How To Disappear Completely

Tradition...

...is when you keeping doing something because no one can remember NOT doing it.

Oxford abounds in traditions, which continue to mystify me, the ignorant stranger, who does not carry the weight of centuries past upon her shoulders. For instance, when a college wins the periodic boat race (rowing is a rather important sport here), the winning team proceeds to carry their cox atop their boat and march down two of the main streets in Oxford. When they arrive at their college, do they proceed to decorate the triumphant vessel and mount it in a place of honour? No. The proud vehicle of victory is smashed to smithereens in the center quad of the home college. Perhaps this action symbolizes Final Victory; such a college has no more need for mere boats. Or perhaps it is one of many excuses for indulging wild inexplicable college student energy. Mayhaps the answer lies somewhere in between.

Furthermore, one often doesn't realize that wars one thought to have finished are in fact still being carried on in certain minds...just as the Civil War never ended in the South, so the Jacobite Rebellion (hmm, victor's term. Shall I say Jacobite Assertion of Rightful Reign?) lives on in parts of the British Empire. For those a trifle fuzzy on Scottish-English history, please note that the two nations had warred for centuries until Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots), who happened to be related to the Tudor family (monarchy of England) had a son (James VI) that, after Elizabeth I failed to have heirs, ascended the throne peacefully (becoming James I of KJV fame). The kingdoms were united into one government under Stuart reign. However, the Scottish "victory" was short-lived, because Parliament had Charles I beheaded and, after the Restoration and Charles II's regin, invited William and Mary (of Dutch descent) to the throne. The fiercely loyal Scots were not about to have one of their kinsmen kicked off the throne, and so war followed. "Bonny Prince Charlie" barely escaped to France, but for years afterwards, the men to the North were convinced that a "Stuart would reign again." Trinity College, here in Oxford, keeps one of its gates continually shut fast, as legend has it, until that fateful day of re-established Scottish rule.

End of history lesson. I apologize to any and all history majors who stand aghast at my haphazardly abbreviated accounts of the Jacobite (named after James VI, since Jacob was another form of James) Rebellion.