ABSTRACT
The time following a crisis is frequently referred to as a period of consolidation: a period, that is, in which, avoiding sudden change and innovation, new roots can grow to replace some of those which have recently been unearthed: a period whose achievement can be a steady job of work done well and quietly—though always subject to the danger that if the period is prolonged unduly an atmosphere of complacency may set in. The period which the College now entered after the time of troubles of the seventies was in the main such a period of consolidation. Changes tended to be of form and adaptation rather than of substance; and by the end of the period, after nearly half a century of life, the College had established itself in the eyes of the outside world as a respectable, familiar institution. The period coincided with the Principalship of Sir John Lubbock from 1883 to 1898, and with the period of George Tansley's greatest work for the College, from his retirement from business in 1884 until his death in March 1902. These two men, assisted by younger teachers such as Charles Crawley (Vice-Principal, 1883–87) and Reginald Mure (Vice-Principal, 1888–96) provided the leadership and set the tone of the College in the later Victorian years, a tone which was in some respects different from that of earlier times.
