Student Life in Nineteenth-Century Cambridge: John Wright's Alma Mater
Author: Christopher Stray (Sidney Sussex 1968)
Publisher: University of Exeter Press
This autobiographical memoir, by a man who was at Trinity 1813-19, was originally published in 1827 as Seven years at the University of Cambridge but never reprinted. It gives fascinating details about student life, including examinations, misbehaviour in chapel, teaching, riotous and sexual misconduct, sport and hunting. The author was a successful student, but due to a series of misadventures graduated with a pass degree, and failed to gain a college fellowship. He went into Grub Street and publishied over 20 books, mostly on mathematics, but his marriage failed and his children were sent to the workhouse. he turned to crime, was convicted and transported to Tasmania, where he died in 1842.