NEWNHAM COLLEGE IN PROGRESS, 1892-1911--PRINCIPALSHIP OF MRS. SIDGWICK.
The loss of Miss Clough seemed to remove the College from its
early--one might say heroic--period to the regions of ordinary history.
Yet there was something uncommon in the circumstances under which her
successor was appointed. At the Council Meeting after Miss Clough's
death, a strong wish was expressed that Mrs. Sidgwick, who had already
once given up, with her husband, the privacy of home life, might be
induced to become the second Principal. Newnham wanted them, and they
came; making, as one would expect, the very least of any personal
inconvenience involved in once more giving up their house. As Sidgwick
said to a friend,[9] "What we feel most strongly is that after Miss
Clough's death it is the duty of all who have given their minds to
Newnham to 'close ranks,' and take the place that others assign to one.
We hope it will be for the good of the College."
[Footnote 9: _Life_, p. 515.]
For a short time Mrs. Sidgwick was obliged to live a divided life, part
at Hillside, part at Newnham. But in December 1893 the Principal's new
quarters were ready, and she and her husband moved into them.
These new quarters had been partly provided by a very timely bequest. A
short time before, Mrs. Emily Pfeiffer, the poetess, and her husband,
visited Cambridge, and were much pleased with what they saw of Newnham
and with the hospitality of Miss Clough. Mrs. Pfeiffer died soon after,
and her husband did not long survive her. Their money was left in
great part to societies and buildings for the benefit of women, and of
this the sum of £5000 was adjudged to Newnham College. There were some
legal difficulties, soon overcome, but a hindrance remained in the fact
already mentioned, that a public pathway divided Sidgwick Hall with
Clough Hall from the Old Hall.
What was desired was to connect the two parts of the College by a block
of buildings containing students' rooms, and, as finally arranged, a
suite of rooms for the Principal, a set of small lecture or "coaching"
rooms, a large room for the Staff, to serve as a kind of Combination
Room, and a Porter's Lodge. This could not be done without closing
the public foot-path. Fortunately, a new carriage road parallel to
the former foot-path was greatly needed for communication between the
town and the country beyond the College. Such a road, if made, would
compensate the public for the loss of the foot-path. Newnham College
was naturally willing enough to give up a strip along the north side of
its grounds as a contribution to the road. But others were less willing
to give up portions of their ground, without which the scheme could not
have been carried through. After much discussion, a very satisfactory
solution was reached. A broad road, now called _Sidgwick Avenue_, was
made, largely at the expense of Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick, with
some help from other friends, and the path was closed. There was a
curious interregnum, after the dividing fences of the Hall gardens
had been removed and before the path had become private, during which
tradesmen's boys used to loiter, basket on head, as they passed through
to the Grange Road, and watch the students' games at hockey or tennis.
When Sidgwick Avenue was complete and the path closed, this anomaly
naturally ceased.
In the archway under Pfeiffer Building, forming the main entrance to
the College, were placed a pair of beautiful bronze gates. These were
presented by past and present students, in memory of Miss Clough. They
bear the Clough Arms, and the decoration is a combination of floral and
foliate. The designer was the architect of all the College buildings,
Mr. Basil Champneys. It was said at the preliminary meeting that in
future every student would have Miss Clough brought to her mind on her
first entry into the College and her departure from it. Unfortunately
this cannot be carried out in practice, for though the Gates are the
only means of ingress or egress after dark and form the principal
entrance to the College as a whole, there are other entrances to three
of the Halls which are used by day.
[Illustration: NEWNHAM COLLEGE--THE ENTRANCE GATES.]
Thus the suite of rooms above the Memorial Gates formed the
dwelling-house of Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick, a somewhat inadequate
"Master's Lodge" for a large and rising College, but pleasant in
outlook and sufficient in size for all immediate requirements. Needless
to say, the hospitable traditions of Hillside were maintained at
Newnham, and members of the Staff had opportunities of occasionally
meeting very interesting guests who came from far and near.
The Principal's life was a full one. Besides being Principal of the
College she was its Bursar--an office which she only resigned at
the end of 1919, to the regret of those who realized how much the
financial success of the College has owed to her care and thought.
Careful and even abstemious in all personal expenditure, she was always
ready to entertain suggestions of new ventures. But besides this, she
kept an eye on everything that happened in the College. She took all
opportunities of coming to know the students personally, by frequently
dining in hall, inviting students to her drawing-room and to breakfast,
attending debates and little entertainments, and by making the College,
both during her husband's lifetime and afterwards, an evidently large
factor in her life. His presence, while he lived in the background, was
always a help and a stimulus. If he made sacrifices in giving up his
private house, he made many more in the time he devoted to the College
at large and to students in particular. But with him and his wife, as
with the first Principal, such sacrifices were so much the order of the
day as hardly to be recognized as such, and were only fully appreciated
in later years.
One sacrifice made by Mrs. Sidgwick for the good of the College was
the restriction of the time she could now give to the work of the
Society for Psychical Research. She maintained the interest she and her
husband had long felt in the Society, and took part in its meetings
and various proceedings. But she never encouraged such interest among
the students, since she knew how many unsteady heads have been turned
by a superstitious dabbling in the occult. It would be difficult to
over-estimate the advantage to the Society of having persons of such
complete sanity and scrupulous balance of mind as the Sidgwicks among
the investigators.
We have noticed as one of the additions to the College in connection
with the Pfeiffer Building a Combination Room for the Staff, including
all women Lecturers and resident Fellows. Later on its functions were
transferred to its present quarters, the room next the College Dining
Hall--a pleasant room with two fireplaces and a door opening on the
garden--the original Combination Room being made use of partly as a
committee room, partly as a reading and coaching room for students.
Work among both students and past students had meantime been
facilitated by the gift in 1898 of a well-designed library building,
for which the College has to thank the liberality of Mr. and Mrs.
Yates Thompson. The Library is admirably adapted to its purpose, with
section recesses divided off by bookcases and conveniently arranged
tables, while beauty of proportion, the excellence of the woodwork,
and the elaborate mouldings on the ceiling (of the principal Printers'
Arms of the sixteenth century) give it an artistic as well as academic
character. When (1907) nearly ten years after its opening, its space
proved insufficient for the books belonging to the College, the same
benefactors most generously doubled it in size, providing staircases
and a fine east window.
The supply of library books grew and prospered at least in proportion
to the general progress of the College. Many of the original promoters
were literary men and book-lovers, and their gifts and bequests,
besides the money annually spent out of the College income, made the
necessary extension just noticed necessary, and tended to make the
College a more desirable place for old students--especially such as
were engaged in educational or literary work--in which to spend part
of the summer vacation. Some friends were anxious that the Library
should have interesting books of a non-special character. Mrs. Stephen
Winkworth, already mentioned, whenever she had enjoyed some new work
of biography or general literature, used to send a copy of it for the
Newnham Library. Mr. Coutts Trotter, Miss Clough's kind adviser in
the early days, bequeathed the bulk of his books to Newnham College.
The same was done by Mary Bateson, of whom we shall have more to say
presently. There never was a time when there was not an influx of
books of various kinds. Provision was made for a steady supply by the
assignment to the Library Committee every year of a sum proportional
to the number of students. Most books, on conditions, might be taken
out for parts of the vacations. The Library Committee consists of
representatives on the Staff of all the principal subjects studied and
other lecturers, whose duty it is to submit the names of books required
by the students whom they direct. The Library has thus been kept up to
date, and has also continually been enriched by special gifts. Thus a
Dante Library was formed in memory of Miss Jane Lee, already mentioned;
a clock was given by a generation of students going down, the case
being designed by one of them; guests gave books on their departure.
The catalogues were carefully kept, and if any slackness in returning
books was observed, great vigilance was used to recall them. The care
of the Library was for many years in the hands of Miss Katharine
Stephen.
It had been the wish of early friends--especially of Miss Kennedy--to
attach permanently to the College as many as possible of the past
students. This had been done to a certain extent, as already shown,
by the Newnham College Club. Another plan, still adhered to, is to
invite all students who belonged to specified periods, to come up
to Commemoration Dinner on or about February 24th--a practice more
or less observed in the Colleges of the University. But in addition
it was the aim of the founders to bring the old students into the
Constitution, so that the responsibility for the College should
eventually be to a greater extent in their hands. With this object in
view, the Constitution was revised, and in 1893 a new body of members
was created chosen from the old students and called Associates (not
Associate Members, who were a separate class of members qualified by
subscriptions). In this year all past students were requested to
send in the names of those twenty among their College contemporaries
or friends whom they considered most fitted to aid the causes of
"Education, learning, and research." To the first twenty who obtained
the greatest number of votes the Council added ten, and the number was
increased by annual election of three till it reached 48, after which
time three were to resign every year and three others to be chosen by
co-optation. The Associates were full members of the College, and as
such took part in the election of the Council, and still, under the
later Constitution, elect members of the Governing Body. They meet
in Cambridge every year, and coming as they do from various centres,
contribute new ideas and points of view. At first, as might naturally
be expected, most of the resident Staff were placed on the list. It
includes many women who have reached some degree of eminence in their
several lines of activity and also usually some research fellows.
There was in these years a growing desire to provide opportunities
for what may be called post-graduate work, though the term is not
strictly applicable. There had been, as we have seen, students doing
advanced work before the foundation of any research fellowships. The
studentship connected with the name of Miss Marion Kennedy had given
opportunity for a successful Tripos student to look about her, try some
manageable piece of work, and either find some fresh line to follow
up in the field of science or letters, or else enter the teaching
profession with a wider view of her functions than could generally
be found in one who had never advanced in her studies beyond the
undergraduate stage. Studentships in the Natural Sciences were, from
1881, awarded from time to time to students of post-graduate status
from the Bathurst Fund already mentioned. But something involving a
longer period of independent study was clearly desirable. Critics of
the women's education movement were wont to assert that women might
do fairly well in Triposes and in educational work afterwards, but
that they contributed nothing of any significance to the advancement
of knowledge. This "hasty generalization" needed removing. It was,
however, no mere spirit of feminine rivalry, but a generous impetus to
labour in intellectual fields, to satisfy one's own thirst for truth,
and to help in the building up of the sciences--whether natural or
human--that inspired the promoters and labourers in this new field
of College activity. The most eager and influential in this movement
was a member of the College eminently marked by a keen delight in
research for its own sake, and by a desire that Newnham should be able
to hold its own in the highest kind of University work among all the
Colleges of the world--Mary Bateson. Under her influence the first
research fellowship was given by Mrs. Herringham, and was thrown
open to public application in 1900. Friends of the College and the
students themselves were stirred up to raise funds for more research
fellowships. The number is now four, and they are awarded by a special
committee and tenable for three years. The stipend was originally
sufficient to pay the expenses of a woman resident in the College,
though a small amount of lecturing or tuition was held to be compatible
with the duties of the fellow.[10] The first Newnham students to hold
a research fellowship were Miss J. E. Harrison and Miss G. L. Elles
(1900). The former had already acquired celebrity by her archaeological
works--especially her _Myths and Monuments of Ancient Athens_--and had
been invited to occupy rooms in Newnham, where she speedily created a
keen interest among students and many of the Staff, first in classical
archaeology and later in anthropology. Miss Elles is well known as a
geologist, and had already been teaching at the Sedgwick Museum under
Professor Hughes.
[Footnote 10: But owing to the depreciation of money these stipends
have become inadequate, and unless the endowment can be increased the
number of research fellows will have to be diminished.]
With the research fellowships it has been possible to retain at Newnham
advanced students whose researches have made a solid contribution to
knowledge. Though it may seem invidious to make a selection, mention
may be made of the researches of Miss E. R. Saunders (partly in
co-operation with Mr. Bateson) into the laws of Variation; the study
of floral pigments by Miss Wheldale (Mrs. Onslow); that of animal
psychology by Miss E. M. Smith (Mrs. Bartlett); and in widely different
fields, Miss Maud Sellers' valuable work in rescuing and making public
the records of the Merchant Adventurers of York; that of Miss Paues, in
unearthing a Middle-English Bible; Mrs. Temperley's (_née_ Bradford)
studies in Tudor Proclamations and other legal antiquities; and, not
least, the wide range of Miss Mary Bateson's work in Mediaeval History,
chiefly monastic and municipal.
Mary Bateson was so much the prime mover in the development of Newnham
work for the advancement of learning, and some of the teachers who
stimulated and directed her efforts were so evidently epoch-making in
the lives of Newnham students; also her tragically sudden death in
1906 cut short such a remarkably promising career and evoked so much
sympathy with Newnham throughout the University, that a few more words
may be devoted to keeping her memory fresh. Her father (Master of St.
John's College) and her mother--much distinguished in her zealous
efforts for the betterment of women--were old friends of Miss Clough
and the College; her elder brother, Mr. William Bateson, is well known
for his remarkable work on heredity. Mary Bateson began independent
research in the Monastic Civilisation of the Fens, even before she took
the Historical tripos, in which she naturally obtained a good first
class. Her literary activity in the production of articles for learned
periodicals, and later very substantial books, was immense. At the
same time, her zeal in the cause of her own College never faltered.
For many years she was ready to do what teaching was offered to her
on her own lines, and she did it exceedingly well. But her great
task in the College was to produce a noble discontent. She cared far
less that the students should take good places in their examinations
than that they should come to understand what sound learning really
means, and should share her own delight in the search for undiscovered
truth. Broad in her sympathies with all honest workers, genial in her
manners, remarkably constant and helpful in her friendships, and withal
scholarly to the backbone in her tastes and ambitions, she stands out
as one of the leading figures of our College. Two main influences
determined her course: first, that of Professor Creighton, afterwards
Bishop of Peterborough and subsequently Bishop of London, who came to
Cambridge in 1885, and began a new departure in History of the kind
that appealed to Mary Bateson's mind and character. She became attached
to his family, and he inspired her with the ambition which he felt
for himself when he prescribed for his epitaph the words, "He tried to
write true history." After Dr. Creighton's departure from Cambridge,
the teacher from whom she derived most inspiration and with whom she
sometimes collaborated was the distinguished writer, Professor F.
W. Maitland--also a most effective teacher and helper of historical
students at Newnham and in the University generally. Miss Bateson's
researches into _Borough Customs_, as well as her previous volumes on
the _Records of the History of Leicester_, earned her an honourable
place among standard historians of mediaeval institutions, while her
small book on _Mediaeval England_, and her admirable account of the
"Colonization of Canada" in the seventh volume of the _Cambridge Modern
History_, may always be recommended confidently to the general reader.
Mary Bateson was deeply interested in politics and a strong advocate
for women's suffrage, on behalf of which, in a deputation to the then
Prime Minister (Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman), she made an exceedingly
able and trenchant speech. But she cared far more that women should
progress in knowledge and capacity than in political power. The great
esteem in which she had been held was shown in the large attendance of
University men and former students at the funeral service in St, John's
Chapel, and in the readiness with which the proposal was received, at
a meeting in St. John's in the following May, of a memorial to her in
Cambridge, which took the appropriate form of an additional Research
Fellowship. This fellowship bears her name, and is generally--_ceteris
paribus_--given to a former student engaged in some branch of
historical research.
An earlier loss--happily not so permanent--was sustained in 1896 when
Miss Gladstone, owing to the rapidly declining health of her father,
felt bound to resign her College post for family duties. Miss Gladstone
had not only, as already shown, become a most valuable element in the
life of the College by her geniality and devotion to the duties she had
undertaken. She also, in the eyes of the world, raised the reputation
of the College, since an institution must be of _some_ significance
if the daughter of one of the most eminent men in the country, having
access to the most brilliant and interesting society, thought it
worth while to give up--for most of the year--the delights of such
an attractive home for the service of a College for women.[11] Miss
Gladstone had of late been not only Vice-Principal (Tutor) in Sidgwick
Hall, but Secretary to the Education Committee, a position which
brought her into constant communication with most of the resident
lecturers. In a sense, the loss could not be entirely repaired, though
Miss Stephen succeeded her as head of Sidgwick Hall. Miss Stephen had
originally come to Newnham as Secretary to Miss Gladstone, and had
become very popular with the students, especially in helping in their
political debates. She had also, as we have already said, the charge
of the Library, in which she seemed to know the exact place of every
important book. As she was a daughter of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen,
the distinguished judge, and a niece of Leslie Stephen (who was induced
more than once to come and give a delightful lecture to the students),
she helped to continue the traditions of public and intellectual
eminence which the students have always found in the records of their
benefactors. In memory of Miss Gladstone's vice-principalship, the
students raised money to build an annexe to the dining hall of Sidgwick
Hall which, since the opening of a new wing in 1884, had proved
insufficient for peace and comfort. Another and important addition to
the College was the block named after others of the founders, Kennedy
Buildings. Now that there were resident fellows and several research
students, it was desirable that in some part of the College buildings
there should be suites of two rooms, allowing more accommodation for
books and more opportunities for entertaining than could be easily had
in any of the three Halls. In 1899, through the remarkable generosity
of several friends, the freehold of the land on which the College
stands was bought.
[Footnote 11: Mr. Gladstone twice visited his daughter in Newnham
College: once while he was out of office but intensely popular--on
which occasion he was entertained at a genuine students' tea-party; the
second time when she was Vice-Principal in Sidgwick Hall.]
But meantime, during a period of prosperity, Newnham had to experience
its first serious set-back, a set-back only paralleled in the week
during which these lines are being written: the Senate of the
University of Cambridge refused a petition to grant to Girton and
Newnham students who had been successful in the triposes the title of
degrees.
The movement had mainly arisen in 1897 to meet a difficulty springing
from the inability of the world to understand that a certificate
stating that a woman had attained the standard required for a degree
in honours is really as good a guarantee of attainments as the letters
B.A. to which every poll man is entitled. The handicapping was
serious. At the same time, more definite status was earnestly desired.
The first suggestion of a granting of degrees was at once dropped.
Various compromises were made by friends and opponents: in those of
the former there was the suggestion of a titular B.A. and a real M.A.
for women--too moderate and well reasoned to find many supporters.
Another--widely taken up, but naturally unacceptable to all who were
intimately and sympathetically concerned with higher education for
women--was of a degree-granting University for women only, called in
advance "The Queen's University," and styled by Professor Maitland
in a brilliant speech on the other side as "Bletchley Junction
Academy." This would have been even less of a real University than
the original non-teaching University of London, since that at least
had programmes of study and fixed standards, whereas the new one was
to accept the standards of existing Universities. It is not certain,
however, whether this impracticable scheme ever came into anything like
definite form.
[Illustration: NEWNHAM COLLEGE, 1920--GENERAL VIEW.]
The Grace finally proposed by the second Syndicate appointed for the
purpose was as follows:
"The University shall have power to grant by Diploma, Titles of
Degrees in Arts, Law, Science, Letters, and Music to women who, either
before or after the confirmation of this Statute, have fulfilled the
conditions which shall be required of them for this purpose by the
Ordinances of the University, and also shall have power to grant by
diploma the same titles _honoris causa_ to women who have not fulfilled
the ordinary conditions, but have been recommended for such Titles by
the Council of the Senate: provided always that a title granted under
this section shall not involve membership of the University."
It was seen by many opponents and by some supporters that this Grace,
if passed, would not have been a final settlement. But it would have
removed an undoubted grievance. And in course of time, when the world
had become accustomed to women vigorously and successfully engaged
in the administration of colonial and provincial universities, full
membership might have come in later without much controversy. The
most striking speeches on the women's side were made by the late
master of Trinity (Dr. Butler), Professor Maitland, Mr. (afterwards
Professor) Bateson, and Professor Sidgwick. The speeches on the other
side generally insisted, without much relevance, on the limitations of
the female mind and the female physique, the impossibility of women's
desire for University life and learning existing apart from a wish
to copy and rival the other sex, and the like.[12] What the mind of
Newnham, at its best, thought on the matter is ably expressed in a
flysheet written by our Secretary, Miss Marion Kennedy, on the eve
of the voting. I quote the later portion: "One appeal I should like
to make to those whom we still regard as our friends, though for the
moment they are opposed to us. It is that they may not be led to think
that a separate University for women can be the true solution of the
difficulty.
[Footnote 12: For the recommendations of the Syndicate and the chief
speeches see _Cambridge University Reporter_ for March 1st, 1897, and
for March 26th, 1897.]
"Can we imagine what the position of such an institution would really
be? If it were merely a body for conferring degrees without holding
examinations, its degrees must be given alike on the examinations
of Cambridge, Oxford, and Durham; all the other Universities having
opened their degrees. For the two latter I cannot judge, but I venture
to ask any Cambridge man if he would care to bear a title which was
given indiscriminately on the examination of his own University and on
those of Oxford and Durham.[13]... If, on the other hand, a Women's
University held its own examinations, its standard could not possibly
command the same respect as those of the older universities, nor could
it give the inspiration which comes only of ancient tradition. As the
Master of Trinity so well put it in his speech in the Senate House,
generation after generation must be trained before any such comparison
could be possible, and I fear the time must be measured not only by
generations but by centuries. I think there is no doubt that if an
attempt was made to found a Women's University, disappointment would
be in store for any who would expect it to lay down a separate course
or courses of study adapted to the supposed requirements of women.
It would on the contrary be driven to follow the lines of the old
University course even more closely than women are now required to do,
as the only chance of giving its degrees any practical value. This
leads to another point on which I think that a few of our opponents
have not treated us quite fairly. It has been said that women wish to
take the Cambridge course merely because they aim at imitating men.
Surely this assumption is hardly justified by the facts. May it not be
believed that women honestly seek to share what long experience has
decided to be the best training for the mind?
[Footnote 13: Of course now that Oxford and Durham admit women to
degrees this argument cannot be transferred to the present crisis.
(Dec. 1920.)]
"It seems to me we are far more likely to allow fair play to whatever
mental differences exist between men and women by giving them
impartially the best training and affording them every opportunity to
develop their separate powers afterwards, than if we falsify the result
through a diversity of training which must tend to obscure natural
differences by overlaying them with artificial ones. I am well aware,
however, that when all is said, differences of opinion will remain, and
I only wish to express, once more, a hope that difference of opinion
need not become intolerance; that however this question is settled,
we shall all be true to the noble and hitherto unbroken traditions of
Cambridge that by-gones are by-gones, and that the morrow of a conflict
here always finds victors and vanquished ready to join hands without
any lessening of mutual regard and respect. Nothing would grieve me
more than to have had any share in so carrying on the discussion as to
render this more difficult. MARION GRACE KENNEDY."
But for the time the voice of "sweet reasonableness" was drowned in
angry clamour. Some opponents of the College used their influence with
the undergraduates, and especially the athletic element. Ridiculous
stories were set about that the women intended to press on to admission
into the Colleges. Aged and often very worthy men who had long been
out of touch with the University but retained the right to vote in
its proceedings flocked up to "save the University" from the dreaded
feminine invasion. Friends of Newnham and Girton mustered likewise, but
the result was obvious from the beginning. The motion was defeated by
1713 to 662.
The set-back was felt severely, not so much by reason of the
weight of the adverse vote, as because of the hostility that had
unexpectedly come to the surface, and the unmannerly way in which,
led by undergraduates' love of a "rag," it was manifested. Happily,
the feelings described by Miss Kennedy were still characteristic of
Cambridge, except in its worse moments. Next term, when the Newnham
authorities came to discuss the wisdom of asking lecturers who had
taken the opposite part to continue their permission to women pupils,
it was found that some at least would have been indignant if not asked
to do so.
One good result of the unfortunate conflict was that it brought the
two women's Colleges, Newnham and Girton, nearer together. There
was generosity in the yielding by Miss Davies, Dr. Cunningham, and
other notable supporters of Girton, of points which their Colleges
had generally held with some tenacity. Newnham and Girton worked
hand-in-hand during the conflict and in the steps by which the mischief
done was gradually repaired.
Happily, since the generations of undergraduates and women students are
short-lived, the episode became to many as if it had never been. This,
however, was impossible in the case of the members of the resident
staffs. It made, or should have made, each of them "a sadder and a
wiser man" in future dealings with the University.
Before long Newnham had to suffer a greater loss, by the death of
its protagonist in this and many other conflicts, as well as its
ever-generous benefactor and friend: Professor Henry Sidgwick.
Something has already been said both as to what he did and what he
resigned for the good of the College, and yet more might be dwelt
on as to the importance to students and staff of having him amongst
them. Even those who were unable to appreciate the character of his
mind, felt that he possessed a distinction they had known, if at all,
in very few others. To those who attended his lectures, read his
books, or listened to his talk, he was felt to excel all others in
absolute devotion to truth and duty, in breadth of view, in moral and
intellectual patience and forbearance, while this lofty character was
always consistent with a keen sense of humour, and a human interest in
all his surroundings. He had led an active life, though always liable
to be troubled with insomnia. In May 1900, his doctor discovered an
internal complaint which required an early operation. The operation
was supposed to be successful, and after a short time he was able to
go for drives and to enjoy the society of friends. But he was never
deceived as to the nearness of the end, which came when he was staying
with his brother-in-law, Lord Rayleigh, on August 28th, 1900. As it
was mid vacation there was no funeral service in Trinity or elsewhere
in Cambridge, but one attended by the family and a few friends in the
church at Terling, in which churchyard he was buried.
It is, as already said, possible for all students to realize at once
the benefits which the College owes to Sidgwick, and the greatness of
his mind and character, by reading the life written by his wife and
his brother Arthur. Very soon after the funeral Mrs. Sidgwick returned
to Newnham, and the members of the Staff still in residence realized
that this terrible loss to her did not involve the loss of her to the
College, but that she would be to it at least all that she had been
before.
A meeting was held soon after to decide how Professor Sidgwick should
be commemorated in Cambridge. A University lectureship was founded
with the proceeds of a general appeal, and a contribution to this was
made from a special fund contributed by former students of Newnham;
this fund also provided for an annual Sidgwick Memorial Lecture at the
College. The lecturer has in each case been appointed by Mrs. Sidgwick,
and has generally so far been some man personally known to Dr. Sidgwick
or interested in some of his own lines of thought. The first lecture
was given by Professor (now Lord) Bryce in November 1902. His subject
was "Philosophic Life among the Ancients," and many hearers felt--as
did the lecturer himself--that the kind of life he was portraying
had in no person been better exemplified than in Sidgwick himself. A
visitor to Newnham afterwards, standing in the middle of the garden,
quoted as appropriate to him the epitaph of Wren in St Paul's: _Si
monumentum requiris, circumspice_. But even that monument would be
insufficient for those who had known something of his mind and profited
by his labours.