“It never yet did hurt To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.”
With the success of this first public meeting, it was hoped that the tide had turned. On February 15, 1871, a drawing-room meeting at the house of Mr. E. C. Robins gave still further encouragement. I had prepared a paper, entitled “Pearl and Sea-foam,” contrasting the solid work of the education given to boys with the evanescent glitter of that thought to be sufficient for girls, and giving an account of Miss Buss’ work and aims.
A good discussion followed, in which many persons interested in education took part. The immediate result was the active adhesion of Mr. John Neate, who undertook to interest some of the City Companies. This was a real advance. Hitherto there had been a general agreement that “something ought to be done,” and that “somebody ought to do it;” but it was also generally agreed that “somebody else” was responsible for action in the matter, and we had not yet found this very essential personage. The discovery was now made that in the City Companies, which had done so much for boys, we should without doubt find all that could be desired.
104The prospect did indeed seem hopeful. We had already on our own governing body a member of the Merchant Taylors’ Company in Mr. W. Timbrell Elliott. Our new friends, Mr. Robins and Mr. Neate, belonged to the Dyers’ and the Clothworkers’ Companies, and all three gentlemen became, within a short time, the Masters of their respective Companies. We had, however, to wait quite till the end of the year before the first large donation of ￡100 from the Fishmongers’ Company set the example, afterwards followed by the Brewers’ and the Clothworkers’ Companies in the gift of the school-buildings.
Mr. Robins printed the first copies of “Pearl and Sea-foam,” which were found useful in our next effort to secure ￡500 in ￡5 donations, for the barely necessary furniture in the two schools. Miss Buss had left the greater part of her furniture in Camden Street, and had gone to an empty building at 202, Camden Road; but about this time she writes—
“If we could raise ￡500 in addition to what we have, I think we might, for the present, let the North London Collegiate School go on alone.
“The first thing next term will be to apply to City Companies for the Camden School.
“I am very busy, as you can guess, and you will not mind this work.
“I could send such a statement to some people, I think. But I would suggest that the whole trouble should fall on you, by your giving your name and address as Hon. Sec., or receiver, or anything you like. Any names I obtained I would send to you.”
“March 23.
“What a very nice woman that Australian lady must be! Somehow I have been in a depressed or out-of-tune condition all day, and now—faithless that I am—your note comes to cheer me up and give me fresh hope. How wonderful is the all-prevailing law of compensation! Sunshine and shade vary our days.”
105“March 27.
“The City people are not to be moved to do anything that is not in the City. Honour and glory follow there, so there they will work.
“Mr. Rogers is about to open his school, and when it is done, it will be published, with a flourish of trumpets, ‘See what the City does! It inaugurates a new era,’ etc. But, after all, what matters it if the work is done?
“Mr. Rogers has already been attacked, I assure you. I went straight off to Mr. Jowett, some time since, to strengthen him, if necessary, by arguments in behalf of girls.
“Miss Davies helps me as much as she can, but her energies, interests, hopes are all centred in the College. She cannot well beg for two different things at one time, and it is for this reason that she is not one of our trustees.
“There are three City men who have in their hands a capital sum of ￡30,000—half of this is to be spent on a girls’ school in the City.
“Nothing but an organized opposition through the Charity Commission will make them do anything else. ￡15,000 on one school, and that in the City, where it is not wanted, especially if Mr. Rogers’ school be opened! I mean to try and get a grant out of them—they have given three grants, each of a thousand, to Mr. Rogers—but, you will see, they will give another thousand to him for his girls’ school, and they will give nothing to us, because we are not in the City.
“Here we begin with nothing—in the Camden School, at all events. We must work on and get publicity, then we may get money.”
“March 27, 1871.
“Mrs. Grey’s letter came to-day. You will see that her paper may help us a little, but not very much. I have no idea as to an ‘advocate.’ Dr. Hodgson is at Bournemouth—Mr. Cooke Taylor I know nothing of—Mr. Lee is the only person I can think of now, and there are several reasons against asking him. Between now and the 31st could we not get some one to pay us a visit and speak up for us?
“I will send Mrs. Grey your paper, but I rather think she had a copy.
“My holiday trip was delightful....
“Will you tell me when we meet whether you would consent to become one of ‘my’ trustees?”
106“May 9, 1871.
“How brave and earnest you are! It is such a comfort to me! You can have no idea of what work and worry I have to face, and almost single-handed.
“Please accept my proposal to become a trustee. Your help will be invaluable to me and to the Cause, and, as a trustee, you can say and do much more for us.
“Let me know if you accept.”
“May 23, 1871.
“I want to see you very much. You were unanimously elected a member of our Board yesterday, and were also, at my request, put on the Memorial Committee, which is to deal with the question of applications for money from Companies, etc.
“I have written to ever so many people, but have no more names. We have got a list of the Companies, of their clerks, of their styles, ‘Worshipful,’ etc.
“The ￡5 collection was well received yesterday when I mentioned it at our meeting, and the list has gone to the printer. I am really quite hopeful about it.
“There are 112 girls in the Camden Schools now, and I want you to write, if you can, to Irwin Cocks, Esq. (or Cox?), editor of the Queen, 346, Strand, stating what we are doing, how we have started this school, etc. He would probably insert it, and then a friend, Miss Chessar, would write a short leader about it. It seems rather too bad to trouble you, but I really am too overdone with the inner work of the two schools to be able to do much in the outer work.
“Mrs. Laing will put our papers into Mrs. Craik’s hands, to-morrow—D. M. Muloch, I mean.
“Can you tell me for certain what is Sir John Bowring’s Company? We must begin with that.”
Lady Bowring had gone over the schools with me, and, like all who saw them, was charmed with her visit. She had promised to secure Sir John Bowring’s interest with his own Company and with the Gilchrist Trust. From the latter help came in scholarships.
But of the uses of “Pearl and Sea-foam” none gave me so much satisfaction as this letter from Mrs. S. C. Hall—
107“April 6, 1871.
“My dear Annie,
“If it please God to prolong my days and my ability to work, after I have been able, by my exertions, to add a small additional ward to the Great Northern Hospital, my present impression is that I should like to help the educational plan of Miss Buss. But I never could devote my heart to two things at once, and that Great Northern Hospital is what I shall work and beg for—and nothing else—during the next year. I hate bazaars, but there is no other way that I know of to get the necessary funds—except a concert—and, at present, I can only grope my way.
“Mr. Ruskin has not been here since Christmas, but I can say anything to him, now that I know him so well; and, after I have had some hospital talk with him, I will give him your ‘Foam,’ and ask him to see Miss Buss’ schools.
“He is most charming. It always does my heart good to see him playing with the dogs on the hearthrug. Oxford takes up a good deal of his time. Miss Hill looks after his cottages. Dear little Joan Agnew is to be married this month. I am so glad she is to live at Denmark Hill. She is such a lovely darling.
“I am very glad Mr. Hall suggested that art work to you; only don’t make yourself ill over it.
“With warm regards to all,
“Your affectionate friend,
“A. M. H.”
After Mrs. S. C. Hall’s first letter I had met at her house both Mrs. Laing and the Rev. T. Pelham Dale, friends of Miss Buss, who warmly took her part. After much effort, Mrs. Hall and Miss Buss met at last, being mutually attracted.
Some extracts from Miss Buss’ letters at this time show how very busy she was—
“Mrs. S. C. Hall and I have not converted each other yet. Why? Because she was not well, and I did not go!”
And later—
“Mrs. Hall asked me yesterday to go to lunch with her to-morrow. But, most unfortunately, I had engaged a railway carriage to take the girls in my house to Windsor, and cannot 108possibly send them without me. I could go to-morrow afternoon, but I have a meeting of my Dorcas Committee, followed by a teachers’ meeting. Both these must be given up if I go to Mrs. S. C. Hall’s, and, as you have already met this Indian gentleman, it seems scarcely worth while, either for you or me.
“I am glad Mrs. Hall is being led to see that a woman may have cultivation, and yet be able to mend a glove. Why people should insist on thinking that the education which should make a man must be injurious to a woman, is, to me, perplexing.”
Though Mrs. S. C. Hall declined to beg for us herself, she did very good service in introducing Miss Geraldine Jewsbury, who threw herself heart and soul into the work, bringing many useful friends, and, above all, by her own bright, breezy nature, cheering Miss Buss in many an hour when hope was low.
“Miss Jewsbury has raised again some hope—only I fear she has not had so much experience as you and I, in asking and failing. She is quite charming.
“Monday.
“These suggestions of Mr. Robins’ have been carried out, as you see. By to-morrow night, every member of every court of every Company will have had an invite to Friday’s meeting, and a circular of the Camden Schools.
“I have asked Miss Cobbe to help us to publicity, and Mr. Edwin H. Abbott, of the City of London School, will speak. I will see about Mr. Bompas.
“Invitations have been sent to every parent in both schools; have been left at every house in the High Street.
“I have bought twenty-eight prizes, have ordered labels to put inside, have harangued the Camden girls, have divided all my girls, and have had a dreadful day’s work. But one hopes on, and I have been for years accustomed to find ‘after many days.’”
At the prize-giving of the Camden School the Lord Mayor (Sir T. Dakin) took the chair, and there were present the Lady Mayoress, Mrs. Laing, Mrs. Burbury, Miss Emily Davies, the Rev. Edwin Abbott, Mr. Fitch, Mr. Joseph Payne, and other friends of Higher Education. Dr. Abbott, head-master of the 109City of London School, spoke very strongly on the duty of the Mayor and Corporation to provide for girls schools similar to those of their brothers.
On the following day Lord Dartmouth presided over the meeting for the Upper School, also held at St. George’s Hall, Langham Place, at which Harvey Lewis, Esq., M.P., and Arthur Roebuck, Esq., M.P., Mrs. Grey, Miss Jewsbury, Mrs. Henry Kingsley, and many others, were present.
A few days after the meetings, Miss Buss writes—
“We are agitating beautifully. Dr. Storrar read me a private, but very encouraging note from Lord Lyttelton, saying that we should have some endowments as soon as they can lay their hands on any.
“This will probably be very useful to us. As Mr. Robins says, our school must be the first of a series, encircling the City. Boys go immense distances to the City schools, showing it would be better, physically and morally, to have the schools within reach of the parents. Constant railway travelling is bad for growing lads, and there is no telling the amount of moral injury from companions in railway carriages, of whom the parents know nothing.
“This cannot be tolerated for girls!...
“Do you smile inwardly at our getting the start? Whether successful or not, we are first in the field, anyway, even in the City. I feel quite lighthearted because—you will not guess—but Mr. Danson has been at work over the accounts, all day yesterday and all day to-day. He is so thoroughly business-like, and so good-natured and patient, that it is a sensible relief to me. He has time and knowledge, and is willing to devote both as his share of work.
“I think we shall leave London, by the night mail, on Friday in time to catch the Hull boat to Gottenburg, which starts at six a.m. on Saturday.
“As I am always very sea-sick, the rest I so much want will be got on board by means of being compelled to be still.
“My beginning of that last sentence wants an explanation, I see, so now you have it. Collapse comes on, in a mild form, after weeks of work, at the rate of fifteen hours per diem. I trust by the time we reach Gottenburg to have recovered.
110“Mr. Robins asked me to the Swan-hopping dinner; but as it is on the 7th, I must not give up a week’s holiday for it. So Mr. Lee is going to advocate our cause privately as opportunity serves.
“Mr. Elliott has invited me to the Merchant Taylors’ dinner, on Thursday next, in the Crystal Palace. To that I am going; more, however, from policy than from inclination, as it is very possible I shall have to sit up best part of the night to pack for my journey, and put away all other things until my return.”
“Did it ever occur to you that packing, etc., or indeed, anything peculiarly womanly, is difficult, almost impossible to a woman who leaves home, day after day, at 8.30, and does not return, often—well, sometimes till 10.30 at night? That is my programme lately. But how much I talk of myself....
“I am obliged to break off hastily. I have been waiting at Myra Lodge for visitors who have not come! Quel bonheur!”
“July 24, 1871.
“This morning Mr. Lee and I met Dr. Storrar and Mr. Robins at the Mansion House. The Lord Mayor spoke most pleasantly to us. He will give us a note, which Mr. Lee proposes to have lithographed, and a copy of this will accompany every memorial. The Lord Mayor was particularly agreeable to me, and congratulated me warmly; he is very much interested indeed, and hopes to pay us a visit in working hours early next term. At all events, the Lady Mayoress will come—we must keep her up to it. The census shows a steady decrease in residents in the City!”
“July 27, 1871.
“Pray read the attack on us in to-day’s Times. The fight has begun. We are not really in opposition. Any school in the City opened by Mr. Rogers will not prevent the necessity of a Camden Town district school.
“I only trust the Lord Mayor will not back out!”
Happily, the Lord Mayor stood firm, and wrote a strong letter of appeal to go out with the memorial to the City Companies.
Miss Buss’ holiday was most profitably spent in Sweden and Denmark, where she gathered many educational facts and theories, and where she found 111the Swedish desk, which she was the first to introduce into English schools.
The September campaign began with the Lord Mayor’s appeal, but progress was still very slow. Miss Geraldine Jewsbury’s warm sympathy was still a great comfort, but her letters show the difficulties encountered. Speaking of one friend, she says—
“I must neither ask her to subscribe nor to ask her husband; in fact, I could not rouse her interest in this quarter. She says she and her husband have embarked so much in the cause of education that they can do no more. But it is all for boys, of course. However, ￡5 is ￡5, and I think more of it than any other ￡5 I ever earned. I could never have believed in the difficulty of getting money for such a good purpose if I had not tried.
“Give my love to Miss Buss, and tell her not to lose heart. But it is trying and uphill work! Only her example strengthens others in all ways.”
“Selwood Park, Sept. 3, 1871.
“Dear Miss Ridley,
“The enclosed letters will show you that I have not forgotten that poor Mr. Ruskin was to be my main hope. His illness has been very serious, and I know not at this moment where he is. I shall certainly see him when there is any chance of his being able to take thought of anything. I know how much interest he would have taken in the schools, and, I hope, will take in them yet.
“The lady in whom I most trusted to give me money has given me just nothing, and no promises even, nor expression of interest, and the aggravating thing is the reasons she gave! She has anticipated for two years the sum she gives to charitable objects or social progress to—the Society for Advancing Female Suffrage!!!
“I have been entirely unsuccessful so far, but am not going to lose heart nor hope; for success does not depend on whether an object is supported by many or by few. And I feel that these schools are just the most important step that has yet been taken for women, giving a solid foundation of good training, and Miss Buss has been raised up and trained for the emergency. She is doing the real needful work without minding the clatter of nonsense 112that is being talked about Woman’s Rights, and all the rest of it. The waste of money is the least part of one’s regret.
“My counsel and advice is, first, to write to the Lord Mayor and tell him that his example would be readily followed, and entreat him to lead the forlorn hope and give a small sum of money. I would write the letter gladly, only you can do it better, and are in the midst of the business of the schools.
“I will write to Mr. Roebuck, and see if he can rouse any interest. Do you also write to Mrs. Newmarch. Tell her the urgency of the matter; write such a letter as she can give her husband—not too long, but urgent. Write to Miss Cobbe, and beg her to make an article of appeal in the Echo, and at the same time interesting. Shoot all these arrows at once, and some of them will hit.
“I feel ashamed and disgusted at the tardy and small response you have met with; but, as nothing really good ever dies out, I am not cast down, and I feel just the same interest as at first—I have still one card to play for you, as I have not made my appeal to Mrs. Huth, and that I will do, both to her and her husband, sending on your letter. Do not let Miss Buss lose heart. Give my love to her, and tell her that though I have not brought in anything yet it has not been for want of talking and trying. There is always a dead pull in all undertakings to get them uphill; the wheels seem to stick fast, but, after a while, if this pull is continued, they move. Let me hear from you again, please, and
“Believe me, yours very truly,
“Geraldine E. Jewsbury.”
I wrote to Mr. Ruskin, mentioning Miss Jewsbury’s request, and with great pleasure received a kind letter in reply, expressing interest in what I had told him of the school, and of the feeling of the founder. But, having at least three times more work on his hands than he was able for just then, he could do nothing till after the Christmas vacation, when it might be possible for him to come to see what was being done and what he might be able to do to forward the work.
It was always a regret to us that this visit never came to pass. Miss Buss and her girls missed what would have been a great delight, and Mr. Ruskin also 113missed the sight of healthy and womanly work and play which could not have failed to please as well as to cheer him in its hope for the future.
Miss Buss’ letters for the next few months show the effect of the strain of suspense and of hope deferred—
“Myra Lodge, 10 p.m., Sept. 27, 1871.
“Not ten minutes’ leisure till now, dear Miss Ridley. Teaching in the morning, a large Dorcas meeting in the afternoon, and an overwhelming mass of business correspondence—not nearly gone through yet, however.
“First, an answer from the Goldsmiths has come. You do not need to be told what that answer is.
“An idea has struck me that it might be well for us to ask those who have subscribed so far whether they give to one school more than another? If not, let us divide the subscriptions, and so hand over to Camden Street some of our money. This is between us—just now, at least....
“I do not think we must, in any way, appear adverse to the City movement under Mr. Rogers.
“I feel we have forced him into action, and, as our motive is to help women generally, and not the women of Camden Town only, to have driven him to act is one result, and a great one, of our organization.
“Why I think of the division of subscriptions is that no doubt some of the people would prefer to help the poorer school. If so, I should prefer their subscriptions going in the way they wanted. I am sure that my old pupils help their own old school, and do not care for the new and unknown one....
“I have written to the Lady Mayoress, and will write to Miss Cobbe, asking her to let me call. Of course I shall give her your note. What a dear, bright, ever young heart Miss Jewsbury has! If you had done nothing but interest her, your work would have been great. She has saved me almost from despair at least on two occasions.
“I don’t mind our Board meetings, and really have never but once been like what we suppose a caged lion to be.
“It is now the amount of the work, and the sort of unsettled state we are in, that overdo me. But Mr. Danson is helping to reduce money matters to order, and to be relieved of the management of that would be really a comfort.
114“We have now 190 girls in the Camden School; one father has come to live in the neighbourhood on purpose to send four girls. I scarcely know what to do for teachers, and am in correspondence with all sorts of people. Old pupils do not seem available, or they are not mature enough.
“We must have some more furniture too, as there is not enough in Camden Street for the present number. The ventilation in the Camden Road is not nearly good enough; but I am compelled to act, and so must risk observations from the Board. We ought to be thinking of building for the Camden School; but money, money, where is it to come from?
“I hear Mr. Mason, of Birmingham, who has just spent ￡200,000, or some such sum, on his orphanage, intends to give ￡30,000 to education. Mrs. Sheldon Amos went to him about the Working Women’s College, and got a sort of promise. I always intended to get at him if I could; so, hearing of her visit, I wrote straight off to the wife of the Town Clerk of Birmingham, Mrs. Hayes, to ask for an introduction, saying a visit to Birmingham would be nothing if there were the least hope of getting help; even if one only induced him to give part of the money to girls at Birmingham something would be gained. A visit there is therefore looming. Mrs. Hayes gives me a warm invitation to her house. She knows me through an old pupil, who is governess to her children, and called on me here when in London.
“(Ah, ah, how I wish we could get a fine building for the Camden Road School! We do want a lecture hall and a gymnasium so much.)
“Two school concerts are on me next week, and a good deal to think of in connection with them. Musical men are not easygoing: each one will have the best places for his pupils; each will go his own way. Most school-mistresses have to deal with one only; I have three, and also three young women; the latter were fairly manageable.
“A good second would be a great relief to me, and would enable me to work at something less than express-train speed—a speed that cannot be continued for very many years. It would be worth while to raise the pay of my second, as she became more useful. I never have time to prepare my lessons, which is almost indispensable if one wishes to teach well.
“There has been quite an avalanche of storms raised by parents lately, mainly because I have had to engage a governess not trained in the school. She does not therefore understand 115our ways, and causes me much worry; but she is really a good Christian girl, one who will do well in time. But, as I tell her, I have to suffer during the process of her instruction.
“If the Birmingham invite does not come this week, as I hope it will not, on Friday I hope to go to Mrs. Hodgson, at Bournemouth, till Monday night—Monday being our half-term holiday, and most of my house-girls away. Mrs. H. is the dearest, sweetest, brightest, most unselfish creature, and I love her dearly! You will believe me, when I say how much I am learning to love you. I cannot bear to hear of your being tired. Pray take rest and get well.
“Always your loving
“F. M. B.”
There came at this juncture a very bright ray of encouragement in a gratifying letter from the Princess of Wales. As the Queen had given her name to the first College, it was thought that the Princess might do no less for the first Public School for Girls, and the Memorial Committee made the request, on the principle of “nothing venture, nothing have.”
The following letter was addressed to the Rev. Charles Lee, as the chairman of the Memorial Committee:—
“Sir,
“I am directed by the Princess of Wales to acknowledge the receipt of a letter signed by you, in conjunction with Dr. J. Storrar, on behalf of the trustees and governors of the institution established in Camden Town for the promotion of secondary instruction for girls.
“Her Royal Highness fully recognizes the importance and great need of improvement in the education of girls of the poorer middle-class, and believes that the North London Collegiate School for Girls, with its Lower School, will not only to some extent meet this want, but that it will also serve as a model to similar schools, the establishment of which in other parts of the Metropolis, and in the country generally, it may encourage.
“The Princess of Wales, therefore, has much pleasure in acceding to the request that her Royal Highness would allow 116these schools to be placed under her patronage, and has directed me to forward to you the enclosed cheque for fifty guineas as her Royal Highness’ contribution to the funds of the undertaking.
“I have the honour to be, sir,
“Your most obedient servant,
“M. Holzmann, Private Secretary.
“Sandringham, Nov. 15, 1871.”
In response to this cheering bit of news Miss Jewsbury at once wrote off—
“Manchester, Nov. 26, 1871.
“I am very glad indeed about the Princess. It is the best of all the many kind things she has done. How did you get at her?
“I will write myself to Mr. Novelli, and am going on Tuesday to Sir Joseph Whitworth’s, and will see if I can move him to help us! Give my love to Miss Buss. She will ‘see the fruit of her doings’ yet; and she does not know how much her patient endurance has strengthened the hands of the many (of whom she may never hear) who are wearied and ready to lose heart in their labours. I can speak of what her example is to myself.”