“L’union fait la Force.” Probably none of her public work gave Miss Buss more unqualified satisfaction than the Head-mistresses’ Association, of which the first germ seems to be contained in a passage from one of her Journal-letters of September, 1874, written from Bonaly Tower, Edinburgh—
“Miss Beale of Cheltenham called on me the day I was in London.... She and I think we must form an Association of Head-mistresses, and hold conferences occasionally, in order to know what we ought to assert and what surrender.
“Dr. Hodgson showed me, in the ‘Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,’ a passage about the ‘membre à question,’ and the ‘membre à by-laws;’ the latter is called ‘un Empereur manqué,’ and is the member who awes the rest of a committee by his rigid adherence to by-laws.
“Just think of men discussing for hours the arrangements of girls’ boarding-houses—how the beds should stand, etc.!”
All who have been behind the scenes in the development of public schools for girls can read in between the lines here the various stages by which the Association of Head-mistresses came into being.
The question of the management of these new schools was naturally one of supreme interest to the 232women who had made such schools possible. When Miss Davies was asked by Lord Taunton, during her examination by the Commission, to mention any point of importance in connection with the education of women, she fixed on the point of the presence of women on the councils of girls’ schools, on equal terms with men, and not on any separate ladies’ committee. She was warmly supported by Miss Beale and Miss Buss in this view that, for the management of girls, women were essential. Miss Buss, in a letter written some time afterwards, but before the change in her own schools, sums up the whole question concisely—
“If your plans lead you to prefer a committee to a board of trustees, I advise you not to allow two committees—one of gentlemen for money matters, and one of ladies for internal arrangements. Two committees always clash, sooner or later. The mistress disagrees with the ladies’ committee, the gentlemen interfere, and the usual result is that the ladies resign in a body. I do not think any better plan can be devised than a single council of men and women, with certain well-defined duties to perform, but with no power of continual and daily interference with the mistress. In this opinion I am unbiassed by personal feeling, because, as this school is my own property, I have never had to work with a committee. But I hear on all sides of the difficulties which arise, and which are, apparently, to be prevented only by the plan I have suggested.”
Mrs. Grey, when examined on March 25, 1873, before the “Endowed Schools Committee,” gave her opinion in favour of women on the governing body of every school, on the ground that a ladies’ committee “was powerful only to object and interfere, but powerless to carry into effect any of their suggestions, however valuable these might be.”
It is evident that what is wanted is a consultative body—a sort of Privy Council—to advise and help in matters external, and in cases of special difficulty; 233whilst, in the internal affairs of the school, the head must be held responsible. It would follow that, to make a council really useful, there must be some principle of selection to secure the right persons, so that it should not be said in the future, as has been so often possible to say in the past, that “head-masters and mistresses are chosen with care, their degrees, experience, etc., all sifted, and then they are set to work under a governing body chosen haphazard, or anyhow!”
Most of the great schools owed their prosperity to the skill and character of some one man or woman, and, even after they had attained success, were still dependent on their head, who, instead of being allowed free play, was checked and thwarted by this haphazard council—the “expert” being under the control of the mere “amateur.”
In such cases, the “managing committee” is clearly not what is wanted. Here are weighty words from a head-mistress, who must take highest rank among the “experts”—
“No one knows how much of one’s health and energy is lost to the school by the anxieties of getting those who do not understand the complicated machinery not to interfere with things with which the head alone ought to deal.
“Governors have no idea of the worries head-mistresses have, when hysterical girls invent absurd stories; when parents and doctors attribute every illness, real or imaginary, to lessons; when teachers get wrong, or when they suddenly disappear, take head-mistress-ships elsewhere, and draw away their friends and pupils.
“Then, again, the governing body will blame for the inevitable, or a head will deal with ninety-nine intricate cases, and in the hundredth will make a mistake; they naturally know nothing of the former, but of the latter they hear, only to condemn.”
This is one very important side. The head clearly has very definite rights. But, there is also the other side, and the members of the council have also their 234rights. Even the “mere amateur” is not without rights, as a person who, in combining special interest in education, with wider and more varied experience than can be enjoyed by the professional educator, is therefore of use on the council in his power of seeing things from the outside, and thus bringing to bear on them a judgment not warped by mere professional bias. Even on the most haphazard council, the persons elected are at least supposed to have some power of help. These “amateurs” are consequently persons who are more used to lead than to follow, to take the active rather than the passive attitude, and to whom mere acquiescence is as uncongenial as it is unaccustomed. It is therefore easy to imagine such a council growing restive, even under the most competent leading, and asking, “Is it really our whole duty to sit here simply to register the decrees of the head-mistress?”
To strike the happy mean between tyranny and subjection is the duty alike of the governing body and of head-master or mistress. The governing body must not rule; nor, on the other hand, must its members be too passive, or acquiesce when they ought to oppose. If they are bound to follow competent leading, they are no less bound to dismiss the incompetent. The captain of a ship gives place to a duly accredited pilot, but he is none the less bound to judge whether the ship is making for the straight course or not. To give up his command into unskilful hands is, on the one side, as foolish as it would be to tie the pilot to the mast, and let the ship go down, whilst the crew dispute for the right to steer.
It is evident that, with the best intentions on both sides, great tact and forbearance are needed to prevent occasional friction. And we need not wonder that, as a matter of fact, there was on most governing 235bodies in those early days a considerable amount of friction.
Of this Miss Buss had, in her own experience, comparatively little; but what she had, arose entirely from this very point. She had arranged, when she gave up her private school, that it should be in the hands of a body of trustees, who would hold it for the public good, but who were not intended to interfere with her own development of the work which she had herself begun and carried on to success.
As the founder of the school, and as a life-member of a board on which the other members were elected for short periods, her position was unique. To this, also, must be added the fact that, for the first two years, the new schools were carried on by means of her own liberal donations and those of her personal friends. It was not to be expected that she could hold the same relation to her governing body as the ordinary head-mistress, who is appointed by them, and over whom they have the right of dismissal.
It was perhaps a little unfortunate that at the time of special difficulty, the chairmanship seemed to have become permanent in the appointment of a chairman, who, however fitted for the post, was yet only imperfectly acquainted with the early history of the school, and, therefore, not unnaturally gave undue weight to the help given by the Board, regarding the new scheme rather as an entirely fresh departure, than as what it actually was, merely the expansion of an existing organization, and still dependent on the skill to which it owed its rise. He had been accustomed to long-established foundations, where everything went by rule, and to committees where the word of the chairman was law. Miss Buss was used to supreme power over her own school, and she was, like most women of that 236day, unused to business routine. This was, moreover, one of the very first governing bodies on which women were elected on equal terms with men. Such an arrangement was too new as yet to go without hitch. It would follow, quite naturally, that men, out of mere force of habit, as well as in real kindness of heart, should adopt a paternal and authoritative attitude towards all women, even to those most competent to stand alone.
Miss Buss was by nature one of the least self-assertive of women. She had always been helped by some strong man, and had accepted all help with gratitude. First Mr. Laing, and then Dr. Hodgson (with her father and brothers, as a matter of course), had been recognized as friends and helpers.
But, at the same time, one of the most definite aims of her life had been to raise the status of the head-mistress to the same level as that of the head-master. For the sake of all teachers—not for her own sake—she deprecated the secondary place given to women who were doing the same work as men. She also thought the internal management of her school should be left to her, as it would have been to a head-master in her place, and for this she stood firm, even when, as a matter of mere feeling, she might have given way, for she was really one of the old-fashioned women who would personally endure anything for the sake of peace.
It is more than probable that she felt some things too strongly, and that she misunderstood others. In those days, most women suffered quite needlessly from sheer ignorance of business routine. They lacked the training and discipline which carry men unscathed through the roughness of public life. Two men meeting on a committee may oppose each other tooth and nail, 237but these men may afterwards go home and dine comfortably together, bearing no traces of the fray. At that date, two women, after a similar encounter, would have gone their separate ways, to weep over a solitary cup of tea, and when next they met would pass each other with the cut direct.
To a woman like Miss Buss, nothing of this sort would have been possible, for even if she had not had too much common sense, she had that most uncommon power of forgiveness which led to the saying, “If you really want to know how kind Miss Buss is you must do her some injury!”
Nevertheless, however evanescent her feeling might be, she did for the time feel her worries very intensely. It chanced that, as my way lay beyond Myra Lodge, I usually drove her home from the meetings, and she then relieved her pent-up feelings by rapid discussion of any vexed question from her own point of view. By the time our drive ended, she was, as a rule, quite ready for her ordinary meal, and we parted more often than not with a jest, for this process was merely a question of “blowing off the steam,” and I served as safety-valve. It was entirely a matter of temperament. Whilst some temperaments fail to perceive the existence of a grievance until it is formulated in words, others can throw off in words all the bitterness of even the worst grievances. Miss Buss belonged to the latter class, and, as I understood this thoroughly, I could forget her words as soon as spoken. Where such hasty utterances were taken seriously by persons of the opposite temperament, she was at times seriously misunderstood.
During the nine years of suspense between the changes of 1870 and the opening of the new buildings in 1879 there was much to try the most perfect patience. 238Here is a little note showing the kind of thing that used at first to cause a protest—
“My very dear little Annie,
“I feel a little ashamed of my impatience to-day, but am happy to find that Miss Elford was in the same frame of mind. Lady X. talked quite wildly about this and that, and what ought or ought not to be. These ladies have not an idea beyond the parish school, where the lady of the manor is supreme, and dictates to the children what they shall wear, and what they shall not, how to do their hair, etc., etc. If it were not so pitiable in its ignorance I could find it in my heart to cry, or to run away and leave the board to manage its schools.
“How very thankful I am that you have always a soothing effect on me. My dear love to you,
“Arnie.”
This was probably one of many instances in which Miss Buss suffered from an imperfect knowledge on the part of the public. Endowments for girls’ schools were still so novel that the demand for money for the Camden School was, in some absurd way, associated with the Founder, as if she were herself a recipient, instead of being, as she was, one of the most generous of donors, giving herself and her means for the public good.
For example of the sort of trial involved in working with a committee to one so used as Miss Buss had been to direct, rapid and free action, we may take an experience in 1872, when the governing body, intent only on saving her trouble in the temporary absence of the Rev. A. J. Buss (Clerk to the Board), appointed a special Prize Day Committee. It had been decided that, to bring the work more clearly before the public, the Princess Louise should be asked to give the prizes in the Albert Hall. We give Miss Buss’ report from her Journal-letters—
239“June 22.
“I went yesterday to the Albert Hall and heard that it was let for the 19th.
“The secretary was very polite, however, and, finding he had to do with a princess, got the date altered to suit us. The fees will cost ￡30. The secretary says we ought to distribute bills through the exhibition, besides advertising, and let people in who choose to pay for entrance. This will require consideration on Monday.
“Mr. Roby will speak, and I mean to ask him to say what Miss Davies has done for education. On Saturday there is a conference of teachers in the rooms of the Society of Arts. We shall see plenty of people there, and can ask some one to speak. Dr. Lyon Playfair is to take the chair.
“For the day itself we must invite thousands. Every member of Parliament, every member of a city company, every clergyman and Nonconformist of note. Invite all the press, all known educationalists, etc., etc.
“Let us hope we shall have our own hall by next year, and then we shall not need to go away from home.”
“July 2.
“Mr. Forster can’t take the chair. Lord Derby declines, and now, at 2 p.m., comes a note to say the Princess Louise will not be able to attend!
“Dr. Storrar goes to-morrow morning to see Mr. Holzmann, and consult with him. We hope to get access to Princess Mary.
“If not where are we? Curiously enough, this sort of thing does not worry me—at least, not much.... Nothing but the necessity of working with other people would have made me allow the matter to be so delayed. June is our month, and always has been. However, I am quite cool about matters. The inevitable must be endured.”
“Myra Lodge, July 11, 8 a.m.
“The chairman sends Col. Airey’s note to say Princess Mary declines. I shall go at once to consult Mr. Elliott.”
“202, Camden Road, July 11, 11 a.m.
“Mr. Elliott is going to try the Duke of Edinburgh. I am to get rid of the Albert Hall, however, co?te que co?te.
“Everything is at a standstill. Never in my working life has there been such a complete fiasco.”
240“July 13.
“I must write later to answer your notes fully, but, at 8 o’clock this morning, I went to our vicar, Mr. Cutts, for a note to the bishop’s chaplain, whom I do not know. I then went to Mr. Elliott; returned to breakfast, and then dashed out with the fixed determination not to return until the Prize Day arrangements had been made.
“I drove in the storm to St. James’ Square (London House), Bishop not there, but at Fulham; drove to Fulham, sent in my note to the chaplain, who saw me at once, and asked me to go to the bishop. I said I wanted to ask a question, and would not disturb him if possible. So Mr. Gamier took in my message, ‘Would the bishop preside for even half an hour at our meeting—on any hour and any day in the next fortnight.’
“The bishop positively had not one hour available. He went through his list, but he would give me Monday, the 29th, at 3 o’clock. Of course I accepted, rushed away to St. James’ Hall—not to be had anyhow for two months—thence to Willis’ Rooms, which we can have.
“How much I regret allowing a committee to be formed! If Mr. Elliott, Mr. Danson, and I had been empowered to act, we should have had one of the Princesses. There would have been no delay by notes going first to the chairman and then having to be sent to me. If I had had the note of Princess Louise’s secretary at 8 a.m., by 10 I should have been at her house, and should certainly have got an introduction to Princess Mary. In this case, the memorial to the latter would have been in her hands by Saturday morning, instead of Tuesday! and would have been accompanied by a note from either Princess Louise or Lord Lorne.
“Don’t think me very egotistical, but don’t expect me to summon a committee for the Prize Day again.
“I shall quietly go my own way now, and do the things. That last committee took up two hours and twenty-five minutes of my time in the middle of the day, and for what? (I told you two hours, but made a mistake.)
“I forgot to say I went to the printer, ordered all the invitations, and expect them on Monday. But Willis’ Rooms, though handsome, are not large. With every card we will send out the slip about Princess Louise’s failure in her engagement.”
The meeting went off as well as these meetings always did. But next year the Princess Mary of Teck 241was secured without difficulty; as well as afterwards several other members of the Royal Family, including even the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It must have been at this period that an equally characteristic little story is told. Miss Buss, in the height of her vexation, sought comfort beside her sister and her boy. As she entered the room, she exclaimed, “This is what I have brought on myself, and for what?” with an impatient stamp of her foot. Baby Frank lifted his great eyes solemnly to his aunt, and, with a deliberate stamp of his baby foot, echoed, “And for vot?” on which, as she clasped him in her arms, all her indignation vanished in a shower of kisses.
But that she did not demand mere acquiescence from her friends is proved by many of her letters, one of which may be given, not only as showing her many-sidedness, but also as revealing the true humility which was the secret of her strength.
She had been long overstrained by anxiety and suspense, and had to some extent lost patience under the many demands on her. At one time, indeed, she even entertained serious thoughts of resigning her post unless things could be made easier for her by the assurance of greater freedom of action. On the occasion of this particular letter, the usual talk had failed, and I must have written that same evening still more strongly, urging either a more complete submission to the inevitable, or else some bold stroke for liberty. She thus responds—
“Late as it is, and in spite of a distressing headache, I must just write a few words to say how much I love and thank you for your note. The advice in it I will try to follow.
“Yet, dearest Annie, it tears me in pieces to have to be always asserting myself. But it seems to me to be impossible to go on without a certain amount of freedom of action.
242“Dearest Annie, I sobbed myself to sleep like a child, such a thing not having occurred for years. The Mystery of Pain!—if it were a clear duly to bear it, I would go through anything, but I cannot see the duty, and can feel the pain....
“You must take me as I am, dear A............