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.
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.
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.
The early part of the eighties was full of events for the women students of Newnham and their supporters. In these years they obtained (1) a fixed legal constitution; (2) a second hall of residence, and other much needed buildings; (3) gradual increase of facilities for study, especially in the opening of Cambridge College lectures to women; (4) more important still, a large measure of University recognition, and (5) greater opportunities of educational and social work for past students. These several lines of progress may here be taken in order, except the fifth, which I reserve for the next chapter.
(1) It has been mentioned that when the necessity arose of increasing accommodation for women students, an amalgamation was in 1879 discussed of the Association for the Higher Education of Women in Cambridge with the Newnham Hall Company. The Memorandum and Articles of Association were drawn up before long, and Newnham College came into existence and was registered in the spring of 1880. The constitution was not entirely according to the character of an Academic institution, being under the financial control of the Board of Trade. There was a provision that no profits should accrue to members of the College in the legal sense of the word members, though members might receive remuneration for work done for the College. The Ordinary Members consisted of the first promoters of the College, with large subscribers to its funds afterwards; Associate Members (helpers and benefactors, not to be confounded with the present Associates); and Honorary Members, mostly teachers and helpers of the students. The government rested with a Council, to be elected at a general meeting of Members of the College, four going out annually in rotation, but re-eligible. The executive officers were to be a President, Vice-President, and Secretary. The President and the Principal were to be ex officio members. There was as yet no systematic representation of quasi-graduate students, but the resident lecturers were as a rule entitled to vote as ordinary or as honorary members.
We shall see later on in what respects this Memorandum of Association came to be regarded as inadequate. In point of fact, it marked progress in stability, and worked very well for many years. The Council generally consisted of persons enthusiastically devoted to the interests of the College, and many of them able, by their experience on educational bodies or by their social influence, to assist in its development along the best lines.
(2) Materially, the great event of 1880-81 was the completion and opening of the second Hall of Residence, the North Hall, as it was called, the name South Hall being given to the earlier Newnham Hall. The ground on which it was built was on the other side of a narrow road. In the daytime, when gates could be kept open, passage from one Hall to the other was easy, but at night, for privacy's sake, it was necessary that they should be closed. This, of course, was a check to late evening parties for cocoa, chat, or dancing, among the students belonging to separate Halls, and the concession of one open evening a week hardly met the difficulty. There seemed to be a danger lest Hall feeling might endanger devotion to the College as a whole, and one might expect that the fact of the Principal residing in the older building and only a Vice-Principal in the newer might seem to imply some kind of inferiority. Any danger of the kind was avoided by an act of generous devotion on the part of two promoters of the College which could hardly have been foretold.
The great services of Dr. Sidgwick to the incipient College have been alluded to, though they are far too wide and various to be severally recorded.[6] His wife, formerly Miss Eleanor Balfour, had for some years been a very able treasurer and member of council. She had given a scholarship to Newnham in Mathematics, her own chief subject of study at that time. They lived a quiet, scholarly, but sociable life in their house at Hillside, at the beginning of the Chesterton Road. At this moment, when anyone of less standing in the University and the world generally could hardly have met the emergency, Mrs. Sidgwick agreed to come and preside in the new Hall, with the title of Vice-Principal, and Mr. Sidgwick came to live there also, thus giving up his privacy and the company of most of his books. The arrangement was the more successful in that Miss Gladstone also took up residence in the North Hall as her secretary. The name of Gladstone brought distinction with it. Miss Helen Gladstone had resided as a student of English and Political Economy for one year with the Sidgwicks and for two years in Newnham Hall, and was deservedly popular both with the students and in the University world outside. Students who entered the College, and were taken into the new Hall, cherished ever after the memory of these two years as a halcyon time—in which they enjoyed listening to good talk and associating with interesting persons more than during any other period of their lives. At the end of two years, Miss Gladstone became Vice-Principal, resident in the North Hall, a post which she held for many years, and in which her well-known geniality, cheerfulness, and whole-hearted devotion to her task and to the students under her care found abundant scope and recognition.
It was under the same roof as the North Hall that the much needed lecture rooms were raised. There were at first three. Later when a large number of small rooms for private teaching were made in the Pfeiffer Building, two of the lecture rooms proper were knocked into one, thereby giving the College one room large enough to accommodate (if desks were removed) about a hundred people. It was chiefly by pressure from Miss Gladstone that an infirmary or hospital was built, adjoining the North Hall, but with its separate entrance. This has often proved useful in checking the spread of infectious ailments among the students or the servants. A chemical laboratory had already been erected in the garden at a respectful distance from the original Hall. Its equipment was mainly the task of Miss Penelope Lawrence, afterwards headmistress of Roedean School, Brighton. A laboratory for the study of Biological subjects was provided in the town in 1884, a disused Congregational chapel being adapted to the purpose. Mrs. Sidgwick and her sister, Miss Alice Balfour, were the principal donors, and the laboratory was appropriately named after their brother, Francis Maitland Balfour, whose promising and already distinguished career had been cut short by an accident in the Alps. For many years, these two laboratories formed the training ground of a large number of students, who did much to supply the demand for improved science teaching in schools and colleges for girls. In the Chemical Laboratory Miss Freund and in the Balfour Laboratory Miss Greenwood (now Mrs. Bidder) and Miss Saunders presided for many years, carrying on both teaching and research. (Both Miss Freund and Mrs. Bidder were former students of Girton.) In course of time, the opening of the University laboratories to women students rendered these buildings less necessary, and they are at present let for University purposes.
With the increase in the number of students, further buildings became necessary. The South Hall (formerly Newnham Hall) had been designed with a view to possible extension, and in 1882, a west wing was built, containing rooms for about twelve more students. The ground floor of this building was devoted to a well-planned Library, at that time a great desideratum. The equipment of the College as to books had originally been scanty. Perhaps the need of books was, for a time, not altogether to be deplored, as the early generation of students realized the necessity of procuring their own books or of inducing generous friends to assist them in that direction; and many gave books as a parting present to the College. A moderate-sized common-room in the Old Hall (since divided into two rooms for students) was the first library, but was soon outgrown. But when something larger was required, the new Library (now the Reading Room of the Old Hall) both served its purpose till the books again outran the accommodation, and afforded a delightful morning room for study, as well as space for occasional social parties.
(3) During the late 'seventies and the early 'eighties, women students were informally admitted to privileges which greatly facilitated their work, and in particular many College lectures were opened to them. Their own lectures—before the building of Sidgwick Hall—were given in the rooms belonging to the Young Men's Christian Association, near the old Post Office, a central but somewhat noisy situation. The larger rooms in this building were of good size and convenient, but the class-rooms were less so, and to many students their first introduction to Greek Tragedy or to English Law will always be associated with the striking of a hammer on the blacksmith's anvil. The new lecture rooms at Newnham had not this drawback. The professorial lectures were generally given in rooms now absorbed in the University Library. In some, women were allowed to come into the gallery, where their presence was not easily discerned. But meantime, as already mentioned, some of the Colleges were ready to accept suggestions as to admitting women to the Inter-collegiate Lectures. The first of the Colleges to admit women to lectures in its own hall was Christ's. In the summer term of 1876, eight students of Newnham College (some working at classics, others at history) were admitted to a course of lectures on the Punic Wars given by Mr. (now Professor) J. S. Reid in the temporary dining-hall of Christ's. Great efforts were made to meet the somewhat exacting demands—in those days—of social propriety. Thus these students were obliged always to be chaperoned by a responsible lady, and as Miss Clough had in the early days few colleagues to lighten her responsibilities, the task usually fell on her. Needless to say, she never represented this as a grievance, though the lectures were three times a week, the hour inconvenient, and the weather generally wet. She was only too glad to help in a new departure, and, as she said (with reminiscences of her brother and Dr. Arnold), she always found Roman History interesting.
King's was the next College to admit women. Trinity not till a little later. It may be noticed, without any disparagement of the lecturers who obtained these concessions, that in the case of those already lecturing to women according to the previous arrangements, it was more convenient to have seats assigned to the women in the College lecture rooms or halls than to give the same lecture to their men pupils in College in the morning and to the women in a room belonging to the Young Men's Christian Association, or even in Newnham College, in the afternoon. Nevertheless Newnham owes gratitude to the Lecturers and to the Fellows of Colleges who showed, in many cases, both zeal and courtesy in meeting the women students' needs. With regard to the undergraduates, it may be remarked that though at first some showed a curious amazement mixed with bashfulness at their strange visitors, they soon accustomed themselves to the change, and showed almost always a spirit of courtesy and good sense. As more accommodation came to be provided by the University—irrespective of College distinctions—in the New Divinity Schools and the New Lecture Rooms, access to lectures became easier for women, as for other non-members of the University.
Another great advantage which the students obtained in these years was permission to read in the University Library. They could not be admitted without referees, such as were demanded from non-university persons, but the Principal was always accepted as one referee, so that the student candidate had to find one only. Fees—very moderate—were paid by the College when a student had been specially advised to read in the Library. Formal admission was granted for the morning only, but a student who for any special reason wished to read in the afternoon as well could easily obtain permission.
Another privilege gradually obtained without any special effort was that of being examined in the Inter-collegiate Examinations popularly called Mays. As all Cambridge men and women know, examinations of students in their first and second years are held in most subjects at the end of the summer term, to test their knowledge and power of expressing it. These are not directly under any University board, but are given by the lecturers on the subjects they have been teaching, in various Colleges, during the past year. The "Mays," in spite of drawbacks, have often been of great value, in giving confidence to industrious but despondent students, and in warning those whose progress was unsatisfactory. The fact of having been through a certain course, examined on the subject, and marked with the undergraduates, emphasised the fact to the women students, the undergraduates, and the world at large, that the work done at Newnham and Girton was really of University standing.
(4) All these steps led towards what was necessary in order that the work of the College should be solid and permanent—the recognition by the University of the existence of women students and women of what I have called quasi-graduate status. It may be said—it was said, and still is said when further demands are made—that women had the real thing, why trouble about the artificial trappings? Women could become well-educated, even learned; those who had studied at Cambridge were the better esteemed in educational circles, and they were free from many tiresome responsibilities that weigh on full members of the University. But to this was answered: that the path to good education and sound learning is still more thorny than it need be; that the world, which often has to distribute educational posts and distinctions, does not care for education without a degree; that the position of the women, held only by courtesy, was insecure. A scrupulous examiner might at any time decline to examine a tripos-candidate whom he was not bound to examine, and any University lecturer might refuse to allow women at his lectures. At the same time, women who "brushed the flounce of all the sciences," and flitted about like bees for intellectual honey, might easily pose as University women and bring real students into disrepute. Finally: if there were duties as well as privileges exacted from the children of Alma Mater, women would hardly be found unwilling to accept them.
Matters came to a crisis at the end of the year 1880. In the winter 1879-1880 (the triposes came, then, at various periods of the year), Newnham and Girton obtained first classes in three triposes, the most conspicuous case being that of Miss C. A. Scott of Girton, who in the Mathematical Tripos had obtained (by the usual informal examination) a place equal to that of the eighth wrangler. These successes seemed to give a reductio ad absurdum to the common arguments about the inferiority of the "female mind," to set the mark of success on the methods followed at both Colleges, and to suggest the inexpediency—if not injustice—of withholding from women the title which should give them status and improve their prospects in the academic world. It may be mentioned that, in 1878, London University had obtained a supplement to its Charter empowering it to admit women to its degrees, a step which marked both a recognition of the claims of educated women and an abandonment of London's first tentative measures in providing examinations for women. It had for some time admitted women to a "General Examination," closely resembling the Matriculation, but allowing more option as to subjects. This might be followed by examinations for certificates of Higher Proficiency, which could be taken, without further fee, with the General, or in any subsequent year. It was a very useful examination for girls who had left school and in continuing their studies at home wished to take up one subject or another, together or at intervals, according to convenience. The weak points were that the syllabus did not sufficiently correspond to the men's to give any guarantee as to standard demanded and attained—and far worse: that there was nothing progressive about the "Special" examinations, there being only one examination held in each subject. When the degree examinations were thrown open, a good many Cambridge women took the London B.A. or M.A. after their triposes in order to have some title to present to the academic world. But—as London degrees examinations were then arranged—such work generally involved the consumption of much time on other than specially chosen lines on the part of any Cambridge Tripos student. The fact that it was desired and achieved gave proof—if fresh proof were needed—of the actual market value to educated women of the letters denoting a certain standard of mental equipment. London University was then, it may be added, a University only in name. The teaching tested in its examinations had been obtained by solitary students reading privately, by residents in various provincial Colleges, and by members of those Colleges in London—University, King's, Bedford, and Westfield, which were ready to take their place as Colleges of an actual teaching as well as degree-granting University—as London became in 1900. The provincial Universities (Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, etc.) all admitted women to their degrees early, if not at their first opening.
But to return to Cambridge. The movement of 1880 was taken up in various quarters, notably in the North of England. Petitions were drawn up and sent to the Senate of the University praying for degrees for women. That originated by Mr. and Mrs. Aldis of Newcastle declared: "That the present plan of informal examination is unsatisfactory, and that consequently the undersigned persons interested in the Higher Education of Women pray the Senate of the University to give women the right of admission to the degree examination and to degrees." Three other memorials were presented. The Executive Committee of Girton College, after pointing to the satisfactory results of several years' experience, desired the University to "take their case (that of the Students) into serious consideration, with a view to their formal admission to the B.A. degree." This was, of course, different from the Newcastle petition in being of the nature of a compromise, since it did not ask for the M.A. which would have involved a share in the government of the University. A similar half-way measure had previously been adopted with regard to Nonconformists, to whom the B.A. had been allowed some time before they were admitted to the M.A.
The third petition is that which specially interests us in the history of Newnham College, as it was that of the Lectures Committee, out of which—as already related—Newnham College took its beginning. This document, like that of Girton, appeals to the result of experience, though not to experience of exactly the same kind. It expresses a desire that a stable form may be given to the plan of instruction and examination already being carried on, and also a preference that some option should be allowed as to the Previous Examination; and unwillingness (not refusal) to prepare women for the Ordinary Degree.
A fourth memorial, much to the same general purpose as the last, was signed by a hundred and twenty-three members of the University.
The result of the Memorials was that a Syndicate was appointed, a memorable discussion on its proposals held in the Art Schools, and the "Graces" drawn up to be submitted to the whole Senate. Among the staunchest supporters of the proposals were the venerable, whole-hearted helper of the cause, Prof. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, Dr. (later Bishop) Browne, Prof. Cayley, Dr. (now Prof.) H. Jackson, Prof. J. E. B. Mayor, Dr. Peile, and Mr. Coutts Trotter. These names sufficiently refute any accusation of youthful flightiness or overstrained liberalism in the character of the movement.
As the Graces have formed from that time the basis of Newnham College as an institution sanctioned by the University, and as their purport is not always clearly apprehended, it may be as well to transcribe them in full, excepting only such as relate to financial and subordinate regulations:
1. Female students who have fulfilled the conditions respecting length of residence and standing which Members of the University are required to fulfil may be admitted to the Previous Examination, and the Tripos Examinations.
2. 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 the University by Grace of the Senate.
3. 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. Except as 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. 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 Examinations 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 (Languages) and Group C (Mathematics).
6. 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 to which she has been admitted.
7. 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. 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. The Examiners for a Tripos shall be at liberty to state, if the case be so, that a female candidate shall have failed to satisfy them or has in their opinion reached a standard equivalent to that required from Members of the University for the Ordinary B.A. degree.
10. 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 Examiner, and the Class and place in the Class, if indicated, to which she has attained, in each of such examinations.
It was further provided that these arrangements should hold, in the first instance, for five years. Rules were laid down as to the conditions under which any future Hall of residence might be recognised by the admission of its students to Triposes.
The result of the voting on the Graces was looked forward to by both sides with hope and fear. The result was a triumphant majority for the women's cause, 331 to 32. The small number who actually voted against the Graces does not, of course, imply that the number of objectors was insignificant, for, in fact, a good many opponents withdrew early as from a lost cause. From that time, Feb. 24th, 1881, counted as the great day of the College to be remembered by all succeeding generations of students, who have been annually reminded at Commemoration how well their friends had fought for them, how a special train had been run from London to accommodate favourable members of Parliament, and with what joy and thankfulness the news had been received in the College and telegraphed to friends at a distance.
The cause for congratulation was very real. If things had gone otherwise, it is difficult to see what the future of women's education in England would have been. Oxford was temporarily behind Cambridge in the movement, and a set-back at Cambridge would certainly have damaged prospects in the sister University, and, in fact, throughout England. Women would have been debarred from sharing in the best that University education in England can give, and would have been cut off from the historic sources of sound learning and of moral and intellectual inspiration.
A perusal of the Graces will show that though they gave all that was immediately needed, they did not satisfy all the actual or possible desires of the promoters of women's colleges. Outsiders, as before mentioned, already wished for full membership to be granted. To many this seemed a premature project. Yet those were right who foresaw that a desire for more complete membership was certain to come by and by. In 1881 there were few, if any, of the women quasi-graduates able to take an active part in University work. Some apprenticeship, under the wing of Alma Mater, might seem at least desirable. Again, the views held by Girton, that conditions of examinations such as those relating to preliminary qualifications and the Pass degree, ought from the first to have been the same for women as for members of the University, might be urged with some force. As already shown, the objection to compulsory Classics and Mathematics, even up to the standard of the Previous Examination, on the part of some of the founders and supporters of Newnham College was due, not to a preference for easier conditions, but from a fear of a detrimental effect on schools. In point of fact, so many other alternatives than those of the Previous Examination and the Higher Local are now offered that neither of these examinations is much favoured in the best schools that send girls up to the Universities. As to the Pass Degree: the suspicion with which it was regarded by the Newnham pioneers has already been noticed. The objection to it is not that it is bad in itself: many attempts have been made to render a pass course interesting and profitable to men who have not physical strength or intellectual persistency to embark on an honours curriculum, or who wish to reduce their academic duties in order to follow some social or intellectual hobbies. But there has always been the danger of demanding a very small amount of intellectual work and tolerating men who have no leaning towards academic pursuits, and to whom the University is chiefly attractive by reason of its scope for athletics and for genial life in comradeship. There was as yet, and it is to be hoped there will be permanently, no place in the women's colleges for the society woman without intellectual aspirations. Such an element would have been difficult to deal with, and would not have been successful from any point of view. True, Newnham never wished to discourage either students of discursive mind and original ideas and plans, or those who—through defective early education or delicate health—shrunk from a tripos course. In fact, some students whose presence and work in the College have proved eminently beneficial to themselves and to Newnham, have preferred to take a mixed course of study. For the rank and file, it is now supposed that the numerous triposes afford sufficient choice. If, at the end of her second year, a student is judged to be unable to proceed further on tripos lines, she is expected to go down, unless her studies are judged to be sufficiently serious and profitable for giving special leave to continue them. The equivalent of a pass degree is, as already stated, and as set forth in No. 9 of the Graces, only awarded to a student who has narrowly escaped failure. It may also be noticed that a failure, for a woman, leaves no chance of a second trial.
The Graces gave a real and substantial benefit to women students and—indirectly—to those who had been, informally, through a tripos course at Newnham. These latter did not obtain University recognition of any sort, but their names and tripos places were recorded in the Girton and Newnham Calendars, and this served as evidence of their standing to the educational world. When Trinity College, Dublin, for a few years (as will be hereafter related) granted an ad eundem B.A. or M.A. to Oxford and Cambridge women who had taken final honours examinations, those who had done so previous to the Graces (as will be hereafter noticed)[7] were admitted with the others. For some reason, those who many years later drew up the Representation of the People Act of 1918 felt obliged to draw the line more strictly and to limit the vote to those women who had obtained the equivalent of a degree since 1881.
There were no heart-burnings caused by the comparatively narrow range of the privileges given by the Graces, partly because it was always felt that more would come quietly as time and occasion should dictate. The resident staff, as such, obtained no recognition. No woman could sit on a board of studies, nor lecture formally in an academic building. Privately, the opinion of Newnham lecturers was sometimes asked on a question as to curricula, and women of distinction occasionally lectured and sometimes drew large audiences, while—in course of time—some undergraduates were advised by their tutors to seek admission to the lectures of a Newnham specialist. For some years there was no ground for formal extensions of privilege. And it was believed, and was to be proved again afterwards, that in the situation in which Newnham found itself, it was unwise to demand privileges that were not almost certain to be granted.
In fact, the crowning triumph of the Graces marks the success of the policy of Miss Clough, Dr. and Mrs. Sidgwick, Miss Kennedy, and the other founders of the College: a policy of winning great things by not standing out for lesser ones, of pertinacity in following a large if at first vague programme, and of conciliation and "sweet reasonableness" towards those who looked askance on the whole movement. It must be observed that all the Founders were deeply imbued with love and reverence for the University, and that the students were brought up to regard it as almost an Alma Mater—at any rate, as a noble and worthy corporation, to which they owed a deep debt for its past doings, and for what it had always stood for in the nation and in the world, a debt increased by the privilege granted to them of living within its precincts and learning wisdom from its most distinguished sons. There was no "battering at the gates." The pioneers of the Women's Colleges, so far from tolerating any notion that the University would suffer from granting their requests, would have felt it a thing worth much labour and many struggles if they could in any way add to the great repute and dignity which Cambridge had, among Universities, enjoyed from far-back times.
The time between the recognition of Newnham College by the University of Cambridge, in 1881, and the deeply mourned death of its chief founder and first Principal, in February 1892, is one of expansion and progress, both as regards the actual College buildings and the various activities of past and present students, especially in educational and social work.
The building of the North Hall has been mentioned, and also the increase in size of the South Hall, with the building of a library, not adequate to the subsequent needs of the College, but sufficient for the number of students then in residence, and afterwards very useful as a reading room and a supplementary library for duplicate books. In 1885 a fives court was erected on the north side of the College buildings. Meantime, a third Hall was projected, and, owing to the munificence of various benefactors, constructed on a liberal scale, and was ready for opening in 1888. It may be mentioned that one benefactor, Mr. Stephen Winkworth, earned the gratitude of subsequent students by granting a special sum to provide for the building of students' rooms of somewhat larger dimensions than the smaller ones in the other two Halls. Mr. and Mrs. Winkworth, old friends of Miss Clough, had taken interest in Newnham from the beginning, and their only daughter had been a student there.
As we are thus brought to the consideration of students' rooms, I might mention a line of progress initiated by the students themselves, and afterwards followed up by the authorities. In early days a separate study for each student had not been contemplated. This is another difference between Newnham and Girton, since, in the latter College, the collegiate idea had been more prominent from the first, and each Girton student had her bedroom and sitting-room, however small. In the first abode of Miss Clough and her five students all slept in bona fide bedrooms and worked sitting round a common table. In the early Newnham Hall more arrangement was made for privacy in study. Each student had her little writing table and sufficient book-shelves in her room. But the common sitting-rooms were used for most of the day, and not many rooms occupied by individual students were suitable for receiving company. Even little tea-parties among the students were of a very picnicky character. But when the ambition of the students was set on making a study-bedroom into a study first and a bedroom in a very secondary place, ingenuity provided facilities. Although the matter may seem infiniment petit, I consider that among Newnham pioneers the two students who accomplished this revolution should hold a place. One of them bought a large piece of chintz, and undisturbed by the jests of some of her comrades and the amused criticism of Miss Clough, devised a covering for bedstead, chest of drawers and other pieces of bedroom furniture. The other, of more definitely artistic taste (it was in the days of "Patience" and of the so-called aesthetic movement for soft colours and flowing lines) procured a piece of sage-green cloth or cretonne, and effected a similar revolution. Already in the large corner rooms something like a cubicle arrangement had been devised. The evident preference of the students for harmoniously, if simply, furnished rooms and for the preponderance of the idea of study over that of mere rest was followed out in furnishing new rooms as they were required. Old oak hutches, bureaux, the drawers of which might hold clothes, bed-coverings of a character suitable to that of the room, also pretty wall-papers of the kind Morris had lately invented, were procured for the students generally. Thus students came to take more pleasure in their rooms, into which they could invite one another, and sometimes friends from outside, though the common sitting-rooms were still the usual place for receiving guests. I think I am not wrong in saying that Newnham here started a practice subsequently followed in almost all houses of residence for women students. Certainly the first head of Somerville, when visiting Miss Clough, showed interest in the study-bedroom system. The desire to make the one room assert its diurnal rather than its nocturnal character was not new. Dickens had already ridiculed it in describing the "rooms" of Dick Swiveller. But the solution of the problem on principles of both convenience and beauty was, perhaps, first found in Newnham Hall during the early days.
I would pass to another—far more important—subject touching the relation of the students to the building in which they resided: it has puzzled some people how it has come about that with all the building, a chapel has never formed part of Newnham College. The subject is a delicate one, and I only take it up here because of the very erroneous and sometimes damaging explanations that have been assigned for the omission. Worst of all to those familiar with the leaders of the movement is the supposition that to them religion was a matter of indifference. For those who really knew Miss Clough, and others whom, while they still live, it seems indecent to mention—any such accusation is not only false but absurd. Miss Clough's religion was one that illuminated all her work and gave her strength and patience to carry it on. She was, besides, sincerely attached to the Church of England. At the same time, having lived in America, and mixed with persons of very varied religious opinions, she had early become very widely tolerant of the manifold ways in which a religious spirit manifests itself in different circles and different types of character. She had also seen the bad results of any attempt to force young people into religious observances which had become for them unmeaning or distasteful. Again: she had known vicariously, if not personally, the ferment of the Tractarian movement at Oxford, and the wave of scepticism that seemed to follow or even to accompany it. Also any disposition in her to avoid whatever might suggest the taking up of a distinctly denominational or even interdenominational attitude in the government of the College was strengthened by the distinctly anti-sectarian principles of vigorous and powerful supporters. Possibly at that time, more than at the present, any definite recognition of religion or provision of religious services seemed impossible apart from some denominational bias. The well-meant attempt of one founder of another women's college to provide chapel services on undenominational lines had foundered on the quicksands of theological controversy, and well-nigh wrecked the College—till it was saved by the singular tact and sympathetic insight of its new Principal. When Miss Clough first came to Cambridge, she began, as we have seen, not with a College, but with a moderate-sized household, and her arrangements were those of an ordinary Christian house, including family prayers. There was no need in Cambridge, as in a country district, to provide Sunday services. A rule was laid down, at first, that students were expected to inform the Principal of the place of worship they chose to attend, but this proviso was intended rather to give the Principal the right to make such inquiry than to impose any restrictions on the students. Miss Clough always regarded religious teaching and observance as belonging to the family rather than to any educational establishment, and she thought it essential to allow students to keep up their ties with any church to which they or their parents might belong.
In some ways the absence of a religious centre to the College may have been a disadvantage, but if so, the fault was rather in the times than in any persons. In point of fact, there has never been wanting a strong religious element in Newnham life. At the same time the atmosphere has been favourable to interchange of religious ideas among persons of various types and experiences. No student was made unpopular by her religious views unless she asserted them in an aggressive way. Most religious movements in Cambridge (and there have been many) since the beginnings of the College have made their influence felt within its precincts, and a large number of past students have devoted their lives to distinctly religious work, especially in distant lands, and such always look to the staff and students of their College for sympathy and encouragement.
This digression seemed necessary to correct prevalent misconceptions. To return to the general growth of the College in the eighties: attached to the new Hall of residence as its dining-hall was a beautiful College Hall, much larger than either of the other dining-rooms, and suggestions were made that the Staff with the students in all three Halls should dine together. This arrangement was, however, not easily compatible with the plan of division for tutorial purposes into three Halls. One desirable addition was a well-equipped kitchen. For a time the two Halls on the north side were supplied from the new kitchen; but much later, when the new Hall to the west, Peile Hall, was built, a large central kitchen was constructed, and all four Halls were provided from it, the food being wheeled to each in covered trolleys and received on hot tables in the several Halls.
The opening of Clough Hall, as the new and largest Hall was named, was a great occasion for Newnham. It was a pleasant summer day (June 9th, 1888), and many friends came from a distance. On the same day a degree was to be granted to the son of the Prince of Wales (Prince Albert Victor), and the Prince of Wales (Edward VII.) with the Princess and the three young Princesses paid a visit to the College. The students welcomed them with song in the new dining-hall, a ballot having first been taken among them as to who were the best representative students to present bouquets. This is probably the first and last occasion on which, in Newnham, a critical decision had to be made as to beauty, physical vigour and becoming dress. The royal party walked across the garden from the new Hall to the Principal's own rooms. Next followed a delightful ceremony which betokened both the respect and affection felt for one of the most assiduous helpers of the College and the beginnings of a new vista for Newnham in the endowment of Research—the presentation to Miss Marion Kennedy of a sum, which her friends had raised, to found a Studentship bearing her name, as an endowment for post-graduate work. There had been since 1882, by the generosity of the Hon. Selina Bathurst, a fund for encouraging advanced work in Natural Science, and it seemed eminently fitting that the possibility of promoting learning of any kind should be associated with the revered name of Kennedy. But perhaps the most moving event of that day was almost unpremeditated. The old students who had come from a distance, with those in residence, had a social supper in the large new Hall, after which Miss Clough, overcoming the reticence with which she habitually covered her deepest feelings, allowed all present to see more of her ideals and hopes, with her trust in their realization, than some of them had as yet known to be part of her character.
The new buildings necessitated a new nomenclature. The points of the compass were rejected in favour of the names of the founders. North Hall, which had been inaugurated by Mrs. Sidgwick's Vice-Principalship, became Sidgwick Hall, the new Hall was named Clough Hall, the South Hall—not being connected with any founder so intimately as with Miss Clough herself—retained a portion of its prestige in the title of the Old Hall. Other names of founders and benefactors were reserved for later additions to the College. Miss Clough herself took up residence in the Hall which bore her name. Miss Gladstone was still Vice-Principal in Sidgwick Hall; Miss Jane Lee, a very earnest scholar of Italian literature, entirely devoted to the best interests of the College, became head of the Old Hall, also with the title of Vice-Principal. This title for the person presiding over one particular Hall, and giving special attention to the needs of the students in that Hall, became somewhat misleading, and has since been replaced by that of Tutor, to which (in the Cambridge Colleges) it roughly corresponds. The Vice-Principal in each Hall had much more to do with house-keeping arrangements than later on, when more unity in this respect had been achieved and a regular Steward appointed. The Vice-Principals presided at table in their several Halls, corresponded with the parents of students, arranged, within the limits of a few simple laws, rules for the discipline of the students, read prayers in the morning; in fact, were generally responsible for the social, physical and moral requirements of the students. As, when there were only two Halls, Miss Gladstone held the office in Sidgwick Hall for many years, she imparted to it a certain character, and for a long time the V.-P. was a title regarded as almost individual to her. The separation into Halls, inevitable for a time, had, in Miss Clough's estimation and perhaps in reality, a very decided advantage. Students in one Hall naturally saw more of one another than of those in other Halls; Old Hall especially was somewhat cut off from the two others, so long as the public road ran between. And for games, clubs, and other social purposes, it was often a help to have a natural division into the three Halls. The larger societies—such as the Debating Society, the Musical Society, and some others, as well as the more regular of the Games Clubs—belonged to the College as a whole. The teaching arrangements were, of course, always made for the whole College and not separately for each Hall.
From about this time the social activities of the students, both those resident in College and those who had gone back to their own homes or taken up definite work, showed themselves in many ways. In 1880 an effort was made to keep up in those who had gone down the College spirit and College interests. The result was a society called the Newnham College Club, rather an unfortunate name, since it was not a club properly so-called, having no local habitation; it sometimes became confounded with the Ladies' University Club, and students were debarred from entering by the fear of expense. The "Club" prepared students' minds for the official College Roll which superseded it in 1919. The founders and officers of the Club (among whom those especially active in its initiation and development were Miss Julia Sharpe, Miss Olive Macmillan (Mrs. MacLehose), Mrs. Corrie Grant (née Adams), deserve the gratitude of the College for having, by means of an annual Newnham Letter, with information as to College developments, births, marriages, deaths among old students, fresh appointments, etc., and by regular meetings in London, kept alive in a large and growing number of former students the memory of their Alma Mater and her interest in the doings of her children. In after times it was interesting to see how, when a member of the Club who had gone to live in Central Africa or New Zealand visited her old haunts, she was found to be far better informed as to the lines of recent progress than some who had never left England.
In another direction Newnham took the lead, this time on the direct initiation of Miss Clough, in the formation of a teachers' agency for qualified women who had taken a College course. The governesses' agencies of those days opened their doors to stronger and to feebler applicants. Heads of schools and families desiring well-educated teachers were constantly writing to Miss Clough, and it seemed time to start a registry on collegiate lines. She communicated the project to a few former students engaged or interested in education, and they at once formed a committee, invited the co-operation of Girton, the Oxford Colleges, and the graduated women of London University, and started what became the Association of University Women Teachers. From ten or a dozen members it has increased to over 2800. The idea of this Society, as compared with the ordinary registry, was that the Secretary, a University woman and in close touch with Universities, should keep herself personally informed as to the credentials and careers of applicants; that she should make sure of the eligibility of the posts offered; and that she should be able to offer advice to young teachers as to applying for posts and making changes when, but not before, it seemed expedient; and that the expenses should, as far as possible, be defrayed from the ordinary subscriptions of members. Further, and this was a point of much importance, it was intended that the Association should watch over the interests of women teachers, and should interest itself in educational questions generally. The secretaryship has been held by various University women—for many years by Miss Alice Gruner, whose experience and untiring devotion to the work made her a most valuable adviser both to those who offered and those who were seeking educational posts. It is now filled by Mrs. Brough (née Lloyd), and has offices at 108 Victoria Street, Westminster.
Miss Clough never lost her interest in school teaching and teachers, of any and all types. At one time she arranged for parties of Newnham students to visit some of the elementary schools in Cambridge and give amateur lessons—chiefly that they might know what the inside of an elementary schoolroom was like—partly because, as she entirely believed, education and mutual acquaintance are the great factors for breaking down class distinctions. Meantime, a body of energetic Newnham students (led by Miss E. P. Hughes, Miss A. M. Adams and others) were eager to help in the education of working men. For many years a school was kept up in St. Matthew's Schoolroom, Barnwell, for men who were known not to go to church on Sunday mornings, but who wished, during those hours, to learn some of the elements which—in those days—many adults had never acquired. Miss Clough was much interested in the scheme, and once or twice came down to speak to the men, though she was anxious that no student should, in taking part in the work, give up time that she required for Sunday rest. The school was for some years vigorously carried on by the late Principal, Miss Stephen. While it lasted, it certainly did good work on both sides. The classes were conversational, and many students learned at least something of working men's life and ambitions. It died down partly owing to the irregularity necessitated by the alternation of terms and vacations, partly to the activities of a new clergyman, who was not without hope of inducing men to go to church on Sunday mornings.
The interest which Miss Clough always felt, and which she imparted to a good many students, in elementary teachers and their work was shown in certain experiments, novel as they seemed then, though precursive of greater things. She was anxious that those teachers who had a hard and often a dull life, and whom she knew to be often most conscientious and zealous in their profession, should see something of a different life, and especially of University life, and in particular that they should enjoy some rambles among the old Colleges of Cambridge, and hear lectures from Cambridge teachers. The Summer Meeting of the Extension Scheme was not as yet, unless one counts it as beginning in these Newnham gatherings. Certainly it originated in the circle of educational pioneers to which Miss Clough belonged, and some of the earliest "Extension Students" were successors to those who had come up under the early scheme. In the summer of 1885 two men and two women from the northern counties (the women being both elementary teachers) received bursaries from the Lectures Association in the north that they might come for three or four weeks' study in Cambridge. The women were accommodated in Newnham, and though their teaching had been otherwise provided for, Miss Clough commended them to the care of some of the younger lecturers, who did the chaperoning required in those more exacting days, and gave what social and friendly help was required. In 1887 Miss Clough undertook a similar experiment on her own account. A party of about fourteen women teachers in elementary schools were accommodated for three weeks in the Red Houses which formed the interim abode of students while Clough Hall was in process of building and were not required during the Long Vacation. In 1889 and 1891 the experiment was repeated, the teachers being received into the Old Hall. Certain of the younger lecturers gave them lectures in History and Literature, and in some of the subjects (Latin, Logic, etc.) with which they were struggling for their examinations, while the Natural Science lecturers took several of them into the laboratories and for botanical excursions. The lecturers and students of Newnham acted up to the College reputation for hospitality, and Miss Clough herself visited them and invited them to see her in her private room. The grievances of teaching in the days of half-time pupils and dearth of money and books for teachers were poured into sympathetic ears. After the Annual Summer Meeting of University Extension Students had been fairly set on foot these sectional meetings became merged in the general one, and there was no need for such special gatherings at Newnham, but the College, when the Meeting was in Cambridge, has always received a number of Extension Students as paying guests, and lecturers and other Newnham officials have taken pains to make the visit profitable, so that many came year after year and always cherished an affection for Newnham above and beyond that which they felt for Cambridge.