A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge

by Alice Gardner

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.

MRS. HENRY SIDGWICK. From the portrait by J. J. Shannon, R.A.

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.