DIPLOMAS IN ARCHITECTURE AT CAMBRIDGE

Not in vain with quaint devices

Infants of the age of four

Build their mimic edifices

All upon the nursery floor;

Neither is the presage missed

By the Educationist,

When he doth the fact recall

How that Balbus built a wall!

Thus I mused on such-like theses,

While my errant fancy swam

Through the circumambient breezes

To the silver streams of Cam,—

There observed with pleased surprise

Ancient Universities

Still in touch at every stage

With the Progress of the Age;

There, released from sloth and coma

( Alma Mater’ s chief defect ),

There they grant a new Diploma

To the budding Architect,

Take the blighted Builder’ s art

To their academic heart,

Hope it may in time become

Part of their curriculum:

There they tell their College Porters

Not to think it strange or odd

When a load of bricks and mortar’ s

Dumped within the College quad;

No indignant Tutor hauls

Him who scales the College walls,—

Plying on that airy perch

Architectural Research!

Thus I sang: I seemed to see an

Epoch made, the Future’ s guide;

But my glad exultant pæan

Was not wholly justified:

Men whose names we all revere,

Stars in Architecture’ s sphere,

Phrases used which don’ t imply

Any genuine sympathy:

Ch — - mpn — - ys, Bl — - mfield, T. G. J — - cks — - n,

Hushed my lyre’ s triumphant string —

Said in limpid Anglo-Saxon

What they thought about the thing:

“Seats of learning are designed

For to Educate the Mind,

Not to teach a craft or trade,”

That was what these persons said!

What! and must a thwarted Nation

Draw the obvious inference?

What! a Liberal Education

Doesn’ t mean the quest of pence?

( Really, this extremely crude

Obscurantist attitude

Isn’ t quite what one expects

From distinguished Architects! )

Here’ s another dear illusion

Reft away and wholly gone:

O the spiritual confusion

Of the pained progressive Don!

If the facts are quite correct

As regards the Architect,

Comes the question, plain and clear,

How about the Engineer?