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                              The Shirkov Parish.

    To the north - west of Tver among The Valdai Hills, which are covered with

 confferous and deciduous forest, there is a long chain offour lakes, formed

 from the river Volga: the Sterzh, Vseloog, Peno and Volgo. These are the upper

 reaches of the great Russian River Volga. Until the middle of the 19th centory

 the river was not abundant in water, but in 1843 a dam was built below the

 present Volgo lake which caused this formation of lakes (The dam was recon -

 structed in 1943).

    The Upper Volga is interesting not only for its picturesque suroundings but

 also for its reach history. In early prehistoric times - mainly during the

 Stone Age and the Broze Age - this area was already populated by hunters and

 fishermen.

    The ancient Pinns were the first inhabitants of this territory for many

 centuries. From the 9th century the Slav tribe, Lreeveech lived here, but from

 the 12th century onwards the Novgorod Slav community was the main population.

 This land has witnessed many important events of our history such as internal

 feuds between Princes; Khan Batu"s invasion; and the long and stubborn struggle

 against Lithuanian and Polish invaders. The oldest paths of trading ran across

 this territory. The land knew periods of flourishing as well as periods of de-

 vastation. Nowdays it is a picturesque region ideal for rest and tourism. Many

 old relicts and monuments of various ages have been well preserved.

    One of the most beautiful spots of the Upper Volga is on the Vseloog lake.

 In ancient times there were settlements and a heathen temple here. Today one

 can see the Shirkov Parish. For three centuries it has been standing in full

 harmony with the rivers, boundless fore4st and vast skies. Nature and archi-

 tecture in harmony.

    The origin of the name of grave - yard is unknown. The unique Shirkiov ar-

 chitecture was created by nameless masters. In an old contract, drawn up by

 the carpenter"s team, who were to build the church, there was the following

 recommendation: " Build a temple as large and beautiful as your senses command"

 These words show the character of Russian wooden architecture at its best. The

 ability of our ancestors to select the sites for their settlements and churches

 is also well known.

    The wooden Ioan Predtechy church is the oldest monument in the Shirkon Pa -

 rish. It is considered to be finest piece of national wooden architecture. The

 best traditions of Russian carpenters are exemplified in this masterpiece. It

 is a peasant"s spacimen of beauty born in daily work and in permanent contact

 with the field, forest, rivers and village houses. Creatness and simplicity,

 power and elegance go together simultaneously.

    The Ioan Predtechy church is the most interesting wooden tier church of the

 " tetrehedron on a tetrehedron" style. As far back as 1887 it was noted that

 " as for Russian architecture, the exterior of the church is unusual and of

 great interest". This style of church was popular in former times. Thus we

 known about the existance of similar churches in the Nilowa Stolbenskaya her -

 mitage from the middle of the 17th centory.

    According to the certifecate compiled by the priest of Shirkov church Illy-

 nsky, in respose to a census, offered by the Emperor of the Archaeological Co-

 mission of the Academy of Arts in 1880s on the basis of the clerge register (

 which unfortunately has not been preserved), the church is dated from 1694.

                        THE UNIVERSITIES in IRELAND.

            In the turbulent centures that followed the Norman invasi-

        on, several  efforts  were  made to establish  universities in

        Ireland. In 1311, John de Leah, Archbishop of Dublin, obtained

        a bull from Pope Clement V authorizing him to establish a uni-

        versity in Dublin, but he died before anithing could be accom-

        plished. An attempt was made in 1465 to  found a university in

        Drogheda; this was to be endowed, as far as the  Prliament  of

        the England Pale could do it, with all the rights and privile-

        ges of the university of Oxford. The parliament  concerned was

        presided over by Tomas, Earl of Desmond; two ears later he was

        attainted and beheaded, his estates were confiscated, and once

        more the idea of a university came to nothing.At last,in 1591,

        the idea was realized.

                         TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

            In that year a group of Dublin citixents obtained  a char-

        ter from Queen Elizabeth  I incorporating Trinity College as a

        mater universitatis. By this term they envisaged that a  group

        of university colleges would sterm from  Trinity in the conti-

        nental and English style;owing to the course of Tudor and sub-

        sequent Irish history that ideal has not yet been realized.The

        Corporation of Dublin granted to the new  foundation the lands

        and dilapidated buldings of the Monastery of All Hallows,lying

        south-east of the  sity  walls  Subscriptions were raised from

        among the  principal  gentleman of each  country, who had been

        invited to assist  the new college to the benefit of the whole

        country, whereby Knowlege, Learning and Civility may be incre-

        ased,to the banishment of barbarism,tumults and disorderly li-

        ving from among them. A number of  landed estates were secured

        to the College out of the confiscations which followed the de-

        feat northen Earls.

            The university was  designed to encourage  English culture

        in Ireland,and to promote the reformed religion in it's statu-

        tory form,so that it's establishment afforded no opportunities

        for higher  education to  recusant bodies, whether Catholic or

        Dissenting. The college survived the storms of the Cromwellian

        and  Revolution periods, and settled down as the university of

        the  colonial  ascendancy, taking it's tone  from the new Whig

        society,mainly mercantile and nouveau riche,which had been put

        in power by the  Williamite victory. Yet even in the religious

        and political doldrums of the eghteenth century, the true uni-

        versity and liberal spirit  survived in Trinity,and it's alum-

        ni included Swift,Berkeley, Bruke, Goldsmith, Grattan,and Wolf

        Tone. Towards the close of the  century there was an awakening

        sense  of  independence  and of  patriotism in what had been a

        colonial minority, with  a  consequent relaxation of the penal

        code which had discriminated, in religion and culture, against

        the native  Irish and the  Anglo-Irish majority; and after the

        passage of the Catholic Relief Act,1793, Trinity abandoned the

        exclusive character it had hith erto borne.

            Since 1947,  the College has  received  substantial grants

        from the Irish State. Recent years have brought to the Univer-

        sity a great diversity of students, wuth many of the undergra-

        duates coming from Great Britan and from overseas.

            The University is represented by the Chancellor,Vice-Chan-

        cellor and Senate,whose main function is to confer degrees.The

        College is governed by the Board of Trinity College.The assent

        of the Board is required to all  professional chairs and other

        academic posts, and determines details of courses and examina-

        tions. The Povost of the College is nominated by the Goverment

        from one of three names submitted by the Board. Except in this

        last respect,the University and the College enjoy complete au-

        tonomy. The College Library is Great Britan and Ireland.

                       THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY of IRELAND.

         Under the Queen’s College ( Ireland) Act,1845,Colleges were es-

         tablished by the Goverment at Cork, Galway and Belfast,to pro-

         vide higher education on a non-denominational basis. Ufortuna-

         tely, the character of these  Colleges  were felt to be out of

         accord with Catholic educational principles, and after a storm

         of public controversy they were condemned by the Hierarchy.

             In 1854,the Catholic University of Ireland was established

         by the  Hierarchy, who  invited John  Henry  Newman to be it's

         first Rector. Newman, imbued with the liberal principlesembo-

         died in his celebrated Idea of a  University, was not quite at

         home amid the realities of Irish political and religious cont-

         roversy, and his brave experiment failed. As 'Newman's Univer-

         sity' was not recognized by the State,it could not confer deg-

         rees,neither did it have any public endowment. Coriously, it's

         best success was in medicine, for the  College of Surgeons and

         the Apothecaries’ Hall recognized the courses of study pursued

         by the Catholic University  Medical School students and admit-

         ted them to the  College and Hall examinations, thus to become

         registered medical practitioners.

             The Royal  University was founded in 1879. This was merely

       an examining  body, set up mainly for  the purpose of enabling

       the students of the  Catholic  University to obtain recognized

       degrees. In 1883,the Catholic University,henceforth to be cal-

       led University College, Dublin, was placed in the charge of the

       Society of Jesus, who maintained it succesfully until the pas-

       sing of the Irish Universities Act,1908. This Act provided for

       the dissolution of the Royal University and of Queen’s College,

       Belfast, and for the foundation in their stead of two new Uni-

       versities, one in Belfast  which was to become Queen's Univer-

       sity, and the other, in Dublin,the National University of Ire-

       land. The two universities are self-governing institution ope-

       rating under charter, autonomous as regards policy and admini-

       stration, and appointing their own academic and administrative

       staffs.

           The National University of Ireland is a federal university,

       with a central office in Dublin and three Constituent Colleges:

       University College Dublin, University College Cork, University

       College Galway; and one Recognized College, St. Patrick’s Col-

       lege, Maynooth. Maynooth is a seminary for the training of Ca-

       tholic'clergy. It was  founded in 1795 and endowed by a Gover-

       ment who, chastened by the  French  Revolution, recognized the

       conservative and conserving character of the Irish priesthood.

       In 1845 the Maynooth College  Board of Trustees was incorpora-

       ted by Statute, and in 1899 was invested by the Holy  See with

       authority to confer degrees in Philosophy, Theology, and Canon

       Law.

           The National University itself does not teach; the courses

       for degrees are conducted by the Colleges  which, in practice,

       lay  down  their own programme and set their own examinations.

       Courses are given in the various faculties,with certain excep-

       tions,at each of the Constituent Colleges; and in Arts, Philo-

       sophy and Sociology, Celtic  Sudents, and Science at Maynooth.

       Courses in Dairy  Science are given only at University College

       Cork;courses in General Agriculture and Veterinary Science are

       (outside of  Trinity  College) confined to University  College

       Dublin.By the University Education (Agriculture and Dairy Sci-

       ence) Act, 1926, the Royal  College of Science and the  Albert

       Agricultural  College were  Transferred to University  College

       Dublin, which was empowered to continue the functions formerly

       fulfilled by these institutions.

           Like Trinity  College, the  National  University receives,

       through the Department of Education, financial assistance from

       the State in the form of annual grants-in-aid, as well as non-

        recurrent grants for capital purposes. Each of the Colleges is

        a complete organism,with it's own Governing Body and full con-

        trol of it's own finances.

                                *        *        *

                          RURAL DOMESTIC ECONOMY SCHOOLS.

           There are twelve residental schools of Rural Domestic Eco-

       nomy,seven of which operate under the Department of Agricultu-

       re and Fisheries. The schools are privately owned,but the Sta-

       te subsidized and subject to  inspection in  the same  way  as

       agricultural colleges.Students are admitted from the age of 15

       upwards.The course runs from September until June.The syllabus

       comprises theoretical and practical instrustion in the follow-

       ing subjects: - Poultrykeeping, Dairing, Cookery, Housewifery,

       Dressmaking, Laundry, Arts  and  Crafts, Phisiology,  Higiene,

       First Aid and Home Nursing, Horticulture and general subjects.

           At the end of the course, a standart  examination compris-

       ing written,oral and practical tests, is heid and certificates

       are awarded to successful candidates.About 600 young women at-

       tend these schools  annually. Over 250 scholarships awarded by

       County Committes of Agriculture, each year, are tenable at the

       schools. In addition, capitation  grants are  payable for each

       eligible pupil.Some pupils who complete the session at a rural

       domestic economy  school proceed to other studies, for careers

       in Poultry Specialization, Farm Home Management, Domestic Sci-

       ents,Hotel Management,or Nursing.The course at the schools is,

       however, a good training for all future housewives.

           The Munster Institute, Cork, under the Department of Agri-

       culture and Fisheries, conducts advanced  courses for selected

       pupils from rural domestic economy schools: -

              1.A three year course in Farm Home Menagement.

              2.A three year course in Poultry Specialization.

              3.A one year course in Poultry Husbundry.

       Girls who complete the  three  years courses  are  employed as

       instructors by the Country  Committees  of  Agroculture, or as

       teachers. Girls who  cmplete the year's course in Poultry Hus-

       bundry are employed as technicians in the poultry industry.

                                ART SCHOOLS.

              The Metropolitan School  of  Art began as an academy esta-

          blished in 1746 by the Royal Dublin Society, for the promotion

          of drawing and painting. During the first hundred years of the

          School's existence,instruction was free of charge;and the four

          departments of figure drawing,landscape and ornament,architec-

          ture,and modeling,provided courses useful to sculptors, embro-

          iderers, weavers, printers, silversmith  and  workers in other

          crafts.In the ninteenth century, the School  was  successively

          under the control of the  Royal  Dublin  Society, the Board of

          trade, the Department of Science and Art,and the Department of

          Agroculture and  Technical  Instruction for Ireland. Following

          it's transfer to the last-named body, classes were established

          in the principal artistic crafts, including metalwork and ene-

          melling, mosaic, embroidery  and  woodcarving. The School also

          aquired a high  reputation for it's part in the development of

          stained glass and for the felicitous influence which,under the

          guidance of Sir  William Orpen, it exerted on painting in Ire-

          land. In 1924, control was assumed by the Department of Educa-

          tion; an extension and development of the School, was establi-

          shed.

              The  National  College of Art is the principal institution

          of the  sistem of Art  Education in Ireland as administered by

          the Departmentt  of Education. It's general purpose is to pro-

          mote the advancement of Art,to advocate and maintain the high-

          est artistic values in national culture, and to combine artis-

          tic design with practical  skill in the interests of industry.

          There  are  three schools; the School of Design, the School of

          Painting and the School of Sculpture,with a Preliminary School,

          which includes an  Upper and a Lower Division. In ths way, the

          College provides for the study of the Fine Arts and of the De-

          corative Arts and Crafts, and for the training of Art teachers

          eligible  for  employment in post-primary schools. The College

          has working arrangements with  University  ColIege  Dublin and

          with the Bolton Street School of Technology. It olso maintains

          liaison with the National Library,the National Museum, and the

          National Gellery of Ireland.

              Outside Dublin,whole-time day course and part-time evening

          courses are provided ay the Crawford  School of Art, Cork, and

          the Schools of Art in Limerick and Waterford.

              To foster the study of the History of Art, Miss Sarah Pur-

          ser and Sir John Purser Griffith established,in 1934,two equal

          funds, one to be administered by Trinity College,and the other

          by University  College  Dublin, the income from which provides

          Travelling  Scoolarships. and  prizes to be competed for every

          year, alrtenately  in each University. Extra-mural courses are

          given at University College Dublin,which College also provides

          courses leading to a degree in the  History of European Paint-

          ing taken  with  another  subject. Lectures are also provided,

          mainly for post-primary students, in the National Gallery.

                         THE CONQUERING NORMANS.

     Edward the Confessor died in January, 1066.On Christmas Day in the same

 year William the Conqueror was crowned king in Westminster Abbey. It had been

 a terrible year for Englishmen. From the very beginning of it they had feared

 that evil things were going to happen, and when a comet began to flame in the

 sky, early in the summer, their fears were increased. To all Englishmen it

 seemed to foretell defeat. And defeat came upon them when Duke William landed

 at Pevensey, in Sussex ,and advanced to Hastings. King Harold rushed to meet

 him, but he and many of his faithful thanes were slain. The bravest of them

 gathered to make a last desperate fight round the English standarts,and when

 they fell the days of English liberty were over for a long period.On the very

 spot where Harold and his men made their last stand the Norman conqueror built

 Battle Abbey to commemorate his victory. If you go there today, you will be

 shown the place where Harold fell.

     It was a hard time for Englishmen. As William marched slowly by a round-

 about way to London, his men plundered the village so terribly that it took

 them many years to recover. His soldiers searched everywhere for food and all

 the things that an army needs. Villagers, flying in terror to the woods, saw

 their cattle driven off,their stored corn and hay carted away,and their houses

 burnt. This was the way in which William hoped to terrify Englishmen into sub-

 mission. He was successful. On Christmas Day,1066,he was crowned king of the

 English by the Archbishop of York in Westminster Abbey.

     Straightway he began to drive English nobles from their lands,for he said

 they had treacherously fought against their true king. And in their places he

 put Normans, who despised the English, and treated them cruelly. So in the

 year 1067,if you had been travelling about then, you would have seen parties

 of Normans riding through the country-side to take possession of the lands

 that William had given them in returm for their help at Hastings.These men,

 of couse,had Norman names, and if you look at a map of England today, you will

 see that some villages are still called by the names of the Norman lords to

 whom William gave them, for example, Norton Mandeville in Essex.Some English-

 men nowadays have Norman names, such as Harcout, Montgomery, Mantague.For

 a long time after the battle of Hastings no one who wished to be considered a

 gentleman spoke English;even little boys at school learnt their lessons in

 French, so that, when they grew up, they might be able to keep company with

 the rulers of the land and pretend they were Normans.

     Let us imagine that we are visiting a village when it is new master rides

 into it.Our old English master, our thane, is dead, for he went off with his

 soldiers when Harold called for his help against the foreigner, and fell be-

 side his king on the day of the battle of Hastings.All though the winter the

 villagers have starved, for they have had little corn & meat to live on,since

 William,s army went past on it is way to London.Their houses are in a ruinous

 condition, And the very barns have gone, for some of them were burnt & others

 pulled down to supply fuel for Norman camp fires.The old mill wheel has not

 turned since the village was sacked, for even the dam, which supplied the wa-

 ter, was hacked to bits by the soldiers.So when the new master rides into the

 village, he sees lean sterving men, women and children.There are fire-black-

 ened ruins of English homes all around.Some small patches of growing corn can

 be seen, for even in starvation time men must save some seed for the next crop.

 But the fields are small compared with what they were.

    How we hate this new-comer!How we should like to take vengeance on him and

 his men for all our sufferings, & for all the fathers & brothers who will ne-

 ver return from Hastings!But we dare do nothing, & say nothing.We can see that

 this man is no coward, for he rides into the middle of us, & looks all straight

 in the face.Rising in his stirrups, he calls in French : " I would have you

 know that King William has given me these lands & that you are my tenants now.

 Do your part faithfully, & I shall do mine.But if any man checks me in my just

 rights, let him beware".No Englishman understands a word, but everybody sus-

 pects what the speaker means well enough.

     He makes his way to the thane's house, & there he meets the window & her

 daughter accompanied by the steward.He explains the lady that a small piece of

 land out of her husband's estate will be left to her.She knows that she will

 be very poor for the rest of her days, but she is to proud to ask for anything

 more and withdraws in silence with her daughter.

     Then the Norman turns to the steward and calls for his accounts.He hopes

 to see out all the old thane's rights carefully set there; how he received so

 much hay every year from one man, so much corn from another, and so much meat

 from a third; and how Aelfgar and men like him work once a week for him all

 the year round and do extra work in harvest; and how Gurth and his equals do

 not work for the thane, but pay so much food. When the accounts are brought,

 he listens carefully as the stewards axplains each entry, for he wishes to

 know exactly how much the land that the king has given him is worth. The ste-

 ward, of couse, says that the value has gone down very much in the last year.

     A talk follows till far on into the night, and many questions are put by

 the master. How much land is there suitable for ploughing? How much of it did

 the old thane keep for his own use? How many bushels of corn come from each

 acre? Do the villagers know how to manure and drain the land properly? Is

 there any grassland that could be made to grow extra supplies of corn? "For,"

 says lord, "my soldiers must have plenty to eat".  "Yes," says the steward,

 "there is much land fit for the purpose.But do you propose to make the

 villagers work on this and do their other work as well? Remember, Sir, that

 there are fewer of them than there were". The Norman replies that he intends

 his villagers to do not only this, but much more besides. Indeed he goes so

 far as to say that the men like Gurth, who never worked but only paid food,

 shall now both pay and work, for more land must be cultivated. And he adds

 that he intends to increase the amounts of meat, hay, eggs, cheese, butter

 and other things that the villagers pay. So the stewards returns home in a  

 thoughtful and unhappy state, for he sees hard times coming for his friends

 and does not like telling them about the extra work that they will have to do.

 The Norman also goes to bed, but not until he has gone round the house with

 his chief follower, and posted sentinels; for he has no wish to be murdered

 in his sleep by his new servants, as has happened to some of his friends.He

 and his followerds do not thing much of the old house. The old English thanes

 did not make their houses strong for defence, for they had nothing to fear

 from their villagers. But the Norman says:"We must have a safer place than

 this to sleep in, or our throats wiil all be cut some night".So the steward

 wiil hear if another piece of work for his friends in the village to do.

     In the morning the Norman gets up early and goes on horseback round his

 land accompanied by the steward who listens to all his plans. He is told to

 have the mill dam repaired by next harvest, and a new whell put in. Then the

 master looks round for a position for a new house. He means to make it by

 throwing up a mound of earth and building a wooden tower on top of it. It is

 to be surrounded by a wall of earth and a ditch. He marks out the boundaries

 at once and orders the steward to have the digging commenced. Next he goes to

 the woods to look for timber. After the inspection he says:"Let me hear axes

 at work here when I come round tommorow". As he rides home he sees the old

 village church. The roof lets the rain in, and some of the timber of which

 the building is made rotting away. He indignantly says it's more like a broken-

 down stable than a house of God and swears in the name of Saint Valerie who

 sent the Normans a fair wind for their invasion, that he will build a stone

 church.         

    He has not been long back at the hall before Gurth and his friends ask to

 see him. When they are admitted to the hall, they say they have heard the word

 that is going round, how every villagers, big and little, is to work on the new

 fields, which the lord is going to fence in, and is to pay more food than ever

 before. They say that this is against the custom of the village. They paid food

 to the old thanes, because King Alfred ordered their forefathers to do so. But

 they never laboured like serfs on any man's land. They are free men, and when

 they have paid their dues, as King Alfred ordered, no man can ask them for mo-

 re.

    This bold speech has a terrible result. The new lord rises from his seat.

 His eyes are blazing with rage, and the villagers fear nothing less than death

 at the hands of the surrounding soldiers. " Custom !" the master shouts, "Cus-

 tom! You talk to me about custom as though it ruled all. I and my friends won

 this land by the sword from you and traitors like you, who were in arms against

 your lawful King William. Traitors lie at the mercy of their conquerors and

 must be punished for their treachery. Custom will not protect you. Get you go-

 ne. Soldiers! Clear the hall".

    For many days there is rage in the hearts of the villagers, for the smaller

 men like Aelfgar are ground to poverty by the new lord. Thus they feel the re-

 sults of the Norman Conquest. All English feel them as well, and for five

 years to come there are angry rebellions in different parts of the land.

                          University Education

   There are 44 universities (not counting the Open University) in Britain.

Although the Goverment is responsible for providing about 80 per cent of

universities income it does not control their work or teaching nor does it have

direct dealings with the universities.The grants are distributed by the Secreta-

ry of State for Education and Science.

   The English universities are : Aston ( Birmingham), Bath, Birmingham, Bradford

Bristol, Brunel ( London), Cambridge, City ( London), Durham, East Anglia, Essex,

Exeter, Hull, Keele, Kent at Centerbury, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool,

London, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading, Saford,

Sheffield, Southhampton, Surrey, Sussex, Warwick and York. The federated Univer-

sity of Wales includes five university colleges, the Welsh National School of

Medicine, and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.The

Scottish universities are : Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Belfast, Glasgow, He-

riot-Watt ( Edinburgh), St. Andrews, Stirling, and Strathclyde (Glasgow).In Nor-

then Ireland there is Queen"s University, Belfast, and the New University of Ul-

ster in Coleraine.

   The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge date from the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries and the Scottish Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and

Edinburgh from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the other universities

were founded in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries.

   There are five other institutions where the work is of university standard :

the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology ; the two post-

graduate business school which are supported jointly by industry and the Gover-

ment - the Manchester Business School and the London Graduate School of Business

Studies, associated with the London School of Economics and the Imperial College

of Science and Technology ; Cranfield Inctitute of Technology for mainly post-

graduate work in aeronautics and other subjects ; and the Royal College of Art.

                                  Cambridge

  My coming to Cambridge has been an unusual experience. From whatever country

one comes as a student one cannot escape the influence of the Cambridge tradi-

tions - and they go back so far ! Here, perhaps, more than anywhere else, I have

felt at one and the same time the Past, the Present and even the Future. It"s

easy to see and the old grey stone buildings how the past has moulded the pre-

sent and how the present is giving shape to the future. So let me tell you a

little of what this University town looks like and how it came to be here at all.

  The story of the University begins, so far as I know, in 1209 when several

hundred students and scholars arrived in the little town of Cambridge after ha-

ving walked 60 miles from Oxford. As was the custom then, they had joined them-

selves into a "Universitas" of Society - the word "University", like the word

"College", meant originally a society of people with a common employment ; it

was only later it came to be associated with scholarship.

  These students were all churchmen and had been studying in Oxford at that ci-

ty"s well-known schools. It was a hard life at Oxford for there was constant

trouble between the townsfolk and the students. Then one day a student acciden-

tally killed a man of the town. The Mayor arrested three other students, who

were innocent, and by order of King John (who was quarrelling with the Church

and knew that the death of three clergymen would annoy it) they were put to

death by hanging. In protest, all the students moved elsewhere, some coming to

Cambridge ; and so the new University began.

  Before long there were new quarrel with the townsfolk, for the University was

anxious to be independent of the Town, and the Town was equally anxious for

authority over the new student population. "Town" and "Gown" battles were fre-

quent.

  The boarding-houses and shopkeepers cheated the students, who very soon orga-

nized themselves under an elected leader called a Chancellor, and he fixed pri-

ces that should be paid. Gradually the University gained control.

  Side by side with the fight for freedom from Town rule was another for liberty

from Church rule, until by 1500 the University was its own master at last.

  Of course there were no Colleges in those early days and student life was very

different from what it is now. Students were of all ages and came from every -

where. Those from the same part of the country tended to group together and

these groups called "Nations" still exist, by the way, at some European Univer-

sities.

  The students were armed ; some even banded together to rob the people of the

countryside. Gradually, the idea of the College developed and in 1284 Peterhouse

the oldest College in Cambridge, was founded.

  Life in College was strict ; students were forbidden to play games, to sing

(except sacred music), to hunt or fish or even to dance.