Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite. Thomas J. Schaeper
the lodge they asked whether they should report to someone and were told that they might see the vice-principal, one Dr. Bussell. After climbing his staircase they found “a man with a red and white schoolboy complexion and a monocle, wearing a very high choker collar.” Aydelotte announced “We are the new Rhodes Scholars.” Glancing through his monocle Bussell exclaimed in a squeaky falsetto voice, “How quaint.” Surprised and embarrassed, but also amused, they quickly retreated, realizing that they had encountered a “character.” They also realized that they had committed their first of many faux pas. It was indeed quaint for newcomers to make an occasion of their arrival in a place where to be casual and unimpressed was the standard behavior.14
Just as Cecil Rhodes hoped that Americans would come from all regions of the United States, so too he expected that they would be spread throughout the colleges in Oxford. If too many ended up in one college, this would deter them from mixing thoroughly with British students. Starting in 1904 and continuing to today, newly appointed scholars were asked to list several colleges in order of preference. Most of the young men knew little or nothing about Oxford and selected those colleges they had heard were the oldest and most prestigious. This set a tradition that has, with slight changes, carried through to the present time. The colleges that were most popular among the Americans through the first half of the century were Christ Church, Balliol, Merton, Exeter, and Lincoln.15 Most Rhodes Scholars failed to obtain their first choice in college. Furthermore, no college was obligated to accept a Rhodes Scholar. As things developed, what happened was that most colleges accepted one or two per year. Francis Wylie also did his best to distribute the scholars as widely as possible.
With the exception of Aydelotte and his companions, Rhodes Scholars generally went straight from the lodge to their rooms. They had several surprises awaiting them. Residential halls in the older colleges were not arranged in “floors,” where dozens of students had rooms extending down long hallways. Instead, the traditional Oxford arrangement was staircases. Every few yards along the outside of the building there was a doorway leading up a staircase. On each landing, extending up three or four floors, there were perhaps two or three doors, each one leading to a student's rooms. On average there were about a dozen students in each staircase.16
Upon reaching the correct door in the proper staircase, the student then encountered his second surprise: his “scout.” This was usually an older, formally-dressed gentleman, whom they assumed to be a college administrator. To their shock they discovered that this man called them “Sir.” He was, in effect, the manservant for the “gentlemen” of his staircase. Each scout was a college employee but also depended heavily on end-of-term tips from his charges. The scout awoke each man at around 7:30 a.m. on weekdays and brought breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea to each student's room. The scout also tidied up the rooms each day and ran errands around town – e.g., taking clothes to the cleaners or purchasing food and other supplies.
Immediately after weathering the shock of having a scout, the Rhodes Scholar discovered that he would have two, or sometimes three, rooms at his disposal. The usual two-room allotment, known as a “set,” included a bedroom and a sitting room. One ate, studied, and entertained in the latter.
The euphoria induced by having two rooms for oneself alone was soon tempered by disappointments. Rhodes Scholars learned that the furniture in the rooms usually belonged to the previous occupant. One had to purchase it in order to keep it. The Americans also discovered that other immediate expenditures were required, such as sending the scout out to purchase plates, cutlery, towels, and other incidentals. There was a fireplace in each room, for which the scout would need to purchase coal. The rooms might be impressively large, but students soon realized that they were cold and drafty. Worse than that, the antique residence halls also possessed antique plumbing-or, more often, no plumbing at all. In hundreds of diaries and letters home, the pioneer Rhodes Scholars bemoaned the fact that toilets and bathtubs might be located in quads at the opposite end of the college. The Americans thus discovered what English public schoolboys already knew: education and the building of character were not meant to occur in an environment of warmth and convenience.17
NOTES
1. The best, most detailed account is the multi-volume History of the University of Oxford, published by Oxford University Press, gen. ed. T. H. Aston. The early period is covered in the first two volumes: J.I. Catto, ed., The Early Oxford Schools (1984) and J.I. Catto and Ralph Evans, eds., Late Medieval Oxford (1993).
2. Baedeker's Great Britain (London, 1887), 30.
3. Stephen Leacock, “Oxford As I See It,” Harper's, May 1922, 741.
4. Symonds, Oxford and Empire, 31, 35, 189–91.
5. Jan Morris, Oxford (Oxford, 1978), 56.
6. One of the best guides to the terms and customs of Oxford is Christopher Hibbert, ed., The Encyclopedia of Oxford (London, 1988).
7. TAO, 43 (1956): 7.
8. In addition to the aforementioned History of the University of Oxford, one should consult John Prest, ed., The Illustrated History of Oxford University (Oxford, 1993).
9. TAO, 54 (1967): 10.
10. Brian Harrison, ed., The History of the University of Oxford. Vol. 8: The Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1994), 345–49; Amery, My Political Life, I:45.
11. As their selection process was less complex, scholars from Germany, South Africa, and Rhodesia were the first to arrive, in the fall of 1903.
12. TAO, 50 (1963): 65; 52 (1965): 126.
13. TAO, 37 (1950): 66, 54 (1967): 103.
14. Blanshard, Aydelotte, 58.
15. Aydelotte, American Rhodes Scholarships, 133; Elton, First Fifty Years, 66–67.
16. Most residence halls built since the latter part of the nineteenth century are arranged by floors rather than staircases.
17. Elton, First Fifty Years, 80; Blanshard, Aydelotte, 59–60; TAO, 66 (1979): 123.
YANKS AND BRITS
To sum up my impressions of Oxford I need only one short sentence-I am glad to be here. I have no doubt that my three short years at this ancient university will prove to be the most profitable years of my life. Not only shall I be better equipped intellectually, but I shall ever feel the improving influence of Oxford life, and the subtle charm of this beautiful city. I do not wonder that the sons of Oxford ever look back with fondness to their college days, and I know that I too shall look back to them with equal fondness.
Stanley Royal Ashby, class of 1906
Of course there is good cooking in Oxford, as there are crossbows and hoopskirts on sale in New York City; but in both cases you must work to find them…. [I recall] Oxford chiefly as a place where too many bells were always ringing in the rain, and the English countryside as a locale whose principal attraction lay in the fact that when you were broke you could live there for about one fifth the cost of a vac in the Continental capitals.
Elmer Davis, class of 1910
Getting Acquainted
When the first wave of Americans arrived in the fall of 1904 Oxford newspapers and magazines were filled with the same sort of warnings that had appeared after the will had first been announced. Isis published cartoons showing Rhodes Scholars lynching their dons and riding bucking broncos.1 As things turned out, the early Rhodes Scholars did not hang anyone and brought no horses with them, but they did provide entertainment, puzzlement, and consternation. Even before their accents could be heard, their clothes gave them away. Almost invariably, they bedecked themselves in splotches of bright colors and wild plaids. In every class there were several