Spring Martlet 2017

Yusupov. This did not exempt him from the
requirement to live in College for his first year,
but it seems to have given him a greater say
than some in the quarters allotted him. During
a reconnaissance visit to Univ earlier in the
year, Felix had been most cordially received
by the Master, Reginald Macan, to whom he
presented letters of introduction dignified by
the coats of arms of both the Russian and
the British Royal Families. The Master, Felix
recalls in his memoirs, then obligingly walked
him through the College pointing out possible
rooms. Upon hearing that one ground-floor
set in the North-East corner of Front Quad
(VI.1) was known to the student-body as ‘The
Club’ and that, regardless of who chanced
to live in it, they would congregate there of
an evening to drink whisky, Felix immediately
begged to become its next incumbent.
The alacrity of his response might reasonably
give us pause. Was this man a true scholar?
Upon hearing that one ground-floor set in the North-East corner of Front
Quad (VI.1) was known to the student-body as ‘The Club’ and that, regardless
of who chanced to live in it, they would congregate there of an evening to
drink whisky, Felix immediately begged to become its next incumbent.
If we add to such doubts his striking good
looks, sartorial elegance and legendary
affluence, which caused ripples even in blasé
Oxford society, then we seem to have the
makings of a stereotypical aristocratic underachiever.
And at times the cap does seem
to fit. Having been permitted (apparently
uniquely) to read for the joint school in
English and Forestry, Felix credits Univ’s
Dean of the day with the advice to neglect
things sylvan for a while in favour of the
more urgent priority of improving his English.
(Felix recalls a note he had written, ordering
livestock for his Russian estate: ‘Please send
me one man cow and three Jersey women.’)
Eventually, faced with the prospect of
studying for a fourth year, Felix transferred
from the degree-course to the Diploma in
Political Economy and even contrived to
finesse a pass, to his own professed surprise
(though less, perhaps, to ours).
Soon after I moved to Univ in the eighties I
heard from a scout, at a remove of several
generations, two anecdotes about the
fabulous Mr Elkins. The first was a garbled
legend, transferring to his rooms in Univ
Front Quad a later and entirely innocent
event when the ballerina Anna Pavlova came
to be discovered snoring in Felix’s bed at
his house in George Street. The second
legend has Felix tipping College servants so
THE MARTLET | SPRING 2017 15