A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge

								

revived at the annual Commemoration, how it was once seriously proposed
to lower the standard of arithmetic to suit the capacity of the
girls. Happily the suggestion was not followed. The notion that women
cannot do hard sums was one of the "hasty generalizations" as to the
constitution of the female mind, "with the wrecks of which," it was
afterwards said, "the whole shore has been strewn."
The deficiencies of the schools were largely due to the fact that no
opportunities of education were available for intending teachers. The
more enlightened schoolmistresses had to struggle against masses of
prejudice, indifference and materialism in the minds of parents and
of the public, and many of them were eager for improvement. In 1866,
the Society of London Schoolmistresses was formed for mutual help
and encouragement, and similar societies were established in various
localities, which lent support to the efforts of well-wishers in the
Universities and elsewhere.
(3) Then again there were early schemes for lectures to women in
different parts of the country, and these have branched out and become
more effectual than any measure for educational improvement among
persons for whom residence at a university was impossible. Here, as
in many regions, Miss Clough was a pioneer, and this branch of work
brought about the connection of Cambridge with one side of the movement
and led directly to the starting of what grew into Newnham College.
The body which accomplished the chief initial work in the matter
of local lectures for women was "The North of England Council for
improving the Education of Women." To the organization of this
society, Miss Clough gave much thought and attention, especially in
1867 and the following years. It was formed from an amalgamation of
societies having the same object, in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield,
Leeds and Newcastle. Among Miss Clough's colleagues on this Council
were Mr. (afterwards Canon) and Mrs. Butler, Mr. (now Lord) Bryce,
Mr. F. W. H. Myers, and Mr. (afterwards Professor) James Stuart. It
was Mr. Stuart who, after his experience in the North of England,
proposed and brought about in 1873 the organization of local lectures
by the Universities. It is needless to go into the history of the
subsequent development of University Extension. Begun primarily in the
interests of women, it was extended to meet the needs of busy men with
free evenings, working people, and all who wished in their leisure to
prolong their education and gain culture.
(4) The work of the North of England Council led to a further step
in the early development of what I have called "Newnham College in
Idea," viz. the founding of the Cambridge Higher Local Examination.
The request for an examination for women over eighteen came from the
Council and was supported on the ground that it was desirable to have a
definite and intelligible test for teachers, with some means of giving
system to the lecture movement as far as it affected women, and of