“The science of education, so little thought of, so contemptuously ignored, is the crowning science of all, for it is the application of all the sciences to the production of the highest result—the perfect man.”—From a paper read by Mrs. Grey at the meeting of the British Association, 1874. In 1873, the theory and practice of education were still so far apart that, in the March number of The Journal of the Women’s Education union of that year, we find the following very definite statement:—
“Training colleges do not exist; the expense of founding them would place them almost hopelessly out of reach, though something might have been done by following up the example of the Home and Colonial in their private department. Mrs. Wm. Grey proposed a plan for a class of student teachers to form part of every large school, which was adopted by the Public Day-school Company, who are, however, not yet in a position to try it. It has also been approved by Miss Buss and Miss Beale, and is already in operation in Camden Town.”
In October, 1872, Miss Buss and Miss Doreck, the two ladies on the council of the College of Preceptors, had brought forward a scheme for establishing a “Training class of lectures and lessons for teachers;” and as a consequence of this effort the office of “Professor of the Science and Art of Education” was offered to Mr. Joseph Payne, whose inaugural address was given on January 30, 1873. Miss Buss and Miss Doreck took 274an active part in bringing together the seventy students (chiefly women) who attended these lectures. At Norwich, Dr. Hodgson spoke with strong approval of the step taken by the College of Preceptors in founding a professorship of the theory and art of education, and of their choice of Mr. Payne to fill this post. He spoke of the success of Mr. Payne’s lectures in London and in Edinburgh, and expressed a hope that such professorships would ere long be established “in one or more of the chief Scottish Universities also,” and added that “they were strongly to be desired for the English Universities also.”
Of Mr. Payne’s lectures there is a notice in the March Education Journal of the same year—
“The object of the whole course is to show that there are principles of education on which, in order to be efficient, practice must be founded; or, in other words, that there is a science of education, in reference to which the art must be conducted, and the value of its processes tested.”
Miss Buss’ feeling about these lectures is shown in a letter written in 1876, soon after the death of her much-valued friend—
“Because I have not enough to do, I am working up an attempt to raise a little memorial to Mr. Payne, the ablest teacher I have ever known—except Dr. Hodgson—and the man who has raised the noblest ideal before the profession. It cuts me to the heart to see his name lost to posterity, and after several fruitless attempts, it seems I must set the ball rolling. Will you or your father give something? I want the memorial to be a prize or scholarship in the new Teachers’ Training Society.”
Many a successful head-mistress must thank Miss Buss for her recommendation to these lectures. Mrs. Bryant and Miss Cooper, of Edgbaston, were among the students, and both became Fellows of the College. A letter from Miss Frances Lord says, in 1873—
275“I am attending Mr. Payne’s lectures, as you told me to do. My sister Emily goes too, and, as a teacher, makes remarks that Mr. Payne thinks well of. If she ever takes up Kindergarten work (as I want her to do), she will, I am sure, be greatly helped by these lectures. My friends, the Wards, find, as we do, that the questions Mr. Payne asks draw largely on common observation such as we have been practising and have been wanting to know the value of.”
Mr. Payne called attention to the principles of Kindergarten work, a subject brought to the front by Miss Shirreff, who wrote a series of articles in 1874, in the Journal, leading to the formation of the Fr?bel Society, of which Miss Doreck was the first president, and Miss E. A. Manning the honorary secretary. Miss Manning read a paper on the subject at the meeting of the Social Science Congress, in the same year.
Miss Doreck had been elected—at Miss Buss’ suggestion—on the council of the College of Preceptors, and the two worked very heartily together.[18] On April 16, 1874, the two ladies formed part of a deputation by appointment to urge on the Duke of Richmond the formation of a Training College for Teachers.
18.  Miss Doreck’s special work was Kindergarten teaching, then quite a novelty in England. Miss Buss once said, “We shall not have thorough education till we have the Kindergarten;” but she could only help this movement on by helping others to do it.
The design of the deputation was—
“to have the scholastic professors placed on a similar footing to that of law and physics, and, in order to assist the Government in effecting that end, the College of Preceptors was ready to undertake the requisite corresponding functions of the Law Institution, the College of Surgeons, or a Pharmaceutical Society.”
The principle at stake may be considered the central thought of the whole life of Frances Mary Buss. To raise the ideal of teaching, and, with this, the status of the teacher, was the most definite purpose of this life; and, as means to an end, she recognized from the very 276first the supreme importance of training for the work. In her youth, the elementary school teacher was the only person happy enough to receive this preparation for his duties. All the rest—as was candidly avowed by one of the foremost schoolmasters of the day—had to gain their experience at the cost of their first pupils.
To her own mother Miss Buss was largely indebted for the insight which made her a leader in the training-college movements. When Mrs. Buss decided on opening her school in Clarence Road, she had the bold thought of preparing herself for the venture by going through the course offered at the Home and Colonial Institute to elementary teachers. At this distance of time, it is difficult to estimate duly the originality and the strength of mind implied in such a step. In the “forties,” the beaten track on which ladies were expected to walk securely was very straight and very narrow. But this bold step was taken, and it resulted in a permanent broadening of the way for all who came after, since the class for the training of secondary teachers was a direct result of Mrs. Buss’ own action. In this class, all the teachers of Miss Buss’ schools received their training, and it is of interest to note among the earliest students the names of Anne Clough, the founder of Newnham College, and of Jane Agnes Chessar, a teacher of very remarkable power, who was one of the first ladies elected on the School Board.
It might possibly have been due to the influence of the Rev. David Laing that Mrs. Buss originated her plan, but the credit remains with her of being the first in the field of action. The idea of training governesses was suggested as early as 1843, on the council of the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution, but no action was taken before 1848, even to form classes.
We have seen that, as early as 1872, Miss Buss had 277the dream of a training college attached to her own school. This she gave up later in favour of the Maria Grey Training College. In November, 1872, Miss Beale writes to her—
“I did think much of our conversation about training governesses, and we have arranged to receive about six on the same terms as the ‘Home and Colonial.’ They can for this not only attend here but go to certain lessons on Method at the Normal Training College.”
The Training Department of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College is now one of the distinct branches of work there, including Kindergarten training, with the novel feature of a small Kindergarten for children of the elementary class, serving as a training school.
It was not till 1877 that Mrs. Grey succeeded in opening the college which now bears her name, up to which she and Miss Shirreff had been working in the Teachers’ Training and Registration Society, one of the offshoots of the Women’s Education union.
For details of this work I am indebted to Miss Shirreff, and also to Miss Agnes J. Ward, one of the first principals of the college.
The council, in addition to Mrs. Grey and Miss Shirreff, consisted of Miss Chessar, Dr. E. A. Abbott, Mr. J. H. Rigg, Mr. R. N. Shore, Mr. C. H. Lake, and Mr. Douglas Galton. The articles of association were drafted by Mr. William Shaen, who, till his death, in 1886, was a generous and true friend to the college.
Miss Louisa Brough became secretary, under Mrs. Grey, as organizing secretary. Unhappily, after working for a year or so, Mrs. Grey’s health broke down, and she was ordered abroad. It was then that Miss Buss came to the front, though she had been quietly helpful from the beginning. Some letters to her from Rome show Mrs. Grey’s estimate of this help—
278“23, Piazza de Spagna, Roma,
“Feb. 11, 1879.
“It is really too good of you, in the midst of your hard-worked life, to make time for writing me such a charming long letter as I received a few days ago.... We have left the hotel, and have very sunny rooms just at the foot of the great stairs. How I wish you were over the way, where I used to pick you up two years ago.
“Except from yourself, we hear hardly anything from the college. Your hopeful report is a great joy to us, because you know the difficulties so well that you will never be over sanguine. How kind it is of you and Miss Chessar to work for it as you do, and Dr. Abbott deserves more thanks than I can express. I would like to write to him only I feel it would be imposing on him a letter to write, and that would be no kindness. Will you tell him this when you meet, and something of what we both feel about his generous gift of time and thought to the institution that we have cared for so earnestly and are driven to forsake.... We must, as you say, make our scheme as we go along, and large numbers would be an embarrassment. As to funds, you make no complaint, and that is comforting.... Once the college is in settled good work, and the Cambridge scheme is published, I cannot doubt that many will be found to help.”
Mrs. Grey was never strong enough to return to the work so near her heart, and her great comfort was in the thought that with Miss Buss’ oversight it must go on successfully. On the occasion of a presentation to Mrs. Grey of a beautiful casket, with an address from the Girls’ Public Day-school Company, Miss Shirreff writes thus to Miss Buss—
“We are both of us touched to the heart’s core by your letter. Such words from one who has herself been so brave and so successful a pioneer in the cause of woman’s education are the highest testimonial we could receive, and we value them as such. And a large debt we owe to you also, for all the practical organizations of our schools we learnt from you....
“I may honestly say that the receipt of that address, and the additional gratification of seeing yours and Miss Beale’s name attached to it, gave my sister the only real pleasure she has felt during the weary months of this year. The less she hopes ever to 279regain her power of work the more she values that testimony to the worth of her past work.
“We have had, of course, much passing enjoyment in the beautiful scenery we have dwelt amongst, but there is a dark shadow over all. It is not perhaps reasonable, when sixty is long passed, to mourn that an active career is stopped short, but you know better than any one how, in dealing with education, one must still feel that no one worker can be spared—do we not know how all the best are over-worked?”
Miss Ward gives us an interesting sketch of the growth of the work from the first.
“The aims of the society were mainly to provide for the professional training of teachers above the elementary. This training included both theoretical knowledge and practical skill. Unendowed as the society was, it was necessary to create a guarantee fund, and this was done by a few friends, while Miss Buss, sparing no pains to induce teachers to avail themselves of the advantages offered, contributed also from the first in money. At length, after the tentative stage of providing lectures for teachers, the council of the society were fortunate enough to secure from the Rev. Wm. Rogers the use of some rooms in Skinner Street, Bishopsgate, which served as a college for students, and leave for their students to practise teaching in the large and interesting girls’ school which now, thanks to the Dulwich Endowment Fund, lately available, is handsomely housed in Spital Square, E. In 1878, however, when the Training College opened, the school was in other and less convenient buildings. These have now disappeared, to make way for the Great Eastern Railway’s vast extension.
“Miss Alice Lushington was, in 1878, appointed principal of the college, and held the post till 1880, when Miss Agnes J. Ward became principal. Miss Buss lost no opportunity of urging the development of the work. She was indefatigable in her attendance at council meetings, and eager to show her strong appreciation of professional training by appointing as mistresses in her school those who had gone through a course partly theoretical and partly practical. Towards the end of 1880, owing to her strong feeling that the society should possess its own practising school, the council acquired the lease of No. 1, Fitzroy Square, and there, in January, 1881, under the headmistress-ship of Miss Lawford (now of the Camden School for Girls), a day school was opened and named 280after Mrs. Wm. Grey. In 1885, it became the chief practising school of the society which in that year transferred the Training College to Fitzroy Street from Bishopsgate. From that year, also, the college was called “The Maria Grey Training College.” Miss Buss was at that time desirous of affiliating the college to her schools; but after mature consideration the council held that it was better to pursue a more independent course, and wait until they could establish their work on a permanent foundation. This they accomplished in 1892, when their large College for Teachers, Day School for Girls, and Kindergarten were all transferred to Brondesbury, where they are finally located in a building which cost ￡13,000. This sum was collected by the energy and devotion of the council, and in this heavy task of collecting a fund for a work the value of which only experts could be expected fully to appreciate, Miss Buss took for years an active part. Her name on the council was of signal use in certain directions, notably in the matter of the Pfeiffer bequest. The sum of ￡4000 finally obtained by the college from the trustees enabled the council to complete their building and start their important work under Miss Alice Woods as principal. The council thus provided for pupils from three years old upwards, in surroundings at once adequate and suitable. Miss Buss’ strong faith in the importance of the council’s work, to education a............