Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Prefatory Note
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS
- The Chancellor
- The Vice-Chancellor
- The Registrary
- The Proctors
- The Esquire Bedells
- Matriculation
- Congregations and Graces
- Degrees
- Commencement Day
- Insignia Doctoralia
- Honorary Degrees
- University Costume
- Processions
- The Presentation of an Address to H.M. The King
- The Bidding Prayer
- University Sermons
- The Orator
- The High Steward
- Representation in Parliament
- The Commissary
- University Discipline; the Sex Viri, etc.
- H.M. Judges and Trinity College
- The Admission of the newly elected Master of Trinity
- Commemoration of Benefactors
- The University and College Chests
- Obsolete Officers
- The University and Stourbridge Fair
- The University Arms
- The University Motto
- Index
- Plate section
- Frontmatter
- Prefatory Note
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS
- The Chancellor
- The Vice-Chancellor
- The Registrary
- The Proctors
- The Esquire Bedells
- Matriculation
- Congregations and Graces
- Degrees
- Commencement Day
- Insignia Doctoralia
- Honorary Degrees
- University Costume
- Processions
- The Presentation of an Address to H.M. The King
- The Bidding Prayer
- University Sermons
- The Orator
- The High Steward
- Representation in Parliament
- The Commissary
- University Discipline; the Sex Viri, etc.
- H.M. Judges and Trinity College
- The Admission of the newly elected Master of Trinity
- Commemoration of Benefactors
- The University and College Chests
- Obsolete Officers
- The University and Stourbridge Fair
- The University Arms
- The University Motto
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
The ceremonies of the “creation” of Masters and Doctors on Commencement Day, by which the degree was “made perfect,” is now a mere signing of lists, or a reading of names (as Dr Tanner remarks, Historical Register, p. 186), but it was formerly a proceeding of considerable solemnity. Gunning, in his Reminiscences (1, 26), describes a Commencement Sunday at Cambridge:
The College walks were crowded. Every doctor in the University wore his scarlet robes during the whole day. All the noblemen appeared in their splendid robes, not only at St Mary's and in the College Halls, but also in the public walks. Their robes (which are now [1785] uniformly purple) at that time were of various colours, according to the tastes of the wearers–purple, white, green, and rose-colour, were to be seen at the same time. The people from the neighbouring villages then never ventured to pass the rails which separate the walks from the high road. The evening of Commencement Tuesday, if not the most numerous, was always the most splendid assemblage at Pot Fair, when the merits of the steward and the events of the Ball formed the chief subjects of conversation.
The steward just mentioned was chosen by the ladies from among the noblemen, who generally took their degree on the Monday.
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- Ceremonies of the University of Cambridge , pp. 36 - 37Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1927