In order to obtain a complete insight into the ancient state of the University, it is desirable to know not only what were the studies, but what were the peculiar recreations of its scholars: how the idle, if any such there were, filled up their vacant hours, and how the reading men refreshed themselves after the tedious disputations of the Schools. On these points it is not easy to satisfy our curiosity. Many of the unconnected notices which follow, being taken from ancient statutes, will throw but little light on the subject. Still they will not be without interest, as shewing the attempts made from time to time to prevent the introduction of popular sports which were thought contrary to sobriety and good discipline. We may also notice the various sources from which these decrees emanated. The King, the Visitor, the privy Council, the Heads of Colleges, the Senate—appear all in their turn to have exercised control over the habits and occupations of the University.

In the days of Chivalry, and while the University was still in its infancy, Cambridge appears to have been frequently the scene of tournaments and tiltings held by the Nobility and Gentry of the neighbourhood. The University did not patronize these rough and by no means clerk-like contests.

The principal public buildings of the University stand in immediate contiguity to one another. A full account of them should comprise a description of their aspect, structure, and the condition of the establishment to which each appertains. The buildings which contain the Library and Schools form a hollow square: they are of two stories and were erected at various dates. The changes that have taken place in the structure and the condition of the Library at different times are necessarily so closely connected that they may be traced together.

Previous to 1589, the Public Library of the University contained 177 volumes in “wretched condition.” These and the meditative employment they supplied gave way to more practical study in 1546, when the room they occupied was by a Grace converted to the purpose of a Divinity School: but in 1586 by the same authority it recovered its former character and appropriation. In 1649, the Library was increased by taking into it the Greek Schools.

The present front was for a long time spoken of as the new building: but now another rising building has succeeded to that title. On the 29th of April, 1755, the Duke of Newcastle, then Chancellor, laid the first stone. The site of the building, as well as the ground before it, had been occupied by tenements belonging to King's College, and were sold by them to the University under an Act passed for empowering the University to improve their Library.

This fort, which commands the military position of West Point, and which was considered so important during the revolutionary war, is now in ruins, and is visited by all travellers for the superb view which it affords of the sublime pass of the Highlands. This was the great key which Arnold's treachery intended to give into the hands of the English; and, associated with the memory of the unfortunate Andre, and with other painful events of the conspiracy, it possesses an interest which is wanting to other objects of the same description in our country.

Washington's visit of inspection to Fort Putnam, and the other redoubts on this side the river, was made only two or three hours before his discovery of the treason of Arnold, at that moment as he supposed in command at West Point. The commander-in-chief was expected to arrive the evening before, and had he done so, Arnold would probably never have escaped. Having accidentally met the French minister, M. de Lucerne, at Fishkill, however (eight miles above), he was induced to pass the night there for the purpose of some conference, and set off early in the morning on horseback, sending on a messenger to Mrs. Arnold that himself and suite would be with her to breakfast. Arriving opposite West Point, near a small redoubt called Fort Constitution, Washington turned his horse from the road.

There are four instances of a complete history of a ‘private College’, at least complete as far as they go; for the want of that wide historical research and patient authorship so rarely practised at the present day, has left a void to be filled up. Of these four, one is of Corpus Christi College, first published by Masters in 1753. A corrected and enlarged edition was in 1835 given to the public by Dr. Lamb the present Master. The other three still in MS. are of St. John's Caius and Jesus Colleges.

2. The original of the History of St. John's College, in Baker's own handwriting, is No. 7028 of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. A copy of it was granted to the proper desire of the College, and is there most religiously preserved; it is ere long to be given to the world, with an appendix of the since expired generations. On this account, we will say little respecting it, that the suspended curiosity of the reader may suffer no subtraction.

The most comprehensive view of Niagara is, no doubt, that from the galleries of this hotel; but it is, at the same time, for a first view, one of the most unfavourable. Clifton House stands nearly opposite the centre of the irregular crescent formed by the Falls; but it is so far back from the line of the arc, that the height and grandeur of the two cataracts, to an eye unacquainted with the scene, are deceptively diminished. After once making the tour of the points of view, however, the distance and elevation of the hotel are allowed for by the eye, and the situation seems most advantageous. This is the only house at Niagara where a traveller, on his second visit, would be content to live.

Clifton House is kept in the best style of hotels in this country; but the usual routine of such places, going on in the very eye of Niagara, weaves in very whimsically with the eternal presence and power of the cataract. We must eat, drink, and sleep, it is true, at Niagara as elsewhere; and indeed, what with the exhaustion of mind and fatigue of body, we require at the Falls perhaps more than usual of these three “blessed inventions.”

This fine bridge is a mile and a half in length, and forms a beautiful span over the broad waters of the river at this place. The many windings of the Susquehanna make its shallowness and incapacity for navigation less a disadvantage than would have been felt on a more direct water-course; and the ingenuity and enterprise of the country in the construction of canals, bridges, and rail-roads, have left nothing to desire in the matter of facilities for travel. It is always a reasonable query to any, except a business traveller, whether the saving of time and fatigue in the wonderful improvements in locomotion is an equivalent for the loss of rough adventure and knowledge of the detail of a country acquired by hardship and delay. Contrast the journey over a rail-road at a pace of fifteen miles in the hour, through the rough, the picturesque valley of the Susquehanna, with a journey over the same ground ninety years ago, as presented in the travels of Peter Kalm. He was on horseback, with Indian guides.

“About sun-set it cleared up, and we encamped on the east branch of the Susquehanna. In the night it thundered and rained very fast, and took us at a disadvantage; for we had made no shelter to keep off the rain, neither could we see it till just over our heads, and it began to fall.[…]

The Indian fights of the celebrated Captain Lovewell, which took place near the borders of this lake, were not the only feats of courage the early inhabitants of this part of the country were called upon to display. Bears, wolves, and catamounts, were enemies as constantly found in their path as the unfriendly Indian, and were almost as dangerous. The descriptions contained in the grave historical records of the State, of encounters, with bears more particularly, are sometimes sufficiently amusing; and, indeed, whatever the peril to the man, there is a conventional drollery about the bear which throws a spice of fun into all his contests with mankind. This animal, in the early days of New Hampshire, often destroyed the husbandman's hopes by his depredations on the green maize, of the milky ear of which he is especially fond. Sweet fruits, honey, and other simple but “toothsome” productions of the orchard and farm, suited bruin equally well, and he had never recourse to animal food while these were to be procured. The kind of bear most mischievous in this way was the small American bear, with a long and pointed nose, remarkable for his alertness in ascending and descending trees. They were often found in hollow trunks, and in clefts of rocks, and were considered delicious meat by the hunters. Among the adventures with this class of their enemies recorded of the first settlers of the State, is an encounter of a Mr. Annis with a bear.

The projector and conductor of the work here offered for public approbation, confesses himself to be not a little solicitous about the success of his undertaking. He is anxious that credit should be done to the subject; at least that it should in no way be disparaged by his labours: and he is ambitious of the good and favourable opinion of those by whose countenance and encouragement it has been fostered. A few introductory remarks may possibly serve to pave the way for the reception he so earnestly covets.

The greater number of readers, it is hoped, will find so much interest in the matter of the work, as to be little curious about the origin of the undertaking. To those, however, who would question what could have induced the collector to project it, while other works exist similar at least as to their object, he has only to reply, that his inducement has simply been, a very strong desire to see justice done to a subject which has long engaged his own warm affections, and has, he believes, deservedly excited a powerful interest amongst all that class whose tastes he would be most anxious to gratify.

In what may be termed the external and internal structure of the University itself; its walls and buildings, its treasures and depositories, its customs ancient and modern, bygone and present, its course of studies, the effect of its habits as developed in the manners characters and amusements of its members, there is most abundant material for every department of the work, both by pen and pencil.