In another sphere of work the College has taken a leading part. St. John's was the first College in Cambridge to start a mission in London—the Lady Margaret Mission in Walworth. Preaching in the College Chapel on 28th January 1883, the Rev. William Allen Whitworth, a Fellow of the College, then Vicar of St. John's, Hammersmith, afterwards Incumbent of All Saints', Margaret Street, suggested that the College should support a mission in some neglected district of London. The matter took form a little later in the year, and since then the College Mission has been a College institution. Members of the College visiting the mission district, and visitors from Walworth coming for an annual outing, including a cricket match, in August.
Another flourishing institution is the College magazine, The Eagle. Founded in the year 1858, it has maintained its existence for nearly fifty years, being now the oldest of College magazines. It has numbered among its contributors many who have subsequently found a wider field and audience: some of the earliest efforts of Samuel Butler, author of Erewhon, are to be found in its pages.
I now bring my sketch of the College history to a close. I have endeavoured, within the prescribed limits, to give an outline of the corporate life of an ancient and famous foundation. In writing it two classes of readers have been borne in mind: the visitor who, within a short compass, may wish to learn something more than can be picked up by an inspection of the buildings; members of the College who feel a lively interest in the habits and pursuits of those who have preceded them. I have, perhaps, thought more of the latter than of the former class.
Members of the College have always been distinguished for a certain independence of thought and adherence to principle, not always guided by motives of mere worldly prudence; they have always been noted for that strong corporate feeling which finds expression in the words of Viscount Falkland's letter, before alluded to: "I still carry about with me an indelible character of affection and duty to that Society, and an extraordinary longing for some occasion of expressing that affection and that duty."
To one who has spent much of his life in the service of the institution to which he owes so much, the words of the Psalmist (a Scot naturally quotes the version endeared to him by early association) seem to put the matter concisely—
"For in her rubbish and her stones
thy servants pleasure take;
Yea, they the very dust thereof
do favour for her sake."