I mentioned briefly that in England, the ‘rank hath its privileges’ culture appears to be alive and kicking. I can explain with the help of the following photo, which I took at a college of Oxford University.

Most of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge that I visited had similar plans: the buildings faced inward on a big quadrangle of grass. Just to prove that Oxford and Cambridge are vastly different institutions, at Oxford these are called ‘quads’ and at Cambridge, they are called ‘courts’.

Anyway, I digress.

It became obvious to me that the purpose of these immaculate lawns, which take up a huge space in the middle of everything, is to provide a means for the high-ranking college members to display their divine superiority; there were signs that warned, ‘Keep off grass. Fellows and their guests excepted.’

There are other outrages too. I saw a building where there was one gate for ‘boys’ and another gate for the Warden and Fellows. When a college runs room ballots to determine which rooms students get to live in, the President of the student body gets first choice, followed by the Vice President and so on. I have also heard that it is common for student societies to be kicked out of a room they had booked well in advance — because a Fellow has decided to have a tea party. And even crazier, did you know that there is a queen of England? I saw her palace and everything. How quaint!

Finally, I’d like to refer back to Exhibit A. Clearly, from the cat’s relaxed pose, it is comfortable ignoring the ‘keep off the grass’ directive. Because no-one’s chasing it off, I can only presume that cats in England rank very highly.