The Admission of the newly elected Master of Trinity

Summary

No ceremony in the University is more picturesque than the admission of a newly elected Master of Trinity College. In Dr Parry's recently published Memoir of the late Professor Henry Jackson, a letter is printed giving an account of the installation of the present Master, Sir J. J. Thomson, on 5 March, 1918. “I am glad [said the venerable Professor of Greek] that you thought the ceremonial dramatic. There is an excellent document prepared in 1841–it is said by Welsford (otherwise Mephistopheles) the Chapel Clerk,–which fixes all the details. The V.M. ‘Commands’ the porters to open the Great Gates: then welcomes the M. C. and presents him to the fellows (not as the Chronicle says ‘presents the fellows to him’). To the Chapel the V. M. takes the right hand, the M. C. designate the left. The V. M. says the formula of admission at the M. C.'s stall, holding his hand. I was glad that the 5th Company of Officer Cadets turned out in force.…”

The Fellows assembled in the Ante-Chapel instead of the Combination Room.

The above account is described from the inside. It may be added that Sir Joseph Thomson (who wore his hood squared) was kept waiting outside the closed Gate until his Letters Patent had been formally inspected; and that a large crowd, which had assembled, watched the distinguished man of science as he knocked loudly at the double doors.