This gallery examines student life at St Andrews through the ages. We’re going to make our way around the walls of the room before looking at the medals in the centre.
You should be standing in front of a case containing the famous St Andrews red gown. Undergraduate students have worn red gowns from as early as the 1600s.
When it was introduced wearing the gown was compulsory. Its bright red colour meant that it was easy to spot students, who could be as young as 13, and prevent them from entering pubs or even less salubrious establishments.
Students are no longer forced to wear the red gown, though many still do for chapel services and ceremonial events. There are traditional ways of wearing it depending on the year and faculty of the student.
Today students live in purpose-built halls of residence or houses and flats around the town. Until the late 18th century, however, most lived in their college.
They dined together off plates like the pewter ones in front of you and at the start of each year they were entrusted with a silver spoon with which they ate, though they had to return it at the end of their time in the college and pay a deposit to make sure that they did!
If you move towards the window you will see one of the first volumes to be donated to the University library. In 1612 King James VI and other members of the royal family donated a total of 228 volumes with the aim of establishing a library for the University.
The Honey Cup, on display here, was awarded for bravery. Honey was attending chapel one morning in January 1800 when it was announced that a ship had run aground off the East Sands, St Andrews.
Honey leapt into the dangerously stormy waters and rescued the five men on board. It is often said that he drowned in the process, though this is not the case.
The inscription on the cup states that it was awarded by “several merchants of London” in memory of his courage.
Some say that the tradition of red gown-clad students processing along the pier and back after the Sunday chapel service is in honour of Honey. The May Dip, when students run into the freezing North Sea at dawn on the first of May each year, is also done partly in his memory.