1. Appendix A.

2. The paragraphs and brackets are the writer’s own.

3. Note the similarity of the name to her signature on p. 5. Many a little girl has loved to imagine herself a fairy princess. It would be interesting to know whether any other ever dreamed of being a “Despotic Emperor.”

4. She would probably not have elected to be there on the morning when some imp induced Sophy to tip over a bench on to the row of girls kneeling in front of her.

5. She used to say that her intimate familiarity with the details of harnessing and all stable matters was due to the fact that when they were spending a holiday in the country her father allowed them to have a pony and trap on condition that, with the exception of actual grooming, the children managed it entirely themselves.

6. “I must tell you my experience,” writes Mrs. Jex-Blake to Dr. Lucy Sewall a quarter of a century later, “not my own practice, it was not the fashion of my day (and having lost my three eldest I was very anxious and fidgetty):—Where children are trusted and have a good deal of independence, and their tempers not fretted about little things, they grow up more open, confiding and trustworthy.”

7. She had her own little garden at Ramsgate.

8. Her brother had called at the school, immaculately dressed, and had behaved to the schoolmistress so charmingly that poor Sophy felt herself quite left out in the cold, and had doubtless responded with positive rudeness. What sort of visit was this from a beloved brother?

9. There is no other reference to the visit to Worthing.

10. From their earliest years the children were drilled in the virtue of economy. The references to the altering and letting-down of frocks, the calculation of pence for ribbon or frill, the careful computation of the length of time a pair of boots might be expected to last,—all these form instructive reading when one bears in mind the social position of the family and the large sums of money which the parents habitually gave away.

11. “Dec. 20th, 1859. Strange truth this: How already that hope has changed!”

12. This longing for rest was something deeper than the ordinary sentimentality of adolescence. She always said that by nature she was lazy, and the saying was not devoid of truth.

13. It was an interesting and typical stage in the development of women when a girl found it necessary to “go into hysterics” in order to convince her father of her right to an education.

14. See Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s interesting record of “The First College for Women.”

15. The reference is not to S. J.-B.’s own parents.

16. Life of Octavia Hill.

17. Life of Octavia Hill.

18. Miss Heaton.

19. By the charm of his personality, she means, of course; not by design.

20. Life of Octavia Hill.

21. Until circumstances rendered Miss Hill independent of such aid.

22. Dr. Southwood Smith, Miss Hill’s grandfather.

23. Miss Miranda Hill.

24. Poems by A. A. Procter.

25. The letter has not been preserved.

26. More than a year later Miss Hill wrote: “I wonder if it would be any comfort to you if you could know the infinite love the thought of you, specially of any pain of yours, calls up ... how passionately do I cling to a like trust in you that your pain may not be tenfold increased ... by any sense of desertion in spirit.... And yet, Sophy, this thought of me must fail you as time goes on, for you cannot see why I act as I do.... My love will be ready for you when He who is teaching us both shall bring us together again.”

27. Talking of the difficulties in the way of Practical Anatomy, someone had suggested that Miss Garrett should get ‘nice little subjects.’

28. Englishwoman’s Educational Union,—a society planned by S. J.-B., which should form a meeting ground for really qualified teachers, and also a means of registration.

29. Miss Miranda Hill’s loyalty and devotion to S. J.-B. never flagged.

30. Mrs. Jex-Blake writes about this time,—“I feel such a real sympathy for the English teacher—Lucy Snow—it is quite a pity you haven’t it with you—I think your Institut and the Park and Ducal Palace tally very well with Villette. Fortunately you have no male tyrant like Monsieur Paul,—do you remember Miss Lucie being locked into an attic, with beetles, a rat, and possibly a ghost:—to learn in a few hours a part in a play?”

31. The account is really written some weeks later, as there was great delay in the arrival of the box in which she had packed her diary.

32. The building had originally been a monastery.

33. She did not always find this quite so easy. On October 17th she writes in her diary:diary: “Being all but late this morning, it is decreed that for one week from this time S. J-B. rises every morning while the stroke of the half hour and minute hand are ‘one and the same straight line.’

“Now, Resolution:”

It is scarcely necessary to say that Resolution responded to the appeal.

34. “I an’t just. There’s a fact. I’m sorry for it, but it’s true. As my sky is bluer or greyer, as I see, or think I see, more or less into a child’s character, the scale varies. Justice is blind no longer, but gives a chuck to one side or the other.”

35. Mr. Morse had unwittingly given her some encouragement previously by telling the story of a candidate for Orders, who when asked “If any man broached before you doubts of the divinity of our Lord (‘and I needn’t tell you,’ said Mr. Morse to S. J.-B., ‘what a difficult subject that is’) what answer would you make?”

“My Lord, I beg that you won’t suppose that I keep such company.”company.”

“Well, but if——?”

“My Lord, I should take up my hat and walk out.”

“(Prudent too),” comments S. J.-B.

36. Appendix B.

37. See inter alia Whittier’s poem, “The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall, 1697.”

38. It was only for a very brief period of her life that S. J.-B. would have called herself by this name.

39. The reference is probably to the reply of Wilberforce when asked whether in his struggle for the emancipation of the slaves, he was not neglecting his own soul,—“I had forgotten that I had a soul.”

40.

41. The Schools Inquiry Commission, presumably.

42. Appendix C.

43. As early as June, 1866, she had written to Dr. Sewall:—“I am glad you are pleased with prospects as to the College; but, however good you may get it to be, take notice (if I study at all) I don’t mean to graduate at any Woman’s College,—on principle,—or else for vanity and ambition sake,—which is it?” Whichever it was, there can be no doubt as to the soundness of the decision, but she little guessed what that decision was to cost.

44. Miss Susan Dimock was a student of great promise who afterwards completed her education at Zurich. She was lost at sea in the wreck of the steamer Schiller in May 1875.

45. Some few intimate friends will recall the evenings, 30 or 40 years later, round the study fire at Windydene, when the white-haired woman would recite Sir Launfal from beginning to end with a subdued enthusiasm that was more expressive than pages of commentary.

46. The dog was named Turk, and became a devoted friend.

47. “Slightly” is interpolated in the original letter.

48. “By the way your accounts of your dress are just a shade contradictory,” writes Miss Du Pre somewhat later. “One day you tell me you look disreputable and plunge me into depths of anxiety! and the next you say you are ‘very tidy.’ Isn’t this more than average inconsistency?”

49. After Miss Garrett had obtained her diploma, the Society of Apothecaries passed a resolution forbidding students henceforth to receive any part of their education privately, thus making it impossible even for a woman of means to follow in her steps.

50. To the irreparable loss of the women students, Sir James Simpson died in the spring of the following year.

51. As Physiology was Dr. Bennett’s speciality, the admission was worth having.

52. It must be borne in mind that at this time the question was before the Professors of the Medical Faculty only.

53. “Walking in Darkness.”

54. This suggestion had been made to her by one of the legal professors.

55. “Tell me everything that happens,” writes Miss Du Pre about this time, “so that I may not lose the thread of your history. I think I know most of the people’s names now, and should not require much explanation. You need not tell me in every letter that Sir A. Grant is the Principal. I’ll try to remember that fact.”

56. Daily Review, Aug. 5, 1870.

57. “Strangely” when compared with the families of her contemporaries. “When I told Mamma I had got my certificate,” said a former fellow-student, “she said ‘Have you?’ When I told Uncle, he said ‘What good is it?’ When I told Emily, she said, ‘I am very glad to hear it, but I am very much surprised.’”

58. Money borrowed from Mrs. Jex-Blake was refunded as strictly as if it had been borrowed from a banker.

59. Brit. Med. Journal, April 16th, 1870.

60. The words in brackets were omitted from the resolution, but introduced in the speech supporting it.

61. The Times, April 25th, 1870.

62. April 27th, 1870.

63. April 23rd, 1870.

64. Appendix D.

65. Afterwards Sir Patrick Heron Watson.

66. June 18th, 1870.

67. Not to be confused with Dr. Hughes Bennett, who had lectured to the women on Physiology.

68. Lancet, July 9, 1870.

69. This is a neutral and harmless paraphrase of the arguments some of the professors actually used in talking to the students, but one does not want to perpetuate the memory of words used in an angry conflict.

70. The Courant, Nov. 19, 1870.

71. One hopes this fact was incorrectly reported; it has never been contradicted. Possibly the Professor was annoyed at being asked to effect that by force which could safely be confided to the gentlemanly feeling of his students.

72. In January, 1886, Mr. Robert Wilson had an article, “Æsculapia Victrix,” in the Fortnightly Review.

73. Spectator, December 3, 1870.

74. Someone has pointed out that she was the first woman to speak in St. Giles’ Church since Jenny Geddes threw her stool at the minister.

75. At a later date (1872) the Church Review became definitely friendly.

76. Scotsman, January 3, 1871.

77. January 5, 1871.

78. “God bless the Massons,” writes Mrs. Jex-Blake, “for cheering my darling on Christmas Day.”

79. Scotsman, May 31, 1871.

80. The amount claimed—£1000—was only specified when the case came into Court, having been inadvertently omitted from the issue.

81. Edinburgh Evening Courant, June 1, 1871.

82. “Of course, as you know, I daresay,” writes Professor Jack to S. J.-B. about this time, “all the articles that appear in the Herald are mine, and especially the good ones.”

83. Mrs. Hill Burton, Rev. Professor Calderwood, Treasurer Colston, J. R. Findlay, Esq., David Greig, Esq., Mrs. Hope of Drylaw, Miss Agnes M‘Laren, Mrs. Nichol, Admiral Sir W. Ramsay, K.C.B., Miss L. Stevenson, and R. S. Wyld, Esq.

84. “If you, as the honoured and trusted representative of us working women, are insulted for us all, the grosser the insult, the more secure you must be of sympathy and gratitude from increasing multitudes of individuals, and of the adoption of our cause as a practical aim by the best part of society in our day.”

85. Miss Louisa Stevenson and Mrs. Henry Kingsley had kindly undertaken to be Hon. Treasurers of the fund.

86. It is interesting to note that at this time almost all public-spirited women thought the suffrage would be granted before the right to a medical education. They had so nearly got it more than once! “You will accomplish nothing,” S. J-B. was sometimes told, “until we get the vote.” And one is grimly amused to find her expressing a serious fear that the suffrage may be granted before she has had an opportunity of hearing her friend, Miss M‘Laren, speak in support of it. She need have entertained no undue apprehension on this score.

87. The name by which Miss Louisa Stevenson was affectionately known in the little circle.

88. Mr. Charles M‘Laren (now Lord Aberconway) and Mr. Walter M‘Laren were of the party.

89. Clerk of the University.

90. The dates of these three letters are correctly given. They were all delivered by hand.

91. Lancet, November 4, 1871.

92. “The Court find it inexpedient at present to rescind the said resolutions and regulations, and therefore decline to give effect to the decision of the Senatus. The Court must not be understood as indicating by this deliverance any opinion as to the claims of women to proceed to graduation, or as to the power of the University to confer on women degrees in the Faculty of Medicine.” Commd. by direction of the University Court. J. Christison, W.S., Sec.

93. The following scrap has been inadvertently preserved. There is not even any certain indication to whom it is addressed:

“When I came into the Anatomical room and saw you sitting there dissecting, I was overpowered,—utterly conquered. When I spoke to you and you looked up at me to answer, the look you gave me was the coup de mort!—I determined then in my own mind to seek you for my wife....

But to see you as you were then with your superlative beauty, working so bravely, so sensibly,—all fashion, frivolity and folly cast aside,—was to me so new, so strange and so admirable a sight, that on considering and re-considering it, I don’t wonder at myself for flinging aside ordinary prudence to make a snatch at a jewel of such unusual brilliancy.”

It is almost disappointing to reflect that the recipient of this tribute was not equally prepared to “fling aside ordinary prudence.”

94. It was at this Christmas season that Miss Miranda Hill sent to her old friend, in the form of a brooch, a “winged Victory,”—meaning, she said, “many things,”—“the victory of a stedfast noble purpose over outward obstacles, of love over time.”

95. “Ring out the grief that saps the mind,” is Tennyson’s line. S. J.-B.’s version needs no explanation.

96. January 29, 1872.

97.

98. Miss Massingberd Mundy was one of the junior students who did not go on to graduation, but her gaiety and humour made her a real acquisition to the little circle in the trying days.

99. S. J.-B. appealed to Sir Robert Anstruther; and there is a businesslike note from Lady Anstruther, asking for a very brief summary of all the main events,—just the thing that only S. J.-B. could supply.

The matter was brought forward in Aug. 1872, on Sir Robert Anstruther’s behalf, by Sir D. Wedderburn, see below.

100. In addition to these six, Professor Fleeming Jenkin and Professor Cosmo Innes removed their names from the list of defenders.

101. Professor Hodgson was a recent addition to the professorial staff, and a great asset to the women’s cause.

102. As a matter of fact a number of students came—unasked—to serve as stewards.

103. See S. J.-B.’s letter to Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, pp. 356-7.

104. See p. 260.

105. The following is a fair average specimen of the cordiality with which the book was received:—“So convincing is the argument, so obvious the conclusions to which it leads up, that one fairly wonders, after putting down the essay in which they are enforced, how it should have come to pass in this nineteenth century that it should be necessary for any such essay to be written.”—Liverpool Mercury.

106. Mr. Stansfeld was President of the Local Government Board.

107. To visit the friend who had been ill.

108. See extract from Lancet, p. 319.

109. See Huxley’s Life, i. 387.

110. The previous letter has not been found.

111. Lord Provost.

112. “... And now a flood of memories of sweet Windydene brings tears to my eyes. No fear there of rowdy ricsha coolies in a narrow alley quarrelling over the right of way—nor rattle of carriages with their annoying official bell ‘Clear the way’ up to 2 a.m.—but just silent peace. My heaven will certainly have to be silence for a space. But Windydene contains ... and the Doctor, and I remember talks over the drawing-room fire, and those incomparable evenings in the Doctor’s Study, and as these thoughts make one both weepy and sentimental, I had better stop.” Extract from a letter from Dr. Lillie Saville, Tientsin, Jan. 7th, 1911.

113. Appendix E.

114. “In this case, as in most others, those who say they want a thing must put their own shoulders to the wheel in order to obtain it, and must be prepared to back the soundness of their opinions. If only twenty women annually could be added to the ranks of the medical profession in this country, the expediency of the addition would be speedily removed from the domain of controversy, and the expression, ‘Solvitur ambulando,’ which Mrs, Anderson calls an adage, would be applicable to the case.”

115. Appendix F.

116. Lord Houghton was President of the Congress. In a letter to his wife, dated October 3rd, 1873, he says, “Miss Jex-Blake and Mrs. Grey both spoke capitally.” Lord Houghton’s Life, vol. ii. p. 281.

117. “Medical Women,” by the Right Hon. James Stansfeld, M.P., Nineteenth Century, July, 1877.

118. Mr. Lowe’s advocacy was strengthened by a fine memorial presented to him at this time by 471 graduates of the University of London, praying that the benefits of the University should be extended to women. This memorial was secured through the exertions of Dr. Alfred Shewen.

119. “I was very much troubled by your last letter,” wrote Dr. Sewall a month later, “for the idea of your beginning to practise without a diploma seems to me such a mistake. It appears to me that by practising illegally in that way, you will be giving up all you have been fighting for, and will be opening a way that some women who have not studied thoroughly may use; and there will be no way of your showing the public the difference between your qualifications.”