This movement was one from above—originated by the Principal and worked mainly by the Staff. But the one which brought Newnham generally most closely into contact with what one may call socio-educational work was the Women's University Settlement in Southwark. The idea of "settlements" is familiar nowadays, and the original character and object of such institutions has much changed and developed since the first experiment was begun by the inspiration and intense activity of Arnold Toynbee. The primary notion of a settlement was of an abode in the poorer districts of a town where men of culture, engaged in various occupations, might make their home, devoting their leisure to the society and to the amusement or assistance of poorer neighbours. While this ideal is more or less preserved in the numerous settlements—some connected with particular churches or colleges, others quite independent—to be found in London and in others of our big towns, perhaps the possibility of uniting outside professional duties in the daytime with attention to social evils and their remedies in the evenings has not been permanently realized in any. Certainly in Settlements of women, the self-regarding part of the work has become chiefly educational: the training of the worker by instruction in the principles of economics and the history of social legislation. The Settlement in Southwark was throughout of this description. Though it has been carried on by women from other Universities as well as Cambridge women, the first thought of such an enterprise arose in Cambridge after an interesting meeting of the Society for Discussing Social Questions. This society of Cambridge ladies, including Girton and Newnham students (founded chiefly by the efforts of Mrs. Marshall), held, Feb. 4th, 1887, an interesting meeting at which Mrs. Samuel Barnett, wife of the Warden of Toynbee Hall, and Miss Alice Gruner—lately a historical student of Newnham College—read interesting papers on Settlements. Miss Gruner had already begun work of the kind in London and was anxious to find helpers. Several students were inspired to initiate a Settlement; Miss Gruner consented to allow her undertaking to be taken over as the nucleus and became the first Warden. Girton was appealed to and also the Oxford Halls. The result was the formation of a Committee and the acquiring of a house in Nelson Square, London, S.E., Miss Gruner having laid her finger on the very spot afterwards marked most darkly in Sir C. Booth's Life and Labour of the People. The history of the Settlement, the development of its various activities, the links which it formed with other agencies, religious and secular, in combining for the betterment of conditions among the London poor, the schemes adopted by its residents and afterwards taken up by public authorities, do not belong, except indirectly, to the history of Newnham College, yet the Settlement has certainly been a factor in the life of many students, and it is not too much to say that what was first discussed within the walls of Newnham has been successfully worked out in many parts of England and, indeed, in some distant lands. Many University women besides Newnham students have worked there, and one may suppose that in a sense the movement was "in the air" and would in any case have come into active existence. Yet Newnham may enjoy some of the credit of the work done in Southwark and of the excellent Wardens provided in the persons of Miss Gruner, Miss Sewell, Miss Gladstone, and the present head, Miss M. M. Sharpley. Workers and officers of much devotion and ability have been supplied by Oxford and the London University, and Settlements of a somewhat similar kind form adjuncts to other Universities, such as Bristol, Leeds and Birmingham.

If Newnham was making its way, as learner, as teacher, and as worker, in the field of social enterprise, the same is even more true in that of education. A large proportion of the students during the time now under consideration adopted the teaching profession. Technical training was not insisted on by head mistresses, nor by the Government, and most young women plunged into educational life to sink or swim—some of those who might have sunk emerging after a term or two to take a course of training. The head for many years of the Maria Grey Training College was a University woman (Miss Alice Woods of Girton) and the first head of the Cambridge Training College was from Newnham—Miss E. P. Hughes. Meantime, the standard of attainment in girls' schools was rapidly rising, as women who had received a University education took up posts in them and imbued their pupils with a desire to come up some day to Cambridge. At first, former students had often to work as assistants under Heads of a different and older type, but this was not always a disadvantage, as the older, partly self-taught, mistresses, both of public and private schools, sometimes showed an admirable power of blending the new life which young University teachers brought into the schools with the good traditions of the last generation. In course of time head mistresses were generally appointed from assistants who had a good "degree or its equivalent," and the bonds between schools and the University thus became stronger.

In 1890 the College had again a festive occasion—on the attainment by Miss Philippa Fawcett of a place in the Mathematical Tripos above the Senior Wrangler. The scene in the Senate-house is one that will live in the memory of all who were present. It is pleasant to be able to say that no discordant note was struck. As Miss Fawcett passed out, with Miss Clough leaning on her arm, the undergraduates formed a line on either side and gave a hearty cheer. The event was celebrated at Newnham by a dinner in Hall, at which Mrs. Fawcett was present, and also Dr. Hobson, Miss Fawcett's tutor in mathematics. In the evening her student friends decorated the doorway with lamps, and as there was just then a piece of waste ground at the west-end of the College grounds, it was possible to make a bonfire, and to carry the Senior Wrangler round it, and in the light of the fire to call on Dr. Hobson for a speech. Miss Clough was quietly happy, and all present felt that there was something of poetical justice in the occurrence. Professor and Mrs. Fawcett had been, as we have seen, pioneers in the movement for women's education; they had also been warmly attached to Miss Clough, as, in a more filial way, their daughter had been for many years. Miss Fawcett herself, besides being one to whose brilliant mathematical powers the highest academic honours were due, was a singularly suitable person for this high distinction, in that she exemplified so many of the qualities popularly supposed to be absent from the character of a University woman. She was modest and retiring, almost to a fault—trying though not always successfully, to counteract the impression made by her personality, so as to appear like a very ordinary person—not known to many, but loved as well as admired by her intimate friends. As the subsequent career of Miss Fawcett is not well known, it may be stated here that after the second and more advanced part of the Mathematical Tripos (in which she obtained the highest honours) she held for a year the Marion Kennedy Studentship already referred to, and wrote on a problem involving advanced mathematical research. She subsequently acted as Mathematical Lecturer at Newnham, but feeling, as her father had felt before her, the call of national service above all inducement to academic pursuits, she accepted a Government appointment and went out to help organize education in the Transvaal. After a period of assiduous work in Johannesburg, she returned to England and was appointed a Principal Assistant in the Education Department of the London County Council, a post of much importance and responsibility. Miss Fawcett served for some years on the Council of Newnham College, and has maintained a constant interest in its welfare.

To return to the history of the College: in February 1892 it had to sustain a loss which was hardly less a blow from having come in the ordinary course of nature. Miss Clough was 72 years old in the January of that year. She had to most people looked about the same age for many years, as her hair had whitened early, and the vivid look in her eyes never suggested old age. The portrait of her by Shannon, painted in 1890, gives a better impression of her than Richmond's portrait of 1882.[8] The latter shows, perhaps, more strength, the former more sweetness. But neither can possibly give an adequate interpretation to a face so speaking and changeful. Shannon's is a sympathetic study of calm, benevolent, but alert old age, suggestive of ripe experience and of a patient outlook on life. It hangs in the College Hall with the portraits of Prof. and Mrs. Sidgwick and Miss Kennedy, all of them pleasing and profitable reminders to the students, at their meals, debates, and dancing, of the character as well as the appearance of those to whom they owe their present happy opportunities.

During the later part of her life Miss Clough had been obliged to let some of her work be lightened, and to give the management of Clough Hall to Miss Katharine Stephen, who had formerly been Miss Gladstone's secretary; but she still kept an eye on everything that happened in the College, and many things far beyond. Miss Clough had always felt a deep interest in the colonies, and she kept up a correspondence with past students who had made educational ventures in many distant parts. As one of them said, "her interest in us seemed to vary directly as the squares of the distances," though certainly those nearer to Cambridge would not have accepted such a formula. Such schemes as the mixed education for blacks and whites in Jamaica, the starting of a loan library in tropical Australia, the opening of a boarding-school for aristocratic girls in Siam, aroused her warm interest and often called forth wholesome advice as well as sympathy. She was always able to enjoy a quiet country holiday in vacation time. The pleasures of friendship brought her comfort and enjoyment all her life, during the latter part of which she had the companionship of her niece—daughter of the brother to whom she had owed so much in her early intellectual development—and much care and solicitude from some of the lecturers and of the elder students. She may be said to have died in harness. The last time that she appeared at a meeting for students was to interest them in Mr. Morant's educational efforts in Siam. One of the last visitors from abroad whom she received, lying on a sitting-room couch, was a lady from Australia who could bring tidings of a University hostel managed by a former student. Miss Clough was not sure that this student was working on the best lines, and was anxious to hear about her and to send her a message of kindly warning.

The end came quietly on February 27th, 1892. To very many it seemed as if the world could never be quite the same without her. Certainly the College, however wisely and generously conducted, was bound to follow new courses. Yet in a sense Miss Clough was felix opportunitate mortis. She had lived to see her work set on a stable footing; she might safely leave it in the hands of those like-minded with herself; and she was spared the pain of friction and later of bitter opposition which the College and its promoters had to suffer in seeking a permanent place within University borders.

Miss Clough's kinsfolk showed great breadth of mind, generosity, and appreciation of her own desires and feelings, in arranging that the funeral should be rather of a collegiate than of a family character. She had expressed a wish that her remains should rest in a churchyard rather than a cemetery, and as she possessed a little property in the parish of Grantchester, the burial was in the pleasant ground attached to the church there. A simple slab was afterwards erected with name, date, and the words: "After she had served her generation by the will of God, she fell on sleep." The first part of the service was, by the kind offer of the Provost and Fellows of King's College, read in the beautiful chapel of that College, the services of which had been to her, for many years, a perpetual solace and aid. The Staff of Newnham walked behind the coffin. The Chapel was crowded with members of the University and a great number of former students from all parts of England. The following Sunday (the First in Lent) it fell to Dr. Ryle (now Dean of Westminster) to preach a sermon, and the subject suited to the season and also to Miss Clough's character and work suggested his text: "Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." His reference was very appreciative and delicate. Perhaps it might have struck some hearers that though Miss Clough would have thoroughly appreciated the idea of service in the Christian army, she might not have considered that she had "endured hardness" as much as many others. Her strenuous efforts and personal restrictions were so entirely dictated by the needs of her cause and of the individuals in her charge, that there was no place for asceticism in her life, though much for plain living and high thinking.

The figure of Miss Clough must necessarily look large in the history of Newnham College, since she was both its principal founder and its first head. But it would be useless labour to compare her with other founders and heads. Her objects and her way of obtaining them were peculiar to herself in her particular milieu. When she was removed, others who had supported her were ready to follow up her work, perhaps on more consistently stated principles, with somewhat more of theory in the background. But there were some ideas at the basis of the College recognised only by those who had caught her spirit, either by working under her in life or by imbibing the moral and intellectual atmosphere which for a long time has kept the College sound and wholesome. The mental and moral debt of the present College to her, and to those one may call her disciples, has been more or less manifest already, and will appear more evident in the sequel.

CHAPTER IV
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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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?

"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.

CHAPTER V
PROGRESS, 1900-1914

The years which elapsed between the death of Professor Sidgwick and the retirement of Mrs. Sidgwick from the principalship at the end of 1910 were marked by progress on various lines. The increase of demand for accommodation led to the building of a new Hall, with connecting passages, at right angles to Clough Hall and Kennedy Buildings, and facing the Grange Road. This is on much the same plan as the other Halls, with some very pleasant common rooms, and accommodation for another Vice-Principal (Tutor) and two lecturers, besides about fifty-six students. The central kitchen, which—as already stated—helped greatly to simplify and otherwise improve the domestic arrangements, dates from the same time. Peile Hall was named after Dr. and Mrs. Peile, whose portraits hang in the dining-hall. Dr. Peile died on the very day on which the Hall was opened. It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of the service rendered to the College by Dr. Peile from its first beginnings till the day of his death. He was constant in attending the Council, and was President for many years. His wisdom in giving advice in difficulties was equalled by his courage in defending the College in aspersions and attacks. He had been an intimate friend of Professor Sidgwick and an eager promoter of University reform. Mrs. Peile was intensely interested in everything connected with the College till the loss of her eyesight and her enfeebled health withdrew her from her former activities.

Another external addition to the College is the sunk garden, with fountain, in the lawn immediately opposite the Memorial Gates. It was paid for as part of the memorial above mentioned by subscriptions of students past and present, and the stone margin has for legend: "The daughters of this house to those that shall come after commend the filial remembrance of Henry Sidgwick."

No further steps towards a request for degrees was made for many years after the rebuff in 1897, but in the spring of 1904 a recognition of the status of Tripos students came from an unexpected quarter—the University of Dublin. There had been a party favourable to women graduates in Dublin, and the Royal University of Ireland already granted degrees to those women who had passed its examinations, among whom were the students of Alexandra College, the head of which had herself been a Newnham student. After the death of a very highly respected but also very conservative Provost the authorities of Trinity College admitted women to their degrees, and at the same time offered an ad eundem degree to all women who had passed examinations qualifying for a degree at Oxford or Cambridge. Trinity College already granted the ad eundem degree to graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and this new step amounted to the recognition of the Tripos certificate granted to women at Cambridge as the equivalent of a degree. The result was perhaps surprising to its originators, but not to those who really understood one of the reasons why women students at Oxford and Cambridge had asked for degrees. Numbers of young women trooped over as soon as possible after the results of their tripos were known, to take the B.A. degree. Many others who if degrees at Cambridge had been open to them would have been of M.A. standing took B.A. and M.A. both at Dublin. A few, whose literary or scientific work had made them worthy of a doctorate, were admitted to the higher degree. The Dublin officials were apparently somewhat surprised and puzzled. They generously applied most of the money raised by fees to the establishment of a Hall of residence for women students in Dublin.

This privilege was open to Oxford and Cambridge women for a few years only, since the object which the authorities of Trinity College, Dublin, had in view was to provide for those women who had begun or completed their courses elsewhere and could therefore not make use of the opportunities which the College now offered to women. One great advantage, however, had been derived by the general cause from the temporary grant of Dublin: it had been made clear that the degree of a respected University was, for women, really worth having. Busy women of moderate means do not take long journeys and pay considerable fees (£10 for the B.A. and £20 for the M.A.) for a merely fanciful advantage. Nor would the City Companies, which had granted certain scholarships to Newnham students, have been willing to pay, as they did, the fees for their scholars' Dublin degrees unless they felt sure that these would be to such scholars' advantage. A good many head mistresses felt it an advantage to be able to wear gown and hood, especially when some of their assistants could already wear the academic dress of London or of a Scotch or Welsh University. London did not grant its degrees to Cambridge women without some further test, though it admitted those who had taken Triposes to send in theses for a research M.A. degree without the actual B.A. degree required in men students. The only women who might have taken the Dublin degree, and had not much reason or inclination to do so, were members of the Newnham Staff, whose position was well understood by those around them. If, however, they migrated during the time that the Dublin ad eundem was open to them, they sometimes found it desirable to take it.