Transcriber's Note:
Punctuation and possible typographical errors have been changed.
Archaic, variable and inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been
preserved.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
PUBLISHERS.
[Illustration: colophon]
CAMBRIDGE.
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
GLASGOW: MACLEHOSE, JACKSON & CO.
[Illustration:
By Mrs. F. W. H. Myers.
Henry Sidgwick
]
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
NEWNHAM COLLEGE
CAMBRIDGE
BY
ALICE GARDNER, M.A. (BRISTOL)
FORMERLY LECTURER AND FELLOW OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
AUTHOR OF "THE LASCARIDS OF NICÆA," "THEODORE OF STUDIUM," ETC.
_WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS_
CAMBRIDGE
BOWES & BOWES
1921
TO THE HONOURED MEMORY
OF A. J. C. AND H. S.
COPYRIGHT
PREFACE
This little book is primarily intended for present and past students
of Newnham College and for the numerous friends who have been helpers
or sympathetic spectators of its early progress. At the same time I
venture to hope that it may prove interesting and suggestive to a wider
circle of persons practically or theoretically concerned in movements
for the higher education of women.
Of the deficiencies of this short history, no one could be more fully
aware than the writer herself. But for the expressed wish of the
Council of Newnham College, it would never have been attempted, nor
could it have been written at all without the kind co-operation of
friends, who, like myself, had known the College from the inside. I
would especially thank the present Principal, Miss B. A. Clough, and
the Registrar, Miss E. M. Sharpley, for supplying me with information
and with kindly criticisms throughout my task. It has been gratifying
to realize that the Publisher is son of an early friend of the College.
One of the chief difficulties in writing the history of a comparatively
young institution, and one raised by the labours, forethought, and
sacrifices of many "pious founders and benefactors" is that the range
of view possible to any former student and teacher must necessarily
be limited. I have felt deep regret in realizing how many honoured
helpers have--for lack of space--not even been mentioned. Similarly,
among the former students whose labours, scientific, literary, and
practical, have brought credit to the College, I have necessarily shown
most appreciation of those with whose work and influence I have been
personally best acquainted. Every past student will have to supplement
the story with recollections from her own experience.
I trust that, at least, I shall have brought home to many the
conviction that Newnham College is unique, in the character and
motives of its first founders, in the steady devotion to its best
interests of successive governors, teachers and students, as also in
its relations--complicated, but near, we may hope, to a solution--with
the University under the protecting shadow of which it has grown to
prosperity. My hope for this little work is that, besides helping to
justify the existence of the College in the eyes of the world, it may
in some measure preserve in its members the knowledge of our best
traditions in the past and inspire a confident hope for the future.
ALICE GARDNER.
BRISTOL, _April, 1921_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY. NEWNHAM COLLEGE IN IDEA. 1871-1880 1
II. NEWNHAM COLLEGE IN ADOLESCENCE. 1880-1881 33
III. NEWNHAM COLLEGE IN PROGRESS. 1881-1892 57
IV. NEWNHAM COLLEGE IN PROGRESS. 1892-1900.
PRINCIPALSHIP OF MRS. SIDGWICK 84
V. NEWNHAM COLLEGE IN PROGRESS. 1900-1914 109
EPILOGUE. 1914 AND AFTER 135
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PROFESSOR HENRY SIDGWICK. (Photogravure Plate.) _Frontispiece_
From a photograph by Mrs. F. W. H. Myers.
FACING PAGE
MISS ANNE J. CLOUGH AND THE FIRST FIVE STUDENTS 2
MISS MARION KENNEDY 16
MERTON HALL, 1872-1874 26
MISS ANNE J. CLOUGH. (Photogravure Plate.) 54
From a photograph by Mrs. F. W. H. Myers.
MRS. HENRY SIDGWICK 72
From the portrait by J. J. Shannon, R.A.
NEWNHAM COLLEGE 86
The Entrance Gates.
NEWNHAM COLLEGE, 1920 100
General View of the Building and Grounds.
MISS KATHARINE STEPHEN 112
MISS B. A. CLOUGH 138
For permission to reproduce the two illustrations of Professor Henry
Sidgwick and Miss A. J. Clough thanks are due to Mrs. F. W. H. Myers;
also to Messrs. Bassano for the use of their photographs of Miss B. A.
Clough, Miss Katharine Stephen and the general view of the College.
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY. NEWNHAM COLLEGE IN IDEA
In tracing the history of educational institutions and of other
foundations existing for the public good, we find it necessary to
distinguish those that had and those that had not a definite beginning.
Some of our colleges and great schools have--so to speak--sprung,
adult and armed, from the brain of their founder--or possibly from
the conjoint thoughts and efforts of a few generous and like-minded
patrons. Their birthdays are easily determined. Their continuity can
be traced both in material persistence and progress and in moral
and intellectual development and adaptation to changing conditions.
Others--and prominent among them the subject of this sketch--came
into being so gradually that their length of days may be variously
calculated. To the past students of Newnham College, the beginning
seems to be most naturally and fittingly associated with the day when
a comparatively small dwelling house was first opened, in Cambridge, by
Professor Sidgwick and a small group of friends, and placed under the
wise and devoted care of Miss Clough, for the accommodation of a few
young women who wished to give their time to serious study under the
tuition of such University professors, lecturers, and private teachers
as might be willing to further their desire for higher education.
Incorporation as a College was not to come for nine years, nor any
measure of distinct recognition by the University for ten years. But
no Newnham woman would reckon our beginnings from 1880 or 1881. An
antiquarian spirit might fancy that the germs were in the room in Mr.
Clay's garden, where lectures were first delivered to women students
and others. But student life and university instruction had for us its
first embodiment in the little community of five, and their teachers
and helpers, whose relations with Cambridge began in 1871.
This settlement of Miss Clough and the five students was the small
beginning out of which grew an institution which many hundreds of women
now regard with passionate loyalty, and which no opponents or doubters
can venture to despise. To understand its origin we need to go back a
little and consider how and why the movement towards higher education
for women was then beginning to take form, and why it came to be
specially associated with Cambridge.
[Illustration: MISS ANNE J. CLOUGH AND THE FIRST FIVE STUDENTS.]
It would be partly true and partly false to regard the objects of
those who practically founded Newnham College as identical with those
of the leading champions of the political and legal rights of women.
Of course, as might naturally be expected, many of those who, through
breadth of sympathy and hatred of injustice, gave the greater part
of their lives and energies to the removal of female disabilities,
public and private, were very ready to respond to the demand for higher
education for girls and women. One need only think (looking at the
leaders of thought in the middle of last century) of John Stuart Mill
(a benefactor to the Cambridge Lectures Association and to similar
enterprises) with the philosophic school which he represented and led.
The advocates of political liberty and those of higher education for
women used to a large extent the same arguments, and the securing of
one end favoured the prospects of the other. Those who held that women
were on the eve of obtaining greater rights and responsibilities were
bound to show sympathy with the cause of education; they could quote
the words of Samson Agonistes: "What were strength without a double
share of wisdom? Vast, unwieldy, burdensome." And on the other hand
every movement made in the direction of sound education for women told
in favour of opening spheres of usefulness and conceding rights as to
property and personal liberty which uneducated women might possibly
have abused. Among the earlier friends of Newnham, probably by far
the larger number were warmly attached to the franchise movement,
especially when it came within the range of practical politics. At
the same time, advocates of higher education were unlikely to be
possessed--as were a few excellent and high-minded women--by the idea
of the suffrage as a panacea for all women's grievances or a necessary
condition of any step towards social betterment. Necessity and common
sense prescribed caution to the pioneers who were directing their
efforts to obtain some measure of university education for women able
to profit thereby.
And indeed there was nothing revolutionary in the movement towards
higher education for women. True, the education of girls and women
had not till then been considered an object to be sought on a large
scale. But there had been educated and even learned women in England,
in the days of the Renaissance and Reformation, though there can be
little doubt that--in the higher circles, at least--a check came with
the frivolities of the later Stuart court. But without going into
uncertain historical details, it is noticeable that in the early part
of the nineteenth century, such different persons as Sydney Smith and
Mrs. Hannah More became eloquent advocates of more serious education
for girls than they commonly received. The arguments of these and
like-minded reformers were not thrown away. It is beyond question that
in many parts of England, in early and middle Victorian days, there
were high-minded, intellectual, and accomplished women conducting
girls' schools on reasonable principles and with good mental and moral
results; and a good deal of the highest education in girls' schools
was given by men--sometimes of considerable standing and ability.
The position of a private governess was not remarkably dignified or
lucrative (_vide_ the experiences of the Brontes); but there were some
such private teachers who did excellent and much appreciated work.
Still the course of a girl who had inward longings for intellectual
culture was often hard; and harder still was that of young women who
had a liking for literature and art, combined with a distaste for
unvaried domestic interests or social routine. The happiest were those
who had sympathetic elder brothers at College, who could talk over
their difficulties with them and recommend books. Such was eminently
the position of Miss Clough herself. Her education--discursive and not
without lacunae--had been a home education, her chief mentor an Oxford
brother, whose mind and tone of character it is superfluous here to
describe. It was in great part to help those who, like herself, had
had aspirations after knowledge and culture, and who, unlike herself,
had not always had sympathetic homes, that she and other pioneers in
Cambridge desired to secure facilities of continuous study under the
direction of capable and inspiring teachers.
It may be advisable to indicate briefly the different ways in which
efforts were made to meet the existing wants, some of which led up to
the goal of university education for women.[1]
[Footnote 1: In this part of the subject, and indeed throughout my
task, I am constantly indebted to the _Memoir of Anne J. Clough by her
Niece, B. A. Clough_. This book ought to be familiar to all interested
in educational movements, since Miss Clough, while most closely
associated with the University side of the movement, was throughout her
life collaborating with great sympathy and insight with those at work
in other departments.]
(1) The first step was the establishment of larger and better schools,
and provision for more advanced teaching. Queen's College, Harley
Street, first presided over by F. D. Maurice, was founded in 1848 and
is still at work; Bedford College (now a College of London University)
was founded in 1849; the North London Collegiate School and Cheltenham
College (which both maintain their position as schools of first-rate
standing) in 1850 and 1858. There were started, besides, some colleges
expressly for women intending to become teachers (the Maria Grey, Home
and Colonial, etc.). At present the need of some serious training in
the art of teaching is widely recognised. In the early days of the
Women's Education Movement, a young woman had often practically to
choose between gaining more knowledge, and learning to make the most of
the little which she had. This difficulty is now much diminished, if
not entirely removed.
(2) But almost more important than the new foundations, started
generally by private effort, was the successful attempt to secure
some kind of government inspection of girls' schools and the
synchronizing responsibility undertaken by the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge in admitting girls to the Local Examinations. In 1864,
the Schools Inquiry Commission were requested to include in their
task the inspection of Girls' Schools. The result was a revelation
of superficiality, narrowness, and general inefficiency which awoke
a portion at least of the educated public to the need of reform. The
result of the new experiment (1865) of admitting girls to the Cambridge
Senior and Junior examinations showed similar defects. Many generations
of Newnham students have been amused to hear among the recollections
revived at the annual Commemoration, how it was once seriously proposed
to lower the standard of arithmetic to suit the capacity of the
girls. Happily the suggestion was not followed. The notion that women
cannot do hard sums was one of the "hasty generalizations" as to the
constitution of the female mind, "with the wrecks of which," it was
afterwards said, "the whole shore has been strewn."
The deficiencies of the schools were largely due to the fact that no
opportunities of education were available for intending teachers. The
more enlightened schoolmistresses had to struggle against masses of
prejudice, indifference and materialism in the minds of parents and
of the public, and many of them were eager for improvement. In 1866,
the Society of London Schoolmistresses was formed for mutual help
and encouragement, and similar societies were established in various
localities, which lent support to the efforts of well-wishers in the
Universities and elsewhere.
(3) Then again there were early schemes for lectures to women in
different parts of the country, and these have branched out and become
more effectual than any measure for educational improvement among
persons for whom residence at a university was impossible. Here, as
in many regions, Miss Clough was a pioneer, and this branch of work
brought about the connection of Cambridge with one side of the movement
and led directly to the starting of what grew into Newnham College.
The body which accomplished the chief initial work in the matter
of local lectures for women was "The North of England Council for
improving the Education of Women." To the organization of this
society, Miss Clough gave much thought and attention, especially in
1867 and the following years. It was formed from an amalgamation of
societies having the same object, in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield,
Leeds and Newcastle. Among Miss Clough's colleagues on this Council
were Mr. (afterwards Canon) and Mrs. Butler, Mr. (now Lord) Bryce,
Mr. F. W. H. Myers, and Mr. (afterwards Professor) James Stuart. It
was Mr. Stuart who, after his experience in the North of England,
proposed and brought about in 1873 the organization of local lectures
by the Universities. It is needless to go into the history of the
subsequent development of University Extension. Begun primarily in the
interests of women, it was extended to meet the needs of busy men with
free evenings, working people, and all who wished in their leisure to
prolong their education and gain culture.
(4) The work of the North of England Council led to a further step
in the early development of what I have called "Newnham College in
Idea," viz. the founding of the Cambridge Higher Local Examination.
The request for an examination for women over eighteen came from the
Council and was supported on the ground that it was desirable to have a
definite and intelligible test for teachers, with some means of giving
system to the lecture movement as far as it affected women, and of
directing the reading of girls who had left school. It had originally
features which became modified with changing principles of education.
There was at first a group of subjects considered essential as the
foundation of liberal education and optional groups, some of which
candidates had to take in order to secure a certificate. In course of
time the groups were increased in number and larger choice allowed
while the necessary preliminaries were diminished.
The examination was first held in 1869, when thirty-six candidates
were examined in two centres.[2] As this examination was from the
first supposed to be one the reading for which would prove interesting
and profitable to adult women, it is not surprising that it should
have been eagerly used by the advocates of university education for
intending teachers as a test of fitness for real university study.
Later it became one of the school examinations taken by girls in the
upper forms, and when the Tripos examinations were opened to women
certain portions were accepted in lieu of the Previous Examination.
The connection between Newnham and the Higher Local Examination was
maintained for many years, certain scholarships being always awarded
on its results, though the multiplication of other facilities for
university qualification has now loosened the tie. In the early days
Newnham College owed much to the Syndicate for Local Lectures and
Examinations, and to the courtesy and devotion of the successive
Secretaries (Rev. G. F. (Bishop) Browne and Dr. Keynes) and to the
fostering care which they bestowed on the young movement.
[Footnote 2: _Memoir of A. J. Clough_, p. 130.]
Here an auxiliary agency may be mentioned which was of real service to
young women desirous either of passing the new examination or simply
of understanding how and what to read for their own benefit: the
scheme of instruction by correspondence, started and kept vigorous for
many years by the late Mrs. Peile, wife of the highly respected tutor
and afterwards Master of Christ's College. Among the instructors by
correspondence were many distinguished members of the University. The
curricula were designed with a view to the requirements of the Higher
Local Examination, but subjects were handled freely and suitable books
were recommended. This last necessity was partly met by a loan library
for women.
These steps were gradually leading up to a possible university
education for women. At first sight, our beginnings may seem to have
a non-academic and amateurish air. And part of what was accomplished
in these early days would meet with scant approval from modern
advocates of equal chances for women with men in learning and the
learned professions. Inspection of schools by government is now by
many regarded as a necessary evil. Popular courses of lectures without
regular sequence or adaptation to the previous attainments of those
who attend them suggest superficiality and lack of scientific method.
Instruction by correspondence is by many associated with cram of the
lowest sort. But to those who read the correspondence of the founders
of these institutions, or whose memory carries them back to the
days when they were not only novel but a very godsend to labourers
at self-education, the whole movement wears a different aspect. All
methods of imparting knowledge are apt to degenerate into tricks for
hiding ignorance; even respect for universities and learned men may
become mere toadyism. But the early forms, though now a little outworn,
did indicate and partly supply a genuine need, and led on to even
better things--especially to academic training and advanced study for
women.
(5) The general movement towards university education, on the other
hand, begins with the inauguration of a series of lectures in Cambridge
itself, somewhat like that already started in the north, but wider in
scope and capable of being continued for the instruction of women far
beyond the educational standard prescribed by the Local Examinations.
This had its beginning in a drawing-room meeting held in Prof. and Mrs.
Fawcett's house, late in 1869.
If these beginnings seem less dignified than those of Colleges erected
for students and organized from the first on University lines, it
may be remarked that, after all, the beginnings of Newnham bear some
analogy to those of the early European universities, including the
English. Perhaps in all the greatest centres of learning there has
been first the great teacher--then the scholars who flock to sit at
his feet. Colleges and social student life and hostels and regulated
grades of teachers and taught are an aftergrowth. So, we may say, the
first Newnham students came to Cambridge because great teachers were
there; it was not that suitable teachers came because the students had
shown a demand for them or for collegiate houses and collegiate life.
The university extension lecturers might be useful and stimulating
missionaries of culture, but their greatest service was to kindle a
desire to go and drink at the fountain-heads. The mountain could not
come to Mahomet, but many touched by prophetic zeal might make all
efforts to come to the mountain.
The first step taken as a result of the historic meeting referred to in
Prof. and Mrs. Fawcett's house, was the formation of a society to be
called _the Association for promoting the Higher Education of Women in
Cambridge_.
The first executive consisted of Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Bonney, Mr. (Dr.)
Peile, Prof. F. D. Maurice, Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Bateson, Mrs. Fawcett,
Mrs. Venn; the Secretaries were Mr. Markby and Mr. (afterwards
Professor) Henry Sidgwick; the Treasurer Mrs. Bateson. Early in 1870, a
list of lectures was brought out. Although these lectures were supposed
to be for women reading for the Higher (then called the Women's)
examination, they were given by men generally of the highest standing
in the University, such as the university members of the Executive just
mentioned, besides Professor Skeat, Prof. J. E. B. Mayor, Dr. Peile,
Prof. Cayley, Dr. Venn, Mr. Marshall and other eminent persons. It may
be that some of these lecturers were decidedly "over the heads" of such
of the students as had had an indifferent schooling and were only just
commencing adult study. But the fault--if such we should call it--was a
good one. As a rule, the partly self-taught are more ready to grapple
with difficulties than such as have hitherto had the paths of progress
made gradual and easy; and the very fact of being more or less in
contact with a master mind was rather stimulating than depressing.
These lectures were originally given in a building kindly lent by Mr.
Clay, standing in the garden of his house a little off Trumpington
Street.
Besides the lectures specially arranged in connection with the
new scheme, a large number of lectures given by Professors of the
University were, by their special permission, opened to women. In
those days the professorial lectures formed, generally speaking, a
less important part in the teaching of the University than they do
at present. This was not, of course, due to any inferiority in such
lectures, but to the want of correlation in the instruction provided
by the several colleges and by the University. As this correlation
became more effectual, the privilege given to women students of
attending professorial lectures became more and more advantageous
to them. Twenty-eight professors acceded to the request of the
Association, as well as two lecturers who delivered their lectures
in University buildings. University Professors and Lecturers were,
generally speaking, bound to admit all members of the University
to their lectures without fee, but were allowed to charge fees to
non-members. Women students came, of course, under the second head, but
as a rule the Professors admitted them without fee, as if they were of
undergraduate status. The gradual opening up of lectures given on the
Intercollegiate system in the halls or lecture-rooms of the various
colleges began, as will be seen, a little later.
But besides the special lectures to women and the professorial
lectures provided for members of the University, a very necessary
element in Cambridge teaching consists in private tuition--of students
taken individually or in small groups. In Classics and Mathematics,
especially, such "coaching" is necessary both for backward and for
advanced students. Among the earlier supporters of the Women's
Education movement were a good many brilliant teachers who, in their
generous belief in the cause, were ready to give instruction to women
students often in a far more elementary stage than the men they
ordinarily taught. Fees were naturally paid to the private teachers,
but in many cases, while the cause was yet poor and struggling, these
fees were returned to the Treasurer.
The students who required the more advanced lectures and tuition were
generally those who, having passed the Women's Examination, aimed at
a real University course. Tripos students were among the very first
generation of Cambridge women--though those who read with a view to
triposes could never feel quite sure, till near the end of their three
years, whether the examiners would think it consistent with their
functions to admit women and declare what class they attained.
This great object had already been approached on independent lines by
the founders of Girton College. Miss Davies had conceived hopes of
founding an actual college in which the Cambridge degree examinations,
pass and honour, might be taken by women, and in 1869 such a college
was started at Hitchin. The intellectual ideals and standards of the
two wings--so to speak--of the movement were not identical. Time
and with it changes in the demands of the degree examinations at
Cambridge--indeed at both Universities--have brought them pretty
close together. The very good reasons at the bottom of both programmes
are easy to recognise. Miss Davies considered that any requirements
made from women different from those demanded from men would certainly
be lower. If women avoided Greek and the other subjects of which boys
were supposed to learn something at school, an impression would be
created that women were allowed graduate or quasi-graduate status on
easier terms than those imposed on men. On the other side there was, in
the minds of Sidgwick and others who became the founders of Newnham, a
great contempt of the "Poll" as well as of the "Little-go" as marking
a very low standard of intellectual achievement. At the same time, a
more concrete mind like Miss Clough's deplored the inconvenience and
waste of time which might keep an adult woman who had not learned
classics or much mathematics at school, studying the beginnings of
these subjects in school-boy fashion when her mind was more adapted
to other studies. Again there was the fear--groundless enough as
experience has proved--lest the girls' schools should be "classicized"
and modern studies in them discouraged. In point of fact, Cambridge
University now demands of candidates for the Previous Examinations
only the very minimum of ancient languages, and the boys' schools have
been de-classicized to a further extent than might have then seemed
possible. In the long run, the different schemes proved to be very
similar in results. The Little-go Greek did no harm to those who took
it. Honestly taught (as, unfortunately, is not always the case with
a compulsory subject), it has often given to the learner sufficient
knowledge to be of real service in later studies. A small amount of
rivalry at the outset has not hindered the progress of the two Colleges
side by side in co-operation and mutual goodwill.
[Illustration: MISS MARION KENNEDY.]
But before the first tripos student had definitely entered on her
career, another great step had been taken: the opening of a house
for the residence of women who had been attracted by the educational
facilities of Cambridge and desired to devote themselves there to some
course of serious study. The securing of a house for students had
become necessary in the eyes of Mr. Henry Sidgwick, and foremost among
the many and great services which he rendered to the College (then
hardly existing even in idea) was that he persuaded Miss Clough to come
and take charge of the resident students. A house was found in Regent
Street, and in the autumn of 1871 Miss Clough and five students began
their common life there, and initiated a new stage in the movement.
Long years afterwards, when Newnham was large and flourishing, with
four Halls of residence, a large party up for Commemoration met to
explore the cradle of this College, which was the more easily done
as the house had become a hotel (The Bird Bolt Temperance Hotel). Two
of the original five (Mrs. Marshall and Miss Larner) pointed out to
the students of that day the one room which served as dining-room and
as common study for these pioneer students; the other sitting-room
used in the afternoon for lectures, overlooking Parker's Piece, where
they, without a scrap of garden, could envy the boys playing on the
Piece; the small rooms which were their bedrooms. The first generation
had little elbow-room, no games, a scanty library, a non-luxurious
_ménage_, and very little of what is now considered necessary freedom
in work and play. Yet they seem to have been exceedingly happy. They
felt, and the feeling remained for at least a dozen years, that they
were pioneers. The lectures given by greater men than any they had ever
seen before; the pleasures of intercourse, especially for those who
had found little intellectual sympathy at home; the long walks over
the Gogs or along the Cam, more enjoyed in pre-hockey, pre-bicycling,
even pre-tennis days than now; the associations of an ancient and
beautiful town; the sympathy shown by the generous men and women who
had adopted their cause: all these things must far have outweighed
the passing inconvenience of straitened accommodation and even the
painful consciousness that the eye of the world and yet more of his
wife was upon them, for better and for worse. But perhaps above all, in
later days, these pioneer students felt most thankful to think that in
that house they had enjoyed the constant presence of Miss Clough and
frequent intercourse with the leaders of the movement, particularly of
Mr. Henry Sidgwick.
It may seem superfluous as well as presumptuous for the present writer
to dwell on the characteristics of the two leading persons in the early
days of the College (or the college-embryo) seeing that their lives
and characters have, as already said, been portrayed in biographies
which are never likely to be surpassed. Perhaps, however, a little
space may be given to those peculiarities which, in both characters,
left a permanent impression on the College as a whole, especially
since they exhibit traits of an almost opposite description, yet
united to produce a great result. In one respect they were alike: in
what may be called fundamental sincerity and whole-heartedness, along
with wide ranges of interest. Readers of Sidgwick's life and writings
cannot but be impressed with his absolute fidelity to any course which
had shown itself worthy of approval, his careful attention to every
opinion and principle which had any reasonable justification, his
loyalty to personal convictions in avoiding any possible compromise
with mental tergiversation. He had lately given up his fellowship from
conscientious motives. He abstained from identifying himself with
any form of institutional Christianity, while fully acknowledging how
such Christianity had worked for good, and tolerating the attitude of
those who were able for the sake of true religion to accept religious
formulae with reservations of their own. In politics, he generally
went with the more progressive Liberals, though fully able and always
ready to grasp the situation of those who took different standpoints.
The efforts and the personal sacrifices which he made in the cause
of women's education were not inspired by any one-sided attachment
to the cause either on a personal or on a theoretical side. He held
no fixed theory as to the equality and similarity of the sexes in
mental powers, but was in favour of assisting legitimate efforts,
removing unreasonable limitations, and postponing the decision as to
whether women _can_ do this or that by giving them the opportunity and
awaiting the result. When the result proved favourable to his reasoned
expectations, he was naturally pleased, but on all subjects he ever
kept an open mind. For persons handicapped in the race of life, by
sex, nationality, or poverty, he was always ready to discover new
prospects of successful effort. His family life had made him acquainted
with women of exceptional gifts even before his marriage with Miss
Eleanor Mildred Balfour in 1876, a happy event for Newnham as well
as for himself. The frequent presence of a man of his calibre in the
incipient college was of inestimable benefit to the early students.
He was to them a champion of their cause and a model of sincerity and
reasonableness, and to many a very helpful teacher. A larger proportion
of students in the early days than later took up some branch of Moral
Science--in which he directed their work. And to others he was helpful
on the educational side by his encouragement of good literature--which
may at times have tended to retreat into the background in favour of
severely scientific study. Beyond all this there were traditions among
the early students of his extraordinary power in bringing home to them
the necessity of maintaining a high standard of order, patience and
power of suspending judgment.
It has been said that in some respects Miss Clough presented a marked
contrast to Dr. Sidgwick. This contrast may be partly described by
saying that he saw things more in the abstract, she in the concrete.
Not that he looked only at general principles and she at isolated
instances (for both took large views without neglecting the single
examples), but still the distinction was evident. Both had risen by a
painful process of mental and moral self-culture above conventional
views as to the world and man's place in it, but in Sidgwick the
search was chiefly inspired by a passion for truth, in Miss Clough
by a desire to promote individual happiness. She naturally referred
questions to present cases. Thus--if certain subjects were said to be
necessary as preliminaries to a University course, she would at once
think whether _A._ or _B._ would be the better for having studied Latin
or Mathematics. She allowed for diversity of all kinds among students
and other persons with whom she had to do. A rule was important to her
as touching actual cases, not the cases as exemplifying the rule. She
was strong physically and indifferent to discomfort and hardship in all
that she undertook. Yet she had no belief in asceticism, and exhorted
her students to "take the little pleasures of life." It was her own
idea to begin hockey at Newnham, then a most novel suggestion, which
brought at first some ridicule and even disapprobation from select
circles. She naturally understood and liked some of her students better
than others--but even those who had less than others of her special
intimacy were at times pleased and stimulated by finding how much of
her goodwill they possessed and how she had plans for their future. If
her character broadened and mellowed with years, it was not that she
was ever intolerant or unsympathetic, but that she responded to the
affection and respect of those who knew and appreciated her. She, too,
had a sense of humour which enlivened the community from the beginning,
and the respect with which both her name and her character were held
in the highest University circles more than counteracted an occasional
innocent unconventionality in her social intercourse.
It may seem almost invidious to choose some and omit others among
the earliest friends of Newnham, in awarding due meed of praise and
gratitude, but certainly the two who have been lightly sketched here
were undoubtedly the foremost of Newnham's benefactors. Early students
will remember others who have passed away: the Miss Kennedys, with
their kind and gracious hospitality, and care for the rather homeless
persons who ranked among "out-students"; Mr. Coutts Trotter, who was
Chairman of the Council, and left his library to the College; Mr. W.
H. H. Hudson, who was financial adviser and auditor for 33 years; Mr.
Archer-Hind, who placed his refined scholarship at the disposal of
mere beginners in Greek, was always willing to make one lesson swell
out into two--and took no fees; Mr. Main, the standby of the earliest
students of Natural Science; Mr. Marshall, who created and directed
an enthusiastic devotion to the study of Economics; Mrs. Bateson,
who originally dispensed the lecture tickets to students entering
their course, and whose parties at St. John's Lodge were highly
appreciated;--and many more.
The students who were first attracted to the opportunities for women
in Cambridge were, as a rule, somewhat more mature, though less well
instructed, than those of later times. There were exceptions in this
latter respect, as in the case of the late Miss Edith Creak, well known
in the educational world, who was the daughter of a schoolmaster,
and who passed successfully both the mathematical and the classical
triposes at the age of nineteen. Another of the original five was
Mrs. Armitage (_née_ Bulley), who has written much on early English
antiquities and is an authority on Barrows. Among the first to take
Triposes were Miss Paley (now Mrs. A. Marshall) and Miss Amy Bulley,
who were successful in the Moral Sciences Tripos in 1874, Miss Mary
Kennedy, afterwards Mrs. R. T. Wright, in the same Tripos in 1875,
and Miss Felicia Larner who took the Historical Tripos in 1875. These
ladies were all examined by private favour of the examiners, the
greatest care being taken that all formalities should be duly observed.
Only, they were admitted after passing certain Groups of the Women's
Examinations instead of the Previous Examination, and, in one or two
cases, were allowed a longer time of preparation than the University
regulations prescribed.
The exaggerated dread of triposes and admiration for those who
achieved them makes an amusing feature in early Newnham days. It would
now seem absurd for a college to exult over second class honours.
But every successful student helped to destroy some of the "hasty
generalizations" repeated outside as to women in triposes, the first
being that they would fail or else break down in health. When they
succeeded and remained vigorous, it was said that they might get
through but would not get first classes. When they obtained first
classes in the newer triposes, it was declared that they would never
get a first class in classics or mathematics. The death-blow to all
these hypotheses came in 1890, when Miss Philippa Fawcett's name was
read in the Senate House as "above the Senior Wrangler." There was
a kind of poetic justice in this event, as Miss Fawcett's parents
had been earnest and effectual helpers of the movement from the very
beginning.
[Illustration: MERTON HALL, 1872-1874.]
This, however, is to anticipate events. During the early days in Regent
Street, good work was being done, and the students had a happy life,
but they were cooped in a small space, and the friends of the movement
had to seek both a larger home and more funds to sustain it. From
1872-1874, Miss Clough and the students found a congenial house of
residence behind St. John's College. This was Merton Hall, an old manor
house with a very pleasant garden and other attractions. Here something
like collegiate life was first begun--with a debating society, games
(with limitations) and various collective interests. Another house
in Trumpington Street was hired to accommodate the overflow of
students. A few who had been attracted by the lectures, but for some
reason were unable or unwilling to enter a hall of residence, formed
a kind of outer circle. These "out-students" were made to feel less
of outsiders by the kind and hospitable attention bestowed on them by
Miss Marion Kennedy. Their number tended to diminish, as membership
of a college or hall came to be desirable on social and disciplinary
grounds. When the College was more definitely constituted, all who
wished to become regular students were obliged to reside either in a
Hall of Newnham or with parents and guardians, exceptions only being
allowed in the case of women above the undergraduate age.[3]
[Footnote 3: Here it may be noted that a different arrangement obtains
at Oxford, where there is a Society of Home Students who are not
attached to any College or Hall.]
Meantime arrangements were being made to secure a more permanent place
of residence. To meet what had become a necessity, it was proposed to
form a Company, which, after the choice of a site near the village of
Newnham, was called the Newnham Hall Company. There was, however, a
singular absence of commercial acquisitiveness or speculation in the
Society which bore this financial designation. A good deal of the money
subscribed came from benefactors who so far from seeking profit from
their investments continued their gifts for many years. Mention may
be made of Miss Ewart, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Winkworth, Miss Bonham
Carter among other munificent benefactors.[4] A good many well-wishers
who could not give princely contributions were ready to make the
venture of faith and to subscribe for shares. The result was that
in 1875 Newnham Hall was opened and Miss Clough with the students
entered into residence. They had during 1874-75 occupied a dwelling in
Bateman Street where Miss Clough had ingeniously secured the use of
a house-and-a-half which she made into one. Newnham Hall was a Queen
Anne building, of red brick, which has mellowed after its forty years.
The architect, Mr. Basil Champneys, took a strong personal interest in
its original plan and subsequent extension. Those who knew it when it
was simply Newnham Hall (later called the _South_, now the _Old Hall_)
must feel a little regret that its imposing south front--intended to
be the actual front--is only seen by a minority of casual visitors. In
fact, no one knew in '75 in what direction, if in any, it might have to
expand, and there is a story current that in the plans, the possibility
was considered of transforming it--if a hall for women students proved
a failure--into two ordinary dwelling-houses.
[Footnote 4: A list of Benefactors is in preparation.]
The College, formally so-called, came into existence by the
amalgamation of the two societies, "The Association for the promotion
of the Higher Education of Women in Cambridge" (more briefly called
the "Lectures Association") and the "Newnham Hall Company, Limited,"
in 1880. The new title adopted was "The Newnham College Association
for advancing Education and Learning among Women in Cambridge." Before
this time, the "College" only existed in idea, but that existence, as
we have seen, was a very real one. Even when it attained its first
permanent habitation, it was--for a college--small, as in 1876 there
were only about thirty students besides the out-students. But it had a
respectable, academic-looking exterior, and life within was vigorous.
Among the residents was Miss Paley, now Mrs. Marshall, whom the
students with pride regarded as their earliest don, one of the first
five, and one of the earliest to take a tripos. She proved a very
successful teacher of Political Economy, a popular subject among the
early students, many of whom were ambitious of some career of social
activity. Classical students were few, but very eager. Miss J. E.
Harrison and Miss K. Corfe took their tripos in 1879. Natural Sciences
were pursued with ardour and success, partly through the liberality of
St. John's College in admitting Newnham students to their laboratory
before the Newnham laboratory was built. The first student to obtain
a first class was Miss Ogle, afterwards Mrs. Koppel, in 1876. It is
gratifying that her daughter afterwards became a Newnham student, and
has made herself educationally useful in South Africa. Mathematics held
its own. The Historical Tripos, when separated from the Law, attracted
several students. Those who took Moral Sciences, as already said,
enjoyed the special attention of Mr. Sidgwick.
These candidates were all, of course, examined informally, _i.e._ by
special favour of individual examiners. It was from the first desired
by Mr. Sidgwick that any student who showed, by marked success in the
Women's Examination or in any other way, that she had real aptitude
for intellectual culture, should be encouraged to proceed to a Tripos.
But in the early days the Tripos students were not the only ones
who were capable of good intellectual work. Some, as has been said,
for one reason or another, did not follow the lines then laid down
for Triposes, and the variety was--socially and intellectually--an
excellent thing for the students. Specialization in study is often
bound to have a narrowing effect. But by student friendships, young
people learn to care for things in heaven and earth that will never lie
within their special province. It is a good thing for Cambridge, and
consequently for Newnham, that there is no such iron bar fixed there
between Sciences and Arts, as often, in other educational institutions,
tends to prejudice and narrowness. There may be, before definite lines
are fixed, tendencies to too much diffusion; this, however, was
prevented by the general system of tuition.
As yet, in 1879, there were not many resident tutors to settle the work
of students in their several departments. But competent University men
were always ready to put their knowledge and experience at the service
of a student choosing her University course. Indeed the helpfulness
of men on whom the students had no claim, is one of the brightest
features, even of the bright days of Newnham's beginnings.
Newnham Hall had from the first a fairly large garden, not very
minutely laid out,[5] but large enough for tennis, for which game
an ash court was made. A gymnasium, in the pre-games period, seemed
a necessity, and was erected and opened in 1877. Before that time,
students had been allowed to go at stated times to the gymnasium in the
town, and strange now to relate, some did so with great enthusiasm. But
the interest in indoor gymnastics declined with the greater facility
for out-door sport, of which more later on.
[Footnote 5: The present writer enjoyed one evening the privilege of
being deputed, with some other students, by Miss Clough, to drive out
some cows who had strayed into the garden.]
Newnham Hall was more in the country then than the College is at
present. It must be remembered that married dons with their families
were a comparatively new institution, the residential quarter to
the west did not exist at this time in Cambridge, and certainly
Newnham was in the pleasantest part of Cambridge for country walks.
"Constitutionals" are now out of favour, but the early students enjoyed
the "Grantchester Grind,"--especially when the marsh-marigolds were
out, and the Madingley Woods with their blue-bells, and the Roman
Road in blue flax season; and the Backs were very near; there were
nightingales too whose nocturnal songs were by some found almost too
penetrating. There was an atmosphere, in town and country, favourable
to cheerfulness, to the formation of friendships, to the development of
intellectual and social activity, to the enlargement of opportunities
for women in forwarding the betterment of the world. It was a time of
hope for youth, seen not only in the pioneer students, but in those
champions of their cause, some themselves young, some older, whose
efforts for the next generation were ever strenuous and cheerful, none
the less so for the experience of resistance from old-world inertia and
the dead weight of prejudice which only patience and wisdom could ever
prevail to lift.