I’m reading Alma Mater by Gwendolen Freeman, a book whose existence I discovered through Jane Robinsons’s Bluestockings. I had no problems locating a copy through ABEBooks, but I can’t find a cover image online, hence the pretty picture of Girton above, the book’s subtitle being Memoirs of Girton College, 1926-1929. So the taster this Sunday is a little bit of Cambridge nostalgia:
That week we began to learn the college jargon, including ‘jug’ for the numerous parties round college fires. I was nervous of making mistakes; of saying ‘dinner’ instead of lunch or ‘coming down’ instead of ‘up’ to Cambridge. The maids were ‘gyps’, and the chocolate cakes sold at Matthew’s, the Cambridge patisserie, were ‘deadlies’. At first I did not understand when somebody asked me, ‘What is your shop?’ It meant, what was my branch of study?
More tasters at Flukten fra virkeligheten.
Jeg liker dagens smakebit. Tror jeg hadde blitt ganske forvirret selv om jeg ble spurt om hva min shop var 😉
Fin smakebit! Jeg tror nok jeg ville vært rimelig forvirret som nye student på Cambridge…. 😀
Ja, jeg har også stor forståelse for Gwendolens forvirring.