GIRTON AND MERTON.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 90, 14 September 1874, Page 4

GIRTON AND MERTON.

[From the Pall Mall Gazette.'] I do not" know how many years ago it is now since a young man who had been at Cambridge came away and dreamed the sweetest of fairy tales, and wrote it down and sang it to others in a subtle music that has charmed and stilled all our hearts. The poet's school was one of wide philosophy, of tender detail and tumultuous fancy from whence he drew the sunny dream of Ida and her maidens. The girls of her days grew up loyal subjects to that strong-minded princess; they would have at once enthusiastically responded, I think, had they been told that a time was to come when they might watch the poet's vision struggling into life; awakening into shape and form; turning into bricks, into subscription lists and committees; working into life and substance through good and ill report, through opposition and perseverance. To-day the fancy has struggled into fact; you can touch the walls and they will not dissolve into air, mount the stone steps. and they will bear your weight, ring the iron bell of the College at Girton, or enter Morton Hall by its green side gate; crow cocks as they will, rub incredulous eyes, it is no dTeaming fancy, and will not disappear. There stands the college—a fact undeniable. A few hundred years or so is all that we need ask for to give the gables of Girton some tone and harmony of color. Perhaps their best friends may wish for a little illusage, a few changes, devastations, fires, and attacks by party zeal ; they may hope for some historic Ida to look from the oriel window across the wide-spreading plain ; for some Royal Princess to retire thither, flying from the cares of life and Courts to pass her time in studious application ; for a Mary Somerville to work her great problems in one of those comfortable studies ; perhaps enthusiasts may also hope for a few rats let loose to scamper along the broad blue-lined passages, or for the ghost of some scandalised ancestress to flit about, sampler in hand, on dusky summer evening ; but otherwise, I think, they must be well satisfied with the handsome comfortable house and its present dignities and future possibilities. It was a cloudy afternoon, and as we drove up along the road we saw the gables standing out against the grey sky. The bare plains seemed clothed and shaded by the drifts of rain clouds ; and great Trinity itself could not produce more beautiful and tender effects of light and shadow than did the brand-new avenues of Girton. It is certain that until the trees are grown her students should pray for cloudy weather. The friend who brought us to Girton told us something of the history of the college as we came along. Lady S. is a member of the committee, who has given full and ' warm-hearted sympathy to the movement for women's education. The oriel Window in the dining-room is, among many others, her gift to the cause and to the college. She introduced us to the principal, by whose kindness we were taken over the place —a building of fair proportions, comfortable, handsome, and airy, wanting in cobwebs, as I have said, but well built and well devised, with a possibility of extension when future generations have come up and more aud more girl graduates come to be taught. The square stone staircase leads us to long galleries, from which the different doors open into separate sets of rooms. A sitting-room and bedroom is allotted to each lady—sometimes there is one big room, with a curtain to divide. Each student's name was neatly written on her door, and where we were admitted we generally found a lady, a writing-table, and a cup of four-o'clcck tea.

One picture in particular I carried away from a sunny sort of western bower decorated and perfumed with wild hyacinths and mayflower, where a young Melissa with a bright face was sitting absorbed in her work—with a big dictionary open beside her. The principal knocked at the door and the student started up from her books to welcome us with a charm of manner from which most certainly neither Aristotle nor Liddell and Scott had detracted. It was curious to realize that those girls quietly bending over their desks with the big books open beside them were, perhaps, patiently working out problems of all sorts besides those actually berore them. There jnay be opposition and difficulty, there may be prejudice and reason in much that is said. Here at Girton their limes are but twigs, their walls are untoned by the softening veils of sympathy and long custom, but what do the students care though the walls are new? While people cry out against systems of teaching they are taught, and while controversies rage they work on. Plato and Aristotle are their companions ; they are meeting great minds, trying to think their thoughts, and to follow the truth in their steps. And in the might of young minds stirring to great things, to progress and perseverauce and strength of will, one feels that they are independent of lichen. There were two lectures going on while we were in the college, and the ladies passed us with their books and papers. One lecturer brought a very noble-looking person, as yet ignorant of Greek, and who was shut up in the tutor's room, where he was left lying on the floor and wagging his bushy tail while the lecture went on. The tutor told a friend of mine that Greek was a very favorite subject among the students. She also spoke in a few words of her own pleasure in the work, and interest in her pupils, and delight in their success. It is a well-known fact, as I heard upon the highest authority in all Cambridge, that at a recent examination one of the very best papers upon Aristotle, if not the very best, was written by a lady student at Girton.

Looking out from nun of the windows of the gallery we buw a girl digging in the garden, and some one said, " Oh, Miss finds digging better exercise than any other after her work." It seemed almost like a little apologue to some of us to watch this young colonist at work upon the waste, turning over the soil. A gardener who was standing by seemed-to be directing her labors. This piece of waste land is a settlement in a territory where for the first time women colonists have been allowed to establish themselves. The great race of Dons to whom the land belongs have not refused to admit them, but have hospitably encouraged them, shared their stores with them, and given their help and their protection. As we came away we passed a girl walking quickly along the road with her books. She was a student from Merton Hall, who had come to attend one of the lectures at Girton. In my next paper I hope to say something more about this second little colony established in Cambridge itself. Merton Hall differs only from Girton in its different measurement for the work done within its precincts. '-The ladies at Girton follow an closely as possible the curriculum of; graduates who are reading for honors;

Mcrtou Hall is a residence for students not necessarily candidates for an examination. Practically, however, the fact that a great number of them are about to enter for the hijz ier local examination exercises a guiding influence ovei their lines of study." I am quoting from a report lately published, in which the rise of the institution is described. Miss Clough, the principal, first took a small house in ('airbridge for the ac ommodation of the lady students who wished to attend the lectures there ; afterwards, as their numbers increased, she removed to Mertou Hall, a pretty old house, standing in shade and silence among trees, with pleasant old garden rooms and a certain homedike ease and sense of peace. It seemed to me that I was reading another page out of the " Princess," as I followed L in his swinging black gown and trencher cap as he led the way along the lane that runs from ht John's to the side gate of Merton Hall. The May term sun was shining, rival green circles of roses and mayleaf were eucosing us on every side ; we could see the academic cattle browsing in the field, black-robed figures quietly Hitting in the distance, a thrush up in a tree outdinned the bell as it jangled in the sunshine and we stood waiting for admission.

After a short delay we were let into a little garden loom, where the principal was sitting at her papers and correspondence. She showed us some of it, relating to a new house that is being built for herself and her students, a dignity to which Merton Hall is to be promoted, somewhat, as it seemed to me, against its will, for both students and principal love their old trees, ami seem to grudge them to convenience aud necessity. The size of the new house very much depends upon the sum of money subscribed by the friends of the undertaking. It is to be built up with shares aud bonds and all the usual securities, and there is also a subscription list for those interested in its success. There will be comfortable arrangements for the students, and the present system will, of course, be pursued. As I passed through the rooms I was introduced to some of the ladies, who were sitting at their work at neat tables in green bay windows, with a pervading sense of Cambridge groves and nightingales aud cloisters beyond; the only thing wanting to complete the charm of the picture seemed to me some such college habit as that in which my friend L. appears to advantage. I thought of Melissa's " college gown that clad her like an April daffodil." Miss (Jlough ga\£ us a handful of papers before we left, from one of which I cannot help quoting her own words:

•' Among the many plans devised for improving the education of women, an important place may fairly be claimed for the scheme of lectures established in Cambridge. These lectures give to women an opportunity of gaining a more exact knowledge of the subjects taught in schools ; and also of pursuing their studies further, in any department which they may select. It is well, before saying any more, to draw attention to the remarkable fact that these lectures were a free-will offering of higher culture made to women by members of the University—to enable them to fit themselves to pass with credit the examination for women over eighteen, which had been granted by the University in the year 1868, on the receipt of a memorial praying for such an examination."

The lectures were begun with a view to instructing women to pass the higher examination, and opening out to them the study of a large range of subjects. The examination includes divinity. English language, literature, history and arithmetic, ancient and modern languages, mathematics, certain branches of natural science, logic, political economy, harmony, and drawing. " This wide range of studies is well suited to the requirements and present attainments of women. They arc encouraged to begin with familiar subjects, such as arithmetic, history, English language and literature, and then to take up whatever special departments may interest them most. Having thus obtained the University certificate, they are encouraged to proceed further in the line of study that they have chosen; which (having felt the value of thorough and systematic teaching) the Cambridge students are usually anxious to do, if they are able to prolong their residence. Several who have left early have expressed their intention to return and continue their studies, as soon as they can afford the expense. The expenses of the house —though they have been kept as low as was compatible with health and necessary comfort —have from the first been somewhat greater than the receipts ; but so long as the scheme was regarded as an experiment, they have been willingly borne by one or two persons. Now, however, that the lectures have taken their place as a permanent institution, and, at the same time, the increasing number of our students render it desirable to provide increased accommodation, we venture to appeal to the public for support. It may perhaps be thought that the growing popularity of the seneme ought to bring with it financial success. But it is an essential part of our plan to offer academic education on the lowest possible terms to those who are preparing to be teachers ; accordingly we receive such students for three-fourths of the ordinary payment (£ls, instead of £2O, for the term of eight weeks.)" For ladies engaged in teaching, examinations or certificates are of actual value. In fact, there is now abundant machinery to satisfy every need. I heard of one girl, the daughter of a schoolmaster, who was able to puss in the Tripos, and who went homo more than competent to help her father with his, boys. For persons who wish to make teaching their profession, and to raise the tone of the whole wretched system of governess and pupil. I cau imagine no more admirable encouragement than the consciousness of belonging, by a certain right fairly won, to a world of educated intellect, where scholarship is a real and living influence, and where classes are defined by attainment, and "honors" are so far actual advantages for women, even if they do not bring money, or medkuval windows, or college livings in their train, nor anything more tangible than the undeniable consciousness of work accomplished. For people whose future is differently cast, who love work for its own sake, who want opportunity and encouragement and leisure. who do not care so much to measure their intellect as to train it, or to learn how to be examined as how to know what they learn. Merton Hall would also seem a desirable and pleasant refuge. For others, again, who cannot leave their home duties, although they feel the need of teaching, of encouragement, of fresh interest in their plodding lives, there are courses of instruction by correspondence ; and whatever there may be to say by those v\ ho objectto the g( neral system now prevahni in modern schools, no one can deny that the young men who h;ive not grudged their efforts, who have given freely

all their work and help and goodwill, who have unweai'iedly looked over those endle°s papers and taken this burthen ungrudgingly upon themselves, do now most surely deserve Hie gratitude, not only of their pupils, but of all persons interested in a younger generation, who have indirectly and by their means learned to respcet and to realise the importance of this admirable and generous movement.