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RENAISSANCE OF GIRLS’ EDUCATION

THE
RENAISSANCE OF GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN ENGLAND
A Record of Fifty Years’ Progress

BY ALICE ZIMMERN

(GIRTON COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE)

AUTHOR OF ‘METHODS OF EDUCATION IN AMERICA,’ ‘OLD TALES PROM GREECE,’ ETC.

London

A. D. Innes & Company

Limited

1898

Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty

PREFACE

To all whom it may interest I dedicate this brief summary of the events which have wrought a peaceful revolution among us during the last fifty years. Among the many changes of the half-century, the great transformation in the education of women surely deserves a record. The workers have been many, the help given of various kinds, yet no event is isolated, for all are links in one chain of progress. Fifty years ago a few far-sighted men and women gave the impetus; we who harvest where they sowed may like to be reminded, in this season of retrospects, of the great debt we owe them. What has touched the lives of so many women is the concern of all, and though I shall be proud indeed if my book prove welcome to teachers, I should wish most of all to address myself to that old and long-tried friend of literature, the general reader. If he, or she, can be persuaded, to spend an hour or two, learning the past and present of the education of our girls, my purpose will have been accomplished.

To thank for favours received is a pleasant task, but the list of those who have helped me with this book would prove too long for enumeration. I desire to offer my heartiest thanks to all who have assisted me with information, criticism, or in any other way; especially to Miss Beale for valuable materials and kind hospitality, to Mrs. Bryant and Miss A. A. M. Rogers for much useful information, to Miss Mary Gurney, Miss Ella Pycroft, Miss Mary Kennedy, and Mr. W. Edwards for reading portions of the book, and to Mrs. Edwards for her sympathy and kindness during my stay in Wales. To the many headmistresses who have allowed me to visit their schools I offer most cordial thanks, and last, but not least, to the officials of the Education Library, in particular Mr. Sadler and Miss Beard, for their courtesy and helpfulness.

ALICE ZIMMERN.

September 1898.

CONTENTS

THE

RENAISSANCE OF GIRLS’ EDUCATION

CHAPTER I
BEFORE 1848

Yes, strange though it may sound, it was in truth a Renaissance—a revival of the past, and no new experiment. Or perhaps we should more fitly describe it as the realisation of an old dream, one that has been dreamed many times in the course of the ages, but has waited till the nineteenth century for its complete fulfilment. Two thousand years ago it was seen by Plato, that most practical of idealists, who maintained that it was for the best interests of the state that its men and women should be as good as possible. Therefore the education of both was a matter of public concern. In these latter days this doctrine has won acceptance, with an even wider significance, due to our democratic development. The treasures of learning are no longer the property of an exclusive few, and the privileges of class and sex are breaking down simultaneously. Education for all, boys and girls, rich and poor, is the modern demand, which no party dare now refuse to consider. We must cater not only for the ‘wives of the governors,’ but also for the children of the slums. All the daughters of all the households of all civilised countries are to enter into their heritage. The much-discussed ‘ladder’ from the elementary school to the University is becoming a fact; and its rungs are being widened, that the girls may ascend it side by side with their brothers. La carrière ouverte aux talents, with no distinction of class, sex, or creed, is the demand of the nineteenth century.

From Plato’s Utopian ‘Republic’ to London of the County Council is a far cry. Between the two, this question of girls’ education has many times been raised and temporarily solved. Socrates’ half-jesting dictum, that women are capable of learning anything which men are willing they should know, might stand as the motto for nearly every attempt to improve female education. The instruction given to women at different epochs has varied directly with the estimation in which they were held. When they were regarded as slaves or toys it was expedient to keep them in ignorance; when they were treated honourably as equals, the best gifts of learning were not thought too good for them.

It is not our place here to dwell on the bright examples of antiquity, the Neo-Platonist women and Hypatia, the beautiful mathematician of Alexandria, but rather, turning to our own country, to see how Christianity has touched the lives of women. Here, as elsewhere, it was the Church alone that kept alive the flame of knowledge during the Middle Ages. In the seventh and eighth centuries, that ‘nadir of learning,’ monks and nuns alike were occupied with literary studies. They read theology and classics, copied manuscripts, and corresponded in Latin. Their activity was in accordance with their social position. ‘The heads of the great religious houses were necessarily persons of importance, with privileges and great responsibilities. They had considerable wealth at their disposal, and in authority and influence they ranked among the nobles of the land, to whom they were often allied by birth.’[^[1]] The name that naturally occurs first to our minds is that of the Abbess Hilda, ‘whose counsel was sought even by kings,’ and who ruled over a double monastery, which became a seminary of bishops and priests. Hers is no solitary instance. ‘In Anglo-Saxon England,’ writes Miss Eckenstein, ‘men who attained to distinction received their training in settlements governed by women. Histories and a chronicle of unique value were inspired by and drafted under the auspices of Saxon abbesses.’ And ‘the curriculum of study in the nunnery was as liberal as that accepted by the monks, and embraced all available writings, whether by Christian or profane authors.’ The convents were the colleges of Anglo-Saxon times. The nuns, who lived a life of seclusion and study, might be compared with the fellows; the students were the successive groups of girls who came there for education.

Among the many social changes brought about by the Norman Conquest, the most far-reaching, the introduction of feudalism, established a new centre of education, which henceforth flourished side by side with the cloister. The monks still taught the Trivium and Quadrivium—Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy—though the instruction given deserved these high-sounding names little better than the so-called sciences taught in girls’ schools at the beginning of our own century. The castle could offer boys a more attractive programme. The seven knightly accomplishments were to ride, sing, shoot with the bow, box, hawk, play chess, and write verses. It had something for girls as well. While the young squires gained their training by service done to their lord, the châtelaine would gather about her a troop of gentle maidens, who learned to weave, spin, brew, and distil, and do various kinds of needlework. They learned a little reading and writing, and in these arts were somewhat in advance of their brothers, who were trained to look on books as monkish and womanish, and not quite suited to a knight and gentleman. The châtelaine herself held an honourable position. In her lord’s absence she must even take command of the castle, and the damoiselles must be prepared for their own coming responsibilities.

The thirteenth century brought a change. The political influence of the Church, which had been lessened by the Conquest, was revived by the preaching friars. They introduced a new ideal of monastic life; the spirit of devotion and asceticism drove out the old love of learning. New priories sprang up throughout England, but their aims were different. As the monasteries were more and more becoming centres of devotion, learning was being driven into the new universities, where the philosophy of the schoolmen now reigned supreme. Already some colleges with endowments for poor scholars had been founded at Oxford and Cambridge, and it was becoming the custom for the monasteries to send their most promising pupils there. Why did the nuns not follow this example? Probably the metaphysical disputations then in vogue had few attractions for them; and the presence of large numbers of men would be a sufficient reason for keeping aloof, for though the studies of both sexes might be the same, they were not pursued side by side. Whatever the cause, it is certain that while masculine learning showed an ever-growing tendency to leave the cloister, female scholarship was still closely confined to the convent. But it was degenerating for want of new life; the nunneries were a survival, not a living growth; their learning had become ‘poor in substance, cramped in method, and insufficient in application.’[^[2]] The old order was changing, but somehow the nuns failed to perceive it. In Erasmus’ day, we are told, the really learned woman was to be found outside the convent walls, and he adds the significant remark that her husband approved of her studies. The wrong done to women by the dissolution was not so much the closing of the convents as the transference to men of their endowments. The most flagrant instance is the transformation of St. Radegund’s nunnery at Cambridge into Jesus College. That this and other instances of spoliation were possible shows how low the status of women had sunk, and it is not strange, therefore, that a period of neglected education should have ensued.

Whatever the cause, the Reformation does not seem to have assisted the development of women. Perhaps this was partly due to the removal of the one career that had been open to them, thus forcing all, married and unmarried, into a dependent position in the household. Luther’s views on women were not very elevated, and probably a good many of the Reformers shared them. It may be due to this Protestant influence that in England women profited less intellectually by the Renaissance than men, or at any rate in far smaller numbers. Thanks to the new grammar schools, learning was being made accessible to boys of all classes. When Sir Thomas More’s dream was realised, and the middle classes, from the squire to the petty tradesman, were brought into contact with ancient literature, the daughters were not as well provided as the sons. Some authorities are of opinion that the original foundations were meant for both sexes alike, but if so, very few girls of the middle class profited by their advantages, though some sort of education evidently came to all. Among the upper classes large numbers of women were carried away by the enthusiasm of the Renaissance, and learned to read Latin and Greek. The sixteenth century has always been celebrated for its learned ladies, as witness Wotton’s oft quoted remark thereon and his comment: ‘One would think by the effects that it was a proper way of educating them, since there are no accounts in history of so many great women in any age as are to be found between the years 1500 and 1600.’ Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey are sometimes called exceptions, but this is clearly an error. Learning was an expensive luxury for women, since it involved the services of a private tutor, but it had fashion and opinion on its side. To be learned was accounted a privilege, which called for neither arrogant boasting nor blushing concealment. Those who did study, would naturally turn to the best their age could offer them, i.e. the new editions of the classics and the fashionable modern literature. They set the fashion too as well as followed it. The success of Euphues was established by its lady readers, and in the domain of polite literature it was generally acknowledged that they created the standard. When Lyly wrote ‘Euphues had rather lie shut in a lady’s casket than open in a scholar’s study,’ he knew well enough that it was not the ladies who would neglect his book. He confessed as much in its dedication to the ‘Ladies and Gentlewomen of England.’ Nor was there anything new in this. The lady sat in her bower to read Sidney’s Arcadia as in olden times she had listened in the hall to the lay of the minstrel. It was still her part to assign the prize of romance as of valour. The leisure which made the enjoyment of tale and song possible was essentially the lot of the rich and noble lady, who neither toiled nor span, but did a more useful work as guardian of art and literature. The amazing discovery that ‘Books are a part of man’s prerogative’[^[3]] had not yet been made; there is certainly not a hint of it in Shakespeare. Nor could such a doctrine possibly originate under a queen, who, whatever her faults, cultivated learning herself and honoured it in others. Our thoughts linger lovingly over that noblest age of English story, when romanticism and classicism joined their glories for a brief space; when the courtier was both knight and scholar, and the noble dame’s epitaph praised her as ‘wise and fair and good.’ Seen through the haze of the past, its splendours stand out in even greater dimension, while all that was small and weak is obscured to dimness. The very age that followed served as a foil to throw into yet brighter relief ‘the spacious days of great Elizabeth.’

It is significant of the rapid degeneration that ensued, that though between the accession of Henry VIII. and the death of James I., 353 grammar schools were founded in England, not one was added to the number after 1625. The seventeenth century was a gloomy period for England. If Elizabeth had given her country peace and glory, the Stuarts were not long in reversing the position. Disastrous civil wars, political and theological quarrels, absorbed the best energies of the nation. The Cavaliers were too frivolous, the Roundheads too grimly earnest to spare much leisure for learning. In times of war and national peril woman’s influence is apt to wane, and such power as they had at the Stuart court was not of the kind to encourage intellectual pursuits. When a scholar was hardly accounted a gentleman, a lady might be pardoned for neglecting her intellectual charms. It became the fashion among men to decry female students, to bid them put away their books and learn to wash and cook instead. ‘I like not a female poetess at any hand,’ says one of these self-appointed critics. This attitude was characteristic of the decline of chivalry and the degradation of woman’s position. ‘There is not so much as a Don Quixote of the quill left,’ writes Mary Astell in 1694, ‘to succour the distressed damsels.’ The age of courtesy being over, women must help themselves, and she takes up the cudgels for her sex. ‘A man ought no more to value himself on being wiser than a woman,’ she remarks pertinently, ‘if he owes his advantage to a better education and greater means of information, than he ought to boast of courage for beating a man when his hands were bound.’[^[4]] Hers is the old thesis, that women are quite capable of learning if only men will not put hindrances in their way. Even so the girls’ curriculum of her day does not seem to have been as meagre as is often assumed. She tells us that when the boys go to grammar schools the girls are sent ‘to boarding-schools or other places to learn needlework, dancing, singing, music, drawing, painting, and other accomplishments ... and French, which is now very fashionable.’ This description which would almost have served at the beginning of our own century, is not as gloomy as Defoe’s, written at about the same time. Girls, he tells us, learned ‘to stitch and sew and make baubles. They are taught to read indeed, and perhaps to write their names or so, and this is the height of a woman’s education.’[^[5]] Both agree in condemning its narrowness. Defoe cannot believe that ‘God Almighty ever made them such glorious creatures, and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and delightful to mankind, with souls capable of the same accomplishment with men, and all to be only stewards of our houses, cooks, and slaves.’ Mary Astell maintains that ‘according to the rate that young women are educated, according to the way their time is spent, they are destined to folly and impertinence, to say no worse.’ She protests, as Mrs. Makins had done before her,[^[6]] against the new fashion of ignorant women, and implores her sisters to help bring back the good old times, and take a lesson from the ladies of the previous century. Both Defoe and Mary Astell recommend the same project, the establishment of women’s colleges, thus anticipating our own times by more than a century and a half. Defoe’s colleges would have been superior boarding-schools, one in every county and about ten for the city of London; Mary Astell’s plan was to combine religious and intellectual aims. She contemplated ‘a seminary to stock the kingdom with pious and prudent ladies, whose good example, it is to be hoped, will so influence the rest of their sex, that women may no longer pass for those little, useless, and impertinent animals which the ill conduct of too many has caused them to be mistaken for.’[^[7]] But it must also try to ‘expel that cloud of ignorance which custom has involved us in, to furnish our minds with a stock of solid and useful knowledge, that the souls of women may no longer be the only unadorned and neglected things.’ Nothing came of either project; they belong to the domain of unfulfilled dreams.

The new century brought little improvement. Anne was not of a sufficiently independent character to influence greatly the lives and pursuits of her subjects. As was natural in the reign of a Queen, the position and dignity of women were somewhat raised; and in that ‘Augustan age’ there was one class of literature specially addressed to the ladies, the newly invented essay. Addison really wanted to elevate their position and social influence, but his success was literary rather than moral. If we may trust the novelists of the last century, public morality was never at a lower ebb. The men of that day worshipped idleness, and it was not surprising that they did not care to see their wives and mistresses at work. Show was the aim throughout, and the ‘accomplishment’ reigned supreme. The second half of the century witnessed a great increase in the boarding-school system. Hitherto it had been confined to the fashionable world; now tradesmen and farmers who had made some money began to emulate their ‘betters.’ Imitations of the fashionable schools sprang up everywhere. ‘We have,’ says the heroine of General Burgoyne’s play, The Heiress, “Young ladies boarded and educated” upon blue boards in gold letters in every village; with a strolling player for a dancing-master, and a deserter from Dunkirk to teach the French language.’

The eighteenth century, too, had its distinguished women; indeed, the Blue-Stocking Club, so called, it seems, from the dress of one of its masculine habitués, is regarded as the representative group of learned ladies. But Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Chapone, and Hannah More were exceptions, and themselves only too conscious of their opposition to the rest of their sex. There was a touch of the précieuse about some of them which exposed them to a good deal of cheap satire, and they were keenly alive to the antagonism with which the other sex regarded them. Mrs. Chapone even advises her niece to avoid the study of classics and science, for fear of ‘exciting envy in one sex and jealousy in the other.’ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu complains bitterly that ‘there is hardly a creature in the world more despicable and more liable to universal ridicule than that of a learned woman,’ while ‘folly is reckoned so much our proper sphere, we are sooner pardoned any excesses of that than the least pretensions to reading and good sense.’

Some of these last century women were practical reformers, who realised the pernicious results of this false opinion about their sex. Among these was Hannah More, who entered a most earnest protest against the excessive accomplishment craze. The lower middle class were emulating the upper in their endeavour to make their daughters ‘accomplished young ladies,’ while they quite forgot that ‘the profession of ladies to which the best of their education should be turned is that of daughters, wives, mothers, and mistresses of families.’[^[8]] She even ventured to fly in the face of public opinion by asserting that ‘a young lady may excel in speaking French and Italian, may repeat a few passages from a volume of extracts, play like a professor, and sing like a siren,’ and yet be very badly educated, if her mind remains untrained. ‘The kind of knowledge that they commonly do acquire is easily attained,’ they learn everything in a superficial question-and-answer way, or through abridgments, beauties, and compendiums, instead of reading books that require thought and attention. As we read her Strictures on Female Education we rub our eyes and look at the date once more. Is this, indeed, Hannah More writing a hundred years ago, or have we stumbled upon a stray extract from Mr. Bryce’s report to the Schools’ Inquiry Commission in 1867? ‘She should pursue every kind of study which will teach her to elicit truth, which will lead her to be intent upon realities; will give precision to her ideas; will make an exact mind.’ She quotes Dr. Johnson’s opinion that ‘a woman cannot have too much arithmetic.’ Had the worthy doctor a prevision of a High School time-table?

Hannah More’s influence does not seem to have been very lasting. Her contemptuous remark, that we might as well talk about the rights of children as the rights of women, shows that she had not much real grasp of the educational problem. Both should, in her opinion, be relegated to their proper subordinate places. She was right in despising the frivolity of her day, and condemning the constant round of pleasure in which fashionable women spent their lives, but she was almost too severe to be helpful. Far more valuable was Miss Edgeworth’s work, which was constructive as well as critical. Her educational romances, in which she contrasts the good and bad governess, the sensible and frivolous girl, are thoroughly readable even at the present day, and must have proved useful to many readers who lighted unawares on the powder in the jam. Practical Education, written in conjunction with her father, throws valuable light on contemporary conditions, and advances theories that are still worthy of our notice. The ‘practical toy shop,’ provided with all manner of carpenter’s tools, with wood properly prepared for the young workman, and with screws, nails, glue, emery-paper, etc., is still to seek; her remarks on the two schools, the one teaching ‘by dint of reiterated pain and terror,’ the other ‘with the help of counters and coaxing and gingerbread,’ are not altogether out of date. Nor have we yet learned to pay a good governess £300 a year, on the ground that her working days are few, and she ought to lay by for a comfortable old age. Her severest strictures, like Hannah More’s, are reserved for ‘female accomplishments.’ Their chief use is that ‘they are supposed to increase a young lady’s chance of a prize in the matrimonial lottery.’ Hence, when the end is achieved, they are thrown aside. ‘As soon as a young lady is married, does she not frequently discover that she really has no leisure to cultivate talents which take up so much time?’ Nor is it quite certain that they are as efficacious as is generally supposed. The market is becoming overstocked, for ‘every young lady, and every young woman is now a young lady, has some pretension to accomplishments. She draws a little; or she plays a little; or she speaks French a little.’ Accomplishments are becoming so general ‘that they cannot be considered as the distinguishing characteristics of even a gentlewoman’s education.’ Since they are no longer ‘exclusive,’ she hopes they may be cast aside for something better. Her indictment against the female education of her day is that ‘sentiment and ridicule have conspired to represent reason, knowledge, and science as unsuitable and dangerous to women; yet, at the same time, wit and superficial acquirements in literature have been the object of admiration in society; so that this dangerous inference has been drawn, almost without our perceiving its fallacy, that superficial knowledge is more desirable in women than accurate knowledge.’ It is interesting to find this complaint repeated in 1826 by an anonymous writer,[^[9]] who maintains the old dictum that ‘females are not behind males in capacity, and excel them in diligence and docility,’ but they are handicapped by ‘an education of mere externals and of show.’ There is a want of stamina in girls’ education, and as for their school-books, they are mere combinations of words used as ‘substitutes or apologies for ideas.’

Maria Edgeworth’s influence should have been considerable, but turning from her works to her contemporaries and immediate successors, it seems doubtful whether they even understood her. Her stories, whose most useful lessons were addressed to parents, were turned into children’s books; and the demand for a more solid education simply led to an increase of the memory and book-work in schools. In spite of her strictures on the uselessness of a knowledge of isolated facts, and the attempts of Mrs. Barbauld and others to supply something better, the catechism system continued to grow and flourish. Large amounts of memory work were added to the piano and drawing, which still held their own, and the results were not merely negative as regards intellectual value, but positive in their injurious effects on health. Miss Frances Power Cobbe in her description of the fashionable boarding-school to which she was sent in 1836, speaks of the pages of prose the girls were expected to learn by heart, amid the din of constant practising. ‘Not that which was good in itself or useful to the community, or even that which would be delightful to ourselves, but that which would make us admired in society was the raison-d’être of each requirement. Everything was taught in the inverse ratio of its true importance. At the bottom of the scale were Morals and Religion, and at the top were Music and Dancing, miserably poor music too, of the Italian school then in vogue, and generally performed in a showy and tasteless manner on harp or piano.’[^[10]] Miss Cobbe thinks this education far worse than that received by her mother in 1790, when much less was attempted, and there was no ‘packing the brains of girls with facts.’ Besides ‘grammar and geography, and a very fair share of history’ (ancient from Rollin, and sacred from Mrs. Trimmer), they ‘learned to speak and read French with a very good accent, and to play the harpsichord with taste.’ Clearly things were on the downward course, and in the first half of this century the education of both sexes was in some respects in a worse condition in England than at any time before or since. Mere ignorance would have been comparatively harmless, but there never was a time when educational theories were more fashionable or more perverse. Miss Catherine Sinclair, who wrote in the forties and fifties, lifted up her voice, in Modern Accomplishments, against the system of cram and display then prevailing. ‘Lady Howard’s utmost ingenuity was exercised in devising plans of study for her daughter, each of which required to be tried under the dynasty of a different governess, so that by the time Matilda Howard attained the age of sixteen, she had been successively taught by eight, all of whom were instructed in the last method that had been invented for making young ladies accomplished on the newest pattern.’ All these governesses were foreign, according to the fashion of the day; at last an English lady of Edgworthian type was discovered, who trained the mind instead of overloading the memory, and all ended happily. Precocity and display were what parents demanded, and schools and governesses contrived to supply the requirements. Miss Sinclair’s accounts of premature death and lifelong ill-health may have been overdrawn, but doubtless she put her finger on the weak spot when she wrote: ‘Nothing is popular now that requires thought in young people, who are constantly devouring books, but never digesting them, and are allowed no time to think.’

The better the school, in the acceptation of that day, the worse probably the result; and those girls whose parents could not afford the expensive governess or the ‘finishing-school,’ often had the best of it, so long as they were not sent to one of the cheap and inefficient imitations. By a curious irony the one attempt made early in the century to give a good education at a small expense, was that which through Charlotte Brontë’s genius has been held up to everlasting contumely. The Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowen Bridge undertook, for the small sum of £14 a year, to clothe, feed, lodge, and educate the daughters of clergymen. In 1825, the year when Charlotte Brontë was there, the Rev. W. Carus Wilson (too well known as Mr. Brocklehurst), appealing for additional funds, stated that an annual income of £250, together with the fees, would be sufficient to meet current expenses. A comparison of this modest demand with the sums raised in our own day for women’s colleges, helps us to realise the revolution that has taken place in public opinion. Even so most of the subscribers seem to have been Mr. Wilson’s relations, and it was only as a charity for the poor clergy, with a side-thought of getting better governesses at low terms, that it awakened any interest at all. Still it was considered a remarkable achievement. In 1833, Mr. Venn Elliott, who had visited the school in its new premises at Casterton, and been present at the consecration of the church built in its neighbourhood, wrote: ‘I would rather have built this school and church than Blenheim and Burleigh. So Dr. Watts said he would rather have written Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted than Milton’s Paradise Lost.’ The result of this visit was the foundation of St. Mary’s Hall at Brighton. It still exists, and gives a really first-class education at a low fee. Other schools were founded in imitation; and in spite of the sordid economy of those early days, and the suffering it entailed on the weakly, they deserve full recognition as almost the only institutions which attempted in the early part of the century to provide a good and cheap education for girls. The tradition of sound study survived, and in 1867 the Casterton institution came in for a word of praise from the Royal Commissioners, amid their almost universal condemnation of existing girls’ schools.

The benefits which a woman’s reign always confers on women have been experienced to the full during the long and peaceful reign of our present Queen. The interest taken by her and the Prince Consort in arts and letters, and in the general improvement of the people, set an example that was readily followed. Ladies of the upper and middle classes began to take a keener interest in the lives of the poor, and in dealing with the problems they thus encountered were often brought to realise their own want of education. There was a stir and a movement towards something better. The views of men were gradually changing, as the ideal of womanhood set by a purer Court became more elevated. Sixty years of a woman’s wise and beneficent rule have done much to restore the glories of Elizabeth’s day. Like the revival of letters, which communicated to the whole world the learning which had once belonged to one small people, this other renaissance brought knowledge, not only to the convent pupil and the lady of leisure, but to all the daughters of the nation. This widening has helped to fix the roots more firmly, and we may hope and believe that the gains of this century are not to be lost, but, enriched by all the wealth of the future, to continue for many a generation to come.

CHAPTER II
THE FIRST COLLEGES

The revival of women’s education in England has now a record of fifty years behind it. On the 1st of May this year Queen’s College in Harley Street celebrated its Jubilee with manifold rejoicings, a celebration in which all Englishwomen may claim the right to join. Though Girton and Holloway and other newer institutions have arisen since to throw the glories of Queen’s into the shade, none can deprive it of its proud title—the first women’s college in England.

An occasion of this kind provokes reminiscence and the drawing of contrasts between 1848 and 1898; while the question that naturally occurs to us is: How did it all begin? Many answers have been suggested. Some have pressed the significance of 1848 as the year of Revolution, and hinted that the women’s share in revolt was an attempt to throw off the shackles of ignorance. This may not be altogether fanciful. Such social upheavals symbolise the workings of intellectual forces, nor can we doubt that the attempt to win for women privileges from which they had hitherto been jealously excluded is a part of the democratic demand for universal equal opportunity.

Along with the general ferment of ideas and the cry for reform must be counted the growing influence on the lives of the upper classes exercised by the Queen and Prince Consort. Following the lead of the Court the ideals of the nation were changing. A more serious view of life and its responsibilities was developing, and the time seemed a propitious one for organised effort. But though various schemes had been discussed, the immediate impetus to action was an actual and crying need. In those days girls of the upper classes were, for the most part, educated at home by governesses, usually foreigners, because Englishwomen, though glad enough to obtain such posts, when suddenly thrown upon the world by the death of a parent or other untoward circumstance, were seldom properly qualified to fill them. Some of course there were who, by foreign travel or private study, had reached a fair standard of attainment; but how distinguish these from the herd, when they lacked even the teacher’s diploma with which their Swiss or German rivals were equipped? In this dilemma the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution came to the rescue.

This Institution had been founded in 1843 with a threefold aim:—(1) To afford temporary relief in cases of great suffering, (2) To cultivate provident habits in those who could afford to save; (3) To raise annuities for those past work. This programme seemed to distinguish governesses as a class specially in need of pity and relief. To attempt to help them by increasing their competency, and thus indirectly their wage-earning capacity, was a bold new departure. The first proposal was to hold examinations for a teacher’s diploma, but it soon appeared that an attempt to examine the untaught was a useless inversion of the natural order. To make the undertaking really helpful it became necessary to institute a system of classes. This scheme was first discussed in 1846, and a sum of money collected by Miss Murray, one of the Queen’s Maids of Honour, handed over to the Institution for this purpose. In 1847 the first certificates were conferred, and arrangements made for opening classes. Here some of the most distinguished professors of King’s College stepped in with help. Among them were Maurice, Trench, and Kingsley, and others no less noted. It was a new and astounding departure for men of their standing to be willing to lecture to women. They began with evening classes, but soon added others in the day for ladies of no special occupation. This led to the taking of 67 Harley Street, for the purpose of holding classes in ‘all branches of female learning,’ and permission was received to name the new institution Queen’s College.

On March 29, 1848, Professor F. D. Maurice, who has been called the ‘parent and founder of the College,’ delivered an inaugural address on ‘Queen’s College, London, its objects and methods.’ After apologising for the word ‘college’ as somewhat too ambitious for the project in hand, he thought well to answer in advance the objections of those who might use Pope’s hackneyed line about ‘a little learning’ as a means of discrediting the new classes. Even he did not anticipate very deep draughts from the spring of knowledge. ‘We are aware that our pupils are not likely to advance far in mathematics, but we believe that if they learn really what they do learn, they will not have got what is dangerous but what is safe.... I cannot conceive that a young lady can feel her mind in a more dangerous state than it was, because she has gained a truer glimpse into the conditions under which the world in which it has pleased God to place her actually exists.’

Each of the first courses was preceded by a preliminary lecture, in which the professor introduced, and almost apologised for his subject. Latin was to win toleration as ‘one road, and perhaps the shortest, to a thorough study of English’; in each case it was shown that the evils anticipated from that particular subject were fanciful. These explanations strike us quaintly now; it is hard to realise how great was the terror of learned ladies which in those days it was fashionable to assume.

Still, in spite of prejudice, the College flourished. There were no less than two hundred entries the first term. In 1853 it had grown sufficiently independent to stand on its own feet, and breaking away from the parent institution, it was incorporated by Royal Charter. Its objects were declared to be the general education of ladies, and the granting of certificates of knowledge. Professor Maurice became Chairman of Committee and Principal; and Queen’s, which loves its old traditions, has continued the practice of appointing a male Principal, therein differing from every other women’s college in the United Kingdom. It feels so keenly the debt it owes its founders, that it cherishes the idea—mistaken surely—that it can best do them honour by maintaining the college such as it was in their day. Thus the fate of many a pioneer has overtaken Queen’s. The vanguard have become the laggards, and useful and admirable as is its work, it has been outstripped by younger institutions, and no longer stands in the forefront of the battle. This is the common fate; it is easier to improve than to originate, but the debt of gratitude we all owe to Queen’s is none the less because so many others have harvested where she sowed.

Since Queen’s takes pride in its conservatism and adherence to its original methods, the latest calendar gives a very fair idea of its work even in early days. It states that ‘the College provides for the higher education of women, in the first place by a liberal school training, and, subsequently, by a four years’ course of College education. The College education leads to the grade of Associate ... and after a further course of study to the higher grade of Fellow of the College.’ The school was not part of the original scheme, but became necessary when the first generation of students, thoughtful women who had already been trying to improve themselves, and eagerly welcomed the advantages then for the first time offered them, gave way to a younger generation. Among the applicants for admission were mere schoolgirls, and instead of turning them away to seek inefficient preparation elsewhere, it was resolved to start a preparatory department for their benefit. This developed into a small school for girls under fourteen, the age at which pupils are admitted into the College. Here the students belong to two categories: those who follow a prescribed course laid down by the authorities, and those who enter for single classes, and arrange their work themselves. The former class are known as ‘compounders,’ and pay a composition fee of £8 to £10 per term. They must attend eighteen hours a week of regular class teaching. The regulations fix the subjects for twelve hours; parents or guardians for the other six. The prescribed work includes—(a) two languages: English, two hours, and French, German, Latin, or Greek, two hours; (b) two sciences: Mathematics and Arithmetic, four hours; Geography, one hour, Natural Philosophy, one hour, when exemption is granted in Mathematics; (c) English History, one hour, Ancient or Modern History, one hour; (d) Holy Scripture, one hour.

Candidates for the Fellowship must have passed the examination for the Associateship at least one academical year previously to entering for the Fellowship examination. For this, one principal subject of study must be chosen, with not fewer than two additional subjects. Since only three students had, in 1897, concluded this additional course, the Associateship may be regarded as the ordinary goal of Queen’s College students. The course for this is excellent, doubtless, for girls from fourteen to eighteen; but studies of so miscellaneous a character, leading to a ‘grade’ which can be attained at the age of eighteen, belong properly to the domain of school work. Queen’s differs, however, in its organisation from the upper department of a modern High School. Most of the teaching is given in the form of lectures. This lecture-system marks a distinct stage in the progress of girls’ education. In the schools of the early part of the century the various ‘professors’ who came to lecture occupied an important place in the prospectus. They ranged freely over the sciences in a manner that amused and interested their hearers, without making any undue demand upon their intelligence or powers of thought. Hence, the lecture-system seems to have established itself as a first step towards attracting female pupils to the higher branches of knowledge. The High Schools, too, were to pass through that stage, and emerge from it. Queen’s still keeps up the tradition of lectures, and as its discipline and general arrangements differ from those of a school, without resembling those of a college, it must be regarded as an institution apart, self-contained, and unconnected. As such it is of the greatest value in supplementing the home-teaching of girls, or undertaking the complete education of those who do not desire to enter the University, or take up any distinct profession. These would probably get a better practical preparation at a good high school. Still the others are likely to remain the majority, and there will always be an important function for an institution that supplies good teaching without any compulsion to enter for outside examination. Such, at any rate, is the view of the Council, who have commemorated their Jubilee by a renewal of the lease, and the general improvement and partial reconstruction of the premises. In its old home, with unbroken traditions, gathering in the children and grandchildren of its earliest students, it is continuing the work with which, fifty years ago, it inaugurated the revival of women’s education.

Although Queen’s was the first college actually opened, other similar schemes were being projected at the same time. The foundation in 1826 of University College had given an impetus to advanced studies in London, and as a perfectly undenominational institution it served as the model for Bedford Ladies’ College. The foundress and benefactor of Bedford was Mrs. Reid. Her wish to help girls took effect in 1847 in the establishment of classes at her own house. Two years later she took a house in Bedford Square and gave £1500 towards the initial expenses. Mrs. Reid and her friends were ambitious. They meant to found a real place of higher education for women, and in doing so they did not hesitate to break with the past. Mrs. Reid felt convinced that women could best understand the needs of girls, and though a committee consisting chiefly of men might at that time have included more distinguished names, she probably kept in mind the time to come when the college would be able to invite its own old pupils on to its committee. The co-operation of ladies was in the first instance secured by the institution of lady-visitors, to be present in turn at lectures—a plan at that time considered indispensable, and adopted also at Queen’s. It was arranged that the College Board should include the forty lady-visitors and six gentlemen. This Board annually appointed the Council of Management, and the Council elected the professors and all the officers of the college. This plan seemed to answer, and the college, which was fortunate enough to secure the services of such able men as De Morgan, F. W. Newman, and Dr. Carpenter, entered on a successful career. After a while pupils came in from a distance. Provision had to be made for these, and in 1861 a second house was taken and the upper floors adapted as a residence, while the lower ones were used for class-rooms. For a few years Bedford too had to maintain a school, but this was not part of the promoters’ scheme, and they hailed the first signs of improved school teaching as a pretext for closing it. This happened in 1868, at a time when circumstances made a complete reorganisation of the college necessary with a distinct declaration of policy.

The change had been hastened by the death of Mrs. Reid. She left a considerable part of her fortune in the charge of three trustees, Miss Bostock, Miss J. Martineau, and Miss E. E. Smith, to be utilised for ‘purposes of higher education.’ This seemed a suitable moment to seek incorporation, and in 1869 Bedford College received its charter. Its objects were thus described:

‘1. To continue with an improved constitution the College for women which has been carried on since 1849 in Bedford Square, London, and has been known since the year 1860 as Bedford College.

‘2. To provide thereby a liberal education for women, such education not to extend beyond secular subjects.’

Henceforth the management was vested in members of the college, with a Council elected from the number and a President, to be called the Visitor. This office has been held successively by Erasmus Darwin, Mark Pattison, and Miss Anna Swanwick.

Bedford, like Queen’s, was happy in its founders, but to none does it owe more than to Miss Bostock. After Mrs. Reid’s death she took over the care of the college as a sacred trust, devoting to it the greater part of her time, and helping it with money and good counsel. Happily she lived to see the fruit of her labours, and to know that Bedford College had won an assured position through its connection with the London University.

Its beginnings, like that of most women’s institutions, had to be tentative. The first lectures probably had a more popular character than those now given; and since they aimed rather at general culture than a systematic course of study, Literature, History, and Language would draw the largest audiences. But from the very first Latin, Science, and Mathematics were taught, and the college remembers with due pride that George Eliot was a member of its earliest Latin class. At any rate the promoters were quite sure of their aims. The daring words, ‘a liberal education for women,’ had been uttered without extenuation or apology. But in those days Bedford College stood alone, with no academic body to test its work and direct its curriculum. Nor was public opinion yet fully ripe for a real University education for women. Bedford had to wait another ten years before the opening of the London degrees came to fix its position and define its studies. They were not wasted years. The college was giving numbers of intelligent and eager girls their first insight into real knowledge, and teaching them to be dissatisfied with narrow, cramping instruction. Many of them have gone out into the world to hand on the impulse and inspiration gained here, and help to influence that public opinion which alone has made admission to the Universities possible. In 1874 the college was helped by a move to better premises. When in 1879 London opened its degrees to women, the opportunity of Bedford had come, and it was ready to use it. From this date onward its history belongs to that of Women’s University Education.

These two earliest colleges may be regarded as not only pioneers but also parent institutions. They drew within the sphere of their influence many of those women who were to train up the next generation. Among the earliest pupils of the Queen’s College evening classes was Miss Buss, who was already teaching in her mother’s private school, and was destined to found the first public school for girls. She was one of the first to win the governess diploma. Another was Miss Dorothea Beale, so well known for her work at Cheltenham. She remained at Queen’s from 1849 to 1856, first teaching Mathematics, then Latin, and afterwards in charge of the school. In 1858 she became Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, which had already been at work for five years.

The Cheltenham College differed in its original idea from Queen’s and Bedford. Both these had been founded with the purpose of giving women such advanced education as they were at that time capable of receiving, and had gradually been compelled by the exigencies of the case to provide for girls as well. Cheltenham, though called a college in imitation of the boys’ college in that town and some other public schools, really aimed in the first instance at providing for girls similar educational advantages to those which their brothers enjoyed in the same town. As King’s College had suggested Queen’s, the boys’ college at Cheltenham suggested the girls’. Twelve years elapsed between the foundation of the two; and Queen’s and Bedford were already pointing the way when a small committee of enthusiasts met at the house of Mr. Bellairs, one of H.M. Inspectors, and drew up a prospectus, inviting the public to take shares in the new undertaking. A day-school was all that was at first contemplated, and the subjects to be taught there were described as Holy Scripture and the Liturgy, history, geography, grammar, arithmetic, French, music, drawing, needlework. German, Italian, and dancing to be extras. The proposal found favour. Shares to the amount of about £2000 were taken up, a house hired, and the new venture started with good auspices, 88 pupils entering the first term, and the numbers soon going up to 120. It is not quite easy to understand why this prosperous beginning was not followed up. After a while the numbers went down, and the college seemed to be losing favour. Probably it was ahead of local public opinion, not yet abreast of North London, where Miss Buss was already successfully at work. The first years were times of struggle, and even the appointment of Miss Beale in 1858 did not at once turn the scale. After forty years of successful work in the college, Miss Beale can enjoy the pleasure of contrasting then and now. Some of her reminiscences throw a curious light on public opinion in the early fifties. The curriculum, unpretentious as it seems, proved too advanced. Parents objected to the thoroughness of the teaching, and the time given to arithmetic and similar subjects. Some disliked the annual examination, which was held to be unfeminine, and the difficulty of obtaining good teachers was almost insuperable. In regard to these Miss Beale suffered through being ahead of her times. She desired especially two things: that the teachers should be women, for, to quote her own words, ‘we think it essential to the right moral training of girls that the whole internal discipline and much of the moral training should be in the hands of ladies’; and that they should be to some extent specialists, the only way to abolish the textbook cram and unintelligent memory work then in vogue in girls’ schools. How she set out again and again to seek for teachers, and how many a time she was disappointed, she has herself recorded in her history of the college. Her efforts show how hard it was to found a school before the reformation of the higher education had given the necessary impetus from above. It was a case of making bricks without straw.

Perhaps the practical difficulties in the way of finance were really the most hampering, for the founders had too little experience of these matters; and a Mr. Brancker, who as treasurer, by readjusting the whole system of fees, put the College on a sound financial basis, may almost count as its second founder.

In 1863, five years after Miss Beale took office, some Oxford examiners were invited to inspect and report on the school. This was a new departure; it meant an acknowledgment of the connection which should exist between girls’ schools and the Universities. A small thing in itself, but typical of the many changes that the next five-and-twenty years were to bring.

From this time onward the College was brought into close connection with every educational reform in England; and its history, like that of the North London Collegiate, presents in miniature the various changes of this busy quarter of a century. In 1863 an informal examination was held for girls in the papers of the Cambridge Local Examination. This was the beginning of a new departure, and from that time forth preparation for one or other of the local University examinations formed part of the work of both schools. In 1866, Miss Beale and Miss Buss were called upon to give evidence before the Royal Commission, and the plan of these two schools was thus brought before the notice of the general public. The interest that resulted in all questions concerning the education of girls reacted on these first schools. For Miss Buss it won an endowment, for Cheltenham that recognition which means success. It became possible to raise the standard and enlarge the curriculum. Mathematics, Science, Latin and Greek, were added to the prospectus. Applications from pupils outside the town necessitated the opening of a boarding-house in 1864. The College was fast outgrowing its first home; then came a fresh obstacle to overcome. Building had become essential, but prejudice stood in the way. Although good premises and beautiful surroundings have long been regarded as essential for boys’ schools and colleges and a really important factor in the training given there, the prejudice that any makeshift was good enough for girls has died hard, if indeed it can even now be called dead. Miss Beale naturally desired to see the now flourishing College in adequate and beautiful buildings. This seemed to some of the governors too daring a departure. However, after many struggles and defeats, the party of progress carried the day. The new premises, the nucleus of the present beautiful College buildings, were opened in 1873. Of course they had the effect of attracting additional numbers; and when three years later, further extension became necessary, it appeared that the College had not merely outgrown its premises, but also its constitution. The time had come to put it on a more lasting basis. At a meeting of shareholders it was decided to renounce all claim on a profit, and accept instead a right of nomination on each share, as is done at several boys’ proprietary schools. The whole income became available for the payment of teachers, the maintenance and improvement of the buildings, school furniture and apparatus. The government was placed in the hands of a council of twenty-four persons, six being representative members chosen by the Bishop of the Diocese, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, the Lady Principal and the staff of teachers, while the remaining eighteen were elected by the shareholders. The inclusion of women on this body has proved specially beneficial to the College.

By this time there were 500 girls in the school, and ten licensed boarding-houses. Many internal changes had taken place, corresponding to the changes in the world without. The Cambridge Local Examinations had proved helpful in the early days, and the establishment in 1868 of the Cambridge Higher Local supplied a definite aim for the work of the senior classes. It has always been popular at Cheltenham, and over 500 girls have passed it from the College. Another impetus was given to work by the institution of the special women’s examination of the University of London; during the nine years of its existence, one-third of the successful candidates came from Cheltenham. But it was the formal opening of the London degrees that led to the present complete organisation of the College with its system of departments, leading respectively to the Oxford Senior, Cambridge Higher, and London University Examinations. By this time Girton, Newnham, and other women’s colleges had come into existence. Cheltenham could send its pupils to continue their studies at the older Universities, and the specialist teachers, for whom Miss Beale had sighed in vain in the early days, were now forthcoming. Fashion too was beginning to smile on those more serious studies which the College had so long pursued in the face of prejudice. The time of struggle was over. Cheltenham was no longer in advance of the tide, but moving harmoniously with it, giving help and receiving it.

Cheltenham College, as it now exists, has certain peculiarities which distinguish it from most of the girls’ schools of the present day. Firstly, it does not receive all comers, but is distinctly intended for the ‘daughters of gentlemen,’ and references in regard to social standing are required before admission. Secondly, it combines the functions of a day and boarding-school, by a system of boarding-houses which belong to the Council, and are under the general control and supervision of the Principal. Thirdly, it is not one large school, but a system of departments under separate heads, all under the direction of the Principal. Division I. is under Miss Beale herself. The work is directed towards: (1) the London Degrees; (2) the Cambridge Higher Local; (3) the Oxford Senior and Higher Local Examinations. This division is the College proper, and is organised to some extent on college lines. Division II. has about 200 pupils between twelve and sixteen. Division III., the juvenile department, has about 70 pupils between seven and twelve. Below this comes the Kindergarten. By-students may attend single courses of lectures as at Queen’s and Bedford.

Cheltenham College is thus enabled from its own resources to take a child straight from the nursery, and after many years send her forth as a full-fledged graduate of London University. It is neither to be expected nor desired that many girls should thus receive the whole of their education under one roof, but while some attend one department and some another, the College does in itself comprise the three stages of education: primary, secondary, higher. It has gone even further, for it takes an important part in the work of training teachers, which has been so largely developed of late years. The training department has three distinct divisions, in which teachers are prepared for Kindergarten, Secondary, and Public Elementary Schools. The ‘Hall of Residence,’ which is growing so much in favour now, is also represented at Cheltenham by St. Hilda’s, a residential college for students over eighteen, and in particular the twenty foundationers who are intending teachers and are received at reduced fees. Finally, the Old Girls’ Guild with its eleven hundred members all over the world, its College Settlement in the East End of London, and its biennial meetings at Cheltenham, keeps the College in constant touch with the work, social, philanthropic, and professional, that is being done by women at the present day.

The Cheltenham College has become a little world of itself. It presents in miniature each of the developments in women’s education which has taken place in the last fifty years. The dignity of its beautiful buildings, the ideals which take visible form in the statues of representative women, and the stained-glass presentations of Scripture characters and female virtues, seem to link it to the past; the energy and enthusiasm of its Principal, and the full tide of life that pulses through the whole, assure its place in the future of girls’ education.

CHAPTER III
LIGHT IN DARK PLACES

The fifties had witnessed the rise of these earliest colleges, and given hope to a little band of reformers whose efforts on behalf of light and progress were the chief feature of the sixties. Never was a reform happier in its advocates. Frances Buss, dreaming, while yet in her teens, of giving to future generations of girls that public school life which had been denied to her; Anne Clough, recording in her early diary the longing to do her country some great service; Emily Davies, devoting all her thought and energy to making that dream of a women’s college a reality; Dorothea Beale, struggling against opposition and prejudice to build up the wonderful organisation at Cheltenham—these were some of the pioneers whose names have become as household words, whose portraits hang in many a home even beyond the seas, the patron saints of our girl students.

Side by side with these worked others, both men and women, who had come to realise the deplorable condition of girls’ education. On the one hand, complaints were heard of their incompetence in domestic matters. ‘They cannot keep house accounts,’ says one writer; ‘they neither can make puddings nor direct servants in making them; they cannot make or mend their clothes; in a sick-room they are either so nervous or so senseless that their presence is worse than useless.’ On the other, we hear of the terrible strain consequent on what was by curious irony called over-education—girls sitting at their books or piano from morning to night, loading their memories with undigested facts. Both evils proceeded from the same cause. ‘Everything that is taught is taught dogmatically, and consequently the powers of research, inquiry, analysis, and reason either are altogether crushed out or rust from want of use.’[^[11]]

At this time public schools for girls were practically unknown. Teaching was no profession for women—it was the acknowledged resource of the middle-aged spinster left penniless by her father, or the widow whose husband had made ducks and drakes of the money. It was the one thing that anybody could do, since it required neither knowledge nor experience. All that was necessary was to hire a house, with a little saved or borrowed capital, and put up a brass plate on the door, announcing the existence of a select establishment for young ladies. Each schoolmistress did what seemed good in her own eyes or those of her pupils’ parents, and though, when the principal was herself a cultivated woman, she often inspired her pupils with a love of books that remained with them in after years, these cases were the exceptions. The condition of the great mass of cheap day-schools was deplorable.

An attempt to penetrate beyond these brass-plated doors was made by Madame Bodichon, who as Barbara Leigh Smith had attended some of the earliest classes at Bedford College. The results of her inquiry were given to the Social Science Congress at Glasgow in 1860. She strongly denounced the little cheap private day-schools, academies, and such like, ‘often conducted by broken-down trades-people, who failing in gaining a livelihood in a good trade, take in despair to what is justly considered, in consequence of the competition of the schools assisted by government, as a very bad business.’ Happily, times have changed, and we can afford to smile at the picture of these ‘genteel’ establishments, with their ‘insufficient room and ventilation,’ where the young ladies were taught about the ‘four elements, earth, air, fire, and water,’ and, shutting their eyes and their windows, studied the wonders of nature in little cheap catechisms.

Some test for distinguishing good schools from bad ones seemed desirable in the best interests of teachers and pupils. In 1857 and 1858 Oxford and Cambridge had instituted local examinations for young persons not members of the Universities. These had proved useful in raising the standard of middle-class education, giving an aim and a stimulus to small schools. Why not do the same for girls? It was decided to make the attempt. In October 1862 a small committee was formed in London, with Miss Emily Davies as secretary. Permission was asked and given to conduct an informal examination for girls with the same papers as were set to the boys. The examiners looked over the answers and reported on them. The results were somewhat startling. Out of forty senior candidates thirty-four failed in preliminary arithmetic. The juniors did a little better. The average work in English was pronounced fair, and in grammar very good. French did not compare unfavourably with the boys. In German only twelve candidates presented themselves; all passed—three with distinction. Not such a bad record after all, but of course it was only the progressive schools that were represented. These learned that they must look to their arithmetic, and they did so with excellent results. Both the successes and the failures showed the value of the experiment, and it was resolved to repeat it. A memorial was sent to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, signed by more than a thousand persons engaged in teaching or interested in education. The result was the formal admission of girls to these examinations. In 1865 they were held at six places: Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Manchester, London, and Sheffield. A hundred and twenty-six candidates entered; ninety passed. A great advance had been made in two years. Arithmetic was no longer a stumbling-block. Out of the whole number of candidates only three failed in it. English history came in for a share of praise. ‘The examiners thought the style of the girls’ replies better than that of the boys.’ ‘The answers of the senior and junior girls were orderly and methodical, and the writing and expression good. The papers of many gave proof of care and ability on the part of both teacher and scholar,’ and more to the same effect. In 1866 there were two hundred and two girls at ten centres. This time the report was even more satisfactory.

These results were most valuable. They proved that there must be many good schools in the country, and some teachers who could learn from the success and failure of their pupils. No time could have been more opportune for this experiment, for just then a Royal Commission was making an inquiry into all the schools that had not been included in the Popular Education Commission, or that which examined into the nine great public schools. This really meant a general survey of boys’ secondary education; and to boys it would have been confined, had it not been for those same energetic women who had inaugurated the reform of girls’ education. Here was an opportunity not to be missed. Once more signatures were collected for a memorial, this time to beg for the inclusion of girls’ schools in the scope of the inquiry. This was granted, and consent given to the admission of a few ladies to give evidence. Some trepidation was felt at so novel a proceeding. Thirty years later, when another such Commission was appointed, and women were included among the Commissioners, their appointment caused less remark than the invitation given in 1865 to a few ladies to give information on a subject on which none were better qualified to speak. So quickly has public opinion changed!

Nine ladies gave evidence before the Commission. The most valuable testimony came from Miss Buss, at that time head of a large private school, Miss Beale, Principal of Cheltenham College, and Miss Emily Davies, who was taking so active a part in all reforms that concerned girls. Eight Assistant Commissioners were requested to make special inquiries as to the girls’ schools in selected districts. Their task proved no easy one. The request to be allowed to inspect schools or procure information about them by other means was met sometimes by indignant refusal, at others by a silence as eloquent. However, in spite of difficulties, it proved possible to obtain returns from a good number and examine some more or less thoroughly. Since the assumption seems fair that it was the superior schools which were most ready for inspection, the reports must be read with the mental addition of an even worse state of things behind that remained unrevealed. At any rate, there was enough to make out a case for action.

The report which was issued in 1867 summarised the impression formed by the Assistant Commissioners. ‘It cannot be denied that the picture brought before us of the state of middle-class female education is, on the whole, unfavourable. The general deficiency in girls’ education is stated with the utmost confidence, and with entire agreement, with whatever difference of words, by many witnesses of authority. Want of thoroughness and foundation; want of system; slovenliness and showy superficiality; inattention to rudiments; undue time given to accomplishments, and those not taught intelligently or in any scientific manner; want of organisation—these may sufficiently indicate the character of the complaints we have received in their most general aspect. It is needless to observe that the same complaints apply to a great extent to boys’ education. But, on the whole, the evidence is clear that, not as they might be but as they are, the girls’ schools are inferior in this view to the boys’ schools.’ Mr. Norris, one of the Assistant Commissioners, says: ‘We find, as a rule, a very small amount of professional skill, an inferior set of school-books, a vast deal of dry, uninteresting task-work, rules put into the memory with no explanation of their principles, no system of examination worthy of the name, a very false estimate of the relative value of the several kinds of acquirement, a reference to effect rather than to solid worth, a tendency to fill or adorn rather than strengthen the mind.’

There is unanimous testimony as to the undue amount of time given to accomplishments, music in particular. There are some elaborate calculations as to the total number of hours spent on acquiring a mechanical skill on the piano, though about a third of the pupils never make the slightest use of it after they have left school. The music played is bad; there is little training for the taste and none for the mind in this study to which girls devote almost as much time as their brothers do to classics. Next to music modern languages absorbed most of the time and energies of the pupils, and yet the Commissioners unanimously report with severity on the results attained. Very few girls could compose a French sentence correctly; slipshod grammar and bad pronunciation are noted, and set down to the habit of speaking French out of school hours, by which a sort of jargon was developed incomprehensible to an outsider, and not even up to the standard of Stratford-atte-Bowe. On the subject of Science Mr. Fitch wrote: ‘Few things are sadder than to see how the sublimest of all physical sciences is vulgarised in ladies’ schools. No subject, if properly taught, is better calculated to exalt the imagination and to kindle large thoughts in a pupils mind. Yet all the grandeur and vastness are eliminated from the study of Astronomy as commonly pursued; and the pupils whose attention has never been directed to any one of the great laws by which the universe is governed, think they are learning astronomy when they are twisting a globe round and round, and solving a few problems in latitude and longitude.’

Arithmetic comes in for the worst censure. It is spoken of as ‘the weak point in women teachers.’ ‘It would be an affectation of politeness,’ says Mr. Hammond, to say a word on behalf of the arithmetic taught by ladies. It is always meagre and almost always unintelligent.’ The school-books receive almost unqualified abuse, in particular Mangnall’s Questions and ‘all the noxious brood of catechisms.’ History and ‘miscellaneous subjects’ are too often taught from these, geography and grammar from wretched little text-books, all the sciences in the course of a few lectures. Now and then a word of praise is given to English literature and composition, e.g., ‘English literature occupies a more prominent position in the education of girls than of boys.... The object of the lessons is to exercise the memory and to cultivate the imagination of the scholars; their most beneficial result is observable in the style of composition acquired by girls at a comparatively early age. Whereas a boy of fifteen hardly ever succeeds in putting together half a dozen readable sentences, a girl of the same age often writes with much freedom and fluency.... A bundle of letters written by girls of seventeen or eighteen afforded me real pleasure; many of these were well conceived and well expressed, and they presented a variety of style and subject which proved that they were not manufactured to order or cast in any stereotyped mould.’[^[12]]

One of the most serious defects is the lack of all physical training, while attempts are made to combine exercise and instruction, e.g. by repeating French verbs when out walking, thus achieving neither result satisfactorily.

Not only were the Commissioners of one mind in their strictures, but there is a striking unanimity about their recommendations. Mr. Giffard’s lucid summary may be taken as also representing the views of his colleagues: ‘If I were to sum up the impression I derived from my visits to girls’ schools, I should say, (1) that the mental training of the best girls’ schools is unmistakably inferior to that of the best boys’ schools; (2) that there is no natural inaptitude in girls to deal with any of the subjects which form the staple of a boy’s education; (3) that there is no disinclination on the part of the majority of teachers to assimilate the studies of girls to those of boys; (4) that the present inferiority of girls’ training is due to the despotism of fashion, or, in other words, the despotism of parents or guardians.’

There is a general consensus of opinion on the following points:—

1. Most girls’ schools are too small.

‘There is little life, no collective instruction, and nothing to call forth the best powers of either teacher or learner in a school where each class consists of two or three pupils only.’—(Mr. Fitch.)

2. They lack proper organisation.

‘There is a certain number of classes or of girls learning particular things, but there is neither any definite course of studies nor any grouping of classes, so as to play into one another.’—(Mr. Bryce.)

3. Want of proper proportion in arranging subjects.

4. Poor quality of the teaching, due to the inferior education of the teachers themselves.

5. Lack of an external standard to act as a stimulus to the learner and help to the teacher.

Mr. Bryce’s recommendations are of special interest, since they mark out the lines on which the chief reforms have proceeded. They are these:—

1. The establishment of schools for girls under proper authority and supervision. ‘It would be at all events most desirable to provide in every town large enough to be worthy of a grammar school a day school for girls, under public management, where a plain, sound education should be offered at the lowest prices (from £5 per annum or upwards) compatible with the provision of good salaries for teachers, and which should be regularly examined by competent persons thereto appointed.’

2. Considerable changes in the course of instruction for girls of all classes. ‘It would be proper to lay more stress upon arithmetic, to introduce mathematics everywhere, and Latin where there is a fair prospect of a girl’s being able to spend four hours a week upon it for three years.’

3. The foundation of institutions which should give to women the same opportunity of obtaining higher education which the Universities give to boys. The lack of this higher training injures the school education by lowering its tone, and opening up no wider field of knowledge to the more studious and eager scholars. An even worse result is ‘the low standard of education and of knowledge about education among schoolmistresses and governesses.’... ‘It is from the advent of more highly educated teachers that the first improvement in the education of girls is to be hoped for.’

Such was the verdict of this famous Commission, whose ‘revelations’ have figured in so many prizegiving speeches. The report filled twenty stout volumes, which were duly relegated to their place on official shelves, to accumulate dust; and there, thirty years after, they have been joined by the nine volumes drawn up by our latest educational Commission. Truly has it been said that the best way to shelve a question in England is to let a Royal Commission sit upon it. But even a Royal Commission and a twenty-volume report could not shelve the subject of girls’ education; the reformers were too much in earnest. Miss Beale extracted from these ponderous blue tomes all that related to girls, and reprinted it in a compact little volume. Even before its appearance action had been taken. The Cambridge Local Examinations had drawn schoolmistresses together and given them a common interest. They now began to form associations in different parts of the country. One was started in London, with Miss Buss as President and Miss Davies as Secretary. The North of England proved a specially congenial sphere for this form of union. The Ladies’ Honorary Council of the Yorkshire Board of Education was an outcome of the introduction into that county of the Local Examinations, but it soon extended its operations over wider fields, e.g. domestic economy and sanitary science, as well as the extension of endowments to girls.

Even more far-reaching in its results was the North of England Council. This too originated in Schoolmistresses’ associations, among which Miss A. J. Clough was a moving spirit. In 1865 she contributed to Macmillan’s Magazine an article setting forth certain schemes for improving girls’ education. One of these was to establish in other large towns courses of lectures similar to those given at Queen’s and Bedford Colleges, to be attended by the older pupils from schools and by teachers. Co-operation between several towns would make it possible to engage really able lecturers from Oxford and Cambridge. The experiment was first tried at Liverpool, and spread to Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield. Associations were formed in these four towns, and by the election of two representatives from each, the ‘North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women’ was constituted in 1867, with Miss Clough as secretary and Mrs. Butler as president. The lectures proved a phenomenal success. In the autumn of 1868 the numbers of the combined audiences in nine towns amounted to 1500, and Mr. F. Myers writing of them in Macmillan, enumerated their advantages thus:

‘1. They contain within themselves the germ of university extension.

‘2. They confront young women in a reasonable manner with reasonable men.

‘3. They encourage and help governesses, who attend in large numbers, and are glad to have good teaching and to know of the best books.

‘4. They form a nucleus for educational libraries and for the friendships of fellow-students.

‘5. They pay.’

These lectures were in actual fact the beginning of University Extension, but the work of the North of England Council did not stop here. A further aim for study was needed, and some more advanced examination than those for girls under eighteen, if women were to be qualified to instruct girls in anything but elementary subjects. A petition was drawn up and sent to Cambridge with the signatures of over 600 ladies engaged in teaching, 300 interested in it, and six members of the late Schools’ Inquiry Commission. They pointed out ‘the great want which is felt by women of the upper and middle classes, particularly by those engaged in teaching, of higher examinations suitable to their own needs.’ The petition was granted, and the first Women’s Examination held in 1869.

Looking back on these past days now that it is the fashion to decry examination as the death of education, it is interesting to realise what this much abused system really did to give it fresh life. The Cambridge Senior and Junior Locals were the first link established between girls’ schools and the university, and it would be difficult to over-estimate their value in this period of chaos. Their utility was recognised at once. They spread all over the country and to the colonies; and they are widely used by schools, both public and private, and by children working with governesses at home. Edinburgh and Durham soon followed suit in the admission of girls, and in 1870 Oxford too relented. London did its part by instituting a special Women’s Examination on the lines of Matriculation, and in 1869 that of Cambridge was held for the first time. These were the germs of future developments. At London the way was paved for opening the degrees to women; the Cambridge Women’s Examination led to the foundation of Newnham.

To some extent the work of these examinations is done. Conditions have changed; and the establishment of the Oxford and Cambridge Joint Board, and the opening of the universities to women have removed the necessity for this kind of examination in schools of the first grade. But in small private, and in middle-grade schools, and for children working with governesses at home, they are still of distinct use, and their popularity does not seem to diminish, if numbers are any test. Should they ever become needless, owing to a more perfect school organisation, we must still hold their memory in respect, for they can show a good record. It is their merit that at a time when no schoolmistress had a College training and no University examiner ever entered a girls’ school, they supplied a slender link between the school and the university, and when there was no standard for girls’ education, and often neither organisation nor curriculum, they did afford an aim and a stimulus, which, if not absolutely the best, proved at any rate trustworthy guides. If examination is not education it has often led to it, and never more successfully than in the case of girls and women.

CHAPTER IV
THE HIGH SCHOOLS

The Report of the Schools’ Inquiry Commission in 1867 served as a revelation, for it brought home to the general public the exceedingly unsatisfactory condition of middle-class education for both boys and girls. Its immediate outcome was an examination and redistribution of endowments, in which for the first time the claims of girls were considered. But it was evident that even the most judicious application of existing endowments could not suffice to fill all the educational gaps in the country. The Commissioners had therefore included among their recommendations the following:—1. To offer proprietary and private schools the same inspection and examination as were required in public schools, and to make their position more assured by a system of school registration. 2. To give power to towns and parishes to rate themselves for the establishment of new schools. These suggestions remained a pious opinion, for no action was officially taken, but (as so often happens in England) private enterprise stepped in, and compensated for public laxness. The inquiry had done good service in throwing light on the inefficient condition of small and cheap private schools for girls, of which there were such large numbers in the country. Clearly what was wanted was a system of schools large enough to permit of low fees and satisfactory grading. Much of the evidence had been negative, and showed what to avoid. Happily there were a few schools in existence which could serve as beacon lights. Of these the North London Collegiate and the Cheltenham Ladies’ College took the first rank. The former, though really a large private school, had been organised by Miss Buss on public lines, with a view to being ultimately placed on a sound and permanent footing. The latter was a large proprietary school, so planned as to be in no need of public money. Both Miss Buss and Miss Beale were unanimous in urging the establishment of large public schools for girls. Speaking of London, Miss Buss had said, ‘I think, in the first place, there are scarcely any good schools; in the next place, there are very few good teachers; and in the third place, there is no motive offered to the girls for study nor to their parents to keep them at school.’ Miss Beale considered that schools were preferable to private teaching at home, because one person could not be mistress of all the subjects to be taught, ‘and a good teacher can scarcely continue so when condemned to the monotony of the ordinary private school-room.’ Small schools could not be properly graded except when very high fees permitted of small classes.

Large day-schools with low fees for girls were called for. This much was agreed on, but where was the necessary capital to be found? Among the public-spirited men and women who set themselves to answer this question, the foremost place belongs to Mrs. William Grey. She had for some time been working to get a share of educational endowments for girls. ‘Let me remind you,’ she wrote at this time, ‘that while there are in or near London alone the magnificent first-grade endowed schools for boys of the Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors, St. Paul’s, Harrow, and Eton, besides King’s College and University College schools, there is not in the whole of London an endowed school of a similar class for girls, and that while the proportion of educational endowments for girls to those for boys is as 1:92, the proportion of women supporting themselves is to men as 1:7.19; that is, to quote the words of Mr. William Brook, “seven times as many men are employed as women, but men have ninety-two times as much money as women, to arm, equip, and qualify themselves for the battle of life.”’

Failing endowments, or even side by side with them, capital must be obtained from other sources: this was the problem which had now to be faced. On May 31st, 1871, Mrs. Grey read a paper before the Society of Arts on the Education of Women. She described its extremely unsatisfactory condition, and suggested three remedies. (1) The creation of a sounder public opinion respecting the need and obligation of educating women. (2) The redistribution of educational endowments so as to give a fair share of them to girls. (3) The improvement of female teachers by their examination and registration according to fixed standards.

In the following October, at the Social Science Congress at Leeds, she proposed the establishment of a national Union for the improvement of the education of women of all classes. Its objects should be—(1) To enlighten the public mind, through meetings and lectures throughout the country, on the present state of female education, on the national importance of improving it, and on the measures required for that end. (2) To collect and disseminate information respecting the best methods of education, the comparative advantages of large and small schools, the influence of endowments, and generally all questions connected with the training of girls. (3) To promote measures for the better training of female teachers, and especially for their examination and registration by fixed standards, so as to secure a measure of competency. (4) To assist the formation of councils similar to the North of England Council for the Education of Women in other divisions of the country, and, while endeavouring to multiply local centres of activity, to afford all workers in the same cause a common bond of union, and a means of intercommunication and combined action.

The proposal was favourably received; 300 names were at once given in for membership, and a provisional committee formed. Individual subscriptions were fixed at five shillings; and an affiliation fee of not less than a guinea annually entitled corporate associations to be represented on the annual general council, and to all the privileges of membership. This National Union supplied a real need. Members poured in fast. The Princess Louise consented to become president, and the roll of vice-presidents was a distinguished one. Branch unions were formed, and associations already existing at Belfast, Dublin, Birmingham, Cambridge, Clifton, Falmouth, Guernsey, Huddersfield, Norwich, Plymouth, Northampton, Wakefield, Winchester, and Windsor were brought into membership with the Union. Many of the Schoolmistresses’ Associations sought affiliation: the Ladies’ Council of the Yorkshire Board of Education, and the North of England Council also joined the Union, and consented to appoint representatives to the central committee. With admirably organised machinery directed by knowledge and enthusiasm, great reforms seemed possible, and in 1872 the Union proceeded to its first piece of constructive work, the establishment of the Girls’ Public Day School Company.

Proceedings were inaugurated at a meeting at the Albert Hall, with Lord Lyttelton in the chair. Proposals were brought forward for starting a shareholding company ‘for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in London and the provinces superior day-schools, at a moderate cost, for girls of all classes above those provided for by the Elementary Education Act.’ A capital of £12,000 was to be raised in 2400 shares of £5 each. The proposal found favour, prospectuses were sent out, accompanied by a letter from Princess Louise; 800 shares were at once taken up, and the company was floated. Among the earliest members of its council were the Marquis of Lorne, the Dowager Lady Stanley of Alderley, Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, Mrs. William Grey, Miss Mary Gurney, and Miss Shirreff, Sir Douglas Galton, K.C.B., and Mr. C. S. Roundell.

The next step was to open schools, and Chelsea was chosen as the scene of the first experiment. Miss Porter was appointed head-mistress, and a suitable house was hired. The school began with twenty-five girls, and rapidly increased. A few months later a second one was opened at Notting Hill with Miss Jones as head. For these first experimental schools no shares were specially taken up in the neighbourhood. In future, any place that wished for a high school was usually required to take up a certain number, as a definite assurance of local interest. Croydon was opened on these conditions in 1874, with twenty pupils. Then followed, in 1875, Clapham, Hackney, Bath, Oxford, and Nottingham; in 1876, Brighton, Gateshead, and St. John’s Wood; in 1878, Dulwich, Ipswich, Maida Vale, Sheffield. At present the schools number thirty-four. They are at Bath, Blackheath, Brighton, Bromley, Carlisle, Clapham (High and Modern), Clapton, Croydon, Dover, Dulwich, Gateshead, Highbury, Ipswich, Kensington, Liverpool, East Liverpool, Maida Vale, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Notting Hill, Oxford, Portsmouth, East Putney, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, South Hampstead, Streatham Hill, Sutton, Sydenham, Tunbridge Wells, Wimbledon, York.

The fees are: for pupils under ten years of age, £10, 10s. a year; entering the school between ten and thirteen, or remaining after ten, £13, 10s. a year; entering after thirteen, £16, 10s. a year. The company is on a sound financial basis, since the larger and more flourishing schools make up for the deficiencies of the smaller ones. Until 1896 a dividend of five per cent. was paid, now limited by resolution of the shareholders to four per cent. The capital has been increased to £150,000.

Meantime similar schools were springing up all over the country. At Plymouth one was started by a local branch of the National Union, at Huddersfield by a local company, at Southampton by the Hampshire Association, at Manchester by private subscription, at Bradford by an endowment. The impulse given by the Union and its pioneer schools was felt everywhere, and it seemed as though before long every large town in England would have a proprietary or public school for girls. A rival company was founded in 1883. The Church Schools Company differed from the Girls’ Public Day School Company in making definite Church teaching one of its objects, while the religious instruction of the Girls’ Public Day School Company had always aimed at being, as far as possible, undenominational. The promoters of the Church Schools thought that as there was room for voluntary schools side by side with board schools, so there might also be scope for Church High Schools in spite of the existence of the Girls’ Public Day School Company. Their original proposal was to start schools of various grades for boys and girls above the class attending elementary schools, where a general education should be given, in accordance with the principles of the Church of England, at a moderate cost.

A beginning was made with day-schools for girls, and hitherto little else has been done. It is probable that this Church Company did, to some extent, meet a need, but it was not a very large one. The majority of the Church of England parents are perfectly satisfied with the religious instruction of the Girls’ Public Day School Company schools, and the new schools drew their pupils, not so much by an appeal to those who disapproved on principle of the existing high schools, as by establishing themselves in towns which the other company had not entered. Naturally they appealed to a smaller class, and can never expect to attain the numbers of the undenominational high schools. Hence they have always been, to some extent, hampered, for though the company is financially sound, and gives a small dividend to shareholders, it has had to economise very severely in the matter of salaries and buildings. This must always re-act to some extent on the education, and it is probably for this reason that these Church Schools have never attained the high position of their rivals. The fees paid vary according to the locality, some being as low as £4, 4s., others as high as £18, 18s.; £9, 9s. to £12, 12s. seems the commonest fee. Many of the schools are very small. At present the number is twenty-six, and they are situated at Bournemouth, Brighton, Bury St. Edmunds, Derby, Dewsbury, Durham, Gloucester, Guildford, Hull, Kendal, Kensington, Leicester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northampton, Reading, Reigate, Richmond, St. Albans, Streatham, Stroud Green, Sunderland, Surbiton, Wigan, Woolwich, Great Yarmouth, York.

High Schools can now trace back their history for a quarter of a century. In that time more than a hundred have been founded in England. They have become the typical girls’ schools of this country, private schools have been organised on the same lines, and the scheme of large day schools with no distinction of class, giving a good education at a low fee, has been almost universally accepted. It seems so simple and natural, that it is hard to realise that twenty-five years ago it was a strange and therefore a dangerous innovation. After all what do we mean by a High School? There is a general impression of the meaning of the term, though it would not be easy to define it. In the United States, a High School is an advanced school, which can only be entered by pupils who have already passed through the Primary and Grammar Schools; that is, do not enter before the age of fourteen or fifteen. It is thus a Secondary School, forming the link between the primary institutions and the University. Our English High Schools provide both elementary and secondary instruction, and the ages of the pupils range from seven to nineteen. Hence, although there is a natural division between the Lower and Upper School, the work is closely connected; the same mistresses teach in both, and subjects such as Latin and French are usually carried down into the lower classes. The lower part of a High School is not exactly parallel to an Elementary School; the pupils have begun more subjects, they have been taught in smaller classes, and by different, less rigid methods. The High School cannot therefore at present be regarded as the middle rung of the educational ladder. In England there is a gap between it and the Elementary School, which is sometimes successfully bridged by special means, but the existence of which cannot be disregarded in any general scheme of English education. As the need of secondary education is more generally felt, a system of schools leading upward in direct line from the elementary school is being naturally evolved, and connection between the two lines is being provided by scholarships and other means. But if we disregard a few exceptional cases, it seems best to look on the High School as an organic whole, taking the child from the nursery to the university, and sometimes even helping out the nursery by means of the kindergarten.

It is not uncommon to hear people talk of the High School system, but this is misleading. In so far as the High Schools have a special system, it is the natural outcome of the scheme of large classes and careful gradation. Hence it resembles in many respects that which has long prevailed in Germany and the United States. There is no High School Code, and even under the same management, e.g. in the Girls’ Public Day-School Company Schools, considerable latitude is left to the individual head-mistress; but there are certain arrangements which are found convenient in the organisation of large day schools, and which prevail with modifications in all the High Schools, as well as in many large private institutions.

The morning hours are given to class teaching; from 9 to 1, or 9.15 to 1.15, being the usual times. Subjects requiring individual instruction (which are usually extras), e.g. piano, solo singing, advanced drawing, and painting, are taught in the afternoons, also Greek in some schools, special coaching in advanced Latin or Science, and so forth. The principle underlying this arrangement is that of giving the best working hours to serious mental work, and reserving accomplishments which are rather the ornament than the essentials of education, for the latter part, thus assigning to the subjects of instruction their proper relative importance, and keeping the real work of the school undisturbed. This arrangement seems so easy and natural that it would be hardly necessary to dwell on it, were it not that until very lately the opposite system prevailed in some schools that otherwise aimed at thoroughness, and it was not unusual for a girl to be called away in the middle of an important lesson in history or arithmetic, and sent to her music. Under the present plan, the greater part of the girls have finished their school work by one o’clock, and have the afternoon and evening free to divide between preparation of lessons (two to three hours), exercise, and home duties. For the benefit of those who require help in their lessons, or cannot get a quiet room at home, a system of afternoon preparation at school is organised. This generally lasts an hour and a half to two hours—most schools provide a dinner for girls who come from a distance. A whole holiday on Saturday seems the rule everywhere.

Some schools have a kindergarten department attached, where little boys are taught along with the girls, and a transition class where the children learn to read before passing into the school proper. The division is into forms, I. being the lowest, and VI. the highest. Large schools divide the forms into Upper and Lower. Where a school is fully organised, it is usual for a whole class to move up together. Backward girls may remain in the form another year. Unfortunately many high schools are too small to be fully organised, and in these the gaps between the classes are too large, and general promotion impossible. Clever girls spend one year in a class, slower ones two, and the disadvantage for the latter is very serious, since there is a weariness about going over the same ground twice, which is the reverse of stimulating. Large classes can progress as quickly as smaller ones when they are very carefully grouped. Where the pupils are at different stages there is much waste of time, and either the weak go to the wall, or the strong get less than their due. It is, therefore, the first essential of a high school that the numbers should be large, not much under two hundred.

Even when the school is large and the classes work smoothly together, the girls do not all work evenly in every subject. To prevent waste, it is usual to let certain subjects, perhaps Arithmetic and English, determine promotion, and to teach the others in divisions. Two or three forms may take French at the same time, and be rearranged for that lesson, returning to their own rooms when it is over. This moving about affords a pleasant change, and is quite easy when the building is a convenient one. Indeed, suitable premises are almost as important for the harmonious working of a school as large numbers and careful classification. Long narrow corridors and awkward staircases are fatal to order. Ordinary dwelling-rooms adapted for school purposes can seldom be properly ventilated, and according to their position in the room, the pupils suffer from draught or heat, the light falls the wrong way upon their work, the classes have to be graded to suit the size of the rooms rather than the abilities of the pupils. In fact nothing can be more unsatisfactory than the adaptation as a school of an ordinary dwelling-house.

The arrangement that seems to answer best is that of a large central hall used for prayers and general gatherings, out of which some of the form-rooms open, whilst the rest, with extra rooms for small divisions, are upstairs. Of this construction the Blackheath and Sheffield High Schools are good examples. The finest girls’ buildings are naturally found where there is an endowment, as at the North London Collegiate, the Bedford, and Manchester High Schools. Few, if any of the Church schools have specially constructed buildings, and several of the Girls’ Public Day School Company’s Schools are carried on in adapted premises. Some grant of public money for buildings to really efficient proprietary schools would probably be the cheapest and most effective way of helping girls’ education in many of our large towns.

The North London Collegiate, both in point of time and in importance, claims precedence as the pioneer high school. It was in working order when the Girls’ Public Day School Company started, and was doubtless the model set before its promoters. The following account written in 1883 by Mrs. Bryant, who is now head-mistress, is in many ways typical, and applies mutatis mutandis to the general routine of all fully equipped high schools.

‘Entering the school with the girls in the morning, we should proceed first through the entrance hall down to the basement, and into the cloak-rooms. Here each girl has a numbered place provided with hooks for cloak and hat, umbrella-stand, boot-rack, and bag for the house-boots, which she always wears while in school. There are also shelves for books while dressing is going on, and forms for use in changing boots. Since the space allotted is ample, and the girls come in relays, both before and after school, crowding is avoided.

‘When ready, each girl goes upstairs with her books to the great hall, where the rule of silence is strictly enforced. At 9.15, all are assembled for prayers, each form in its place, while the prefects, who are members of the sixth form, and are elected by it and the teachers of the upper division of the school, are scattered among the other forms, as guardians of public order, during the interval of waiting. After prayers, each form marches out with its mistress to its own room. Five class-rooms open out of the hall on the ground floor; these are used by the upper division of the school, including the sixth form, and four sub-divisions of the fifth form. Five more open out of the hall gallery, used by all the sub-divisions of the fourth form, which constitute the middle division of the school. Above these two tiers, there is a third set of rooms, three class-rooms and the drawing school. The lower divisions of the school use these four rooms, besides one of the irregularly placed rooms. Of the latter there are several, lying with the laboratories, lecture-room, libraries, and music-rooms, on the side of the great stone staircase, opposite the Clothworkers’ hall.

‘Each class room contains 5600 cubic feet, and is fitted for thirty-two girls. All have Swedish desks, except the elder girls, who have separate desks with chairs. There is a raised platform for the teacher, with a chair and table. All the rooms are fitted with cupboards, and in most there is a small circulating library, which the girls can use on payment of a small subscription. The pine wainscot, brick walls, and tiled fire-places of the class-rooms, make a good background for the decorations of the Kyrle societies, which exist in each class; and all the rooms have pictures on the walls, as well as notice-boards and time-tables. Another institution of the decorative kind is the window garden, with which many of the rooms are provided, and in which the girls take, for the most part, great pride.

‘In these rooms the hard work of the day goes on till 1.30, with an interval, as near the middle as possible, of twenty-five minutes, for a light lunch and drill. In five separate relays, the girls proceed to the dining-hall, which, with the kitchens and housekeeper’s room, lies under the great hall. Here they can buy buns, biscuits, bread and butter, fruit, coffee, milk, and lemonade, and, while talking as loudly and as much as they please, they are required to take their stand in orderly lines across the room. From the dining-hall the girls proceed to the gymnasium, a very fine room, 100 feet long by 30 feet broad, where they have musical drill for a quarter of an hour. Monday and Thursday, however, are days for special calisthenic exercise, lasting half-an-hour each day. Then work is resumed till 1.30, when the school is dismissed in relays, as before stated.’

Even more important than the routine of a school is its curriculum; and here the need of the reformer’s hand is still felt acutely. The subjects included in the Girls’ Public Day School Company prospectuses are the following—Religious Instruction, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Mathematics, Book-keeping, English grammar, composition, and literature, History, Geography, French, German, Latin, the elements of Physical Science, Social Economy, Drawing, Class-singing and Harmony, Gymnastic Exercises, and Needlework. To these Greek must now be added, since it is taught in every school that prepares for college. The prospectus says ‘any or all of these may be taught,’ which means that the head-mistress has, within certain limits, a right of selection. Hence the tendency of schools, even under the same management, to vary greatly. Not only is there as yet no consensus of opinion in England as to the best curriculum for girls’ schools, but even the general aim to be kept in view seems by no means determined. Mrs. Bryant lays down the incontrovertible dictum that ‘the ideal of the curriculum is a balance of subjects so that all normal faculties and interests may be cultivated.’ But there is another side which cannot be neglected, and the claims of the ideal vanish into insignificance before the demands of practical life and outside examination. In spite of the repeated promises that examination is to be servant and not master we must not hope to escape from its dominion as long as it is the ‘open sesame’ of colleges and professions. A rough test, it is still the best hitherto devised, and serves on the whole to separate the sheep from the goats. Since we must, therefore, acknowledge its sovereignty, it behoves us to see that it exercises a wise and benevolent tyranny. However much we may protest, the curriculum of a school will always be largely determined by the nature of its leaving examination, since this regulates the work of the upper forms, and these more or less mould the lower. Some schools reduce this examination work to a minimum, reserving it entirely for the highest form, while others use the machinery of outside examinations to determine the whole of their work. The North London Collegiate belongs to this latter class. The upper part is organised according to two parallel courses. Of these A. leads to the London degree examinations, that is to Matriculation or in some cases Intermediate Arts, and Course B. to the Cambridge Senior and Higher Locals. All these examinations under certain conditions admit to the Women’s Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and hence act the double part of a leaving and entrance examination, but this school also makes use of the lower examinations, e.g., the Preliminary and Junior Locals. Hence the work of these classes must be directed to the set subjects required for these examinations, and must include the particular periods of history, works in literature, and French and German books that are laid down by the examiners, even though they may not seem the most suitable in other respects. Many educationalists think this disadvantageous to the general plan of a girls’ school, which should proceed on stated harmonious lines from the lowest to the highest class. Mrs. Bryant, however, thinks that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, since ‘by their means the more advanced body of opinion can be brought to bear on the inert or prejudiced mass, which lags behind in the movement of educational progress.’ In spite of this valuable testimony the consensus of opinion is rather on the other side. The schools of the Girls’ Public Day School Company have almost entirely abandoned the miscellaneous junior examinations, which lead to nothing, in favour of those conducted by the Joint Board of Oxford and Cambridge. This is the test applied to the leading boys’ public schools since 1873, and it is the nearest approach in England to an Abiturienten examination, since the higher certificate, if taken in the required subjects, exempts its holder from the first public examination at Oxford and Cambridge. The Board awards higher and lower certificates, and undertakes a general examination of the schools. The papers are sent to the school, and the examination is conducted there under the supervision of the head-mistress. The lower forms are also examined viva voce by a delegate of the Board, and reports on the general condition of the school and on the paper work are sent to the governing bodies. In this way the progress of different schools can be compared, and a general control kept, while there is little disturbance to the school course, since the questions are set on the work actually done. The Council of the Girls’ Public Day School Company itself awards certificates to girls who gain sixty per cent. of the marks in five papers.

The subjects of the higher certificate examination are arranged in four groups:—

Group I.

(1) Latin.

(2) Greek.

(3) French.

(4) German.

Group II.

(1) Mathematics (elementary).

(2) Mathematics (additional).

Group III.

(1) Scripture Knowledge.

(2) English.

(3) History.

Group IV.

(1) Natural Philosophy (Mechanical Division).

(2) Natural Philosophy (Physical Division).

(3) Natural Philosophy (Chemical Division).

(4) Physical Geography and Elementary Geology.

(5) Biology.

All candidates for a higher certificate must satisfy the examiners in at least four subjects taken from not less than three different groups, unless they take one subject in II. or IV., in which case they can choose three from I. No one may offer more than six subjects. The examination is so arranged as to hamper the school work as little as possible. Thus in languages great stress is laid on grammar, composition, and unprepared translation, while the set books can be selected from a long list; or (to give even greater freedom) it is allowed to ‘substitute with the consent of the Board other portions or periods which are at least equivalent to those specified in the prescribed list, provided that the extra expense involved be defrayed by the school authorities.’ This privilege of choice is extended also to Scripture, English and History.

The subjects for the lower certificate are:—

Group I.

(1) Latin.

(2) Greek.

(3) French.

(4) German.

Group II.

(1) Arithmetic.

(2) Additional Mathematics.

Group III.

(1) Scripture Knowledge.

(2) English.

(3) English History.

(4) Geography.

Group IV.

(1) Mechanics and Physics.

(2) Physics and Chemistry.

(3) Chemistry and Mechanics.

The higher certificate is often taken by girls in Form Lower VI., and they are then free in their last year to prepare for university scholarships or do other special work. The lower certificate is less popular, but it is sometimes taken in Form V.

Unquestionably the real problem before our girls’ schools is to plan a curriculum which, while keeping in view the harmonious development of mind and body, and the preparation for a girl’s future life, shall yet give the necessary preparation for these final examinations. The reformers see hope in a more careful grouping of studies which shall break down the barriers between them, so that the subjects learnt at the same time should be allies rather than rivals. If fewer were taken up simultaneously, more time and interest might be given to each new requirement when it first appears on the scenes. After a couple of years, when considerable advance had been made, it might be relegated to a less important place and a fresh central study chosen. In the higher forms the threads would be once more drawn together, for then a pupil must be prepared to marshal all her forces for one great occasion. Experiments of this kind have been tried with much success in America, and there is a scheme for doing something of the kind in England. There is a plentiful field for experiments, and no doubt the curriculum question will be discussed at many a teachers’ meeting before the problem is solved. The High Schools will contribute their share to the work if they are to remain in the van as they have hitherto done.

Since the very establishment of the High Schools was a protest against the superficiality and showiness condemned by the Royal Commission, their main endeavour was to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors. Accomplishments were relegated to the background. Arithmetic and mathematics were taught for their mental training and the development of accuracy. ‘The noxious brood of catechisms’ was abandoned in favour of a system of oral teaching: object lessons were introduced into the lower forms to induce observation, and in the science lessons facts were taught first-hand and not through the medium of books. The slipshod French chatter of the boarding-schools gave way to stricter grammatical training; parsing and analysis took the place of rote repetition of the parts of speech. Accuracy and thoroughness were the aim everywhere. At first the instruction was attended with many difficulties. There were few well-educated and no trained teachers, and very little agreement as to the really best methods. Hence it was natural that the revolt against the abuses of the past should produce some fresh faults. The reaction against the old text-books caused the introduction of a lecture-system; an excessive amount of note-taking, writing out, and correction by the teacher seemed to afford both parties the maximum of effort with the minimum of result: books were shunned as though the printed word were in itself hurtful, and much matter was laboriously dictated that might have been taken from any intelligent hand-book. The girls spoiled their handwriting, instead of straining their memories; that was the chief difference. Happily this plan has given way to more intelligent inductive methods, though even now there is a tendency in some schools to rely too much on written notes and too little on training the attention and memory. High School girls still need to learn how to use a book intelligently, and to appreciate knowledge that comes to them in an unaccustomed fashion. They have learnt the use of writing, to make ‘an exact man,’ but reading as a means of producing the ‘full’ woman has hardly as yet touched the High School system. This defect is now being realised and efforts will doubtless be made to remove it. Already the improvement in the teachers has produced a beneficent revolution in girls’ schools. To their inadequate education the Royal Commissioners largely attributed the unsatisfactory state of things they found. Side by side with the growth of the high schools went the movement for admitting women to the universities, both acting and re-acting on each other, since the high schools sent up their best pupils to college and the college sent them back to teach and train future students. A great proportion of the mistresses are now university women, while a smaller number have been trained at the Cambridge Teachers’ College or the Maria Grey or other Training Colleges—Kindergarten Colleges provide teachers for the little ones.

While the High School puts intellectual subjects first, it does not disregard accomplishments, though it seldom uses that word. Music is taught to all in the form of class-singing; piano and violin and solo singing are ‘extras,’ and do not belong to the general school work. Drawing has really won a more important place than before, because it is used as an educational factor, and not merely for purposes of show. The scheme of the Royal Drawing Society, organised by Mr. Ablett, is in use at nearly all the high schools. It is essentially a class system, and aims at training the eye, hand, and memory, rather than producing mere technical skill. The little ones in the first form are taught to present graphically objects interesting to themselves, by means of simple ruling, memory, and brush-work exercises. Special features are judgment at sight, memory and dictated work, the early introduction of drawing from objects and simple geometrical design. The schools are examined once a year. The examination takes place in the school itself under the superintendence of the head-mistress and drawing teacher, the work is sent up to London, and promotion to the next division depends upon the pass. Pupils who pass all the six divisions with honours are entitled to a full Drawing Certificate which has a commercial value for teaching purposes. Drawing, a little modelling, and needlework in the lower forms, represent at present the manual side of High School teaching. Cookery, dressmaking, etc. though popular in a different class of school, have hardly as yet been able to effect an entrance, nor does it seem altogether desirable that they should. That every school cannot teach everything is an axiom long ago accepted for boys’ education, and it must be realised for girls too, if the outcry against overstrain is to cease. Differentiation is the only safe course. It is partly the strength and partly the weakness of the High School that it represents, in fact, two schools: the first grade for girls who are to proceed to the university, and whose life at home makes a certain amount of literary and linguistic attainment desirable, and the second grade for those who must leave at fifteen or sixteen, and look forward to a career in business or to practical utility at home. In the lower forms the need of both is the same: a good general education; afterwards bifurcation seems desirable. When a school is not large enough to allow of this, it is the early-leaving girls who go to the wall. For these an entirely different scheme of education might be best—this too is a problem that will have to be faced. Physical training is also considered at most of the High Schools. Generally, fifteen minutes in the middle of the morning is given to some form of drill. In a few large schools, e.g., the North London Collegiate, this daily drill is undertaken by a specialist. Usually it falls to one of the assistants, though it is very common for a special teacher of Swedish drill to visit the school once or twice a week, and take all the girls in divisions. The North London Collegiate and the Sheffield High School have gymnasiums, and take this side of the work very seriously. A physical-record book is kept, and every child on entering is examined by a lady doctor attached to the school. Particulars of sight, hearing, throat, breathing, lungs, heart, chest, and waist measurement are recorded, with any observations considered necessary. Suitable gymnastic exercises are then prescribed, and the examination repeated from time to time, and note made of any changed condition. Some such plan might be tried in all High Schools, were the parents willing to pay for it. The low fees charged cannot be expected to include medical supervision as well as all the other advantages. At present Sheffield and the Camden Schools are almost the only day-schools that consider the physical training as systematically as the intellectual. Still, the Girls’ Public Day School Company has now appointed a qualified lady inspector of physical training. Exercise doubtless plays an important part in every high school, but it is sometimes pursued with more zeal than knowledge. Just now athletics are taking a very prominent place. School playgrounds and playing fields have become a necessity. Girls have learned to play cricket, hockey, and rounders; they choose their elevens, elect their captains, and have their practices and matches much like their brothers. How far this particular kind of exercise is conducive to a girl’s health is another of the still unsolved problems. One thing is certain: these games do much to improve the general tone of a school. Their effect in producing loyalty and public spirit and promoting cheerfulness is quite as marked in girls as in boys, and the development of the play side, along with the greater liberty, the giving of responsibility as a reward, and all that belongs to a real public school are features at least as valuable as the improvement in the teaching. The High Schools have produced a new type of girl, self-reliant, courageous, truthful, and eager for work. A full record of their after careers would prove interesting. Many pass straight from school to Oxford or Cambridge, a great many have gained scholarships, and the women’s colleges are largely recruited from their ranks. Some pass on to the medical schools, others gain County Council scholarships for technical or scientific work, large numbers are engaged in teaching, one or two have taken up gardening at Swanley Horticultural College, and a good many are making themselves generally useful at home as wives or daughters. Almost everywhere the High School girl proves herself capable, accurate, and trustworthy. She is sometimes blamed for a want of grace, such as belonged to a few rare ladies of the olden time, but she also lacks the helplessness and silliness that were prevalent then. Physically, morally, and intellectually, these schools may claim that they are improving large numbers, and with them surely the race.

CHAPTER V
ENDOWMENTS FOR GIRLS

The history of endowed schools carries us far away into the misty realms of the past, before ever the Conqueror set foot in England and put back the clock of civilisation a hundred years. The earliest schools of which we have any knowledge were attached to the chief collegiate churches, where one officer would be specially told off to teach the boys, just as another would conduct the singing. Convent and school or church and school were invariably allied. The first separable school endowments were merely assignments of a specific part of the general endowment for the support of the chancellor or his deputy, the grammar school master. Like the earliest colleges these schools were founded ‘for prayer and study.’ The first person to reverse this order, and endow an independent school, was William of Wykeham, when in 1393 he founded Winchester College, to give free instruction to seventy poor boys, and so help them to holy orders or the university. Thus the new school became ‘a sovereign and independent corporation existing of, by and for itself, self-centred, self-controlled.’ ‘To make education, and that education not the education of clerics in theology or the canon law, the paramount and pronounced object of an ecclesiastical institution, with all the paraphernalia of Papal bull and royal and episcopal license, was no small innovation. It was a new departure, which opened a new era in the world of education, and therefore of thought.’[^[13]] Later founders, following in the steps of William of Wykeham, gave sums of money for the training of youth in ‘grammar and good manners.’ Grammar meant Latin and Greek, the ‘key to all the sciences’; the manners were to be those of a true gentleman, ‘trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.’

Following on these came the schools of the Reformation age, of which the most familiar example is Dean Colet’s foundation of St. Paul’s. These were established or assisted by the gifts of ‘pious founders,’ or sometimes by diverting old funds originally destined for other purposes. Reading school was founded out of funds obtained by suppressing an almshouse for poor sisters, and under Elizabeth made into a grammar school ‘for educating the boys of the inhabitants of the said borough and others in literature.’ Such schools were often placed under lay control, but the clerical idea was still in the background. Not priests, but ministers of the reformed religion, were needed, and learning became even more essential for men who had to make knowledge take the place of tradition.

The clerical purpose of most of these schools naturally tended to exclude girls or make them of secondary importance. What place was actually assigned to them in the 353 schools founded between the accession of Henry VIII. and the death of James I. is a problem that must be left to antiquarians. Certain it is that in the ensuing period the education of both sexes was more on an equality, since the standard was one of inferiority. An age of political disturbance was followed by an epoch of frivolity. Learning fell into contempt. The foundations of the eighteenth century were not grammar but charity schools, and though girls were not forgotten, it was with the hope of training servants for themselves that rich persons supported these schools. Not to give a liberal training, but to teach the poor to ‘keep their proper station,’ was the aim of eighteenth century founders.

Thus it came about that the Schools’ Inquiry Commissioners found a goodly number of girls in endowed schools of an elementary character, which would hardly bear comparison with the poorest of our modern board schools. While the King Edward Schools at Birmingham were giving 290 boys a classical and 300 a sound English education, none of these benefits fell to girls. In the elementary schools of the same foundation were 655 boys and 630 girls. At Christ’s Hospital, distinctly founded for both sexes, there were but 18 girls as against 1192 boys. Perhaps even the eighteen would have been better off elsewhere. They occupied a part of the junior boys’ school at Hertford; they had one ward under the charge of a nurse, their playground was a little over a quarter of an acre, they took their walks abroad under care of the nurse, they had no calisthenics or other physical training; their diet was bread and milk for breakfast, bread, meat, potatoes, and porter for dinner, bread and butter, milk and water for supper. There was no admission examination, no leaving standard of attainment; they learned a little Scripture, English (so-called), and History and Geography from abridgments. On leaving, at about fifteen, most of them were apprenticed to business. It did not prove easy to place them. No wonder!

A similar tale might be told of Bedford School. It was established in 1566 by Sir William Harpur and Dame Alice, his wife, ‘for the education, institution, and instruction of children and youth in grammar and good manners, to endure for ever.’ Did child mean ‘boy’ in the minds of the founders? It seems uncertain; for, as the endowment increased in value and some of it became available for purposes other than the free grammar school, the interests of girls were also considered. At various periods of the eighteenth century fresh uses were found for the surplus money, and it is characteristic of the age that the feminine equivalent for a sound education was a dowry. £800 a year was set aside for marriage-portions for forty poor maids of the town of Bedford, to be distributed by lot, provided that a successful candidate was married within two calendar months of drawing the lot, and not to ‘a vagrant or other person of bad fame or reputation.’ Naturally there was not much difficulty about claiming the lot. Young men came from far and near to woo the ‘maids of Bedford.’ Any residue was given to poor maid-servants who had resided five years at Bedford and were married within a year. The next addition was a hospital for boys and girls, an allotment of £700 to apprentice fifteen boys and five girls, and almshouses for ten old men and ten old women. Early in this century preparatory and commercial schools were added; and girls were considered to the extent of a foundation where the head-mistress received £80 per annum as against the headmaster’s £1000. Which figures very eloquently sum up the relative estimation in which girls’ and boys’ education was held before 1848.

The Schools’ Inquiry Commission had made it abundantly clear that the educational endowments of the country needed overhauling. Not only had many of them increased greatly in value, but the establishment of public elementary schools was making the appropriation of endowments for elementary schools unnecessary. Again, many free schools were giving a liberal education to the sons of rich men. By the institution of even a low fee considerable sums would become available for the improvement of existing schools and the establishment of new ones. Then there were the various charitable endowments left for special purposes which no longer existed. In some cases money had been bequeathed to the poor in a parish, and was simply used for the relief of the rates. In London alone there were sums of £1500 a year given for the relief of poor prisoners from debt. Among other out-of-date purposes were the ransom of Barbary captives, the destruction of lady-birds in Cornhill, etc. In a certain part of Worcestershire money had been left in 1620 for distributing bread among the poor of seven parishes and, as a secondary purpose, supporting a free grammar school, the surplus to be applied to repairing the church and bridges, and increasing, if expedient, the salary of the schoolmaster. By 1867 the total income had increased to £657, and was applied to elementary schools and a free grammar school for fourteen boys. In other cases money was left for doles; with the result that in a certain parish, too richly endowed, extra waiters had to be put on at the gin-shops for two weeks before and after the distribution. In fact it was a case of money in the wrong place; education starving for want of funds that were only doing mischief. The regulation of the educational charities, and appropriation of those others which were doing more harm than good, was becoming an urgent necessity. Some changes had already been made under the Charitable Trusts Acts, but these were a good deal limited in their operations, and a more systematic reorganisation was undertaken under the Endowed Schools Act of 1869. This appointed three commissioners for four years to inquire into the endowments of England and Wales, and the first to hold this office were Lord Lyttelton, Canon Robinson, and Arthur Hobhouse, Q.C. In 1874 this Commission was merged in the Board of Charity Commissioners for England and Wales.

‘In framing schemes under this Act, provision shall be made as far as conveniently may be for extending to girls the benefits of endowments.’ This clause is the Magna Charta of girls’ education, the first acknowledgment by the State of their claim to a liberal education. This result was in great part due to those same men and women who had brought about the opening of the local examinations, and induced the Commission to take cognisance of girls’ schools, and were striving, in face of all opposition, to win something like a university education for girls. As early as 1860 at the Social Science Congress Madame Bodichon had entered a strong protest against the theory that boys’ education must be assisted and girls’ self-supporting. ‘Magnificent colleges and schools, beautiful architectural buildings costing thousands and thousands of pounds, rich endowments all over England, have been bestowed by past generations as gifts to the boys of the higher and middle class, and they are not the less independent and not a whit pauperised.’ At first this was but a voice crying in the wilderness, but the cry was taken up first by a few supporters, then by the whole country, and at last the Times, certainly not a revolutionary organ, declared that, ‘This country is most abundantly and redundantly endowed for men and boys, as if they were unable to take care of themselves, whereas there is little—indeed nothing, we may almost say—for that which is contemptuously called the weaker sex.’

An Association for Promoting the Application of Endowments to the Education of Women was formed, and offered to assist trustees of schools and other persons interested in education by supplying information and suggesting plans whereby available funds might best be applied to the education of women. It had a strong committee, which numbered among its members Miss Davies, Miss Clough, and Miss Bostock, as well as Mr. Bryce and Mr. Fitch, those constant and helpful supporters of all efforts to improve the education of girls. At this time the needs of the middle class seemed most urgent, since the State-aided schools were coming to the aid of the very poor, and the rich could pay the high terms that were then demanded by the better private schools. The immediate need seemed to be for schools of the second or third grade, i.e. those meant for girls who would leave school some time between fourteen and seventeen, and might be expected to pay fees ranging from £4 to £10 per annum.

Of such schools the first were founded out of the surplus revenues of King Edward’s Schools at Birmingham. Here four schools of the second grade were opened, each to accommodate about 160 pupils. These not only filled at once, but had to refuse admission to 500 candidates. In 1870 the Grey Coat Hospital at Westminster was opened; but on the whole progress was slow, and Mr. Roundell’s estimate in 1871 that there were in England and Wales 225,000 girls waiting for secondary education was probably not wide of the mark.

In that same year an event occurred of far-reaching importance. The admirable institution so long associated with the name of Miss Frances Buss was transformed into a public school for girls. Readers of her interesting biography now realise, what had long been known to her friends, with what a single mind and earnest devotion she had worked for the cause nearest her heart—the establishment of public schools for girls. As early as 1850, her own private school had been reconstituted on public lines, with the help of the Rev. David Laing, one of the promoters of Queen’s College, but her ambition was to make it public in fact as well as in its methods. Attention had been drawn to her work by her evidence before the Schools’ Inquiry Commission, and now some of its members themselves came forward to help her. If ever a school could lay claim to public aid, it was this one; and as soon as the enabling act was passed, active measures were taken to secure for it an endowment. With rare clear sight Miss Buss realised that a fully equipped school can only be self-supporting by the sacrifice of either suitable buildings, adequate salaries, or a scale of fees suited to the neighbourhood. She wanted to organise a pioneer school in which none of these good things should be lacking; nothing less than the best seemed good enough. Her enthusiasm and confidence were not to go unrewarded. In December 1870, a public meeting was held in the St. Pancras Vestry Hall, to announce the formation of a trust for carrying on the existing school, and starting another of a lower grade in connection with it. The upper school thus constituted took the name of the North London Collegiate, and in January 1871 removed with its two hundred pupils to 202 Camden Street, and at the same time the Lower or Camden School came into existence. According to Miss Buss’s principle, the fees under the new trust were calculated to meet current expenses only. The building was to be provided from other funds, as was done in boys’ public schools. A subscription list was opened, and every possible endeavour made to win public support. These were anxious years for Miss Buss; money came in slowly, and rather than abandon her principle she chose to sacrifice her salary. Nor did she wait in vain; the excellent work of the school won it recognition, and when in 1874 the Charity Commissioners were called upon to dispose of the Platt Charity derivable from property in St. Pancras, belonging to the Brewers’ Company, they recommended that £20,000 be given to the North London Collegiate and Camden Schools. Thus building funds were secured, afterwards supplemented by a generous donation from the Clothworkers’ Company. The scheme became law in 1875, and the two schools have continued since then to work side by side as endowed schools of the first and second grade, with different principals, but both under the superintendence of the head-mistress of the upper school. This arrangement has proved most valuable, as it promotes co-ordination instead of rivalry between the two schools. In other places where two grades exist side by side, it is not uncommon to find the lower one attempting with inadequate means to imitate the upper. The special needs of the class attending it are then neglected, and undue attention given to a few clever girls, for whom leave is sometimes obtained to stay beyond the appointed age. At the Frances Mary Buss Schools (as the two are now called in memory of their founder), this danger is obviated by a good system of scholarships from the lower to the upper.

At the Camden School girls may attend from seven to seventeen. The fees range from £5, 2s. to £8 per annum. The subjects taught are the usual English ones, with Class-Singing, Needlework, Drawing, and Book-keeping, and the elements of Science. Special attention is given to theoretical and practical Domestic Economy, and these classes receive assistance from the London County Council. French is the only foreign language taught. At the North London Collegiate, girls may attend between eight and nineteen, the list of subjects is much wider, and selections have to be made under the direction of the head-mistress. French, German, Latin and Greek, are included in the curriculum, and the practical subjects either omitted or reduced to a minimum. Since the work of the school is directed to the London University Examinations and the Cambridge Higher Locals, the course is necessarily laid out for girls who can stay long enough to enter the upper forms, and perhaps proceed to college. The fees range from £17, 11s. to £19, 14s. But girls over sixteen proceeding from the lower to the upper school pay only £14, 8s. Many pass up by means of scholarships.

These two schools with their thousand pupils, fine buildings, and noble roll of honours won by old pupils stand pre-eminent among girls’ endowments. The principle that with a scale of fees adapted to meet current expenses the endowment should provide buildings and scholarships has been triumphantly vindicated by the Frances Mary Buss Schools.

Almost simultaneous with the endowment of these schools was the appropriation of some part of the funds of the Bradford Grammar School, ‘to supply a liberal education for girls by means of a school or schools within the borough of Bradford.’ Public opinion was, however, hardly ripe for such a diversion of any large part of an old endowment, and although, as Mr. Forster pointed out at the inaugural meeting, a charter of Charles II. had assigned the land ‘for the better teaching, instructing, and bringing up of children and youth,’ ‘which terms are of common gender,’ the money assigned to the girls would not have been sufficient to start the school, but for the generosity of the Ladies’ Educational Committee, which raised a sum of £5000 for purchasing the buildings. Thus the Bradford Girls’ Grammar School came into being. The fees are £12 to £15, 15s., and girls may stay till eighteen or nineteen. It is thus technically of the first grade, and as such prepares the pupils in the highest class for the university. Many, however, leave school long before attaining this stage, and this appears to constitute one of the special difficulties of North of England schools. There is, however, a wide list of subjects which may be taught, and from these the head-mistress arranges each pupil’s curriculum. As the fees are the same as those of a high school, the endowment fund helps to supply better salaries, apparatus, etc. and thus to increase efficiency. A scholarship fund of £1000 has been provided by the generosity of two private donors, and forty-one scholars have by its help already proceeded to the university.

Manchester also has a first-grade endowed school, which originated like so many others in those active years that followed 1870. Here too the initiative was taken by an association for promoting the higher education of women. The school was started in 1873 by subscription, and in 1876 the present site in Dover Street was secured for building, and over £5000 raised for the purpose. A few years later, an opportunity occurred of securing some public money, as the wealthy foundation of Hulme’s Charity was to be reorganised. The school secured a share, receiving a capital grant of £1500, and £1000 a year on condition that the governing body should be reconstituted to give it a more representative character. Under the new arrangement, there are representatives of the Hulme Trustees, Oxford, Cambridge, Victoria, and London, Owens College, and the Manchester School Board, as well as other co-opted members. This representative character has proved of the greatest value to the school, which takes rank as one of the first in the country. The buildings are admirable in convenience and arrangement, and the scholarship fund amounts to £640 a year. Two smaller schools lately established by the governors at Pendleton and North Manchester have somewhat diminished the numbers of the parent school, but prove a boon to girls in those parts, since the means of communication at Manchester are somewhat inadequate. Only Manchester girls are received in the High School, or those residing with near relations. There are no boarding-houses; it is a purely local school. The fees are nine to fifteen guineas per annum. Manchester has been specially successful in ‘assimilating’ those girls that enter the high school from the elementary schools, several of whom have passed on to the university with scholarships, and been very successful in their after careers. Its chief want is a system of scholarships from the elementary schools, to enable it to extend its useful work, and take a place in a national system of education.

The most complete schemes of endowed schools for girls are at Birmingham and Bedford, and they are typical of two different systems. The King Edward’s endowment, one of the largest in England, had been so mismanaged that in 1828 only 115 boys were being educated on it, and the school building was in ruins. In 1831 by a Chancery scheme, two new schools, Classical and English, were established, and twenty years later there were sufficient funds to maintain eight elementary schools as well. Immediately after the passing of the ‘Endowed Schools Act’ further changes were made. The schools were reorganised in three grades (high, middle, lower middle), and four grammar schools founded for girls. When the spread of State-aided elementary schools made the third class unnecessary, these were abolished, and a girl’s High School substituted. This forms the last link in the chain; and a close connection between different grades by means of scholarships, leading gradually upward from the elementary school to the university, gives the necessary cohesion to the system. The High School can accommodate 260 girls, and the four grammar schools 780. Fees are charged in all, but not so high as to cover the cost of education. At the High School it is calculated that the expense of each pupil is £20 per annum, while the fee is £9. The endowment makes up the deficiency, and permits the reservation of one-third of the places for foundation scholars. Further, it enables the governors to offer their teachers good salaries, and to conduct the whole on those generous lines without which it is impossible to provide a liberal education for either girls or boys. In educational organisation as in municipal matters, Birmingham is a model to the rest of the country. It shows how an old endowment, sufficiently large and carefully distributed, can be made to meet the needs of all classes of a community. ‘We cannot reform our ancestors,’ as George Eliot so pertinently remarks, nor can we set down rich old endowments in the midst of places that have never known such benefactions. But fresh money is coming in from new sources, and we want object lessons in its application. Birmingham teaches the value of co-ordination, and incidentally the use to which public funds may be put in bringing a good education within the reach of the largest possible number.

The position of Bedford is different. A small town with no special industry happens, through the munificence of one of its ancient citizens, to be possessed of one of the largest endowments in the kingdom. For many years its benefits were confined to the inhabitants of Bedford, and as a result the population was constantly increased by persons who were glad to get free education for their sons. Many, no doubt, were well able to pay for it, but preferred, naturally enough, to get it for nothing. At the time of the Schools’ Inquiry Commission, the endowment was maintaining:—(1) A grammar school with 204 boys. (2) A commercial school with 358 boys. (3) A preparatory commercial school with 237 boys; as well as elementary schools for nearly 1200 children and a hospital for 13 boys and 13 girls, almshouses, etc. Considerable as were these numbers, they fell far short of the possibilities of the endowment. The institution of a fee, even a low one, would at once set free a goodly sum, and something, if only as compensation for the marriage portions, was due to the girls. A new scheme providing for a fresh distribution of the funds was drawn up in 1873, but the girls’ schools did not come into existence till 1882. Under the present arrangement one-eleventh of the available funds is used for eleemosynary purposes, two-elevenths go to the elementary schools, which until quite lately have served all the needs of the town and rendered a schoolboard unnecessary. The remainder is divided equally between the two higher schools—boys’ Grammar and girls’ High—and the two Modern schools. This looks very much like putting girls and boys on an equality, but a clause in the scheme explains that three boys are to be considered equal to five girls. In other respects the money is evenly divided; it is shared out annually ‘in proportion to the average number of scholars attending the said schools respectively during the preceding year,’ a curious application of a Scriptural doctrine, by which a rise in numbers in the boys’ school entails a corresponding deficit in the exchequer of the girls’ school and vice versa. Still, rightly managed, there is enough for all.

At Bedford no attempt is made to co-ordinate the work of the two schools, or to establish any but the very slightest connection—by means of a few scholarships—between the elementary and modern schools. Hence the benefit of co-operation is lost. The great difference between the fees—£9 to £12 at the High, £4 at the Modern school—makes active rivalry impossible. It is the state of the home exchequer that settles the choice of a school, far more than the preference for one system of education or a girl’s probable after-career. It is curious that, in spite of the general outcry for cheap schools, the low fee of the Modern School has not proved as great an attraction as was expected; it has filled but slowly, and is only now approaching 200, while the High School averages an attendance of 600. To some extent the curriculum of both schools is the same, but the greater economy requisite in the Modern school necessitates larger classes, less complete equipment, and lower salaries for the teachers. To families in straitened circumstances, local shopkeepers, and small farmers within a short train journey of the town, the school is a great boon; but it seems certain that at Bedford, whatever may be the case elsewhere, all who can afford the higher fee are willing to pay it for the sake of the greater social prestige of the High School. Prejudice of this kind must always be reckoned with, however carefully Parliament or Royal Commissioners may provide on paper for the needs of each class of the population.

On the other hand, the High School has more than fulfilled anticipations. Not only does it provide a first-class education for the sisters of grammar school boys, it has won a position and prestige of its own which attract considerable numbers from a distance. There are now several flourishing boarding-houses, all working in close connection with the school, and under the superintendence of the head-mistress. In this way Bedford High School, like the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, St. Leonard’s School at St. Andrews, and a very few others, has taken a position somewhat analogous to that of a boys’ public school, sought for its own sake, and not merely on account of its nearness or cheapness. The large numbers, ample staff, and sufficient funds enable the head-mistress to consider the needs of individual pupils more carefully than could be done in a small school. Forms are joined and subdivided lengthwise and crosswise, so as to bring together in small groups girls who are to give a good deal of time to Classics, Modern Languages, English, Drawing or Science, or any other special subject, thus avoiding the scrappiness with which the modern curriculum is sometimes charged. The girl who aims at the university is prepared for it, the girl who has a real taste for accomplishments receives first-rate instruction in music, drawing, etc. and at the same time is encouraged to give special attention to English. There is no attempt to force all through the same mill. The school is most fortunate in its buildings, which are beautiful as well as convenient. Hall, gymnasium, studio, laboratory, padded rooms for practising, nothing seems wanting to the equipment. It is pleasant to wander through the airy and tasteful class-rooms and realise that this is one of the many good things which the redistribution of endowments has given to girls. At Bedford there is not much risk of forgetting whence the money comes. The Harpur Trust seems to give its character to the town. The numerous schools, the Harpur Trust offices, the rows of almshouses, the ‘Harpur’ and ‘Dame Alice’ streets are suggestive of a town that has grown up about its schools, almost as Oxford and Cambridge have about their colleges. In the old church close by the founders lie buried; ever succeeding generations of boys and girls are entering into their inheritance.

Among the eight largest endowments of which the Commissioners had to take cognisance was that of Dulwich. In few places was the reformer’s hand more needed than in the assignment of those large sums which had accumulated under the charity of Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift. At the time of the Schools’ Inquiry Commission—that date which marks a new starting-point in educational chronology, it maintained only an upper school with 130 boys, and a lower school with 90. In 1895 when some of the results of twenty-five years were summarised, it was supporting:—(1) A first-grade boys’ school—Dulwich College—with 630 scholars. (2) A second grade boys’ school—Alleyn’s School—with 540 boys; and contributing, (3) To James Allen’s Girls’ School a capital sum of £6000, and £650 a year. (4) To the Central Foundation Schools—boys and girls—a capital sum of £11,000 and £2300 a year. (5) To St. Saviour’s Grammar School, Southwark, a capital sum of £20,000 and £500 a year.

This is a result that should please all parties. In spite of the additional advantages given to boys, the girls gain two schools; for although the James Allen school had been founded as early as 1741 by James Allen, master of Dulwich College, it was really nothing more than an elementary school until its reconstruction in 1882 with a part of the Dulwich endowment. It can accommodate 300 girls, has eight class-rooms, laboratory, assembly hall, dining-room, recreation ground of two and a half acres, and a completely equipped gymnasium where lessons are given by an expert teacher. With a £6 fee it is always full, and admirably serves its purpose of ‘supplying to girls of the middle class a sound practical education.’

The fourth of the large endowments belongs to St. Olave’s Grammar School, and a school for girls is in course of establishment here.

The Tonbridge endowment, administered by the Skinners’ Company, now supports a school for girls at Stamford Hill.

The Manchester Grammar School fund has of late decreased in value, and has nothing to offer girls; but here they have had help from another quarter.

The Jones foundation at Monmouth now provides for 500 boys, and 100 girls, besides 50 elementary scholars, in place of 180 boys at the date of the Commission.

Of the eight endowments, by far the largest was that of Christ’s Hospital, and here there was no question as to the original intentions. The treatment of girls had been so unfair as to arouse general indignation. But the whole foundation really needed overhauling. After long delays an elaborate scheme was drawn up, providing for the removal into the country of the boys’ school, proper boarding-school provision for girls, and large day-schools in London for both sexes. Of all this, now nearly twenty years after the passing of the Endowed Schools Act, very little has been done, though the removal of the boys’ school from London to Horsham is now definitely settled. At Hertford the girls’ school has been reformed in its methods, and additional ward accommodation provided, but by a perverse system of election it is made very difficult to fill even that space. Girls can only be admitted on presentation of a governor—very difficult to obtain—or by a competition, to which only three classes are admitted. They must come either from—(1) Certain endowed schools in England and Wales, or (2) Public elementary schools in the London School Board district, or (3) Certain parishes which have hitherto exercised the right of presentation. As (1) and (2) represent the classes which are best provided, and least in need of the benefits of a cheap boarding-school, and (3) is, by its nature, very restricted, it is not strange that it has hitherto proved impossible to fill even the 140 available places, though there are thousands of girls in rural districts to whom a school of this kind would prove a priceless boon. There seems a curious irony about offering such nominations to the Bedford Modern School where girls are receiving an excellent education for £4 a year, and taking no thought for those less favoured places, which, because they have no endowment of their own, are therefore shut out from one that they could use. Of course all this is only temporary, but the transition stage seems a very long one. As far as girls are concerned, the chief needs seem to be the establishment of several cheap boarding-schools, the election of some women on the council of almoners, and a change in the present system of electing scholars. Let us hope that when the reforms come at last, they may prove to have been worth the waiting.

Besides these eight chief endowments, there are many others of which girls have now received a share. There are now in England and Wales over eighty girls’ endowed schools of a secondary type, though the distribution is curiously uneven; e.g. the West Riding of Yorkshire has nine, while Surrey has only one. Much has been done, and much remains to be done, but it is well that every kind of experiment should be tried, so that the newer schemes may be improved by the experience of the older ones.

Endowed schools are technically supposed to be of three grades, according to the age at which the pupils usually leave. For the first the limit is eighteen or nineteen; for the second, sixteen or seventeen; for the third, fourteen or fifteen. All admit them at seven or eight. There is something peculiarly English about this arrangement, which, on paper at any rate, appears needlessly wasteful. The natural division seems the American one. Here there are three successive grades, organically connected, by which a child may go through his whole school career, passing, as it were, from the kindergarten at one end to the university at the other. This arrangement of schools, all free, and meant for all the children of the community, is in harmony with the American democratic idea, but would be impossible in the midst of English class prejudice. Still even our social exclusiveness does not require such extreme differentiation, and experience shows that a system of three parallel lines, distinguished chiefly by breaking off at different points, is not altogether necessary. The problem, as it presents itself for girls, is not, however, the same as for boys. Boys’ schools of the highest grade naturally prepare their pupils for the university, and as most of them are boarding-schools, they are exempt from considering local needs. The first public schools for girls were day schools. At the time of the first Endowed Schools Act, university education for girls had hardly made any way. Girton was just struggling into existence, the other colleges were but a dream of the future. London still withheld its degrees. What girls needed most was a sound general education given cheaply in day schools. Hence the low fees fixed by the Girls’ Public Day School Company, and the still lower ones charged at the endowed schools of the second and third grades, which at that time met the most crying want. By 1883 ten of these third grade schools in London were educating over two thousand girls. Among them were the Greycoat Hospital at Westminster, and the Roan School, Greenwich, and others that have since extended their sphere of work up to the second grade limit.

The course of events during the last few years has necessitated these and many other changes. The Elementary Schools Act of 1870, and the spread of Higher Grade schools, while largely removing the need for the third grade, have necessitated some means of transition from the primary to the secondary school. On the other hand, the rise of women’s colleges, technical institutes, etc. and the increasing number of girls who, whether from choice or necessity, expect to earn their own living, necessitates a levelling-up of schools, and a closer connection with places of higher education. Direct connection with the primary schools on the one hand, and the women’s colleges on the other, is now a necessity. Many of the Charity Commissioners’ schemes have attempted to supply this. The Roan School at Greenwich is a good instance. It was founded in 1643 out of money left by John Roan to clothe and educate poor children, and reorganised in 1873, the income of £2000 being divided between 350 boys and 320 girls. There is a special fund for foundation exhibitions for elementary scholars, and others are admitted on passing an examination, at half-fees—£3 instead of £6. Of the total number of pupils, about two-fifths come from the elementary schools. Thus the work of the two is brought into very close connection, and the Roan School includes in itself both second and third grade functions. It provides for the upward passage by exhibitions, many of which are held at Bedford College, or in Wales.

Scholarships of both kinds are also given by the Skinners’ School at Stamford Hill. Some of the entrance exhibitions are restricted to pupils from elementary schools, others are awarded by open competition. The two leaving exhibitions, of the value of thirty-three and thirty guineas respectively, are tenable for four years, at any place of advanced education approved by the governors. The school fees range from £6 to £10. The work of the Sixth Form leads to the higher certificate of the Joint Board or the London Matriculation, both of which serve the purposes of a leaving and entrance examination. This school might therefore be regarded as a combination of the three grades. Similar work is done by the Mary Datchelor School at Camberwell, the Aske’s School, Hatcham, and several others. Such schools, with a definite connection upward and downward, are among the chief educational needs of the day. Those now at work seem to be always full, and they draw their pupils from a class that look forward to a career of steady work. Clerks, civil servants, teachers, typists, telegraphists, milliners, nurses; these, and many others, occur in the lists of old pupils’ occupations. A useful general education, either as an end in itself or as a basis for higher or technical education, is given, and these schools have taken the place of the third rate private schools, which was all that had previously been offered to middle class girls. The expression of opinion by the Royal Commissioners, in 1895, that ‘a second grade school, which prepares for the local University College is often more suitable for a certain section of the population than a first grade school linked to Oxford and Cambridge,’ applies, mutatis mutandis, to girls as well as boys. For both, a part of the highest work must be supplied by boarding-schools.

But when all the endowments hitherto made available are considered, the share of the girls is still far too small. In some counties there is hardly anything available for them. Against this disparity must be set the benefactions of recent years, many of which are specially meant for girls and women. The foundation of the City of London Girls’ School, by William Ward, in 1881, with an endowment of £20,000; the Pfeiffer Charity of £59,000, for the benefit of women’s education, the numerous scholarships given by city companies, the establishment of Holloway and Westfield Colleges, and of many other foundations for both sexes, belong to the twenty years between 1875 and 1895. If girls have lacked much in the past, they are inheriting the present. As the Charity Commissioners remarked, when reviewing a record of a quarter a century: ‘As to one particular branch of educational endowments, viz. that for the advancement of the secondary and superior education of girls and women, it may be anticipated that future generations will look back to the period immediately following upon the Schools’ Inquiry Commission, and the consequent passing of the Endowed Schools Act, as marking an epoch in the creation and application of endowments for that branch of education, similar to that which is marked for the education of boys and men by the Reformation.’

CHAPTER VI
THE WOMEN’S COLLEGES

The chief gain that this half-century has brought to women’s education is their admission to the universities. It is the key-stone of the arch, without which the rest of the fabric could have neither stability nor permanence. The schools look to them for their teachers and their standard, and gain thereby an element of fixity hitherto lacking. If boys’ education may be blamed for excessive conservatism, that of girls has suffered from extreme mobility. Since girls’ schools led nowhere, and acknowledged no outside guidance, their aim was perpetually changing, according to the ever-varying dictates of sentiment or expediency. Independent and unorganised, they lacked all connection with past and future; and it is this that the universities are now giving them.

Apart from its intrinsic importance, this reform is remarkable for the speed and completeness with which it has been accomplished. Thirty years ago it had hardly been seriously contemplated; now eight of the ten universities of Great Britain teach their students without distinction of sex, while two others admit them to lectures, examinations, and many other privileges. All this has not been brought about without hard work and persevering effort; and it would be vain to seek the origin of all the separate forces that, acting and re-acting on one another, have produced this result. Many were the workers, and the honours of the pioneers must be shared, but among those who led the way a chief place belongs to Miss Emily Davies. From the first she realised that the reform in girls’ education must begin at the top. To quote her own words: ‘The incompleteness of the education of schoolmistresses and governesses is a drawback which no amount of intelligence and goodwill can enable them entirely to overcome. It is obvious that for those who have to impart knowledge the primary requisite is to possess it; and it is one of the great difficulties of female teachers that they are called upon to instruct others while being inadequately instructed themselves. The more earnest and conscientious devote their leisure hours to continued study, and no doubt much may be done in this way; but it is at the cost of overwork, often involving the sacrifice of health, to say nothing of the disadvantages of working alone, without a teacher, often without good books, and without the wholesome stimulus of companionship.’[^[14]]

But, important as was the improvement in the education of the teachers, Miss Davies had a wider aim in view for the college she meant to found. It was to bring a really liberal education within reach of all women, apart from any special professional aim. Girls, as well as boys, should have opportunities given them to carry on their studies in congenial and stimulating surroundings, unhampered by the cares of earning and unhindered by conflicting duties. To them, too, the college life was to bring that joyous spring-time of youth, friendship, and unfettered delight of study and leisure which had hitherto been withheld from them. Such was the generous purpose in the minds of a few men and women who were trying to fire others with their own enthusiasm.

Even at the time of the Schools’ Inquiry Commission this question had been mooted, and a memorial had been sent up pointing out the want of a system of ‘instruction and discipline adapted to advanced students, combined with examinations testing and attesting the value of the education received.’ The report of the Commission and the discussion it aroused helped to give publicity to the proposal, and at last it was resolved to test the feasibility of the scheme by actual experiment. In 1867 a committee had been formed to consider the possibility of founding a college ‘designed to hold in relation to girls’ schools and home teaching a position analogous to that occupied by the universities towards the public schools for boys.’ It was resolved to try an experiment on a small scale, and proceed further as funds became available. At Hitchin, near Cambridge, a small house was hired for the six students who presented themselves, and in October 1869 they began the work prescribed to candidates for degrees by the University of Cambridge. Insignificant as these beginnings may seem, they were of momentous importance in the history of women’s education. The founders of this, the first women’s college in England, had to choose once for all between a women’s university, with its exclusive studies and degrees, and admission to the great universities of the country. The question of a women’s university debated and vetoed in 1897 had really been finally settled in 1870, when the first lady students requested and received permission to be examined in the papers set for the Previous Examination.

The prospectus of the new college issued in the autumn of 1869 contained this clause: ‘The Council shall use such efforts as from time to time they may think most expedient and effectual to obtain for the students of the College admission to the examinations for the degrees of the University of Cambridge, and generally to place the College in connection with the University.’ This ambitious programme thus early laid down for the infant College must have provoked many smiles; and looking back now after the lapse of nearly thirty years, we hardly know whether to wonder most at the confidence placed by the founders in the hitherto untried abilities of girls or at the success which so abundantly justified their anticipations.

It was thus made clear from the outset that the new college was to be no self-centred institution, but was to derive its teaching, inspiration, and standard from Cambridge, provided always that the University were willing to accept the new responsibilities thus proposed. For this end it seemed desirable to make an informal experiment, and through the kindness of the individual examiners five of the students were submitted to the test of the Previous Examination. All were successful; four attained the standard required for a First Class, and one that of a Second. Two years later three students entered for Tripos Examinations in the same informal manner, two passing in classics and one in mathematics. Thus three years after the opening of the College three of its students had fulfilled all the conditions required by the University of Cambridge for a degree in Honours. That was a sufficient answer to the doubters; the founders had justified their action. Henceforth the future of the College was fixed.

Meanwhile vigorous efforts were being made to raise money for the permanent building to be erected in or near Cambridge. This was no easy task. Generous donations for the needs of women were at that time unknown. The Quarterly Review recommended ‘simplicity of living and the strictest economy’ as alone suitable for women who might have to earn their own living, and desired to combine with this ‘training in housekeeping, regular needlework ... such cultivation as will make a really good wife, sister, and daughter to educated men.’ Against such selfish and confused notions it was difficult to contend. As Miss Shirreff wrote at the time: ‘Never yet have a company of women been able to scrape together funds for an object specially their own, be it club, or reading-room, or hospital, or, as now, a college.’ It is pleasant to realise that this is no longer true, and that the writer of these despairing words lived to see the change she had helped to bring about.

The money came in, though slowly. Madame Bodichon generously gave the first thousand pounds, and among the earliest subscribers was George Eliot. Lady Stanley was another who gave liberal aid. The subscription list gradually grew longer; a piece of land was secured at Girton, near Cambridge, and building began. In 1873 it was ready for occupation, and henceforth became the home of the Ladies’ College, now incorporated as Girton College, with Miss Davies installed as Mistress. As the numbers increased, fresh additions were made to the building, but the aim and work of the College remained unchanged. Students were prepared for the Ordinary and Honours Degree Examinations by means of lectures given at Girton, and, as these were gradually opened to women, by attendance at some of the professorial and intercollegiate lectures in Cambridge. They were informally examined with the same papers as were set to the men, and in every detail of preliminary test, length of residence, etc. they conformed to the rules laid down by the University for its members. In lieu of the degree, which could not be conferred upon them, they received from the College a ‘degree certificate,’ and year by year fresh proofs were given of the general efficiency of the College and its students. In this way informal connection with the University was combined with formal adherence to its regulations. Thus matters continued till 1881.

Side by side with the beginnings of Girton, another movement had been at work. This was largely due to the North of England Council, which by promoting examinations for women over eighteen, had been establishing a fresh link between the University of Cambridge and the education of girls. A Cambridge committee established courses of lectures in all the subjects of examination. These naturally attracted many students from a distance, and the same persons who had organised the lectures, soon had to face the problem of housing the audience. Mr. Henry Sidgwick, to whose generous and unfailing assistance women owe so much, invited Miss Clough to come and take charge of a house of residence for women students. This house—No. 64 Regent Street—became the germ of Newnham. As the numbers increased, removal to larger premises became necessary, and Merton Hall was taken. When this too had to be abandoned it was resolved to build. Funds were raised by the Newnham Hall Company, and eventually this was amalgamated with the association which had charge of the lectures, and the two were incorporated as Newnham College. This development from small beginnings, under the Principal’s able management with the constant help and sympathy of Mr. and Mrs. Sidgwick, has now been fully made known through Miss A. B. Clough’s interesting biography of her aunt. Newnham has seen some changes of policy and programme since its first beginnings in 1870, but its true aim, to advance the education of women at Cambridge, has always remained the same.

Since Newnham originated in a house of residence for girls preparing for the Higher Local Examination, this was naturally the goal set before the first students; but very early in its history some few who were more ambitious or better prepared, found this aim insufficient, and began, like the Girton students, to study for the degree examinations. The Higher Local, at first the goal, gradually receded in importance, and became a preliminary instead of a final, but it was not made compulsory to follow the Cambridge curriculum exactly, and in those early days great latitude in choice of subjects, examinations, length of residence, etc. was allowed to Newnham students.

Thus matters continued till 1880, when special attention was called to Girton by the distinguished success of one of its students, who was declared by the examiners in the mathematical Tripos to be equal to the eighth wrangler. There was now a ten years’ record of good work to show, and the time seemed opportune for bringing about a more formal connection with the University. A memorial was drawn up and presented, which called attention to the ‘repeated instances of success on the part of students of Girton and Newnham Colleges, in satisfying the examiners in various degree examinations at Cambridge,’ and praying the Senate to ‘grant to properly qualified women the right of admission to the examinations for University degrees, and to the degrees conferred according to the result of such examinations.’ This was signed by 8500 persons; other petitions to the same effect were received, and as a result a syndicate was appointed to consider the matter. Their report advocated the formal admission of women to the Honours examinations of the University, and the publication of a separate class-list, indicating the position of each in the general list. They did not, however, recommend conferring degrees on women, nor did they advise admitting them to the Ordinary Degree examinations. The recommendations were embodied in three Graces, passed by the Senate on February 24, 1881, a red-letter day in the annals of College women. These are the most important:—

‘1. That female students who have fulfilled the conditions respecting length of residence and standing which members of the University are required to fulfil, be admitted to the Previous Examination and the Tripos Examinations.

‘2. That such residence shall be kept—(a) at Girton College; or (b) at Newnham College; or (c) within the precincts of the University, under the regulations of one or other of these Colleges; or (d) in any similar institution within the precincts of the University which may be recognised hereafter by grace of the Senate.

‘3. That certificates of residence shall be given by the authorities of Girton College or Newnham College or other similar institution hereafter recognised by the University, in the same form as that which is customary in the case of members of the University.

‘4. That except as is provided in regulation 5, female students shall, before admission to a Tripos Examination, have passed the Previous Examination (including the Additional subjects), or one of the examinations which excuse members of the University from the Previous Examination.

‘5. That female students who have obtained an Honour certificate in the Higher Local Examination, may be admitted to a Tripos Examination, though such certificate does not cover the special portions of the Higher Local Examination, which are accepted by the University in lieu of parts or the whole of the Previous Examination; provided that such students have passed in Group B, (Language): and Group C, (Mathematics).

‘6. That no female student shall be admitted to any part of any of the examinations of the University who is not recommended for admission by the authorities of the College, or other institution, under whose regulations she has resided.

‘7. That after each examination a class-list of the female students who have satisfied the examiners shall be published by the examiners at the same time with the class-list of members of the University, the standard for each class, and the method of arrangement in each class being the same in the two class lists.

‘8. That in each class of female students in which the names are arranged in order of merit, the place which each of such students would have occupied in the corresponding class of members of the University shall be indicated.

‘9. That the examiners for the Tripos shall be at liberty to state, if the case be so, that a female student who has failed to satisfy them, has in their opinion reached a standard equivalent to that required from members of the University for the ordinary B.A. degree.

‘10. That to each female student who has satisfied the examiners in a Tripos Examination, a certificate shall be given by the University stating the conditions under which she was admitted to the examinations of the University, the examinations in which she has satisfied the examiners, and the class and place in the class to which she has attained in each of such examinations.’

This was followed in 1882 by permission to pass the examinations for degrees in Music.

The Colleges and their students thus received formal acknowledgment from the University, and the status then conferred remains unchanged to this day. Two attempts have since been made to induce the University to carry its concessions to their logical issue, and confer degrees on women. That of 1887 came to an untimely end, as it was not even considered by a syndicate; the events of 1897 belong to recent history, and are too fresh to allow a proper estimate of their significance. The facts are these. In 1896 four memorials were presented to the Council, asking for the nomination of a syndicate ‘to consider on what conditions and with what restrictions, if any, women should be admitted to degrees in the University.’ The syndicate was appointed, and reported in favour of conferring ‘the title of the degree of Bachelor of Arts’ by diploma upon women, ‘who, in accordance with the now existing ordinances, shall hereafter satisfy the examiners in a final Tripos Examination, and shall have kept by residence nine terms at least; provided that the title so conferred shall not involve membership of the University.’ This seemed a very moderate proposal, since it only involved a formal acknowledgment of privileges already conferred, but somehow the University took fright. Perhaps it now for the first time realised what had already been done, and determined to allow no more concessions; perhaps an element of jealousy was beginning to play a part among the younger members who had appeared in the same class lists as the women, and not always in the highest places; certain it is that while the best weight and learning in Cambridge were in favour of the proposals, numbers were ranged on the other side; and the voting resulted in a majority of more than a thousand against the proposal. In estimating this result it is well to remember that the women’s colleges had met with far more rapid success than even their founders had anticipated. They had produced a Senior Wrangler and a Senior Classic, and a formidable list of first classes in these and other Triposes. It was no longer possible to put aside their achievements with the old contemptuous formula, ‘very good considering.’ The movement had succeeded beyond all hope or fear, and while its true friends remained staunch, many of the indifferent now ranged themselves among the open enemies. Events had moved too fast for the rearguard of public opinion to keep up with them. At any rate the refusal was decisive, and matters settled down once more to the status quo of 1881.

Anomalous as is their position, the students of Girton and Newnham have many and great advantages. For a comparatively low fee they receive all the advantages of a University education; they enjoy the manifold privileges that belong to residence in Cambridge, they may attend nearly all professorial and very many college lectures, their own colleges also provide excellent lecturing and coaching; and they may enter for any of the Tripos Examinations, and for those that lead to the degrees of Doc. and Bac. Mus. They have the advantage of life in beautiful buildings, with plentiful opportunities for recreation, exercise, and social intercourse, while the very fact of belonging to Girton or Newnham confers a certain prestige which is an advantage professionally and socially. However much we may desire the degree, and regret its indefinite postponement, it may yet safely be said that nowhere else can women obtain such advantages as at Cambridge. No anxiety need be felt about the future of the colleges. The success of their students, the influence their ‘graduates’ have had on the teaching profession, and the good work done by them in other fields, have amply justified the new departure. If success has come too quickly, public opinion may lag behind a few years longer. Meantime the work goes on.

At this period of their history it is no longer necessary to describe the colleges. Everybody who knows Cambridge is familiar with them. Both have increased greatly since their first beginnings. Girton has added fresh wings and a tower; changed its entrance and built a library which is full to overflowing. The trees have grown up around it and offer pleasant shade to summer tea-parties and afternoon loungers, the ‘woodland walk’ that encircles the grounds is gay at almost all seasons with pretty blossoms and flowering shrubs. Newnham has enlarged its first (Old) hall and built two new ones, called by names that will ever be held in honour, Clough and Sidgwick Halls. One library has been outgrown, and another—a generous gift—has been lately added; a road has been diverted allowing an addition to the grounds, and a fresh approach made under a tower gateway with beautiful iron gates presented by old students in memory of their first Principal. Girton has once more outgrown its accommodation, and is appealing for building funds. The colleges are growing both outwardly and in their aims. Not the least hopeful feature is the number of ‘graduate’ students who continue their studies in Cambridge or at one of the foreign universities, or devote to research or social problems that leisure and freedom from responsibility which women possess in a greater share than men. The founders have been abundantly justified in their resolve to establish no mere training-school for governesses, but to offer a wide and liberal education to all.

There are some differences in the arrangements of the two colleges. At Girton each student has two rooms, at Newnham one. The Girton fees are £105 per annum including coaching and examinations; at Newnham they are £75, but these items are not in all cases included. Girton supplies cabs for students who attend lectures in Cambridge; Newnham, being in the town, is within a walk. Both require every one who has not taken an equivalent, e.g. the higher certificate of the Joint Board, to pass an entrance examination. Both colleges award scholarships, though scarcely sufficient to meet the many demands from girls whose parents cannot afford the payment of full fees. Miss Welsh, one of the early Hitchin students, is now mistress of Girton; Newnham has a Vice-principal for each of the halls, and a Principal over the whole. In this post Mrs. H. Sidgwick succeeded Miss Clough, when the true foundress of Newnham died in 1892.

There is a good deal of resemblance between the Cambridge colleges and the Oxford halls, though these latter have a different history. As early as 1865 a scheme for lectures and classes at Oxford had been organised by Miss Smith, and remained in operation for several years. In 1873 another similar scheme was set on foot by a committee of ladies, with Mrs. Max Müller as treasurer, and Mrs. H. Ward and Mrs. Creighton, followed by Mrs. T. H. Green, as secretaries. The outcome of this was the Association for the Education of Women, organised in 1878, its object being ‘to establish and maintain a system of instruction having general reference to the Oxford examinations.’ Here as at Cambridge the next step was to found halls of residence to accommodate students from a distance. Two of these, Somerville and Lady Margaret, were opened in the same year, 1879; since then two more, St. Hugh’s and St. Hilda’s, have been added. The great difference, however, between the arrangements at the two Universities is that the Oxford Association, instead of amalgamating with the halls, has continued an independent existence, taking the lead in all matters concerning women’s education. Most associations of this kind were temporary bodies, which dissolved when the college or school for which they were working was established, or when the particular institution with which they were connected had opened its doors to women. But the Oxford Association has increased in importance with the development of the colleges, and has become a Board of Studies for their students, and a means of communication between them and the University. One of its functions is to organise lectures, to which members of the University not infrequently request and obtain admission. It also undertakes the negotiations with the various professors and colleges that admit women to lectures, and it is thanks to its exertions that they may now attend under certain regulations lectures at almost every college in Oxford. Similarly their admission to university examinations is the work of the Association. In fact, it acts almost as a feminine department of the University, since it has to sanction the establishment of halls, make itself responsible for the studies and discipline of its students, and generally establish their connection with the University. This connection received its formal acknowledgment in 1893, when the Dean of Christchurch was appointed to represent the Hebdomadal Council on the Council of the Association, and a room in the Clarendon Building was lent it as an office.

There are some other technical differences between the position of women at Oxford and Cambridge. The latter directly acknowledges the women’s colleges, the former in theory knows nothing of its women students, but leaves the Delegacy for Local Examinations to arrange for their examination. The delegates are allowed for this purpose to use the papers set by the University examiners for men, and, of course, the examinations are conducted simultaneously and under exactly the same conditions. Women may enter for every examination—whether Pass or Honours—leading to the B.A. degree, and it is this Delegacy which lays down the special conditions. In all cases a Preliminary examination is compulsory and in some an Intermediate, but neither the Delegacy nor the University demands that they should conform to the regulations imposed on men in regard to duration of study, preliminary examinations and residence. This has led to greater freedom in work; but, as often happens, this greater liberty has proved somewhat detrimental. It was difficult to gauge the value of work done under such conditions, since some students would end a four years’ course with Moderations and others at once begin working for the Final Schools. Then there were some special examinations for women, which by that very restriction failed to win even the prestige they deserved, and an impression, not quite unfounded, spread abroad, of a certain vagueness in the Oxford work, which lessened its value in the eyes of the general public. There was no real gain in making a selection from a course that had been carefully planned out by the University for its members, and as this anomalous state of things had really been brought about by the gradual opening of the examinations, which made the regular course at first inaccessible to women students, there seemed no reason for continuing it when once this difficulty was removed. Oxford women got less credit often than was their due, simply because some little preliminary formality had been omitted.

In order to remedy this, and put the whole work on a firmer basis, the Association decided to institute a system of diplomas for those of its students who have taken the full course required of members of the University. This certificate is awarded only to students who have entered their names on the register qualifying for it, have kept their residence after date of entry, and passed the examinations of the B.A. course in the order and under the conditions as to standing prescribed for members of the University. Another diploma is also offered to those who have passed a course of three examinations approved by the council. Though equivalent to the B.A. diploma as regards difficulty of attainment, there appears to be little demand among recent students for this alternative course; and it will probably be regarded as a survival from the days when, the University examinations being only partially open to women, substitutes had in some cases to be devised. Certificates are also awarded to those students who have resided not less than eight terms, and have obtained a class in an Honour Examination of the University or of the Delegates of Local Examinations. These diplomas and certificates offer a definite incentive to regular study, and serve at once to show the value of the work done in each case.

At Oxford, as at Cambridge, an attempt has been made to win complete acknowledgment for women students by the conferment of the degree. An appeal was made to the University in 1895. The question came to the vote in 1896, and here, as afterwards at Cambridge, the proposal was thrown out by a considerable majority. Oxford women, like their sisters at Cambridge, must therefore wait a while longer for complete recognition. The attempt here may have been a little premature, since, owing to the late opening of the examinations and the latitude allowed to students, there were at that time very few who had fulfilled all the necessary conditions. Still the reason of the refusal was probably identical in both cases, and indicated a deep-rooted prejudice that must be overcome before further steps can be taken. Meantime the institution of the degree-certificate is giving fresh impetus to the work, and attracting larger numbers to the colleges.

Of these Somerville and Lady Margaret were founded almost simultaneously, but with somewhat different aims, the former being undenominational, the latter distinctly Church of England. Both were intended as halls of residence for Association students, but in 1881 Somerville was incorporated as a college ‘to provide for the residence of women students’ as well as ‘for the instruction of women students and for the delivery of lectures to such students’; it was not, however, till 1894 that the term ‘college’ came into general use. Like the Cambridge colleges it has grown from small beginnings; it has been enlarged four times, not on one plan but by the addition of fresh buildings, so that it does not present the appearance of a connected whole. But standing in pleasant grounds among fine old trees, this very medley gives it a certain charm. It can now accommodate over seventy students, besides the Principal, secretary, and four resident tutors. Many of its old students have gained honourable positions for themselves; indeed the Principals of two leading women’s colleges, Holloway and Bedford, were chosen from the ranks of old Somerville students.

Lady Margaret was founded by the Bishop of Rochester and others, and has adhered to its original plan of supplying residence to Church members of the Association. It undertakes no part of the instruction, but makes use of the Association’s tutorial and lecturing staff. For some years the numbers continued small, but as they gradually increased it became necessary to construct an additional hall. Part of this, the Wordsworth building, was occupied in 1896, when the numbers went up to forty-nine, and the council are now appealing for additional funds with which to build a chapel and the central block, to contain the library and permanent dining-hall. A pretty thatched boat-house on the Cherwell is an attractive feature of the grounds, and Lady Margaret is proud of its rowing club. The Principal is Miss Wordsworth, daughter of the late Bishop of Lincoln and great-niece of the poet. The hall takes its name from Lady Margaret Beaufort, that renowned patroness of learning, and there is a cast from her effigy in the tiny college chapel.

In close connection with Lady Margaret is St. Hugh’s. It was founded in 1886 by Miss Wordsworth to provide a more economical residence for women students. By a system of sharing bedrooms and using common sitting-rooms, somewhat lower fees became practicable for those who could not afford the ordinary terms. The plan does not seem to have proved very successful, and St. Hugh’s has developed into a small independent hall for twenty-five students, on the same lines as Lady Margaret, but with a graduated system of fees according to the room occupied. Like Lady Margaret it is conducted according to the principles of the Church of England, with liberty for other denominations. It also uses the tutorial staff of the Association. All students are expected to read for some University examination unless specially exempted by the Council. The Principal is Miss Moberly, daughter of the late Bishop of Salisbury.

The youngest of the Oxford halls is St. Hilda’s. It was founded by Miss Beale in 1893, and meant in the first instance for students passing on from Cheltenham to Oxford. This exclusive character has, however, been abandoned, and it is now formally recognised under the rules of the Association for the Education of Women. It still receives the greater part of its students from Cheltenham, though there is nothing now to exclude others. As yet the numbers are very small. The Principal is Mrs. Burrows.

Of these four institutions, Somerville, the largest and most distinguished, is the only undenominational one. All four have the combined bedroom-studies, with common dining-halls, libraries, etc. Out-door games, debating societies, college clubs, etc. are as popular as at Cambridge. All the colleges require an entrance examination or an alternative, and all give scholarships according to ability. The fees at Somerville (including board, lodging, tuition and lectures) range from £78 to £90 according to the room occupied. At Lady Margaret they are £75, exclusive of tuition, which involves another £20 or £25. At St. Hugh’s the inclusive terms range from £70 to £90; at St. Hilda’s as at Lady Margaret, there is a charge of £75, which does not include tuition.

Besides those who reside at the halls other women are frequently attracted to Oxford. For these, too, the Association makes provision. Those who avail themselves of the lectures and direction of the Association, but do not reside in a hall, are registered as home students, and are placed under the care of a Principal and a committee of the Council of the Association. They are required to reside, with the Principal’s approval, in a house sanctioned by the committee, and to conform to certain rules corresponding to those laid down for hall students. The Principal performs some of the functions of a tutor. Students call upon her at the beginning and end of each term, and submit to her their lists of lectures before sending them in to the office. The home students are doubtless able to pursue their studies more economically. The tuition fees seldom exceed £25, and board and lodging may be had for 25s. a week and upwards. As Oxford terms rarely exceed eight weeks it is possible by very careful management to keep expenses down to £50 to £60. As a matter of fact a large proportion of these students are daughters of Oxford residents. The arrangement is also a convenient one for foreigners who come to Oxford for a short time only. Many come in this way from America, after taking a degree in one of their own colleges. French, German, Russian, Roumanian, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian students have at different times resided in Oxford, working at English language and literature, for the teaching diplomas of their own country. By helping these the Association can considerably increase its sphere of usefulness, and without disturbing the work of the halls it introduces a wider outlook into the lives of the students. At the same time it is open to home students to take the regular course, and several of them do so. The committee only registers those who take up a systematic course of study, extending over at least three terms, but even those who come for a shorter time can attend its lectures and profit by its help.

By these varied means the Association is able to draw together all the agencies for women’s education at Oxford; in 1897 the number of students on its books was 202, and there is every reason to expect a considerable increase now that the institution of the degree-diploma has given a fresh impulse to the work. The steady flow from our girls’ schools to both Universities proves that the colleges have won appreciation through the whole of the country. Happily many of the founders are yet among us to enjoy the fruits of the labours. Girton and Newnham, Somerville and Lady Margaret, bear eloquent testimony to the truth that the dreamers of visions are often those who see furthest and best.

CHAPTER VII
ADMISSION TO UNIVERSITIES

The position of women at Oxford and Cambridge is so anomalous as to require a good deal of explanation, and indeed it is sometimes said that the only real grievance these students have is the difficulty of making people understand what they may and what they may not do. There is no such difficulty when we come to the newer universities. Here the course has been one of steady progress, and one after another all the barriers have fallen.

London was the pioneer in this reform, and its exceptional position made it an excellent field for experiment. A mere examining and degree-conferring body, the London University was not obliged to face those difficult questions of residence, teaching, and discipline which had to be considered elsewhere. It was natural that women who desired to obtain professional qualifications without being compelled to seek them outside their own country, should apply to London for help. As early as 1856 Miss J. M. White had addressed a letter to the Registrar, inquiring whether a woman could become a candidate for a diploma in medicine. Counsel’s opinion was taken in the matter and proved adverse. In 1872 it was again raised by Miss Elizabeth Garrett (now Mrs. Garrett Anderson) who requested admission as a candidate for matriculation. She was refused on the same ground. Since it appeared that the University had not power to accede to these requests, a memorial was drawn up begging it to seek for such modifications in its charter as would enable it to admit women to examination. The motion was brought before the Senate, and lost by the casting vote of the Chancellor. With success so nearly attained the advocates of the change determined not to let the matter drop, and after a while a modified proposal was made. It was thought that a special examination for women might meet the case, or at any rate serve as an experiment in what was then a very new field. The first was held in May 1869, and followed the lines of Matriculation with some modifications. As an isolated examination of no special difficulty and leading nowhere, it did not attract large numbers, and it became more and more clear that what women needed was not so much a special course of study as—to quote the words of the Calendar—‘to have access to the ordinary degrees and honours, and to be subject to the same tests of qualification which were imposed on other students.’ The result of this conviction was that in 1878 it was decided to accept from the Crown ‘a supplemental charter, making every degree, honour, and prize awarded by the University accessible to students of both sexes on perfectly equal terms.’ The charter, however, declared that no woman should be a member of Convocation until Convocation should itself pass a resolution admitting them. In 1882, almost as soon as there was any woman eligible, this resolution was passed, and henceforth both sexes were placed on an absolute equality in their treatment by London University.

There is no need to dwell on the success of this new departure. The London degrees have been eagerly sought by women, and they have won distinguished places in the class lists. Among its graduates London numbers over fifty female M.A.’s, six D.Sc.’s, one D.Lit., to say nothing of many hundred B.A. and B.Sc., as well as all the medical degrees. Class lists show no special division into masculine and feminine studies, since women have won high honours in classics, and men in modern languages. Even on Presentation-Day special allusions to the lady-graduates are seldom made in the speeches; it is no longer considered a matter of surprise that women should hold their own intellectually. The London class lists with their rigid equality have proved to demonstration the equality of the sexes as far as concerns the domain of examination. And at the particular moment when this was done, it was the greatest service that could be rendered to the cause of women’s education, since it settled once and for all the question of making special conditions for them.

But throwing open the examinations and degrees of London was only an indirect assistance to their education, since the University examines all who come, but asks no questions as to how or where they gained their teaching. There was one institution already in existence which was only waiting for this new impulse to enlarge the scope of its work. Bedford College had been gradually developing from humble beginnings into an institution of first-class educational importance. In 1874 it had been removed from Bedford Square to its present premises in York Place, Baker Street, and here it has been gradually expanding, adding another house, building on at the back, supplying now one laboratory now another, until it has reached its present condition of efficiency, taking its place as the leading women’s college of London. Its success is probably due to the progressive action of its council, ever ready to realise new needs and meet each fresh demand as it arose. Recognising the transformation which the opening of the London degrees must effect in women’s education, they at once proceeded to open classes in the subjects of the examinations. At the first Matriculation Examination to which women were admitted, five Bedford College students presented themselves, and all took Honours. In due course classes for B.A. work were added, then B.Sc., then M.A., and in all these Bedford College students acquitted themselves well. The college had now won an honourable place among university colleges, and in 1894 it was included among the list of those entitled to a share of the annual grant of £15,000 to university colleges in Great Britain. From this source it received £700, since increased to £1200, and it now receives also an annual grant of £500 from the London Technical Education Board, for the further equipment of the laboratories and development of practical work in science. This is a speciality of Bedford College. Its laboratories for biology, botany, chemistry, geology, physiology, and physics meet every requirement.

The college is still open to girls who attend only single courses, but the majority enter as regular students, and work either for a London degree or the alternative college course. Bedford has also added other departments of study to the ordinary curriculum. It has an art school, a training department for teachers, and a special hygiene course, for which certificates are conferred. And finally it has developed, as far as its accommodation will permit, into a residential college. The old-fashioned dormitory boarding accommodation has been abolished in favour of students’ rooms in the bed-study fashion so familiar at Newnham and Oxford, and the general management has been placed in the hands of a Principal. Miss Emily Penrose, the first to fill this post, has now become Principal of Holloway, and her place is taken by Miss Ethel Hurlbatt, late Warden of Aberdare Hall.

Bedford College, true to its undenominational principles, has never introduced religious instruction into its curriculum. It is not unnatural that a wish has been expressed in some quarters for a residential college, which should prepare its students for London degrees and at the same time take cognisance of their religious training. It was for this end that Westfield College at Hampstead was founded in 1882. Its benefactor was Miss Dudin Brown, who made over to trustees the sum of £10,000 ‘for the establishment of a college for the higher education of women on Christian principles.’ The Principal is Miss Maynard, one of the early students of Girton, who has introduced into Westfield many of the arrangements of the parent college. The two-room plan, which has found too few imitators, is the rule here. Inclusive fees, as at Girton, are £105 a year. The conditions for admission are similar. There are three entrance scholarships, open to girls who have passed the London Matriculation in Honours or in the first division.

The college began its work in hired houses at Hampstead, but building soon became necessary. It is pleasantly situated in that most attractive of the London suburbs, and combines some advantages of both town and country. Though it has no laboratories of its own, students can easily reach those of Bedford College to which they have access; and similarly it is easy to supply from London such teaching as cannot be undertaken by the resident staff. Westfield students take high places in the class lists, and it supplies an important addition to the London colleges.

In enumerating these we cannot omit Holloway, for though far beyond the borders of the metropolis, it is more and more assimilating its teaching to the London work. Such was not, however, its original purpose. Among those who attended the meeting in 1867 to consider the foundation of a women’s college, was Mr. Thomas Holloway, and at one time it was hoped he would prove a benefactor to it. But Mr. Holloway preferred the idea of an independent college unconnected with a university, like Vassar and others in the United States, and his wishes were thus expressed: ‘It is the founder’s desire that power by Act of Parliament, Royal Charter, or otherwise, should ultimately be sought, enabling the college to confer degrees on its students after proper examination in the various subjects of instruction.’ With this end in view he chose a beautiful site near Egham, and built upon it a most elaborate and fully equipped college, which should some day develop into a women’s university. Nothing was spared that could contribute to the comfort and well-being of the students. Each has two rooms; and the magnificent dining-hall, museum, picture-gallery, etc. prove that no pains were spared to make the new college attractive as well as efficient. For all that, it was viewed at first with some misgivings, for it seemed to lack a definite aim. It was formally opened by the Queen in 1886, and in the following year Miss Bishop was appointed Principal, but students came in slowly. A liberal provision of scholarships, and the beauty and healthy situation of the college did much to dispel the first misgivings, especially when it began to appear from results that the teaching too was of the best. The founder had himself directed that until the power to confer degrees should have been obtained ‘it is intended that the students shall qualify themselves to take the degrees at the University of London or any other university of the United Kingdom whose degrees may be obtained by them, or to pass any examination open to them at any such university, which may be equivalent to a degree examination.’ In accordance with this permission the first students were prepared for the London degrees, and also for the examinations of the University of Oxford, which under present conditions are open to all comers, since the delegacy takes no cognisance of residence. Holloway students may therefore, if they please, present themselves for examination in Moderations and Final Schools just as if they were residing at the Oxford halls. They cannot, of course, obtain the Association’s diploma, and miss the advantage of the Oxford lectures.

On these lines the college worked for ten years, when circumstances made it necessary to reconsider its position. At both Oxford and Cambridge the degree had been refused, and it seemed desirable for the friends of women’s education to come to some decision on their future policy. Once again the scheme of a women’s university was raised; and Holloway College took the lead in calling a meeting to discuss the question. Opinions were invited as to the future action of the college, and three propositions were made: (1) That Holloway College should, in accordance with the founder’s will, seek powers to confer its own degrees. (2) That a Federal University should be founded, to include in its jurisdiction all the women’s colleges. (3) That Holloway should associate itself more closely with London, and seek admission into its teaching University when this should be founded. The discussion showed a strong consensus in favour of this last proposal, and it is probable that henceforth the work of Holloway College will be chiefly directed towards the London courses. If so, it will be safe to predict for it a brilliant future. Its healthy situation, delightful grounds, beautiful buildings, and large endowment, with the prospect of receiving full recognition for work done, will attract large numbers; indeed with Holloway, Bedford, and Westfield for their own, London women have little left to desire. Whatever they may lack elsewhere fullest measure is dealt to them here.

Nor are they even restricted to their own special colleges. The classes at University College are open to all who care to attend; indeed this was one of the first, if not the very first, of our English colleges to try the co-education experiment. After experimenting by holding some classes for women separately, and admitting them temporarily to others, the professors decided in favour of joint classes, and the result was the opening of all except the departments of Medicine and Engineering. The results proved altogether satisfactory, and this end has been helped by the appointment of a lady-superintendent, who holds the same position towards the women students that a vice-dean does to the men. No woman is admitted as a student except upon her recommendation, and upon production of satisfactory references. In this way their special interests are safeguarded, and girls far from home may always secure friendly advice and guidance. Further, there is a special residence provided at College Hall, Byng Place, where students may have some of the advantages of college life while pursuing their studies at University College, or the Woman’s Medical School close by. With Miss Grove as Principal, and Miss Morison, superintendent of the women students, as Vice-Principal, it offers a bright and cultivated home to its inmates, and keeps up the collegiate idea by admitting only such as have already passed Matriculation or an equivalent examination, and are pursuing a regular course of study. The fees for board and residence vary, according to the room occupied and the length of the term, from £51 to £90 the session.

To give a complete list of the institutions that prepare students for the London degrees, would be impossible, since it is open to any person in any place to hold such classes. A few work for them at the ladies’ department of King’s College, but on the whole the work of this branch is more on the lines of miscellaneous lectures and general culture. Some schools, e.g. the North London and the Bedford High School, also carry on their pupils beyond Matriculation to the Intermediate examinations, or even further. The Ladies’ College, Cheltenham, provides instruction for the full Arts course. Most of the provincial university colleges have London degree classes, and many candidates, who cannot get oral teaching, make use of the University Tutorial and other correspondence classes.

A new development on fresh lines is supplied by the Polytechnics. In most of these, whether in London or other large towns, classes are held in all the subjects of the London examinations with particular assistance for Science. With fully equipped laboratories, a large staff of teachers, and considerable funds at their disposal, the Polytechnics may yet become formidable rivals to the other London colleges. Some regret this new departure, and believe that such institutions would be better employed in confining themselves to their original function, the encouragement of handicraft; on the other hand, a system of cheap local colleges is so valuable to large numbers that it is not likely to be abandoned. Some place must be found in the new organisation of the London University for these institutes, if they themselves desire it; but perhaps we shall see, instead of this, a federation of these great science and handicraft schools into some fresh University of their own.

The example set by London in 1879 was soon to be imitated. Only a year afterwards a new University was founded, and the principle of including women was at once adopted. The charter of Victoria University distinctly stated that its degrees and distinctions might be conferred ‘on all persons, male or female, who shall have pursued a regular course of study in a College in the University, and shall submit themselves for examination.’ The degree is somewhat on the lines of the London, but attendance at certain prescribed courses of study is required. These courses must be continued for three years at least. Hence admission to the Victoria degrees really depends on the action of the individual colleges, which are quite unfettered by the University. These are—(1) Owens College, Manchester; (2) University College, Liverpool; (3) Yorkshire College, Leeds.

The first of these had been in existence as a men’s college some years before the establishment of the University, and it has not seemed anxious to make changes in its original constitution. It became necessary to organise a special department for women, in connection with which they still receive some of their instruction. But the teaching for the higher examinations, i.e. those beyond the Victoria Preliminary, is received in the ordinary college classes. As a matter of fact, men and women are taught together in nearly all the B.A. and B.Sc. classes; and the Preliminary, like the London Matriculation, belongs to school work, and has no proper place in a college curriculum at all. Owens still follows the old plan, now almost everywhere discarded, of offering special certificates to women on easier terms; but for these there is little demand.

Since University College, Liverpool was not incorporated till 1881, i.e. after the constitution of the University, it was natural that it should follow its lead in the recognition of women, but this was not yet full and ungrudging. The charter says: ‘female students may be admitted to attend any of the courses of instruction established in the college, subject to such restrictions and regulations as statutes of the College may from time to time prescribe.’ At present the regulations stand thus: ‘Female students may be admitted to the classes of the College, except those of the Medical School, under regulations to be framed by the Senate and approved by the Council.’ In theory, therefore, University is a men’s college that admits women. In fact, with the exception of the medical classes, the two are pretty much on an equality. Men and women are admitted on the same terms to the day and evening classes; throughout the regulations the words ‘his or her’ are used. Rules apply to both sexes alike. Hitherto the college has been of use chiefly to Liverpool residents, and for such it was doubtless intended, but it is just about to extend the sphere of its usefulness by opening a Hall of Residence for Women. The fees for residence are to be £40 to £55 per annum. College tuition fees are about £20 to £25. The total expenses would therefore be a little less than at Newnham. Liverpool can hardly offer the attractions of Cambridge, but the hall should prove useful for girls in the North who do not wish to go too far from home, or to whom the right to use the degree letters is of some special value. And since Cambridge and Oxford can by no means attempt to accommodate the whole of the ever-increasing contingent of women students, it is well that there should be many and varied opportunities of study offered them elsewhere.

At the Yorkshire College, Leeds, all the classes are open to women as to men, and all have been attended by them except the purely professional ones and the medical school. This college chiefly supplies local needs, as far, at any rate, as girls are concerned; for its specialities, such as coal-mining, dyeing, leather, and textile industries, etc. naturally do not appeal to women. It is to a great extent a technological college, receiving assistance from the Clothworkers’, Skinners’, and other city companies. But it has also an Arts department, where students can be prepared for Victoria or London examinations, and this is of great use to boys and girls who pass on from their respective schools.

The last of the English Universities to admit women was Durham. As compared with Oxford and Cambridge, it is a recent foundation, since it received its charter in 1837. Since one of its most important faculties is Divinity, it seemed a less suitable field than others for feminine study, but a change was effected by the foundation, in 1871, of the Newcastle College of Science, in connection with Durham, which admitted students of both sexes to scientific and medical classes. It then became important to win the University hall-mark for the women, and after a while Durham was induced to apply for the necessary powers. In 1895 it received a supplementary charter, giving power to confer degrees on women in all faculties except divinity. With this exception, women are admitted as members of the University on the same terms as men. All lectures are open to them. Male students reside for the most part in college as at Oxford and Cambridge; the women studying at Durham are therefore at present unattached members. This state of things will be remedied as soon as a regular women’s college is opened at Durham; special scholarships for women are already offered, to attract larger numbers. At Newcastle, which at present receives the majority of the women students, a hostel has been opened for them. The number of lady graduates is as yet of necessity small.

It is significant of the steady advance of public opinion on the subject of women’s education, that the youngest of all our universities is the one to do them fullest justice. It is the proud boast of the University of Wales that its charter contains the following clause: ‘Women shall be eligible equally with men for admittance to any degree, which the University is, by this our Charter, authorised to confer. Every office hereby created in the University, and the membership of every authority hereby constituted, shall be open to women equally with men.’

The University of Wales is a federation of three constituent colleges, all much older than the University itself, and they in their turn represent aspirations which the fable-loving Cymry trace back to hoary days of antiquity. Caerleon-on-Usk, they tell us, was the precursor of the present Prifysgol Cymru; and when in the ninth century Alfred the Great determined to found the comparatively modern University of Oxford, it was to Wales he sent for professors. When, in 1893, the royal seal was set to the charter of the Welsh University, it symbolised the revival of ancient and departed glories.

However little faith we may attach to some of these tales, one thing is certain. The aspirations which expressed themselves in the foundation of Aberystwyth College had dwelt among the people for many generations. At last, in the early fifties, it was resolved to found a University College for Wales, but the problem whence to obtain the funds was not easy to solve. Appeal was made for voluntary contributions, and they came, some large, some small, all giving according to their means. Still it was not till twenty years after the first suggestion that the college came into being. In 1872, when Aberystwyth was opened, Girton had already made its first start at Hitchin, and the house of residence, that was to develop into Newnham, had been opened at Cambridge; but these beginnings were too small to attract general attention, and the new college became, as a matter of course, an institution for male students only. There was nothing to forbid the admission of women, it was simply a thing no one had contemplated; and when, at last, in 1883, a few women students did present themselves, no one thought of shutting the door on them. When the college charter was conferred in 1889, it simply recognised the fact of their presence by the clause: ‘Female students shall be admitted to all the benefits and emoluments of the College, and women shall be eligible to sit on the Governing body, on the Council, and on the Senate.’

Prosperity did not come all at once to Aberystwyth. It had at first to struggle against two great evils: lack of funds, and the insufficient preliminary training of its students. Appeal was made for Government help in both directions, and the result of frequent representations was the appointment, by the Lord President of the Council, of a departmental committee, to inquire into the whole state of Welsh education. In 1881 this committee reported that a case had been made out for Government aid to both secondary and higher education in Wales, and recommended the establishment of two colleges, one in North and one in South Wales, and the eventual foundation of a Welsh University. A grant of £2500, afterwards increased to £4000, was at once made to Aberystwyth; in 1883 the South Wales College was founded at Cardiff, and in the following year the Northern College was begun at Bangor, each receiving an annual grant of £4000. Both, from the first, opened their doors to women.

For the first ten years the colleges directed their courses of study towards the degrees of the University of London. Their students did well, but the desire for their own University and their own degrees never faded from the minds of Welshmen. A few eager spirits met again and again in conference, then followed meetings of educationalists all over the principality, and in 1891 the main lines of a university were laid down by public conference, details were discussed by a representative committee, referred back to the conference, then to the colleges, and the sixteen Welsh county councils; lastly, the press and the general public were called upon for an opinion, and then the scheme was laid before the President of the Council. If ever there was a national University, the Welsh may claim to have established one. In November 1893 the royal seal was affixed to the charter, and in June 1895 the University held its first Matriculation Examination.

The degree course of the University of Wales is a complicated one, and is by no means planned so that he who runs may read. It has a twofold, or rather a threefold aim. The University not only takes cognisance of residence, but also lays down very careful directions as to the manner in which students shall obtain their knowledge. Not only does it demand a three years’ course in a constituent college of the University, but it also prescribes the nature of the courses, and the number of lectures to be attended. After Matriculation, which must be passed in five subjects, three compulsory, and two optional, and may be taken in one year or in two, the regulations require each student to pursue not less than ten courses, of which one must be in elementary Logic, and one, at least, a course of Latin or Greek. Apart from the Logic, the nine courses must be chosen in not less than three, or more than six departments. The possible courses are designated according to their degree of difficulty, as intermediate, ordinary, and special; four, at least, must be of higher grade than intermediate. In order to distribute them evenly over the whole term of residence, no candidate may take more than four in any one year, or more than seven in the first two years. A course is held to include not less than eighty lectures, and the corresponding examination; and since, in most subjects, the intermediate course must be pursued before the higher ones are attempted, every student has to attend some very elementary lectures before proceeding to anything at all like university work. As sixteen is the college age of admission, this arrangement is probably intentional; the colleges are meant to continue school work for one year at least, and gradually lead the student on to more arduous labours.

Since the colleges are independent institutions, they have a good deal of freedom in the organisation of their work, and may, if they please, submit new schemes for the consideration of the Senate, the other two colleges, and the University Court. Without the sanction of all these they cannot attempt any innovation. The superior stress laid on the actual instruction rather than on the ensuing examination is emphasised by appointing the three professors of each subject as examiners, with the help of one outside person, who must be some one of distinguished attainments and authority.

Thus the University of Wales proceeds on lines which, though new to us, bear considerable resemblance to the plan of many American colleges, where the number of hours to be spent weekly in the lecture-room counts as part qualification for the degree, and the examinations are spread out over the whole term of residence, and not concentrated into one or two supreme efforts. Of course this greatly relieves the strain, and it is too soon to say whether the degree will at all lose in prestige from the numerous efforts made to clear the student’s path of thorns. It is probably the best system for Wales, where the Intermediate schools only profess to keep their pupils till seventeen, and there is nothing to prevent able students from competing for scholarships, which shall enable them to continue at Oxford or Cambridge the studies begun in one of their own colleges. Eventually it is probable that facilities will be offered for doing advanced work without forsaking their own country.

Even before the establishment of the University, the colleges attracted many women students from England as well as Wales. All three are pleasantly situated in healthy spots, and the cheapness of both teaching and living helped to attract many girls. It thus soon became necessary to consider the question of a mixed university, which had no residential colleges to simplify the problem. Soon it became clear that, where young people of both sexes were very frequently thrown together, it was desirable in the interests of all concerned to exercise some sort of control. A hall of residence for the women seemed the best way out of the dilemma, and it had the advantage of drawing them away from lonely and often uncomfortable lodgings, and giving them some of that feeling of corporate life which is valued so highly at the older universities. Still it is noteworthy that, to make the plan a success, residence has had, under certain conditions, to be made compulsory. The first attempt at Aberystwyth was a failure, but in 1887 another house was taken, and compulsory residence required. This arrangement seemed to attract students; in the following session their numbers increased, and continued to average about forty, till in 1891 it was resolved to build a large new hall. The numbers then again went up, and have already reached 175. Alexandra Hall was opened with much state by the Princess of Wales in June 1897. It can accommodate 200, a number which must soon be reached.

Neither Bangor nor Cardiff can boast such numbers, but in both the hostels are doing well. At Bangor, after a few years’ experiment, it was decided to make residence compulsory for all girls under twenty-one. The hall and college were brought into close connection by the appointment of a lady, who was also an officer of the college, to act as superintendent of all the women students. Permission is given to women to reside in any house which, in the judgment of the Principal and Lady-superintendent, provides hostel conditions of supervision. At Aberdare Hall, Cardiff, there is compulsory residence for women who do not live in their own homes. At all three halls the fees are very low, forty guineas being the usual annual payment for board and residence, and £10 for the composition tuition charge. At Bangor and Cardiff there are also a few cubicles, for which the charge is only thirty guineas. This plan hardly appears to answer, nor does it seem desirable to let the standard of comfort fall below a certain minimum. There is a talk of abandoning it.

In estimating the numbers at these colleges, we must remember that they do not represent only students in Arts and Science. All three have established day training-departments, and to these students, too, the halls are open, as well as to those who attend the Cardiff Cookery School. In attempting to put the training for domestic economy and elementary school teaching on the same footing as university work, Wales is acting in accordance with its democratic traditions, and trying also to induce a higher class of students to take up the elementary teaching. The experiment is certainly worth making, and it will be interesting to watch its success. English high school girls who wish to take up elementary teaching might here combine their training and their work for the Welsh degree in a three years’ course.

With the help of the wardens of halls and the ladies’ committees, the colleges are able to face the complications of joint clubs and societies for both sexes. All these involve some special regulations, in regard to the composition of committees, the return from evening meetings, etc. but the difficulties have not proved insuperable. It would hardly be going too far to say that the women’s halls of residence have saved the situation in Wales, and made this most complete example of co-education possible. It is not surprising that they are being adopted elsewhere. The advocates of educational equality for the sexes, even where the instruction is given to both together, have assuredly no desire to complicate or revolutionise social relations, nor yet to confer full liberty on those who are hardly emerged from the schoolgirl stage. For both sexes the residential arrangement seems on many grounds desirable, and while congratulating the women on their pleasant halls of residence, we can but hope that the male students may not be left out in the cold much longer, without the chance of learning for themselves the true meaning of collegiate life.

The opportunities for advanced study open to women have indeed increased and multiplied at a rapid rate during the last few years. Beyond the northern boundary we find all the Scottish Universities have admitted them freely to membership, and if we cross St. George’s Channel, the Royal University of Ireland—like London, only an examining body—takes no note of sex, and even Trinity College, Dublin, is making some tentative essays in the teaching and examining of women. This represents what has been done in our own islands, but the same movement has been going on simultaneously all over the world. Thanks to Mr. M. E. Sadler,[^[15]] we are now in a position to compare the position of women at a hundred and thirty-nine different Universities. Questions were sent to the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland, the continent of Europe, the United States of America, Canada, India, and Australia. ‘It appears,’ says Mr. Sadler, ‘that at a hundred of these, the distinctions between men and women students are, if any, comparatively unimportant; at seven Universities women students are admitted, by courtesy or special permission, to some lectures and examinations; at twenty-one others women are, by like favour, admitted to some of the lectures; and at eleven Universities they are not admitted at all.’ Of the exceptions five are in Germany, three in Russia, one in Ireland, one in Belgium, one in the United States. France and Italy are specially remarkable for their generous recognition of women, and Germany, long obdurate, is making constant fresh concessions; but intending students should study the special conditions of the one they wish to attend, since many of the regulations are most complicated.[^[16]]

This general advance all over the civilised world is the chief gain this half century has brought to women’s education. Though each country has proceeded on its own lines the movement has unconsciously been an international one. That gives it a strength which will make it permanent.

CHAPTER VIII
BOARDING AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Once more our chronicle takes us back to 1867. A new era was then inaugurated, that of girls’ day schools. Not that these were anything new; small cheap day-schools for girls abounded, but the majority of them were bad. With fees ranging from £3 to £10 a year, and pupils of every variety of age, a little simple arithmetic will prove that the mistress had not sufficient funds at her disposal to pay for suitable premises and adequate teaching, to say nothing of winning a modest competence for herself. From all parts of the country came condemnation of these small, cheap schools. The opinions about boarding-schools were by no means so unanimous. They were censured for the excessive attention given to accomplishments, the insufficient education of the teachers, and their neglect of physical training; but these were faults common to nearly all the schools of that day, and not characteristic of boarding-schools as such. A careful perusal of the Commissioners’ report leads to a far more favourable impression of boarding than day-schools, due, probably, to their being less hampered for funds. But the general public is influenced by impressions rather than facts; and certainly an impression did gain ground that a day-school was in itself a good and a boarding-school an evil.

Unquestionably the reformers were right in first turning their attention to the former. Large schools of this kind were easier to organise, and really made for efficiency and economy, that much desired combination, which in this case is not, as so often, a mere contradiction in terms. The establishment of high and endowed schools has brought a good education within reach of thousands of girls who could by no other means have obtained it. The extinction of the small, cheap boarding-school which for the past century had been struggling to give the lower middle classes a poorer imitation of the poor education given elsewhere to their social ‘superiors,’ is a thing no one can seriously deplore. Painless extinction is, unhappily, impossible. The suffering which such changes bring in their train is to be deplored, but the article itself may be relegated to the class of those that ‘never will be missed.’

The new day-schools met a real want, and success came to them at once. It was natural they should attract the first relays of the ‘graduates’ that the women’s colleges were beginning to send out. Thus they were the first to introduce improved teaching, and for a while they were supposed to have a monopoly of it. In the prevailing dearth of good mistresses they were able to get first choice; now, after the lapse of thirty years, the supply exceeds the demand, and a good teacher is attainable by any school of any grade that can satisfy the very moderate demands of university women.

The high schools started with a very definite principle—the combination of school teaching with home influence—doubtless the ideal for all girls, supposing that each side duly fulfils its share of the obligation. But now, in 1898, it is curious to note how far the high school has travelled in twenty-five years. The original scheme of morning-school, from nine to one, and afternoon preparation for a few girls who had no quiet room at home, still prevails in theory, but quantum mutatus ab illo can best be realised by tracing a day’s routine in school. First come the morning lessons, usually five in number, with the short break for play or drill, then the school dinner, to which over fifty girls sometimes sit down; again a short interval before the afternoon classes, music lessons and preparation, which usually go on till four, though girls who have no special duties at the time may be found at play in the playground. Still later, if it be summer, there may be an adjournment to the school field, often at a considerable distance. Not till darkness sets in can it be said that the day’s school life is over; and the elder girls still have some lessons to prepare before bed-time. A healthful, well-filled happy day is behind them, but where does the home influence come in? The girls might as well be weekly boarders for all the share they have in the real life of home. Saturday may see a cricket practice or a work party, or a school committee, or a sketching expedition, or a match with some distant school. Sunday alone belongs to the home. The numerous clubs, charities, old girls’ meetings, etc. fill up all the time the girls can spare from their lessons. Girls who do not live quite near frequently become day-boarders, though the word is not used, and take dinner, and sometimes even tea, at school. In some few cases the school even undertakes to supply medical supervision and the general direction of the pupil’s health, thus relieving parents of one more responsibility. In fact the day-school is well on the road to become a boarding-school, and the establishment of boarding-houses more or less loosely connected with it is a further step in the same direction.

How far these schools have travelled from their original intentions becomes evident if we refer back to a controversy on school hours that took place in 1880 in consequence of some strictures passed by Mrs. Garrett Anderson on the arrangements in the High Schools. She considered the strain of the four hours’ morning excessive, and proposed reducing it, introducing afternoon school and a considerable interval for outdoor games between the two. This was met with general opposition by headmistresses. Day-schools, it was said, could not be expected to provide dinner, it was most undesirable for girls to return from school as late as four or five on cold winter afternoons, teachers could not be expected to undertake so much afternoon work, while the strongest opposition of all was made to the games. Miss Buss pointed out that the mixture of classes which was unobjectionable as long as girls only met at lessons where talking was forbidden, or in the short intervals which were largely devoted to lunch and drill, might cause serious difficulties if the whole day were spent in school. She also thought the games would be a difficulty; only rough girls would take part in them, and the rest simply lounge about.

How wrong these predictions have proved we all know. Girls’ athletics have made startling progress during the last ten years; cricket and hockey, seemingly rough games, have found favour with the most feminine of girls; the school dinner is a regular institution, and is accompanied by pleasant chat about practices, matches, election of club officers, etc. A new feature, never contemplated by the promoters, has entered these day-schools; and, oddly enough, is doing more than anything else to bring back to favour the once despised boarding-school.

Those that now originated were of a new kind, at least for girls; schools where the boarding-houses form part of the regular organisation, and the whole life and development of the girls is under the charge of the mistresses. Something of the sort had already been done at Cheltenham, and doubtless the College owed much of its success to its boarding-house system. Although a general English education, which is wanted by all alike, can be supplied in any town capable of supporting a large day-school, the very special teaching wanted by a few girls working for scholarships or specially advanced examinations causes a severe strain on the resources of a moderate-sized school, is impossible for financial reasons in a small one, and quite inaccessible to those girls with country homes from whom a considerable proportion of college students is drawn. Hence there arose a new type of school.

The first of this kind originated in Scotland, at St. Andrews. It was founded in 1877 by a local company with a view to educating their own daughters; but arrangements were at once made for taking boarders, and these were placed under the immediate charge of the head-mistress. As the numbers increased, other houses were taken and placed under charge of senior mistresses; and as more and more girls were attracted from a distance, the boarding element began to predominate. With Miss Lumsden, one of the ‘Girton pioneers,’ as first head-mistress, and Miss Dove, another student of Hitchin days, as her successor, the school very quickly settled down into lines very closely resembling those of a boys’ public school. The boarding-houses became an integral part of the institution, the school-house being under the charge of the head-mistress, and the others under the senior assistants. In this way the staff of the school was strengthened by the encouragement thus offered to women of ability to remain in the school instead of seeking their promotion elsewhere. The boarding-houses are also valuable in ensuring regular attendance and proper home preparation, since the day-girls, being in a minority, cannot introduce those lax ideas of attendance which are in some places unfortunately the result of the much vaunted home influence.

The numbers in the school are limited to 200. The admission age is thirteen or fourteen, no girl can be admitted who has turned seventeen. All must pass an entrance examination, graduated according to age, but always including a certain amount of Arithmetic, English, Latin and French. A school of 200 girls, all between thirteen and nineteen, and all with a sufficient preparatory training, can genuinely concentrate its efforts on higher teaching. The classes become easier to group, and with a large staff which allows of careful subdividing, all the ordinary hindrances to progress are removed, and a school is enabled to work under the best possible conditions. It can, if it is desired, make a speciality of certain branches of study. At St. Andrews classics take an important place; of the present staff five have passed the Classical Tripos. Among the honours won by old pupils are first classes in Classical Moderations and Final Classical Schools at Oxford, and in the Classical Tripos at Cambridge. The school distinctly aims at a literary curriculum, with the higher certificate of the Joint Board to fix the standard, and Oxford or Cambridge as the goal for those girls whose education is to be continued.

St. Leonard’s School, as it has been called since it acquired the old buildings and beautiful grounds of the ancient St. Leonard’s College, is organised with a school-house and seven boarding-houses, each under the charge of a mistress. With all the girls under the control of the head-mistress it is possible to carry out the prefect system, and, by giving a good deal of responsibility to the Sixth Form, remove that element of excessive supervision which was often a harmful element in the old-fashioned boarding-school. Each house constitutes a small community, with its separate dining-room and study, where each of the elder girls has a small writing-table and bookshelf. Some rules prevail in all, e.g. that no work shall be done before breakfast or after 8.30 P.M. School hours are from 9 to 12.30 every day, with special subjects in the afternoon. After dinner about one and a half hours are given to games under charge of a special mistress. There is a playground of sixteen acres, which comprises cricket-field, golf-course, lawn and gravel tennis-courts, large hockey-courts and fives-courts, etc. The St. Leonard’s girls are renowned for their skill in games.

With a school thus organised the life of the girls is made easier. There is no conflict of aims; in term-time the school claims its due, in holidays the home. Whether this is theoretically the best plan is an academic rather than a practical question, but it is undoubtedly beneficial to the studies and health of the girls. A mistress who is intimately acquainted with the work of every Form can check overwork more effectually than the most anxious mother, who is incapable of judging from that school point of view which looms so large in the young girl’s mind. Loyalty and public spirit, developed by this joint life of small communities within a large one, are important factors in forming character, and the general atmosphere of alternate work and play without the excessive excitement of home gaieties and the distraction of domestic interests unquestionably facilitates study. Whether the gains to character really outweigh the advantages of the family life depends so entirely on the arrangements and atmosphere of each particular home, that it is impossible to give any general opinion. At any rate results seem to show that this class of school is one of the chief needs for girls at the present time. A good deal of attention had been drawn to St. Leonard’s School in England, and in spite of the distance many girls were in the habit of journeying northwards three times a year for the sake of sharing in its advantages. At last a number of educationalists decided to establish a school of this kind in England, and induced Miss Dove, who had now placed the Northern school on a thoroughly satisfactory basis, to organise a similar one in the South. The Education Company, Limited, was formed, with a council of which the Master of Trinity became president. It was fortunate enough to secure for its first school the beautiful house and grounds of Wycombe Abbey. Situated in lovely country, with thirty-six acres of its own, and the rest of the park stretched all about it, the old trees, the historic memories and dignified surroundings help to shed over the school some of that feeling of tradition and veneration for the past, which all girls’ institutions must of themselves lack for some time to come.

The school resembles St. Leonard’s in its organisation, with some slight differences. There are no day pupils and, as the Abbey is itself capable of accommodating a hundred girls, it is divided for school purposes into four divisions, technically known as ‘houses.’ Each house is in the special charge of its tutor, and has its own sitting-room and dormitories, and its table in the dining-room. The house-colour is carried out in the cubicles; cretonnes, bed-spreads, tiles, etc. being red, blue, green, or yellow, according to the special house in which the dormitory is situated. All this prettiness serves as an attractive background for hard work and healthy play. It is pleasant to find the modern school catering for all the sides of a girl’s nature.

It very soon became necessary to build, and with the help of the new houses two hundred can now be accommodated. Beyond this it is not proposed to go; but should the system prove as popular in England as in Scotland, it is probable that the Education Company might open more schools. The conditions of admission, entrance examination, etc. are the same as at St. Andrews. Physical exercise plays an important part, and about two hours every day are given up to games or country walks, which groups of girls are allowed to take together. Each term has its own special game; lacrosse is the favourite in the autumn, hockey in winter, and cricket in summer. The heavy work of the day is thus broken up into two parts, and Wycombe, unlike the majority of girls’ schools, does not rigidly divide these into morning classes, afternoon preparation. Lessons and study hours alternate during the day. This is an attempt to relieve the strain of the long morning, against which many voices are again being raised. Physical and manual training come in for a share of attention, two hours a day in the upper, and three in the lower school. Under these headings come drawing and painting, part-singing, practising, dancing, gymnastics, carpentry, gardening, and needlework. All these are taught by expert teachers, and are treated as an integral part of the general education. In the upper forms six hours a day are given to actual study, in the lower only five. As this includes preparation, and the day is so fully occupied that there is not much chance of stealing odd half hours for work, it will be interesting to see whether this short allowance, with the help of careful arrangement and healthful surroundings, will prove sufficient to prepare girls adequately for college. It is too soon to ask for results, but if this plan succeeds, a problem which engages much attention at present will have been greatly helped towards solution.

Another school that is doing useful work, as what our American cousins would call an ‘experiment station,’ is the one at Brighton now known as Roedean. It was founded in 1885, by the Misses Lawrence, with three distinct aims: (1) to give a due importance to physical education and outdoor games in every girl’s life; (2) to regulate the school discipline in such a way as to develop trustworthiness and a sense of responsibility in the pupils; (3) to give girls a sound and careful intellectual training. The order in which these are stated indicates the growing importance attached to physical training and public spirit, and explains the lines on which what might be called the reformed boarding-school is proceeding.

This Brighton school is just about to take a fresh departure. It has raised money by shares for a new building on a magnificent site between Brighton and Rottingdean. The new premises consist of a convenient school-house and four separate boarding-houses connected by covered passages with the central building. Something of college methods is to be brought into school by giving each girl a separate bedroom, while the eight seniors in each house are to have a study as well. Here they may give their Saturday tea-parties, entertain their friends, and learn to take the responsibility of their own little domain. The special characteristics of the school are the large amount of responsibility given to the girls and their success in games, of which they are not a little proud. The curriculum resembles that of a high school, with more scope for individual tuition, and most of the teachers are graduates. Wimbledon House School, as it was called before the change in site necessitated a change in name, was one of the pioneers in bringing about the newer view of girls’ education. These views are being widely adopted. The increased freedom, the more active life, the great stress laid on the corpus sanum as one means of developing the mens sana, are all part of the new order of things, and a recognition that the wider life led by the women of to-day needs its own special preparation.

A new school of a similar kind has been started at Aldeburgh, and is being carried on in temporary premises at Southwold on the East Coast. It is proposed to acquire a site here or in some other part of Suffolk, and raise money for building by means of a company. The plan is similar to the Brighton one: a school-house and boarding-houses under the charge of teachers, with plenty of freedom and individual responsibility for the girls. The daily hour and a half of outdoor exercise, the adoption of hand and eye training in the regular curriculum, and the medical inspection of the girls by a lady doctor, are among the more modern methods that distinguish it.

In their fundamental aims there is a close resemblance between these schools. They represent a fresh break with the past. The false ideal of showy accomplishment had already given way to the worthier aim of thoroughness and a more serious mental development. With the intellectual aims came a change too in the moral. The larger life of the day school of itself promoted more freedom and a greater sense of responsibility in the girls, but their moral training was divided between the school and the home, and sometimes suffered from a lack of co-operation between the two. As Mrs. Sidgwick pointed out, when laying the foundation stone of the Roedean buildings:—‘Boarding-schools have a wider function, a more responsible task than day-schools. They have to care for pupils in play-hours as well as work-hours; they have, far more than day-schools, to superintend their development in matters moral and physical as well as intellectual.’ It is therefore largely in boarding-schools that the newest ideas can be worked out. The worst feature of the old boarding-school was the excessive supervision, and the deceit and silliness it engendered. Punch’s immortal direction, ‘Go and see what Baby’s doing, and tell her not to,’ might stand as the rule of conduct in many a seminary for young ladies. The atmosphere of suspicion engendered the very faults it was intended to obviate. The giggling boarding-school miss was a type it was not desirable to perpetuate. What was wanted was something that should prepare girls for life and its responsibilities, as boys were prepared at public schools. This term ‘a public school’ is curiously difficult to define, though we all know pretty well the meaning attached to it in England. It has perhaps been best described as ‘one where the government is administered in a greater or less degree by the pupils themselves.’ The true ‘public spirit’ could only develop as the schools became centres of something besides study. With the increase in their sphere of action the high schools have fostered its growth; to bring it to its full perfection must be the task of the modern boarding-school.

Another, and an essentially practical advantage of boarding-schools, is the facilities they offer for differentiation. We are coming to realise that all schools cannot teach all things, unless indeed like Cheltenham, they are really a number of different schools under one head. While many new subjects have been drawn within the sphere of a girl’s curriculum, the old still keep their place. The only escape from smatter and overstrain lies in a wise selection, and a girl’s general education may gain almost as much by the exclusion of some subjects as by the inclusion of others. With the constant increase of science schools, technical institutes, special endowments for science, etc., selection and differentiation are rapidly increasing in one direction, and it becomes essential to provide elsewhere against the complete neglect of the literary side. This the boarding-school may do without inflicting any injustice, since it does not profess to supply all the local needs. Up to the age of fourteen there can be no thought of specialising; by that time most parents have some general idea about their daughter’s probable future and special inclinations. If it is a question of a definite career, the choice becomes easier, because confined within narrower limits.

Yet after all, when we have reviewed in our minds all the careers open to women, and the great social changes due to their entering the lists with trained instead of unskilled labour, the fact still remains that, at any rate in the upper and upper-middle classes, the majority of women do not earn their own living. As Hannah More reminded us long ago, their profession is to be that of ‘wives, mothers, and mistresses of households,’ and to this we must now add the duties of a philanthropic and public character that social position brings with it. What is commonly called ‘a life of leisure’ may be an exceedingly busy life, and nowhere do the advantages of mental training, habits of accuracy, and a disciplined will tell to more advantage than in promoting the happiness of others. Most of these girls must receive any education, beyond the early part which a private governess can undertake, in boarding-schools, if only because the leisured classes to which they belong seldom live near enough to towns to make use of day-schools. To quote a very able and experienced schoolmistress:—‘The demand for private schools and for the individual attention which girls require has been increased by the habits of modern life among the upper and upper-middle classes. From my own personal knowledge there are many parents who spend nearly the whole year away from home or in entertaining a “house party” when they are at home. There is really no place at home for the poor girls who have not “come out.” What the parents seek for them is a school that can supply the place of a home, where they can receive individual attention, cultivation, training, and be prepared for society.’ She might have added that, even when there is a place at home for them, they may gain considerably by spending part of two or three years away from it, amid the more studious atmosphere and the numerous interests characteristic of these modern boarding-schools.

The reform in teaching unquestionably began in the public schools, but the best private schools have not been slow to bring themselves into line. Within the last few years several have been either founded or taken over by ladies who have studied at Oxford or Cambridge, or such as have occupied posts as heads or assistants in high schools, and have been drawn into the line of progress, while older institutions have held their own by the introduction of modern methods. Thus, while the old boarding-school was specially condemned for its stuffy rooms, inadequate dormitory accommodation, insufficient food and crocodile form of exercise, the new one, with a rather lower fee, devotes special care to buildings, bedrooms, diet, games, and gymnastics. Here are a few quotations from prospectuses:—‘There is a large playground at a short distance from the school, in which are five lawn-tennis courts and space for cricket, hockey, croquet, and other games.’ This school has a certificated trained nurse and a sanatorium specially fitted up for illness. The Principal was for many years assistant mistress at a large high school.

‘There are gardens with tennis-lawn, a gymnasium, a fives-court, an isolation ward and a playing field at a short distance from the house. Arrangements are made for riding and cycling.’ The Principal is a distinguished graduate of one of the women’s colleges.

‘The buildings have been certified by a sanitary officer, and are fitted with every modern convenience. Arrangements have been made for cricket, tennis, and other healthful games, which are greatly encouraged.’

‘The house stands in its own grounds of fourteen acres, which include garden, shrubbery, tennis-courts, and recreation field.’

These are samples taken at random.

Closely connected with regard for healthful conditions is the endeavour to avoid overstrain, and this has led to a not unnatural reaction against the excessive burden of outside examination. We find such sentences as ‘particular care is taken to prevent over-pressure.’ ‘For the younger or weaker of the party we provide extra half hours of rest or recreation in the garden.’ ‘There is no cramming for examinations, and the object set before each girl is to do her daily work as well as she possibly can from an honourable sense of duty,’ etc. It is often stated that pupils can be prepared for university or other examinations if desired, but although some few private schools of this type distinctly aim at the certificate of the Joint Board, the majority work on more general lines, while ensuring a high standard of efficiency by submitting the school annually to inspection by university examiners. The fees in schools of this grade vary from about £90 to £135 per annum, with so-called ‘extras.’ These are reduced in the more modern institutions to such subjects as piano, violin, and dancing, which require individual instruction, while the more old-fashioned include languages, even French, under this heading. But both terms and curricula in private schools are adapted to special cases, and it is impossible to generalise on them. For girls, as for boys, the statement made by the Secondary Commission is probably correct, that ‘the large private schools, usually with boarders, are the private schools which do most for secondary education. They are often conducted on lines similar to those of public schools; but they are less bound by heredity, and the larger scope for experiment which they afford has, there is reason to believe, contributed to noteworthy improvements of methods.’

Probably this class of school is in greater demand than ever before; but though there are not a few who can enjoy its benefits, it must always be a luxury for the rich, while there has been no corresponding improvement in the cheaper type of boarding-school. To provide board, lodging, and tuition, at fees ranging from £30 to £50, is a difficult problem, and can hardly be solved without the infliction of some suffering or injustice. Yet even these fees are beyond the reach of many whose homes are far away from towns. There is urgent need for some scheme of boarding-houses (not self-supporting) in connection with the cheaper endowed schools, and the application of some public money to the establishment of a few large boarding-schools in different parts of the country. Private effort cannot meet these cases.

Private day-schools involve a much smaller risk, and in these large numbers of well-educated women are now at work. In a place too small to support a high school, schools of this kind often supply all needs; but, oddly enough, they seem to flourish best where they exist side by side with good public schools. Bedford is an instance of a town well supplied with both. Sometimes the head-mistress takes a few boarders, and is thus enabled to provide better premises. The fees range from about £12 to £30 per annum, and the curriculum is not unlike that of a high school, though the more expensive subjects, such as certain branches of science, are often omitted. The Junior and Senior Local Examinations and those of the College of Preceptors are a good deal used by these schools, and help to keep up a standard, where a regular external examination is not practicable. Small, cheap day-schools still abound, though happily in nothing like the old numbers. Even these have undergone some improvement, though rumour maintains that Mangnall’s Questions and Child’s Guide may still be found here, if we only dig deep enough. The lowest class of private school is attended by children who ought to be in the public elementary schools. The extinction of these, which is rapidly proceeding, can only be hailed with general satisfaction.

Much has been said of late about the necessity of finding a place in any general system of education for private schools, but surely their proper function is so clearly defined that there is no fear of a day dawning when they are no longer needed. A further increase in cheap public day-schools may lessen the numbers, and it is hardly to be expected that in ten years’ time the present conditions, under which 70 per cent. of our girls who are receiving secondary education are in private schools, shall still prevail. The true function of the private school is to offer an educational luxury to those who can pay for it, and on these lines, without coming into competition with public school work, it is likely to develop. The more public schools are established in a district, the greater becomes the field for first-grade private schools. This is well illustrated by the case of the United States, where the universal diffusion of the public schools seems to favour the growth of private ones. They can charge high fees, because the public schools are always available for those who cannot afford these. They can try experiments and adopt new methods, because they are not subject to the rigid direction and supervision to which public schools are liable. A great deal of the preparation for college falls to them, and they enjoy a very different reputation and position from the Prussian private schools, which are obliged to adopt the same ‘code’ as the public. Cheap schools, to be efficient, must receive help with their finances; such help can hardly be given to private schools while they retain the freedom which is one source of their strength. It is probable, therefore, that they will more and more become schools for the well-to-do classes only. There must be some suffering involved in the changes which the near future is likely to bring, even if local educational authorities do all in their power to minimise this, and eventually the lower class of private school will probably go to the wall. But not till the Anglo-Saxon nature has undergone a complete transformation will there cease to be a place in England for private enterprise; and private schools, even though they may be deemed a luxury, will still rank among us as a necessity.

CHAPTER IX
THE TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION ACTS

On June 24, 1890, a curious scene took place in the House of Commons. The Customs and Excise Bill had been dragging its weary way in committee, and making very small progress. The question under debate was the disposal of a residue of £350,000, available from the new duty on beer and spirits. This Mr. Goschen proposed to apply to compensating publicans whose licenses should be refused, but the Government did not care to press the point in face of opposition in the country and small majorities in the House. Mr. Goschen therefore proposed to shelve the matter till the next session, merely ‘ear-marking’ the money for the purpose indicated. Thereupon Mr. Healy got up on a legal point, and reminded the House that the Budget Bill, which had already become law, expressly stated that the duties in question were to be dealt with in a particular way, and that the proceeds were to be appropriated ‘as Parliament may hereafter direct by any Act passed in the present session.’ Under these circumstances, he asked, had they power to postpone that appropriation? The Speaker thought they had not, and his ruling prevailed. The result was the acceptance, on August 1, of Mr. Acland’s proposal to apply the money in England ‘for the purposes of agricultural, commercial, and technical instruction, as defined in Clause 8 of the Technical Instruction Act, 1889,’ and in Wales either for technical instruction or for purposes defined by the Welsh Intermediate Education Act.

This sudden turn of affairs took the country by surprise. The county councils, to whom this money was assigned, were now expected to devote to educational purposes the money and energy which were to have gone to the extinction of licenses. From these events date the educational functions of the county councils. It was this ‘whisky-money’ which gave the impetus to technical education, a term which had been defined by the Act of 1889. Prolonged agitation throughout the country, due to the fear of foreign competition and the rumours of superior education given to the mechanics of other countries, had led to the appointment in 1884 of a Commission to consider the question, and to their report the Technical Instruction Act of 1889, and the amending Act of 1891, were due.

Among the recommendations of the Commissioners were the following:—

1. That steps be taken to accelerate the application of ancient endowments, under amended schemes, to secondary and technical instruction.

2. Provision by the Charity Commissioners for establishing in suitable localities, schools or departments of schools, in which the study of natural science, drawing, mathematics, and modern languages, should take the place of Latin and Greek.

3. Giving power to local authorities to establish, maintain, or contribute to the establishment of secondary and technical schools and colleges.

Following these lines, the Act defined technical instruction as ‘instruction in the principles of Science and Art, applicable to industries, and in the application of special branches of Science and Art to specific industries or employments.’ It was not to include teaching the practice of any trade or industry, but it might include any branch of instruction (including modern languages, and commercial and agricultural subjects), which were at any time sanctioned by the Science and Art department of South Kensington. The means of doing all this was a penny rate which local authorities were permitted to raise. Unaided this could not have done much, and very few places took advantage of this power, until the Local Taxation Act of the following year changed the whole aspect of affairs.