Xll PREFACE. reputation of a College. It was a new feature in Oxford life when school games first became tolerated as an occupation for grown men. The first race between College crews may date back as far as 1815. The first Oxford and Cambridge cricket match was played in 1827. Football did not appear till considerably later. The spread of interest in athletics has not, of course, been confined to Schools or Universities. It is common to all parts of the kingdom, and is shared by all ranks of society. But it is important to notice its effect among ourselves. Whatever other results it may have, for good or harm, it has certainly created a new core of sentiment ; by identifying the whole body with the success or disgrace of its representatives on the cricket field or the river, it has helped to stimulate College patriotism. It has also had much to do in establishing those easier and more friendly relations between undergraduates and dons which contrast so strikingly with the traditions of the past. Athletic distinctions will not, however, be found .among the particulars recorded in this volume. An exhaustive search through all the possible sources of information would have required an amount of time and trouble altogether out of proportion to the value of the result. For a great part of the period the materials for a complete record do not at present exist in any convenient form : much would have to be collected from scattered and accidental sources : and probably not a few names, well known in their generation, would escape ob- servation. To make a selection would be both invidious and misleading: and the task of compiling a complete list must be left to another chronicler. But whenever that work is accomplished, all classes, Commoners, Scholars, Bible Clerks, Exhibitioners, will be found well represented in the athletic bede-roll of the College. FLOREAT ORIEL FREWIN HALL. i July, .1902.