রমেশচন্দ্র দত্ত Goldstucker, a profound German scholar, whose Sanskrit class we attended in the Uuiversity College. ... We passed our days in the University College, either in the classrooms or in the library. In the evening we returned to our lodging-houses, took our dinner, went out for stroll, returned and took a cup of tea, and then resumed our studies which we kept up as long as we could. And in the morning, after a hasty bath and breakfast, we went to the College again. At last the time for the Open Competition arrived, It was impossible to form any sort of conjecture what the result in our case would be, for over three hundred English students appeared in the examination, and the first fifty would be selected. ... The examination, one of the stiffest in the world, lasted for a month or more. The subjects are various, int no one is compelled to take all subjects or any particular subject ; each candidate takes what subjects he pleases, and candidates are judged by the aggregate marks they obtain in the subjects they take up. I had taken only five subjects—i.e. English (including History and Composition), Mathematics, Mental Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Sanskrit. On each subject there is a paper examination and a viva voce examination....When the result was out I was delighted to find that among about 325 candidates I stood second in order of merit in English, and had scored 420 marks out of 500. In 8anskrit, Mr. Cowell, formerly of the Sanskrit College, Calcutta, was our examiner....I scored higher marks than they [two Hindu fellow candidates] did, ...I scored 430 out of 500 in Sanskrit. ...I was not very well up in Higher Mathematics, and did not score high marks. In Mental Philosophy I got fairly good marks. ... I got good marks in Natural Philosophy on the whole, We had to wait over a month before the result was out. It was a time of anxious suspense, When the result was out I found I had not only been selected, but that I stood third in the order of merit. I cannot describe the transport which I felt on that eventful day, My friends, too, had passed. The great
