“Believe me,
“Yours always truly,
“Frances M. Buss.
“To J. G. Fitch, Esq., M.A.”
In 1881, Mrs. Grey writes to Miss Buss from Naples, on the receipt of the Cambridge Calendar—
“This scheme seems as good as we could expect, and embracing all the most important points so contended for. On the whole, when I recollect the indifference, and sometimes the contemptuous opposition that one met with, even when I first read a paper on the subject, some six years ago, I think the progress has been unexpectedly rapid; and it will be indefinitely accelerated when the Universities (or Cambridge alone) have published their scheme.”
It is only by carefully contrasting the state of girls’ education in 1863 with what, in 1895, is accepted as the natural order of things, that we can estimate duly the value of the work done by the leaders in this movement, amongst whom prominent places must be assigned to Emily Davies and Frances Mary Buss.
We have a pleasant little glimpse of the relations that existed between the two friends in a note found among Miss Buss’ most treasured possessions, with a piece of needlework, marked in her writing, as “worked by Miss Davies.”
“8, Harewood Square, Dec. 20, 1890.
“Dear Miss Buss,