The Editors have asked me to supplement a little the account of the College in Wordsworth's time which I gave in my address and I am adding therefore notes on several matters to which only brief reference could be made at the time.

College Examinations

In the College archives is a volume containing copies of almost all the Examiners' reports on the College examinations from 1770 to 1833. The examinations took place in December and June, and were held in the Hall. Dr Powell had made it a rule to be present himself; Chevallier apparently did not, as Wordsworth says in his Memoirs that he had never seen him except walking in the College grounds. Some part of the examination in early days was evidently oral; in a report of 1772 we read Atley might have deserved a prize, “if he had spoke louder, as much of his answers as could be heard was very good”. Printed question papers from the date 1810 are preserved in the College Library.

In the reports the candidates are arranged in three classes. Only those candidates who took the whole examination are classed, but comments on the work of other candidates are sometimes included. Within each class the men were arranged “according to their order on the boards”. From the nature of the reports it seems clear that they were put up on the College screens, together with the notice of the subjects for the next examination.