Alice Gardner

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For, after all, the treasure to seek which our pioneers [140] came to Cambridge fifty years ago, is in our possession and likely to remain with us permanently. That treasure is Education: the opportunity of learning from the best teachers; of co-operation with like-minded learners; the opening up of opportunities of learning more of nature and of man; fitness for doing whatever tasks the future may offer to those who seek, like our first benefactors, a life of active and intelligent service. ”

“ But to those who read the correspondence of the founders of these institutions, or whose memory carries them back to the days when they were not only novel but a very godsend to labourers at self-education, the whole movement wears a different aspect. All methods of imparting knowledge are apt to degenerate into tricks for hiding ignorance; even respect for universities and learned men may become mere toadyism. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Perhaps in all the greatest centres of learning there has been first the great teacher—then the scholars who flock to sit at his feet. Colleges and social student life and hostels and regulated grades of teachers and taught are an aftergrowth. So, we may say, the first Newnham students came to Cambridge because great teachers were there; it was not that suitable teachers came because the students had shown a demand for them or for collegiate houses and collegiate life. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Miss Davies considered that any requirements made from women different from those demanded from men would certainly be lower. If women avoided Greek and the other subjects of which boys were supposed to learn something at school, an impression would be created that women were allowed graduate or quasi-graduate status on easier terms than those imposed on men. On the other side there was, in the minds of Sidgwick and others who became the founders of Newnham, a great contempt of the "Poll" as well as of the "Little-go" as marking a very low standard of intellectual achievement. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There had been a Suffrage Society in the College from comparatively early times. It has already been noticed how there had been among the early promoters of higher education for women a good many who set great hopes on the improvement of the position of women as citizens, and especially on their acquisition of the parliamentary vote. There were, however, among Staff and students of Newnham, several who felt much disgusted with the lawlessness and general want of reason and sobriety with which, in some quarters, the political cause of women was associated. ”

“ It will still be practically unable to take any important steps without the advice of some members of the University who are friendly to the College and its Staff. There will always be members of the Senate on the Council of Newnham College, and for some years, it is hoped, on the Governing Body. But beyond actual membership in any body concerned in the government of the College, Newnham must always hope to retain and even to increase the number of Cambridge dons and teachers interested both in its students, who may be their pupils, and in its lecturers, whom they regard as colleagues. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There were generally cultivated adult women grappling with subjects which they ought to have mastered in childhood; and also very young students striving after knowledge of a kind beyond their present reach. Possibly these aberrations made student life more interesting. But they could not fail to be diminished—though not even now eliminated—with the growth of a more uniform standard in the curriculum of girls' schools.
The oldest student society was the Debating Society. It is said to have had its first meetings under the medlar tree in Merton Hall garden. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Meanwhile, a musical society, started in a much humbler way by an industrious student who was desirous of "keeping up her practice" and inducing fellow students to do the same and be ready to play some piece to one another on Saturdays, has developed into a considerable College club called after its foundress, The Raleigh Musical Society. A good many students, too, have been members of the Cambridge University Musical Society. ”

“ 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 [103] examinations of Cambridge, Oxford, and Durham; all the other Universities having opened their degrees. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ At the same time, advocates of higher education were unlikely to be possessed—as were a few excellent and high-minded women—by the idea of the suffrage as a panacea for all women's grievances or a necessary condition of any step towards social betterment. Necessity and common sense prescribed caution to the pioneers who were directing their efforts to obtain some measure of university education for women able to profit thereby. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [51] 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. ”