A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge

								

their difficulties with them and recommend books. Such was eminently
the position of Miss Clough herself. Her education--discursive and not
without lacunae--had been a home education, her chief mentor an Oxford
brother, whose mind and tone of character it is superfluous here to
describe. It was in great part to help those who, like herself, had
had aspirations after knowledge and culture, and who, unlike herself,
had not always had sympathetic homes, that she and other pioneers in
Cambridge desired to secure facilities of continuous study under the
direction of capable and inspiring teachers.
It may be advisable to indicate briefly the different ways in which
efforts were made to meet the existing wants, some of which led up to
the goal of university education for women.[1]
[Footnote 1: In this part of the subject, and indeed throughout my
task, I am constantly indebted to the Memoir of Anne J. Clough by her
Niece, B. A. Clough. This book ought to be familiar to all interested
in educational movements, since Miss Clough, while most closely
associated with the University side of the movement, was throughout her
life collaborating with great sympathy and insight with those at work
in other departments.]
(1) The first step was the establishment of larger and better schools,
and provision for more advanced teaching. Queen's College, Harley
Street, first presided over by F. D. Maurice, was founded in 1848 and
is still at work; Bedford College (now a College of London University)
was founded in 1849; the North London Collegiate School and Cheltenham
College (which both maintain their position as schools of first-rate
standing) in 1850 and 1858. There were started, besides, some colleges
expressly for women intending to become teachers (the Maria Grey, Home
and Colonial, etc.). At present the need of some serious training in
the art of teaching is widely recognised. In the early days of the
Women's Education Movement, a young woman had often practically to
choose between gaining more knowledge, and learning to make the most of
the little which she had. This difficulty is now much diminished, if
not entirely removed.
(2) But almost more important than the new foundations, started
generally by private effort, was the successful attempt to secure
some kind of government inspection of girls' schools and the
synchronizing responsibility undertaken by the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge in admitting girls to the Local Examinations. In 1864,
the Schools Inquiry Commission were requested to include in their
task the inspection of Girls' Schools. The result was a revelation
of superficiality, narrowness, and general inefficiency which awoke
a portion at least of the educated public to the need of reform. The
result of the new experiment (1865) of admitting girls to the Cambridge
Senior and Junior examinations showed similar defects. Many generations
of Newnham students have been amused to hear among the recollections