The debate at the Union, by the way, was a hot one, but the young student named Gladstone took no part in it. It resulted in a vote of ninety to thirty-three, affirming the superiority of Shelley over Byron. The only Oxonian who spoke in Shelley's favor was a young student of Balliol, named Manning, afterwards to become a Cardinal of the Church of Rome, but then in close and familiar relationship with Gladstone.
Gladstone's rooms were on Canterbury Quadrangle. If his life in those rooms had been less studious and more playful, if he had stolen knockers and frozen out Dons, instead of devoting himself to the classics and to winning a Double First, he might have proved a more amusing figure in these records; but he would hardly have proved so useful and so distinguished a figure in the history of his country and of the world.
John Ruskin entered Christ Church in 1833, and he won the Newdigate Prize some years later. A most entertaining letter of his, in verse, telling of his early experiences in college, is worth repeating here in part:
"A night, a day past o'er—the time drew near
The morning came—I felt a little queer;
Came to the push, paid some tremendous fees;
Passed, and was capped and gowned with marvellous ease.
