripos is France of St John’s. He is from all accounts a very good man: not particularly striking in any one kind of classical accomplishment but good uniformly and in all. Latin verse I believe is his weak side, so that so far as that goes the struggle is not an unfair one. I confess that I should give up all thoughts of rivalling him, if he were known to be strong in this. The other candidate for the primacy is Hodson of this College who is also a very good Scholar and a clever man. I am, what Donaldson calls, a dark horse in consequence of my not going into the last University scholarship examination, as he thinks. That step I have never regretted and do not now. But he seems to think it a matter of some consequence. I know that his private opinion of my own chance is very favourable but he is of course reluctant to commit himself by comparing me with men of whom he has no experience and when the result will so very soon speak for itself. Allan is not by any means secure of a first class which will be as a disappointment if it should, as I hope it will not, turn out to be the case. Taylor’s operations I do not know anything of; but I have a high opinion of his success in examinations and his general quickness and ability. I did indeed look for your name amongst those who had shown their disapprobation of the tyrannical behaviour of the H. of C. by paying their respects to the Sherriffs. They have at least passed over the name of one independent conservative, a compliment which could not be paid to many of the more distinguished visitors. I shall drop a ticket down for my dear Mother as I have only left myself room to assure you that I remain, my dearest Father, Your affectionate and dutiful Son A C Gooden Feby 9th.
168 The Letters 112 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 9 February 1840 My dear Mother, I shall be most happy to dine with you on the 25th or any other day. I cannot make a distinctively positive promise because I cannot answer for events and something might occur which even you might consider as a valid excuse for dissolving our engagement. For any particular day I have at present no reason to think that I shall be required to be in Cambridge at that period. I heard from Jenkins of your encounter with Lady Ramsay8 and the hostile chieftainess the other evening. Did it fire your Highland blood or did you amicably embrace ‘your nearest and dearest’? (v. Miss Falkner I mean the blarneying governess) I long for a description of the appalling scene. Will you have the kindness to enclose me the remaining £10 of my quarter salary in order that I may discharge my obligation to Donaldson. I am quite as sorry as Miss Alice M’Leod could be that I was not able to answer for myself in her drawing room where I daresay you had a very pleasant party, Pray remember me to Louis Le Bel when you see him and give my kindest love to James with my congratulati the success of his picture. may depend upon it that the only way to stop these noxious chiondings9 will be to take J.H. to dinner. He has found out a way of recanting your neglect. Pray excuse this undutiful scrawl which is another consequence of Lord John’s odious charge.10 You see examination and much scribbling are revising the distinctiveness of my hand. Believe me ever my dear Mother Your affectionate Son A C Gooden Trinity College Cambridge, Monday 9th Feb /40 113 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 17 February 1840 Monday February 17th/40 My dear Mother, I have to acknowledge with many thanks for the promptitude with which my request was answered, the receipt of the note which I lost no time in applying to the purpose indicated in my letter. The examination for the Classical Tripos concluded on Saturday and left me pretty well tired as you may easily suppose. The hours were from 9 to 1⁄2 past 11 in the morning and from 1⁄2 past 12 to 1⁄2 past 3 in the afternoon. The time does not appear very long but as every minute of it is occupied and only the most diligent writing could accomplish what was required within the appointed period, it was pretty hard work, I can assure you. I think the papers were good and though a little higher style would perhaps have suited me individually better, I have no cause whatever to accuse them. You must not imagine from this that I floored them without mistake and called for harder ones. On the contrary, I have made a very fair quantity of slips, blunders and errors, some perhaps owing to the shortness of time and the necessity of making up ones mind on
8 9 10
Jane Ramsay, wife of Sir James Ramsay of Bamff House. Perhaps ‘shindies’, i.e. rows. The penny post.
Alexander Gooden BA, 1840–41 169 a point instanter, some of ignorance, others of carelessness. On the whole however, I do not know that I would reasonably have expected to do better, and I believe that none, not even the best men, are immaculate under these circumstances. I was not particularly fortunate in meeting with passages with which I was previously acquainted, but on the other hand I was not regularly sold 11 (as we call it here) in any one paper. I did everything except a part of the Latin verse composition paper. The result will, I presume, be known in about a fortnight. It is of no use speculating about it. The Medal examination comes on exactly this day three weeks, a most < . . . > and comfortable interval. If you really and decidedly wish me to fulfil my engagement on the 25th, I will make it a point of honour and conscience to do so. But if this be not the case, I would rather have the whole time to prepare myself by moderate and judicious reading for that examination. I leave it entirely in your hands. I shall do nothing but practice composition in the interval. Vigurs has just left me after an hour and a half’s chat. He returns to London tomorrow morning and does not meditate coming up to Cambridge again till October but of course you are aware of all his movements. I do not see that there will be any necessity for my staying here after the 10th of March when the Medal examination is over, and from that time till the very end of April I desire to enjoy myself at 33 T.S. The Classical Tripos will in a great measure decide the fate of the other and I shall therefore have little anxiety on the subject. I am glad to hear that James is busy and satisfyingly employed. With kindest love to my dear Father and Him. Believe me ever, My dearest Mother Your affectionate Stumpy P.S. Pray do not insist to my proposing to Miss Chisholm.12 I am not at all uncomfortably anxious, so do not think I am becoming wan and shadowy. Au contraire I am very well. Jenkins is always with me, sometimes we have a little de trop of him. But he is the kindest of earth-born creatures. 114 Alexander Gooden to Mary Gooden, 28 February 1840 Trinity College, Cambridge Friday, February 28th 1840 My dear Mother, I have to acknowledge the receipt of the very kind and serviceable remembrancer which accompanied your last letter. To say that I was in want of it would argue that I had been more extravagant than usual; to affirm that I regarded it with indifference would be a hitch of philosophy beyond the reach of a Cambridge B.A. even. I think I can promise you the pleasure of my company on the 15th of March, tomorrow fortnight as I take it. I fidgeted myself a good deal in picking up rumours respecting the C.T. last week; but as I found that the examiners were determined to keep their own secret,
11 12
Found wanting. Jemima Chisholm, daughter of Mary Gooden’s uncle William.
170 The Letters I gave over in despair and am now in a state of indifferent quiet; in fact I have returned to my usual studies. We are not as yet aware when the result will be made known but I am afraid we shall be kept in suspense some time longer. I have hopes I shall work up to second. The medallic examination commences on Monday week and I strongly suspect the Classical Tripos examiners will keep their lists close till that is over as I take it that it will be on Friday. I have one of Thorp’s billets doux for my father but shall reserve it till I can send him something to sweeten the unpalatable draught. The Cambridge procession to wait upon the Queen13 was I hear, a very turbulent affair. Order was very well preserved during the march, but the moment the palace was entered a rush took place. The Officers of the Household aghast at the struggle demanded whether such were the manners of gentlemen of the University of Cambridge, and whether they would persist in rendering necessary the Metropolitan Police? So in they rushed pell mell into the presence of the Queen who was vastly tickled at the scene. The address having been read, the rear-ranks, who had not been able to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty and who were determined not to depart till they had satisfied their curiosity, refused to budge at the signal for retiring. The front-ranks who according to court usage ought to have retired keeping their faces to the Queen could not stir in consequence of the obstinate standstill of their supporters; and the Officers were obliged to importune the gentlemen of the University with remonstrances – would they not retire? would they fatigue her Majesty etc before the procession either would or could evacuate their position. I daresay such scenes are common enough when such large and tumultuous bodies of men wait upon royalty. However the decorous newspapers of course pass them over. We are wholly without news here: in fact the glorious uncertainty of the Tripos keeps most people in hopes and fears without anything else and I am afraid that they are very little interesting to other people. I shall not return to Cambridge probably till the end of April, so that you will have enough of me, if not too much by that time. My future plans will of course be regulated in great measure by the result of this examination. I place little reliance on the medal examination where they set original Latin prose and verse composition and the examiners are a rotten set. Scholefield and Thorp are the best. Your friend Mr Crick is a most ignorant man and a very unfair examiner; at least to be a Johnian is the highest merit in his eyes. You may judge what chance I stand. With kindest love to my dear Father and James (to whom I consider this valuable epistle as equally addressed) Believe me, ever, my dearest Mother Your affectionate and dutiful Stumpy
13
A deputation of some 500 Cambridge men visited London to present an address to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her marriage. See Romilly’s Cambridge Diary 1832–42, p. 189.
Alexander Gooden BA, 1840–41 171 115 James Gooden to Alexander Gooden, 12 March 1840 Tavistock Square Thursday 12 March 1840 My dear Alick, You have been constantly in my thoughts since the commencement of the week, believing that it was the commencement of your Medal examinations, and I have often found myself repeating for you Virgil’s Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem!14 Be that as it may however, I trust that your labours by the time that you receive this, will have terminated, or at all events be in their last stage or syncope of existence. And whatever the result may prove, I offer my hearty congratulations on their termination. The Tripos, we understand here, will be declared tomorrow, and if there is any truth in what, entre nous, I hear Mr Gunning15 told the Wilsons, you have in Cambridge phraseology floored France in Greek composition and that you are there without a rival; but that F. has displayed great general acquirements: the award however was still sub judice. By this time I suppose you may know it; but if not, you will surely bring it with you at the latest on Saturday: if not, nevertheless come without it, for I am anxious to have a cawing with you and I can promise you a civil reception from your Mother. James you will not find quite so well in health as he might be: but he has lately had two of his productions admitted to the Suffolk exhibition and went yesterday to varnish them. He had finished a third (they are all small affairs and he makes light amount of them) but the frame-maker sent him a frame which proved too small and it could not therefore be presented along with the others. Your friend Mr Long is hardly less anxious than ourselves to hear of you – you will be glad to know that Mrs L. appears fairly to have outwitted the Doctors and is gone for a short visit to Highgate for the change of air etc. I will not forestall anything farther, as we look to seeing you so soon. If this therefore should leave you under some disappointment by its brevity – thank the whig-radicals for their liberality in exposing you to unconsidered impertinence: but believe me my dear boy Yours most af[f]ectionately J.G. 116 Alexander Gooden to James Gooden, 12 March 1840 Thursday March 12/40. Trinity College, Cambridge My dear Brother, I send for the inspection of the household the Classical Tripos List which after many tedious delays and postponements was promulgated this morning. I hope that as there is no place higher than first mine will give satisfaction although the dignity be shared with another.
14 15
Virgil, Eclogue 10.1, ‘Here at the end, allow me one last labour, Arethusa’. Probably Henry Gunning, admitted to Christ’s 1784, elected a Scholar the same year; BA 1788 (5th Wrangler), MA 1791; Senior Esquire Bedell 1827–54; author of Reminiscences of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1854).
172 The Letters I have the satisfaction to know that the examiners were highly pleased with me and that although I stand aequalis with France there was not one but thought I had displayed greater abilities and higher scholarship. The only thing that caused us to be bracketed was his doing a copy of Alcaics which got him 25 marks more than me who could only find time to finish a stanza and a half – the rest of the paper being elegiacs, where I was equal with him. In all the other composition I beat him, though in the iambics we were neck and neck. My great triumph was in making a convert of his private tutor Benge Kennedy16 who was extravagantly delighted with a copy of anapaests (Greek) which I sent in. He gave me full marks for them and he desired Donaldson to tell me that he thought them the best he had ever seen. He likewise did me the honour to say that Wood17 and I were by far the cleverest men of the year. The number of brackets is quite unprecedented but I am happy to learn that the first quite ran away from all the rest. You will think the Trinity show very small. We have lost two first classes – one by Marsh who was taken ill with the measles the first day and the other by Neale who was plucked. I am sorry to say that Monday is the earliest day I can be at home, as the medal examination continues throughout Saturday. The liberal and gentlemanly Mr Crick has announced his intention of voting for the two Johnians France and Wood, whatever may be the merits of the other candidates: for which reason I call him a pitiful scoundrel. Cockburn left us all in a hurry yesterday afternoon to catch the Edinburgh steamer which sailed at night. He cannot take his degree till next term and will come up for that purpose: but otherwise his Cambridge life is one of the things that were. Taylor is satisfied and Allan desperately sold. However he is going away probably to be second master of Repton Grammar-School which will suit him very well. With kindest love to my dear Father and Mother Believe me ever, my dear James Your affectionate Brother A C Gooden 117 Robert Jenkins to James Gooden, 15 March 1840 Trinity College, March 15, 1840 My dear Sir I can no longer adding my warmest and most heartfelt congratulations and sympathy to those which must by this
