FRITILLARY November, I 924
Price 10d,
Editor:. R. A. CROOK (Somerville College). Committee. R. BAILEry (Lady Margaret Hall). A. M. C. LATHAM (Somerville College). E. CRYER (St. Hugh's College). S. SAUNDERS (St. Hilda's Hall). C. MORRISON (Oxford Home Students).
Treasurer. I. M. SHRIGLEY (St. Hugh's College).
XMAS ! Searchers for exclusiveness of expression in their Gifts will find their Mecca in the Liberty and Art Showrooms on first floor.
BAKERS, BROAD STREET CORNER, OXFORD,
are Sole Oxford Agents for Liberty ee Co.'s World-renowned Productions also Moorcroft's Beautiful Pottery.
HEARD IN THE HIGH.
After all, one cannot expect much in the way of fashion in a gown. MARGARET. No, but it must be correct, and the quality and make are what really count. PHYLLIS. Your outfit looks charming, where did you buy it ? MARGARET. At George Smith's, the Robemaker, opposite the New Theatre in George Street. He keeps a large selection and his prices are really most reasonable, it is a pleasure to recommend him. HILDA.
B.A. GOWNS. 27/6, 35/-, 42/-, 63/-. B.A. HOODS. 27/6 to 63/-.
M.A. GOWNS. 35/-, 42/-, 63/-. M.A. HOODS. 32/6 to 63/-.
DOCTORS' GOWNS and HOODS. QUOTATIONS ON BEQUEST.
GEORGE SMITH 23 GEORGE STREET, OXFORD,
frittitarr Magazine of the Oxford Women's Colleges NOVEMBER, 1924 CONTENTS Page
.. .. 1 Editorial .. .. ., 1 Correspondence .. 2 Report on Competitions .. 3 Saturday Morning at the Playhouse The Significance of Beauty .. 4 5, 15 Oxford Illusions (drawings) .. .. 6 .. .. April Folly .. .. Needles in Hay .. 9 .. .. to Lamia to The Two Students 1x The Playhouse ..
Conveyance Oxford Illusions Silly Jack Stairs and Stares .. Susan Maud A Limerick .. A Training in Method The Oxford Verse-speaking Contest .. Envoi .. Notices and Reports ..
Page 12 13
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18 18 19 19 19
Ebitorf at N editorial is a curiously difficult thing to write. It is like standing on a public platform, presenting the speaker at a mass meeting. One feels there is nothing to say except the inevitable ' I have no need to introduce Fritillary to an Oxford audience.' But there is need, as it happens, to introduce Fritillary. One knows least the things one is most used to ; and Fritillary has grown so familiar that to most people it means only a termly tenpence, repaid by a few moments of quickly-dying curiosity. It is to these people that we seek to re-introduce Fritillary. There are the mere magazines that one reads—Punch, the Isis, the London Mercury. There is also Fritillary, the magazine that one writes. If anything in Oxford life has pleased you or amused you or made you angry, if there is anything on any subject that you want to say—remember that if you choose you may say it in print. And do not think you are doing a dull thing. For you are creating in printed words ; and, if you look at it rightly, that is the excitement of Fritillary. It would be a sad thing to go down without having once added to the World's Literature.
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Corresponbence We have received the following letter :DEAR MADAM, May we, through your columns, bring to the notice of members of the University now in residence the proposed formation of an Oxford University Women's Mountaineering Club. It is proposed to form a club, the membership of which shall be open to both graduates and undergraduates, with a representative committee to organise activities.
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These activities would be somewhat as follows :(r) Summer meetings in the Alps. We hope that the organisation• of parties will result in considerable reduction of the guide and hotel expenses. (2) Meetings in British mountains in the Christmas and Easter vacations. In this connection we have had an offer of help from some members of the University of Oxford Mountaineering Club. The method of organisation will be settled when some idea of the membership is available, and the club formally started. It is proposed to limit membership to those who have at least a fair experience of mountain climbing. Will those interested in the proposal kindly communicate with one of the following, giving some account of the extent of their mountaineering experience :— Miss A. Bull (Somerville College). Miss Budenburg (St. Hugh's College). Miss B. Ritchie (St. Hilda's' Hall). Miss Orr Ewing (41 St. Giles). Any further developments will be reported in due course. Yours faithfully, JEAN ORR EWING
DORA
(L.M.H., 1916-20). (L. M. H., 1917-21).
BUTTERWORTH
'Report on Competitions The prize of io/6 for the best expression in any medium of ' Oxford Illusions' has been divided between M. Sidebottom (S.C.) and B. Ritchie, for the drawings which appear on another page. The subject was chosen because it lent itself both to burlesque and to serious treatment. But the people who were serious were also sentimental ; and of the burlesques we preferred those that had the clear outline of Indian ink. Miss Ritchie's drawings are much more careless than Miss Sidebottom's, but her ideas are better. We hope that both will go on drawing for Fritillary. We commend especially a poem by R. O. Haynes (S.H.C.). It was not sufficiently pointed for a prize ; but it shows a delicate feeling for phrase and rhythm. We are printing part of it, and we hope she will write again. The prize of io/6 for the best one-act play goes to M. Watson (S.I-I.C.) for April Folly.' A consolation prize of 7/6 has been awarded to M. Benson (S.H.C.) for The Snare.' Next in order of merit the committee placed The Wraith,' by Moline, and ' A mere curtain-raiser,' by V. Colt (S.C.), with James Hardacre,' by B. M. Patterson (S.C.) one vote behind. This was a difficult competition, and a total of nine entries was more than we had hoped for. The plays showed careful writing, and occasional dramatic power ; but were almost completely without originality. Two turned on Enoch Arden themes ; one, ' Reward,' took a crude plot from Lord Lytton ; ' The Tree ' and The Dreams of Ursula Trent' attempted psychological horror. James Hardacre,' though it was the most economically and dramatically constructed of all, spoilt its chances by a plot taken straight from the conventions of Wild-West melodrama. The ' Wraith,' like 'All
FRITILLARY. Hallow E'en,' followed the folk-play convention, but it made its peasants speak naturally. A mere curtain-raiser ' was extremely muddled, but its device of the four tired mountaineers, talking all together in their sleep, was both original and amusing, and we should like to share our delight in one of its sentences, ' Of course, dear, if you dislike jelly-fish, you needn't bathe.' The Snare' was a conscientious attempt to state a problem of marriage. The points of view were clearly put ; and though we think it would be dull acted, it presented natural everyday people, and its careful construction deserved an award. Not one of these plays took a subject within either the experience or the imaginative reach of their writers. The author of April Folly ' evaded the problem by escaping to pure fantasy ; and her play was the most convincing as well as the most amusing of all. Its humour was often crude, and we found the minister boring and his final apotheosis a little incredible ; but the shepherd's pastoral ditties, the eighteenth century magnificence of Aminta, and the humble reality of Mrs. Higgs, made a delightful mixture of humours. We are printing the best passages. In the hope that people will consider it during the vacation, we announce the competition for next term now. A prize of to/6 will be offered for the best prose-fable in not more than Soo words. We remind both competitors and contributors in general that entries must be written on one side of the paper only.
Saturbai Morning at the 11Na0ouse On the stage a rehearsal is in progress under the eye of the Producer, who tramps rhythmically up and down in front of the stalls smoking furiously ; the actors wear the expression of people suddenly brought into close contact with a hitherto unrealized terror. The spectre of First Nights is abroad in their midst. The Stage Manager, if he is not acting, sits to one side in front of a small table, holding his head and endeavouring to combine the functions of Prompter and Noises Off without undue confusion. He is a man of many parts, and no noise has been known to prove too much for him, from the song of a nightingale to the clamour of battle in full array. At his feet lie various aids to his profession in the shape of bells, gongs, the Company's meat saw, and probably a piano— which he plays with one hand when he can free it for the purpose. At the back of the auditorium our Assistant Producer, in overalls, and looking provokingly reminiscent, is painting Paris in perspective ; occasionally he sits on the radiator to get warm. Scattered round are the various players not at the moment acting ; probably they are reading and discussing press notices, or exchanging gossip. Fragments of this are characteristic, if sometimes a little startling. It is more than possible that a certain massive ex-member of the O.U. D. S. may waylay you with an admonitory forefinger and a murmur of, A very little more, and off you go to bed,' or pass you by saying darkly to himself, Honi soit qui Super Cinema '—a favourite saying of his, the meaning of which is apparently lost in antiquity. You will probably come across our Ibsen King' searching plaintively for lumps of sugar, or an enthusiastic Prossie explaining the true inwardness of the same author to the Company's raw but admiring recruit. And our beautiful young man may drift in, the _ f his grey silk scarf—(` Positively my only prop')--floating some ends o yards behind him. Should this happen you must be careful not to look as
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though you had any acquaintance with the domestic arts, or he will undulate towards you armed with a button-less coat and a disarming smile, and speaking the familiar words, ' It would be so—so kind of you . . Turning to go behind,' you may catch the Producer pausing in his work to glance at the proofs of next week's posters, and endeavouring to convince the printer with a fierce fountain pen that The Stronger' was not written by Stringbag. Somewhere in the passages the Assistant Stage Manager, her sleeves rolled up to the elbow, is bending over pots of glue and shapeless masses of canvas ; her tireless energy is a source of daily amazement. Narrow stairs lead up to the darkened dressing rooms, where there is always a faint and exciting smell of grease and powder, and queer-looking garments hang on hooks and over chair-backs ; where a kind of cold desolation broods, as if life had stopped suddenly here with the coming of daylight. At night, when the lights are on and the make-up tables uncovered beneath their mirrors, these rooms look very different. If you peeped in during the intervals you might see Mrs. Borkman feeding her household with chocolates; Fergus fortifying himself against a cold in the nose with a throat-spray before setting forth to destroy Emain ; Theresa smoking brazenly on the arm of the Vicaress's chair • or you might hear the Rev. Cuthbert telling unclerical stories of the days when he was a wicked undergraduate. You would seldom find people idle at such times ; there are lines to be learnt or heard, dialogue scenes to rehearse, dresses to be fitted and sewn for the next production. Everyone is ready to turn their hands to anything all day long, and everyone enjoys it. Monday nights cast the worst shadow over our days, and they repeat themselves with terrifying rapidity. Apart from the actual rehearsing, the amount of sheer manual labour that is put in between them by Producers and Stage Managers alike is incredible, and a newcomer feels that something almost superhuman has been achieved each Monday evening at 8. io as the Stage Manager, perspiring but cheerful, starts the cry, First Act—Beginners, please ! ' KATHLEEN MOSELEY.
the Significance of keautv Lie still a moment so, and my poor pen Shall paint you there, and thus, o'er-leaping time, Shall bring back thronging to the minds of men Sweet faces, loved in many an age and clime; They shall remember Hero's far-off look, The wistfulness that gathered in her eyes, The tresses that o'er Laura's pillow shook, The slow, sweet speech of Deirdre's prophecies. And they shall know how every loveliest head, And all proud beauties gather'd to the grave, Were not so fair by daintiest white and red, Fine-chisell'd lips, brow wreath'd by wondering slave; But by some look, some word guilelessly said, Some glimpse of soul the body's graces gave.
M.T.
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Liprit Pity Time : An afternoon in April. Scene : A field with a willow copse and a gate in it. Enter al Minister of the Gospel with a. saucepan and several eggs. He picks up sticks to make a fire. In his face absent-mindedness strives with devotion to duty. He goes on picking up; sticks. Enter a Shepherd with a pipe and several lambs skipping. He sits under a willow and sings : 0 ! ask me not why I am sad, Sing waley down the dale for woe, And tell me how I should be glad, When she my heart has laid full low. My Lady's hair is twisted gold, Her brow is white as driven snow, Her eyes are sapphires glancing bold, And she my heart has, laid full low. The cherries red that are her lips For all but me do kindly show While Love their nectar sits and sips. 0 ! she my heart has laid full low ! MINISTER (hastily): Er—can I help in any way? You seem to be distressed. SHEPHERD : 0 willow, willow waly ! MINISTER : Yes, yes ; but you are hardly practical, sir. Might I venture to suggest that you confide the cause of your distress to me ; there might be the possibility of my in some measure alleviating the burden which seems to oppress you. SHEPHERD : Alas 1 Alack ! I am in love ! MINIS-TER : Really? But that surely cannot be the cause of this deep depression which seems so completely to have overcast you. In peace, the poet tells us, Love tunes the shepherd's reed, In war he mounts the warrior's steed ; Love rules the court, the camp, the grove--.— SHEPHERD (sings): 0! Love, she is wanton quean, And Love, she flaunts it on the green. MINISTER : Steady, my friend, steady. That is not the way to overcome difficulties ; you must face them like a man. SHEPHERD : That I have done ; but she will have none of me. MINISTER : Dear, dear, dear. Do you mind telling me who she is? SHEPHERD : A daffodowndilly, 0 down in the dale, Or a rose-bud fair to see, The loveliest flower in all the vale, Or a bird in the linden-tree. MINISTER : I see ; now we are getting a grasp of the situation. May I infer that the cause of your grief is, an unreciprocated attachment to this lady who, if it is not an impertinence in me, I may judge to be deterred from the thought of matrimony by a prudent consideration of your competency, perhaps? Nay, she loves me well and right trewly, SHEPHERD .
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And yet she will have none of me, For she is a lady of high degree And I am but a base-born churl— MINISTER No, no, my good fellow, not a churl. You have a very ple asant manner. You strike me as being peculiarly gentlemanly for one in your station of life. SHEPHERD (bursting into tears): 0, sir, I thank you for that word ; it falls as balm upon my aching heart. Pardon these my tears, but I am somewhat weak and silly ; I have lived entirely on butter for a fortnight—. MINISTER Come, come, now ; pull yourself together. But tell me why you are restricting your diet to butter? SHEPHERD My Lady makes the yellow butter All with her milk-white hands so fair. I pray you, sir, taste of it ; I always carry a little near my heart. MINISTER Butter—now that reminds me of tea, and I haven't boiled the eggs and the fire will be out. Dear, dear, how the time does fly. My wife, you know, is bringing the Grandmothers' Guild out to tea on the green. SHEPHERD (turns pale): See where she comes, my morning star ! (He :
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trembles.) (Amintai sails, billowing, through the gap in the hedge.) (through her quizzing-glass): Who is this strange fellow? 0, wicked, wicked pride, keep down. (She curtsies low.) Good
AMINTA
morning, sir. Though I have not the honour of being acquainted with you, yet Good morning, sir. (Aside): 0, how that hurts ! MINISTER My dear young lady, I must admit that this is very mystifying to me. Your sweetheart assures me first that you are in love with him, and then that you will not have him ; that you are a lady of high degree, and also that you make the yellow butter. Now I must confess I do not understand. AMINTA : 0 'tis all true. I love him passionately, alas ! But my father being a peer of the first rank, I am naturally somewhat proud. 0, sir, I am fully aware of the wickedness of such a sin and, early resolving to overcome it, I exchanged the pleasures of the masquerade for the labours of the dairy, and have so far degraded my pride that I am now able to milk a cow without swooning—but, 0 Lord, sir, 't'is a nauseous task ! Still, I dare swear that in one or two years I may be able to reckon this worthy young man among my acquaintance. MINISTER But I must point out, madam, that meanwhile the young man is ruining his constitution by a diet of butter. I appeal to your generosity. He seems to me a highly estimable person. AMINTA Sir, while your judgment will ever be esteemed by me, your advice on this matter remains useless. Though striving to conquer my pride, I have not yet been completely successful. Time alone can render assistance. I beg you will say no more. SHEPHERD : 0 pluck the holly and the myrtles brown, No more o'er lawn and lea With piping free Shall my young lambs bound after me, For I with lean despair am all o'erthrown. On me sad willow-boughs and yew :
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Gently do strew. (They do so.) On me fall softly, tears of dew, Where I lie stricken by my Lady's frown. (He seems to die. The lambs with drooping heads and tails stand round the corse: Aminta sobs. Gaily enter a Hamadryad.) HAMADRYAD : Lambkins, lambkins, come and play. (They do not answer.) (To the Minister): NOw will you romp with me And bound about the lawns so free? MINISTER : Well,—er—perhaps—just for a moment—just for a moment, pretty thing. (To Aminta): Are you coming, my dear? (Aminta, with her handkerchief to her eyes, sailg, away through the gap in the hedge. The Minister's wife enters with several old women.) MINISTER'S WIFE • Mrs. Higgs-MRS. HIGGS : Yes'm. I've found the eggs—'ere in the grass-4 jest stepped on them—we'll 'ave to scramble them. MINISTER'S WIFE : Mrs. Higgs, just take the kettle up to that house in among the trees and ask for some hot water to make the tea with. I dislike hanging about like this. MRS. HIGGS : Eh, mam, I daresn't do it. I arsks yer not to send me. I'll make.the fire here and go down on my hands and knees on the damp grass and blow it with my own breath ; but I daresn't go to that house—, MINISTER'S WIFE : Nonsense, Mrs. Higgs. Kindly take up the kettle and go without any more fuss, or I shall be extremely annoyed with you. (Mrs. Higgs, crying quietly, takes up, the kettle and slowly goes to the gap in the hedge. She comes face to face with Aminta. She screams.) MRS. HIGGS, :That's 'er, that's 'er. Oh, I knew my sins would fall back on my gray 'airs some day, and now it's come. Don't be 'ard on me, my dear, don't be 'ard. I wasn't myself that night ; I was always respectable and I 'ave been ever since. (Has hysterics.) MINISTER'S WIFE (dashing the kettle over her): Mrs. Higgs, control yourself at once, please. (To Aminta) : As for you, I think your appearance requires some explanation ; it's very singular, to say the least of it AMINTA : Try burnt feathers, madam. MRS. HIGGS : 0, my dear, 'ave you a strawberry-mark on your right elbow? AMINTA : My good woman, familiar as I certainly have been from my early youth with strawberry-leaves, I must own that my right elbow has no intimate acquaintance with. them. MRS. HIGGS : I knew it, I knew it. 0 course it 'asn't. (The Minister returns with the Hamadryad. Mrs. Higgs recognises her as the child of the great house to whom she was nurse. Pan stole the baby from her in the woods one evening, giving her in return the changeling who is now Aminta.) MRS. JOSIAH : Josiah, were you attending? Is this not remarkable? JosIAH : Very remarkable, my dear. But these things will happen—it's peripety, you know—peripety, perip—perip--- 0, my love, will you not wanton in the shade? MRS. JOSIAH : Never ! JosIAH : Then I beg you'll excuse me. I have a most pressing engagement —with a squirrel.. (He prances away, picking up the shell,-
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herd's pipe, which lies near the heap of willow-boughs and yew.) HAMADRYAD Being the daughter of a nobleman of the first rank, I find myself unable any longer to converse with such persons. I will retire. (She sails as best she can through the gap in the hedge.) MRS. JOSIAH How extremely impertinent ! AMINTA (tripping to the heap of willow-boughs and yew) : Dead shepherd, dead shepherd, awake and see Who it is that calleth to thee, For I will now your true love be ; (He does sa.) Arise and sport it with jollity. MRS. JOSIAH All these people are insane. You had better come home with me at once, Mrs. Higgs. The Vicar will follow. (Enter Josiah skipping. He has horns on his head, and his feet have turned toi nimble hooves; but since these changes cannot come about all at once, he still retains his clerical clothes. He plays a sweet air on his pipe. The lambs gambol round him and are' joined by Aminta and her Shepherd. Mrs. Josiah is rooted to the earth with wrath. Mrs. Higgs sheepishly joins the party, and is presently followed by the other old women. The pipe becomes shriller as the merry train prances towards the gap in the hedge, and as they disappear it plays so piercingly sweet that Mrs. Josiah's feet begin to move in spite of herself, and to her wrath and dismay she gambols heavily after it.) :
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1Reebies in Fay The question is, where did these Proverb-makers live? Did the Bush really grow outside the walls of their town ; did they spend their days hesitating beside it, the Bird clutched firmly in the Hand ; did they listen wistfully while the unprofitable Two sang and mocked them from a branch overhead? Did their wives sit at home stitching in time and saving nine, just precisely nine, stitches Above all, did they goi about the streets looking for needles in Bottles of Hay? You imagine them passing up and down the streets, each with his bottle, patiently shaking it a little and peering, undismayed by failure, still nursing the unconquerable hope,' like the scholar gipsy, and the jig-saw puzzled, and men who fish. It is too strange a picture not to be true, your proverb-maker would never have thought of it on his own ; he must have known it from experience. I offer this to you as the first hypothesis. Of course I see that you may reject it. I have been long considering the problem which it leaves unexplained. How were the Proverb-makers disillusioned? What made them cease the needle searching; what devastating flash of insight wrung from them a cry so penetrating in its urgency that we may still hear its echo ringing down the ages? Why, I mean to say, did they observe that it was no good looking for a Needle in a Bottle of Hay?' and why have we never forgotten that observation? The difficulty is that they clearly belonged to the race that is never disillusioned ; no one, having once clutched it, ever drops the inviolable shade, no golfer, no patience-player, no unsuccessful author ; why then should a Needle-searcher? It is against the nature of this race ; they cannot help being mildly, but immovably tenacious. It is
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clear then that the Proverb-makers, if they once began needle searching, would not have given it up. Reflection on this problem has induced me to amend my hypothesis. I am now of opinion that the Proverb-makers were not Needle-searchers themselves, and did not live in the town where the Bush grows; but they went there. They walked up the streets and as it happened all the citizens they met were looking for came needling through the dark, and a Proverb. maker a little astray in his wits might think that the clouds were like hay. But by far the best hypothesis is one which I shall expound in a thesis offered for the Degree of D. Litt. at one of the more distant American Universities, R. B.
Lamia I like the way your eyes move when you smile ; Stealthily sideways, slowly as a snake Sliding its lovely length through luminous seas, Its blue-grey coilings glimmering through the seas . Sleepily subtle, seeming half awake, And yet most strangely vital all the while— Gliding enchanted in a languorous ease I like the way your eyes move when you smile.
the two tubents or A WARNING AGAINST IMMODERATION. The fair Lucinda Mignonette Was a charming undergraduette ; Her rival, quiet Jemima Jane, I must admit was rather plain. Jemima was of studious bent ; She frequently to lectures went. She read the books her tutor bade And spent whole evenings in the Rad. Lucinda libraries abhorred, And said professors made her bored. She went to tea-parties alone Without a proper chaperone At night she walked about the town, And never wore her cap and gown. Jemima said such conduct shocked her And only hoped she'd meet the proctor. Lucinda danced ; she smoked Abdullas. Her dresses were of daring colours. Jemima dressed in navy blue— White blouse, black shoes and stockings too. Lucinda slept till nine, or later. At night she went to the theatre. Jemima had her bath at seven And worked at night until eleven.
Pk triLIA IRV.
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But neither reached her final schools. Lucinda broke too many rules, Until, I much regret to say, They sent her down without delay. Jemima found, when at the Rad, She'd finished all the books they had, And though she searched for miles around. No new editions could be found. She felt the blow so much, they say, That from that time she pined away ; And so, as might have been expected, She died lamented and respected.
the piavbouse This term's programme proved that the strength of the Playhouse lies in comedy. The exception is Mr. Earle Grey, who has never done anything better than. Pirandello's ' The Man with the Flower in his Mouth.' We shall not easily forget the tired logic with which the dying man counted his steps to death. Deirdre' was no•.wholly satisfactory, but it is a difficult play. Its moments of stark tragedy—Deirdre and Naisi realising that one day they may tire of each other, their stopping to misunderstand in the moment of death—are not romantic at all, but close, almost homely ; and they break through the romance with a reality that can hardly be made bearable. The end of the play is clear beauty, and Miss Turleigh made it so. But Mr. Guilgud's Naisi was never heroic ; and Mr. R. S. Smith could not play so well the policeman of In the Park' if he were really suited to Fergus. The shadow of Miss Turleigh's Deirdre reappeared, rather at a loss, in ' John Gabriel Borkman.' The Playhouse, production made the mistake of accentuating the bad things in the play—its overstressed symbolism, its loopholes for sentiment, the melodramatic possibilities of the dialogue as translated by Mr. Archer. Ibsen needs more rehearsing than a repertory company can possible give. The long conversations dragged till they almost ceased to be conversations. Mr. Grey and Mr. Goolden alone knew how to take them conversationally ; the best things in the play were, first their talk across the table where nothing was overstressed and yet everything was made clear ; and secondly, the scene in the third act where conversation at last gave way to action, and the conflict, muffled before, was freed from words and fought out plainly. The quiet grimness of the tragedy was held for us chiefly by Miss Mary Grey. Her Mrs. Borkman was a triumph—a figure of tragic power who never ceased to be at once unpleasant and completely part of life. Mr. Goolden's Foldal, exquisitely and consistently played, troubled us at moments with a faint suggestion of parody. Did Ibsen really mean Foldal to gaze up into Borkman's face, after the latter had made an obvious symbolical point, and to say, with just that inflexion of amazed admiration, ' That is a very profound saying, John Gabriel' ? ' The Cradle Song ' had a delightful first act, full of the humours: of a convent Cranford. But in the second its delicate sentimentality was suddenly exchanged for a plunge into the very deeps of sentiment. The cast acted finely. Mr. Geuilgud played perhaps the most embarrassing part in his experience with charm and conviction. Miss Turleigh and Miss Gwendolen Evans created for us two delightful people saying things we would
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rather not have overheard. And there was always the saving salt of Mrs. Philips' Vicaress. It would be pleasant if Mrs. Philips' accomplished adventuresses could meet her equally accomplished old ladies; and one could hear what the Vicaress would say to Bianca, and the Grandmother's candid opinion of Fanny Wilton. The Oxford Players have never done anything so good as their performance of Candida.' Miss Grey gave Candida's charm its right comfortable familiarity. It seemed completely natural that she should take the issues of the play into her hands. She was one centre of sanity in the play—the other was Mr. R. S. Smith's Burgess. In Mr. Smith's hands Burgess became what he was meant to be, a centre of outraged vulgar sanity the touchstone in turn for the different madnesses of Morell and Eugene and. Prossy. The mere presence in the room of his bulky uncomprehending figure made one realise the touch of extravagance, of something overstrained and fantastic, in them. The play threatens at moments to become a tragedy of misunderstanding, through the blank-wall conflict of Eugene's point of view with Morell's. It is here that Burgess saves the play by making one feel that there is something perverted in both —that in sane human life things do not happen so. Mr. Koop conveyed admirably the subtle blending of sincerity and insincerity in Morell. Mr. Guilgud put into Eugene his whole talent for painful embarrassment ; but he gave him at moments the right strength. But Candida ' is also pure comedy, and we have to thank Mr. Goolden as Lexy Mill, and Miss Jane Ellis, as a flawless Prossy, for reminding us of it so often. The moment when their different, though equally complete, respectability is turned to the same hazy ecstasy by two glasses of champagne, is one of the best in the play. The Playhouse company is much stronger than it was. Mr. Smith's difficult and silent part in ' The Man with the Flower in his Mouth' revealed him as a fine actor not only of comedy. Miss Turleigh plays very beautifully within a limited range ; but one cannot quarrel with Deirdre for being ill at ease in the Borkmans' drawing-room. Of all the players Mr. Goolden has surprised us most. He went straight from the splendid farce of the Rev. Cuthbert Cheese to a rendering of Vilhelm. Foldal that was perfect in its delicate, unemphasised, completely human tragedy. In short, it was a good programme; but we hope that next term the Oxford Players will abandon Ibsen and give us more Shaw. And we should like to express again our gratitude for the pleasure they give us week by week. For even when they fail, they fail interestingly ; and when they succeed, they give one something to remember over a whole dull term.
R. A. C.
Conveyance The Jumblies went to sea in a sieve, they did, and Peter Pan in a bird's nest, and Europa on a bull's back, and Jonah in a whale. There are so many means of conveyance that it is difficult to choose. There was the Yongly Bongly Bo again, who, when the Lady Jingly Jones rejected his advances, fled away across the sea on a turtle's back. ' You're the Cove,' he said, ' for me, On your back across the sea, Turtle, you shall carry me.' That was a good idea ; the turtle swam ' with a sad, primeval motion,' soothing to a broken heart ; and a turtle's back would be more comfort-
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able than a bull's. But then Europa, like Jonah, did not choose her means of Conveyance. Still, it is strange how many possibilities remain untried ; there was Anion, of course, on the dolphin's back ; but no one ever rode a porpoise, or a crocodile, or leviathan, whatever he may be like. Probably he• is the wrong shape, or too fierce in his disposition. Through the air there are many means of conveyance. If you are light enough you may be charioted by the wind, and if you were heavy enough I suppose you might fall off the edge of the world as far as the next star. On the bat's back there is Ariel, and on the bee's back the Princess of Zee. The owl and the moth are, riderless ; but Nilo rides softly on the wild goose's back, peering over now and then into' the world beneath. And Peter Pan hangs on the end of a kite-string and the witches ride on broomsticks, and heaven's cherubim. go ' horsed upon the sightless couriers of the air.' This last is not a means of conveyance for us ; but the others seem possible enough, if you only knew how to begin. Any housemaid might whisk up the chimney on her broomstick, and no little boy would find it strange to be tugged up to the sky at the tail of his kite. Or it would be great luck to come upon Pegasus one day in• a field, cropping the grass with folded wings, and Bellerophon asleep' under a hedge. When he woke up, you and Pegasus might be gone. R.B.
Oxforb allusions Over the roofs and the huddling towers Delicately dances the wind . . . I am falling in love with Oxford, Fantastic, lovely as a leaping flame. I am beginning a love affair, That never will go any farther, That will always be subtly strange, Unfamiliar and flavoured with fear. Poised in the air, in the luminous air, Your towers, your traceries pierce me with delight Unfulfilled, and more lovely thus. I have fallen in love with Oxford Because I never shall know her entirely, Veiled in a web of airy music Woven by a thousand spider-bells. Over the roofs and the huddling towers Delicately dances the wind . . . I have fallen in love, because she is A strain of music, exquisitely clear, Distant over the hills, and small ; The burden of an old and lovely air, A phrase of a half-known music . . . . . . I am beginning a love-affair That never will go, any farther. Over the roofs and the huddling towers Delicately dances the wind . . .
R. O. I-I.
FRITILLARY.
%illy Sack There were many things that puzzled silly Jack, but he could only deal with them one at a time. He could be certain only of one thing at one moment, and because the things of this life can never be reduced to the simplicity of one idea, he always retired baffled after a period of strenuous thinking, with a heavy shake of his head at the complexities of this world. For all this, his thinking was done more thoroughly than that of the sharper village lads who called him silly ' Jack. To-day, as he went his round through the village with the bread, he was struggling whole-heartedly with a problem. As usual, he sought help from everyone, oblivious alike of scorn or ridicule. Uncle Ben, the old shepherd, had been a great friend to silly Jack. Ponderous both, in build and outlook, they had meditated side by side through many a long summer evening walk, the boy and the old man, as immovable and peaceful as the hills above them, yet always turning things over, and over . . . And now Uncle Ben was gone, and down in the carpenter's shop they were making his coffin. Silly Jack was troubled. Besides, bread had risen in price, involving the new trouble of farthings to be dealt with. Now why? . . . But Silly Jack had not come yet to the consideration of farthings. Good morning, Mrs. Cox,' said Jack heavily, its goin' to he a nice day.' Mrs. Cox received the bread with a superior smile. ' I d' want t' know,' he went on, and p'raps you can tell I : has my Uncle Ben gone to heaven?' Mrs. Cox looked startled, but not the least nonplussed. Of course 'e 'as,' she said sharply, an' is a-looking down on, you this minute. Did 'e leave 'e any money?' Jack sighed and departed ; somehow of courses ' didn't seem to help much, and the question hurt. Well, Mr. 'Obbs, an' ow are you? ' And once more Silly Jack brought out to-day's remark about the weather. Then he sought help in the same direct question. Mr. Hobbs, being an Englishman, was embarrassed by such simplicity. S'pose so,' he muttered, hastily, and moved on. Jack shook his head and a tear rolled slowly down his cheek. No one seemed to understand, and he did want his Uncle Ben so. He went on round the village with the same question on his lips. Somehow people didn't seem to like it. They laughed, or else looked shocked, and-no one treated him seriously. Silly Jack could not think why. He could not imagine a way of life except his own direct method. Finally Mr. Humphreys convinced him it was no use. Oh well, Jack,' he said with a cheerful grin, Doesn't matter much w'ere 'e be now, you needn't worry no more about 'e.' So Jack gave it up—at the next house there were farthings to deal with—only somehow he never got rid of a dull ache, inside. Goodmorning, ma'am,' laboriously lifting his cap, We've a-come to farthings agin.' 0 dear, Jack, how you must bless them! ' I doan't bless them, ma'am,' said he, with again that same surprising directness of idea, I do curse them ! I do nothin' else. Good-mornin,' ma'am.' And as he trudged away he was turning over in his mind a new aspect of life : Now why do I 'ave t' reckon farthings?'
Oxford Illusions
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16
tRITILLAkV.
Stairs anb Stares Do we transmit some spark of intelligence to the things we make? Certainly such inanimate things have, most of them, a distinct facial expression, and hence facial language. The faces of stairs, for instance, are graded according to their station in life, and each grade has its language, sometimes widely, sometimes only by the merest idiom, differing from that of another. Enter a suburban villa, and immediately the staircase comes forward— nay, has reared itself perpendicularly to assure you that this is no bungalow, but a high-class house of two storeys, as advertised on the board outside next-door. There is no mystery about the newly-washed white steps and shining brass rods, or about the prim carpeting, with its lines of blue running purposefully and painstakingly over a red ground. The whole says plainly : Here I am, the most important feature of the house, for without me you would live in a mere bungalow. This way, please, for the second storey containing a passage as narrow as myself. Climb, climb ! ' How different is the language of the hotel staircase ! The villa stairs almost shout at you to ascend. You are at their mercy. They know you will have to climb them. But the hotel stairs have a formidable rival, the lift. Indeed, it is only the lift's one infirmity—deafness•to persistent rings that gives the stairs a chance at all. Naturally, therefore, they cannot domineer as openly as the villa stairs. But they cloak their pride, and smile maliciously beneath their luxurious carpeting as you are forced to curse the lift and ascend on foot. Even then they are polite, and do their best to assist you easily to the top—otherwise, of course, you would complain to the Manager and another lift would be put in, an expense for the hotel and a slight upon the stairs. To prevent this calamity the stairs beckon alluringly and drone in your ear, ' Our steps are so shallow you have merely to• glide to the top ; our plush is so thick your footfall will not sound, and you will forget you have taken a step.' Fascinated by this song, you turn your back on the lift and are content to face three flights. You are hypnotised by the luxury of the stairs into believing that your room will be a palatial apartment. On the third floor you part with the stairs, and your illusion. Peep at the back of any big house, and you will meet the poor relation of the front hall stairs. Its bare, wooden surface wears. a sensitive expression, and stirs and creaks under the clumping shoes of the servants at six a.m., as if determined to assert its personality and waken the household in revenge for its humble position. Look out of your window, and you will see the winding stairs of a fire escape. How ironical is their twist ! They make light of escape, treating it as a game, and protracting to the utmost your arrival upon the ground. Pitilessly, too, they call : We are so narrow and winding we cannot save more than your life. Leave your property and make haste, make haste ! ' But the most pitiless stairs are those of a railway station—not the moving staircase,' that delightful creation of tube stations, which soothes the feelings of those who have been strap-hangers all the way, but the hard iron stairs whose only ornament is a border of straight, horizontal lines and little rills of dust. They are of iron because you are only one of millions who tread them. They are of iron because they are the barrier between your haste and the train now departing from the opposite platform. As you toil up with a heavy suit-case, jammed between those fight-
PRITILLARV. ing their way up and those struggling downward, this staircase has the most mocking cry of all at every step : Take Iron Pills for Strain, Fatigue, Restlessness, General Debility.' Why is there not an automatic machine to offer you boxfuls at the top? Perhaps because it would always be empty, so powerful is stare-suggestion. M.S.
%usan Matto I remember Susan Maud. She and I never knew the adventure of a long-drawn prelude to friendship. Waiting for my Bayswater 'bus I watched her examining a shop window. Her umbrella had long before laid most of its covering away, and the ribs tapped cheerfully on the glass. Her hair fell drearily to her shoulders in uncombed yellow strands ; but from the gaping shoes that were not a pair, to the top of her hat, she was vital if not pleasing. I think she was fifteen years old. Disgusting ! ' said a beautiful lady in brown. Susan Maud veered round. "Sgusting yerself ' she said with a fine detachment, and snapped down her umbrella. Her voice grew ever more detached, as she added sweetly, ' Impertinence.' Her indifference was superb. Then she bumped into me. "Sgustin yerself,' she repeated, but this time with heat, and stamped firmly on my foot. I held her, partly because I was ashamed of the beautiful lady, partly because some kind of support was necessary to me. Yet I delivered myself merely of a question. Why?' Why what?' she said, and then, "Ow should I know? Barmy yer must be,' and last of all, Didn't mean ter 'urt yer, but that woman— made me mad, she did. Don't ask er ter look at me if she wants ter sniff. Impert. 'Sgusting 'erself, standing up there an' looking me all over. Don't care 'oo she is, but I'm not in a glass case, an' if she don't like me, she can lump me.' An' oo yer think you are, 'aiding on as if yer was a bobby?' Susan Maud towered above me.. Meekly I told her whom, in all sincerity, I believed myself to be. Susan Maud stared. Crikey 1 ' she said at last, and after her fashion, repeated herself. Crikey 1 ' It was an emphatic statement. Sometimes the lines of a face are more eloquent than many words. The life behind them clamours at the doors of our comprehension and gains admittance. Susan Maud had eaten little that day and her swift resentment arose from hunger. The beautiful lady was matching silks in the shop. I asked Susan Maud to tea. Her answer came as a small whirlwind and her eyes were contemptuous. Me name's Susan Maud,' she said, and I ain't got no other 'less it's me mother's, and she's dead drunk, so I don't want it.' I repeated my question, and she grinned suddenly. Ho no ! Couldn't come to-day : p'raps ter-morrer ! Got n'appointment at the Ritz with me fancy.' We crossed the road together and went into the shop. She had a habit of gurgling to herself and more than once asked gleefully, Sure yer ain't dotty? ' But the ladies She had tried often to get into service, she told me. with frizzled 'air, an' others with the 'igh necks won't 'ave me. They most look at me as if I was a statcher, an' an ugly one at that, as if I couldn't see, nor 'ear, nor even go mad. My ! can I go mad, but I'm good underneath me.'
PRITILIAkV. And now, when people talk of snobs, I remember again the lovely lady and the dusty shelves of her mind ; and standing before her in all her sane vitality, the ragged, dirty figure of Susan Maud—who was often hungry and had a drunk for mother.
R limerick A scientist, living at Thring, Invented a wasp with no sting ; But was done in the eye, Since no one would buy Such a very incapable thing.
R Cunning in abetbob (We have been asked to insert the following.) Twenty years ago what could the average University woman contemplate as her life's career? In nine cases out of ten there was no choice but to spend the rest of her working days as an Assistant Mistress in a Girls' High School. She might have no talent or taste for teaching. That did not matter. To-day, what a different situation presents itself ! The born teacher may still follow her natural bent ; but how many of us are born teachers? For the rest, the difficulty lies rather in the complexity than in the limitation of choice. To-day, medicine, law, politics, journalism, commerce—all have opened their doors to women. What boundless opportunities lie before the woman who is keen and who understands her work ! But how is one to gain that understanding? How, in these days of competition, is one to get even a first footing in the political, the literary or the business world? These are the questions that naturally occur to one. A University Degree alone is clearly not a sufficient qualification. One must have specialised training as well ; and in all problems as to training and careers one cannot do better than consult the Central Employment Bureau for Women at 54 Russell Square. The Central Bureau, moreover, not only has a fine reputation as a centre of vocational guidance, but is rapidly gaining repute as a centre of Secretarial Training. The Training in method which the Bureau provides is unique, combining as it does instruction in the usual subjects of a Secretarial Course with practical experience in the actual working of the various departments of a live organisation. The Publishing Department, the Loan Fund, the Appointments Department, the Enquiries Bureau all have their being at 54 Russell Square, and the student gains valuable experience in the working of each. For those who can give a year to the training a special Diploma. Course is available which is designed primarily for University graduates and includes instruction in the higher branches of Secretarial Work. On 'the completion of her training, the student is at once put in touch with congenial work by the Appointments Department of the Bureau. A glance at the Record Book of past students reveals women engaged in a variety of ways—on the editorial staff of London newspapers, as organising secretaries for charitable societies, as private secretaries to Members of Parliament, as confidential secretaries to City Companies : a choice of careers which would have been the despair and envy of the graduate of twenty years ago. .
FRITILLARY.
the Orforb terse-speaking Contest Any attempt at an adequate account of the verse-speaking contest arranged by John Masefield would be impossible, for the details are forgotten while the delights are remembered. It seems strange that where many people study literature the speaking of poetry should be ignored, for the art is as old as the Odyssy. To those desirous of appreciating poetry to, the full the beautiful speaking ' of it is a necessity and John Masefield's annual contest provides an excellent opportunity to learn how it should be done. Not that he suggests that there is only one way to speak verse. The successful competition in July showed marked individuality. But the best of them had one quality in common—a simple sincerity—which never failed to win the approval of the judges. This is encouraging because everyone can achieve it who will trouble to grasp the poet's meaning and surrender himself to the mood of the poem. However sincere the speaker, he will fail if he murders the rhythm or breaks the continuity of the poem by too much variety of tone or too dramatic an interpretation. But technical perfection will not satisfy judges who are themselves poets. Herein lies the value of trying to please them. Whether your speaking is approved or not you will come away with a new attitude to poetry and the beginnings of a better understanding of it. You will agree with Hassan that poetry is ' a cheap thing to buy and an easy thing to undersand '—in short that it is the most human of activities. R. A. B.
Envoi The cattle are lowing home Through the autumn weather, The reaper is gone from the field And the bee, from the heather ; And out on the pale green sky Are the tired crows winging, And deep in my heart are the songs That are not for my singing.
N . A. R.
'notices anb 'Reports 0. U. W. D. S. It would seem that this Society was outlined originally on too severe a plan. We heard much then in dispraise of College Debating Societies : they were too informal ; they lacked the dignity that gives due setting to oratorical effort ; one did not debate there, one talked. What was needed was a Society in which one could learn to make formal speeches before large audiences.—Thus the founders. But the present Society seems calculated to train us rather in the Spartan accomplishment of speaking to empty benches. I cannot but think that the dullness of which members complain at Hannington Hall is something more than physical. However that may be, members are still reluctant to speak, whether on the paper or off, and reluctant even to attend. They have an idea that to
FRITILLARY.
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do either one must be a Very Earnest Woman.—Not at all. The spirit of any successful debating society is Modernism, and in the modern world Humour counts among the things that matter most. It is rather scarce at Hannington Hall, one must confess; but that is partly because the kind of motion discussed there is often, for women at any rate, anti-humorous. Politics, for instance. At its first meeting the Society decided, by a fair majority, that woman is a political animal. Potentially, they must have meant, for members always fight shy of political debates. Indeed, they seem inclined to think that (with due respect for Dr. Carlyle's well-known opinion) politics are not the only, or chief, topic worth discussing—certainly not in feminine gatherings. However, some progress can be seen. The quality of speaking improves; and speakers show on the whole more confidence, more conciseness ; there are even signs that a perception of what debating is begins to dawn. It was Lord Morley, I think, who defined it as evasion of the strong points of an adversary's case and exaggeration of its weak ones ; a truth that has not always appealed to Hannington Hall. Speakers have been too much inclined to ignore their opponents' arguments or to deal with a more or less hypothetical opposition ; but set speeches are becoming less the rule now than formerly. The Society has suffered two considerable losses this term, in Miss A. G. Stock, who chafes under the presidential gag, and Miss Naidu, Junior Treasurer, who is away. Extempore speakers who are both fluent and convincing are not plentiful in the Society, and the moving eloquence in which Miss Naidu excels is extremely rare. The older stalwarts have for the most part disappeared, but there are several new adherents of considerable promise, who should help much in establishing this still tottering young Society. C. B. LANE. FIXTURES, MICHAELMAS, 1924.
Oct.
2I
St.—Debate on motion : That as Civilisation advances, Poetry
declines.' Oct. 28th.—Debate on motion : ' That this House would welcome the introduction of Representative Government into the University.' Nov. rith.—Inter-University Debate with Cambridge (Newnham), Birmingham and Bristol. Nov. 26th.—Visit of Lady Rhondda.
N. U. S. The newspaper vendors and street-corner fruit-sellers of Warsaw (grimy old peasants for the most part) have been given of late much food for gossip, for Warsaw has suffered a fresh invasion. Day after day, trains steamed into the station, disgorged their loads of people, and steamed out again empty ; while brass bands blared and cinematograph men desperately wound the handles of their cameras—till the inhabitants began to enquire uneasily what all this might mean. Was fresh disaster upon them ? But this was hardly disaster—it was the the C.I.E., an invasion of youth. In 1921 for the first time after the war, with just such a gathering as this, youth had started on its search for peace in Prague ; and now in Warsaw, three years later, the seekers were meeting together again. For a glorious fortnight this League of Nations held its conferences in the
FRITILLARY.
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Universities of Warsaw and Cracow. Allies and ex-enemies linked arms like brothers—and if old grudges were not altogether forgotten, still the first step was taken towards reconciliation. The C.I.E. is a greater movement than anyone realises, and many a poor student from some war-stricken country has returned to his university from the conferences in Warsaw with real hope for the future and courage for the present in his heart. A. E. B.
O. U. W.C. President—K. E. LEATHER (S. C. ). Secretary L. B. EAGLE-BOTT (S. H. C. ). Treasurer—E. SCOTT (O. H. S.). The present club rooms (16 Ship Street) do not provide sufficient accommodation for members. We therefore hope to move into larger rooms in the Corn next term, but this will only be possible if an adequate membership can be guaranteed for the future. Women undergraduates and graduates reading for a Diploma or Second School are elegible for membership. We look particularly to the First Year to take the place of those members who have gone down. Will those who wish to join please send in their names to their College Secretary by November 29th. OXFORD UNIVERSITY FRENCH CLUB. Vice-President--G. M. HIGHLEY (S. C. ). Secretary—E. MONROE (O. H. S.). Treasurer—N. R. MOON (0.H.S.). Committee—M. OGILVIE-FORBES (S. C. ), H. FIEDLER ( S. H.C.), M. GLASGOW (L. M. H.). Many members of the Club have of course gone down since last term. We shall miss, among others, Miss Elkington, of Lady Margaret Hall, ex-Secretary and Vice-President of the Club, whom we have to congratulate on her First in Schools, and on winning the Zaharoff Scholarship, which gives her a year of travel abroad. We have a great many new members: from all the Colleges this term, and there are now between seventy and eighty women members of the Club. Since the Vice-Chancellor has forbidden inter-Collegiate acting we are unfortunately unable to produce• a play this term, as we did last year. One of the reasons for this decree is that other dramatic societies acting in the University interfere with the charter of the O.U.D.S. As the only Club which produce French plays, we appealed for a special dispensation from headquarters—we have just heard, however, that permission has been definitely and finally refused. Our programme this year is a good one. Monsieur Jean Aubry spoke to us on L'echange de la poesie et de la musique,' illustrated with songs by Madame Alwar. Monsieur Laumonie came to celebrate the quartercentenary of Ronsard with a lecture of ' Les inspiratrices de poets.' Mr. Cloudesley Brereton spoke on English and French Education, and Monsieur Samat on ' La Religion de Victor Hugo.' We are expecting Monsieur Paul Fancannet at our meeting on November 21st. We hope for more new members' next term, when we are arranging an especially good programme.
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FRITILLARY.
O. U. W. H. C. Captain—E. V. FOWLER (S. H.C.). S ecretary—N . MULLER (S. H. H.). Treasurer—M. SMYLIE (S.C.). This season's United Hockey is quite promising. We have played no matches as yet—our first being on November 8th v. Berks. Consequently the team has not yet been fully decided, but we are very fortunate in still having A. Bull (S.C.), M. Slaney (S.H.C.), and V. Crichton (S.C.) available, besides six other old Blues—N. Muller (S.H.H.), M. Smylie (S.C.), V. Fowler (S.H.C.), G. Willson (S.C.), E. Sharpe (S.C..), and M. Campbell r of promising freshers is certainly not overwhelming, (L.M.H.). The numbe but those who have been regularly to United practices—J. Darling (S.C.), J. Moffat (S.C.), M. Fookes (S.H.C.), and W. Murrell (S.H.C.)—have proved themselves useful players. At the moment the team needs most improvement on the wings, though E. Sharpe is adapting herself quickly to her change from half to right wing, and as a forward seems to be able to make better use of her speed. Several people have been tried for left wing, but as yet no one has been found who is up to the standard of the rest of the forward line. There are two promising goals in V. Russell (S.H.C.) and J. Moffat (S.C.). Russell is inclined to rely too much on her stick, and has not quite enough selfconfidence for a goal-keeper, but her clearing is excellent. Moffat is steady and kicks well, but has not been severely tested. Mrs. Cavalier is unable to coach us this term, but we are fortunate in securing the services of Mrs. Bridge (nee K. E. Lidderdale) for one or two' Wednesdays. The fixtures for this term are :—Nov, 8th, Berks; Nov. 15th, Cheltenham Ladies' College ; Nov. 22nd, Miss Pollard's XI ; Nov. 29th, East Gloucester ; Dec. 9th, Surrey (in London).
O. U. W. L. C. It is too early in the year to be able to say much about the Lacrosse. Nine of last year's blues' are up again—c.p., I. Ree (L.M.H.), 3 m., B. Tidd-Pratt (L. M. H.), c., W. Brooke (S. H. C.) ; 3 h., N. Muller (S. H. H. ), 2 h., M. Thomas (S.H.H.), r h., E. Welbourne (O.H.S.), r.d., K. MillerJones (L. M. H.), 1. d. , G. Thompson (S. H. H.), 1. a. , N. Osborne (S. H. C. ). We are especially fortunate in having last year's captain (I. Ree) still in the team. We are glad to welcome a large number of new members, many of them very keen; the most promising among them being R. Shaw (Wycombe and O.H.S.), N. Debes (Q.A.S. and S.C.), H. Reinold (St. Geo., Harpenden, and S.C.), Mk Moffat (St. Leonard's and S.C.), E. Leslie-Jones (Godolphin and g.H.C.), E. Fisher (Q.A.S. and 0,.H.S.). The defence have hardly had time yet to learn to combine well; the wings especially must be quicker in getting back when the ball has passed them, and ' 3rd man ' especially must be more careful to clear the ball accurately. W. Dingwall (S.H.C.) will make a good `point' if she learns to be quicker on to' the ball when she and her opponent are both running for a catch. The attacks are much too slow, and their catch is not at all steady. There is too little forward passing, and hardly any good combination. M. Thomas is good at getting free, and shoots well. N. Osborne has
FRITILLARY.
23
plenty of dash and gets in some good quick shots, but like all the attacks, lacks stick-work, and when she has lost the ball lets the defence get away with it too easily. The game at the second end of the field is far better than last year, but the ball is still too much on the ground. We are hampered by the roughness of the field, but the groundsman is doing his. best. Our fixtures for this term are :—Nov. 8th, Wycombe ; Nov. 22nd, Middlesex ; Nov. 29th, London; Dec. 6th, Surrey ; Dec. 8th, Roiedean (away). O. U. N.C. Captain—I. SHRIGLEY (S. H. C.). Treasurer—R. FOOTMAN (S. C.). Secretary—M. KELLY (O. H. S.). The outlook at the beginning of term was not very bright ; no great discoveries have been made among the freshers. K. Watson (S.C'.) and M. Ellis (S.H.C.) show promise, but their passing and placing need care. It has not been possible to decide the VII yet. We are lucky in still having several of last year's ' blues,' particularly C. McDowell (S.H.H.) and V. Russell (S.H.C.), who 'retain their position as shooters. G. Barker (S. H. C.), has improved considerably since last year, and played well against London University. N. Brett may also find a place in the team. The chief faults are slowness and inaccuracy, which make combination difficult. The defence throughout the team is poor. O.U.W.S.C. President—Y. W. CANN (S. C.). Secretary—I. J. T. CA.R LEBAC H (O. H. S.). Treasurer—V. RUSSELL (S.H.C.). Results :I. O.U.W.S.C. v. Cheltenham. Won 5—I. A very good match. 2. O. U. W. S.C. V. Mermaid S.C. Lost, 5—o. G. M. Sharpe (S.H.C.) gained highest marks for diving, against Miss C. M. Armstrong, an Olympic team diver for this year. 3. In the Inter-Varsity match, held at the Bath Club, we were badly beaten, 4—I. We won the too yards, through the excellent swimming of Miss C'ann. We were unlucky in not having two regular members of the team, Miss Sharpe and Miss Carlebach, whom we missed greatly, especially in the diving. The relays were lost almost entirely through the general slowness: in starting of the team. The inter-collegiate water polo final and swimming cup was again very well won by S.H.C. This term there are no baths, and consequently the :standard of the water-polo is sure to suffer; but we hope that the baths will be rebuilt and everything reorganised for next term. LADY MARGARET HALL. The Long Vacation has made many changes in the. Hall ; the new buildings between Old Hall and Wordsworth are in process of construction, and their site is skirted by two chick-boards, along which the Hall walks precariously to Chapel. A much larger First Year than usual is partly housed in 8 Crick Road, which is let to the Hall for a year until the new buildings are ready.
24
FRITILLARY.
Of Clubs and Societies the most active have been the• Beaufort Debating Society, the Dramatic Society, and the French Club. The Beaufort has already held a Sharp Practice debate on a variety of trivial but controversial topics ; a week before the Election its result was the subject of a debate with Ruskin ; the Society will debate with New College on Nov. 5th, with St. John's on Nov. 26th, and will conclude its activities on Dec. 4th with what is vaguely described as a ' Grand Debate and Banquet.' The Dramatic Society is holding weekly readings of various plays, and has arranged joint readings with Lincoln, New College and Wadham. The French Club meets weekly for debates and readings. The Hockey Club has arranged matches against King's College and against the Etceteras. External social activities. include an ' At Home ' given by the Principal and .members of the Senior Cbmmon Room, and two dances. Domestic social functions in prospect are a party to be given by Toynbee building on Nov. 8th, and the First Year play at the end of the term ; and in retrospect a very successful concert on Oct. 25th, at which the First Year entertained the rest of the Hall. SOMERVILLE COLLEGE. The Literary Society was fortunate in having Mr. G. K. Chesterton to lecture for it on Tuesday, Nov. 4th. He spoke most entertainingly on ' The Unhistorical Novel.' In the evening of the same day the Debating Society held a joint meeting with Ruskin College. The motion before the house was : The only escape from the evils of our present industrial system lies in a reduction of our wants.' The motion was lost by a large• majority. The only other college event which has occurred as yet was a very successful dance on Nov. x st. The second is to be held on Nov. x5th, and the Music Club will give its annual concert on Nov. 16th. The Dramatic Society hopes to present a play at the end of term. The Hockey Club has had very few practices this term, owing to the bad weather, but the first eleven is shaping very well. The freshers, on the whole, are disappointing. Moffat and Darling are valuable additions to the first eleven defence, and Hardy is a promising forward with plenty of dash, but there are no other forwards among the First Year who are really up to second eleven standard. We have had two matches so far, one a first eleven match against Bedford Ladies, which we lost 5—x. The match was played in heavy rain, and our team seemed incapable of moving. The other was a second eleven match against the Etceteras, which we lost 8-2, though the game was better than the score would seem to represent. 1st XI. —Moffat, Darlington, *Macnaughton, Patterson, *Smylie, *Willson, Adam Smith, *Crichton, *Bull, Hardy, *Sharpe. The Boat Club held a dance on Saturday, Nov. 8th, to raise funds towards. buying a new canoe. Although the Club is very short of captains, boating has been vigorously pursued. We are very grateful to Miss Jones and Miss Crook for their help in coaching. The Netball season promises to be a better one for us than last year, as several freshers have joined, some of whom are quite good, more especially Strugnell at centre and Marett at attack.. So far we have only played two matches•, one against Headington, lost 13-7, and the other against Wychwood, won 14-9.
FRITILLARY.
251
ST. HUGH'S COLLEGE. This term it is a great pleasure to us to welcome Miss Gwyer, and we feel ourselves extraordinarily fortunate in having her as our Principal. We are very glad also to welcome Miss Perham, an old student of St. Hugh's who has come back as one of the staff. The Dramatic Society has been re-constituted. It has had readings of Prunella ' and Caesar and Cleopatra,' and intends to hold another meeting this term. A concert arranged by the Musical Society was given by Miss Hardy and Miss Kircher on October 2 1st. The Literary Society has had a reading or Magic ' (G. K. Chesterton) , and at an open meeting Mrs. Nevill Perkins spoke on Shakespeare in France.' Her address was much appreciated. There have been two debates this: term ; and two further are arranged, with Ruskin College and the Home Students:. Mr. Upcott addressed a meeting of the Classical Society on Some Characteristics of the Greek Epic,' and it is hoped that Professor Myres• will speak at a meeting, on Was: there a Trojan War? ' A History Society has: been formed, and the Committee is feeling cheered by the number of members. An active Conservative Club has also been formed. Papers have been read, and there is to be an open meeting, at which Mrs. Rhys will speak. Can no one think of any other club?' The First Year have provided the Hockey Club with a number of new members.. Two of them, M. Fookes and D. Murrell, have been playing for the 1st XI, and several have places in the 2nd XI. The Club is lucky in still having M. Slaney as centre-forward, though the rest of the forwards are inclined to depend too much on her for actual goal-scoring. The 1st XI have played so far four matches, beating Oxford High School, Headington L.H.C., and The Laurels, Rugby, but losing to the Oxford. Etceteras, the last match being played with five substitutes. We look forward to the day when we shall meet this redoubtable club in full strength ! The match v. The Laurels was played at Rugby in the pouring rain, which makes it impossible to. criticise what is generally a very good game. The 2nd XI are very keen, and ought to be quite good with some more practice together, but there is a sad lack of halves. There have been no Lacrosse matches so far this term, but there are several 1st XII and two 2nd XII matches pending. There are not many Lacrosse players among the First Year, but the few who play are, for the most part, promising. They have contributed two players. to the 1st XII and six to the 2nd XII. The general standard of play has been considerably raised since last year ; the Second Year particularly are to be congratulated on their general improvement. Z. Budenberg, W. Dingwall, and R. Learoyd have been recommended for 1st XII colours. On the whole the College prospects are most encouraging. The efficient work of the Vice-Captain and Secretary has been much appreciated. The Netball Club has the good fortune of having lost none of its team, which consists of C. Dormor, V. Russell, V. Fowler, W. Brooke, G. Barker, N. Osborne, and S. Andrews. I. Shrigley, who captained the team last season, has been unable to play so far. Two' matches have been played and won, against St. Mary's, Wantage, and St. Michael's. Mr. Lusk has kindly consented to coach the St. Hugh's Four again this term, which has been out regularly. Fewer members: of the First Year than usual have shown interest in the Club, but several of the Second Year have qualified for captaincies and half-captaincies.
26
FRITILLARY.
The greatest event of the term has been a Paper Chase. The hares were confronted by gamekeepers, retraced their steps, and were unceremoniously caught lying- under tarpaulins and hiding in motor-cars. There is to be another chase. Good luck to the hares ! Some people run round and round the garden before breakfast. They have not been seen lately, however. Who dare say their energy is flagging? ST. HILDA'S HALL. Our new term is passing with the usual bustle and jollity. At first, our high spirits were rather damped because, owing to the strike, the building operations have not yet been completed. This means that our new dining hall is still a ' hope deferred ' and that the modern languages section of the library has had to be housed temporarily in not very comfortable quarters. However, with the arrival of thirty-seven freshers the task of arranging the term's activities is in full swing. On Oct. 24th the Debating Our numerous Societies are thriving. Society entertained the annual conference of Oxford Debating Societies. We have a meeting with Ruskin College on Nov. 12th. The Literary Society has met twice, and the Musical Society had a notable evening's entertainment on Oct. 29th, when Miss Denne Parker gave a lecture and recital on French, song. The Hall Concert is to take place later in the term. The freshers' play this year promises to break all records. The Boating Club is displaying its usual energy, although the continued rain has not been encouraging. The Lacrosse Club is pleased to find its numbers on the increase, and has arranged a match with Oxford High School on Nov. 6th. The Hockey team has played two matches, one against Headington, which we lost, 5-3, after a fast game, and one against Lady Margaret Hall, which we won, 4-1. The first match showed poor combination and a lack of ' push,' but there was much improvement in the practice game against Lady Margaret Hall, and it is to be hoped that College will continue to improve. We welcome as French ' Don ' Miss. Goulding, who is: taking the place of Miss Chesney while the latter is doing- research work in Paris.
OXFORD HOME STUDENTS. As might be expected from the large influx of new members, the Society is full of energy. Clubs of every kind report a considerable increase in membership since last term, but, perhaps wisely, they refrain from a comparison with the returns for the corresponding period of last year. The Musical ,Society, we are told, is, now a flourishing concern, with a bank balance of its own. The Dramatic Society actually feels sufficiently well-established to produce two plays, both modern, in one term. The Shakespeare Reading Society, with that untiring energy and unflagging zeal for which it is so justly famous, continues to devote its attention to the plays of the author from whom it derives its name. We are glad to know of one haven of stability in this stormy world of change. The Athletic Clubs are, we understand, in as optimistic a frame of mind as their more serious brethren, and if we believe, as some modern philosophers would have us believe, that there are no such things as illusions, this surely is a welcome augury for the future.
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