THE LIFE OF MISS CLOUGH"
ONCE in a lifetime perhaps, but seldom oftener, we find our. selves in communion with some man or woman who may truly be called great ; one whose mind is ever nobly intent on the higher charity, of lofty moral stature, kind, far-seeing, and courageous. Such a one was Miss Clough, first Principal of Newnham College, who, at the age of twenty-one, set down in her diary the ambition to "work for her country, and make its people her heirs."
Her niece and biographer, Miss B. A. Clough, daughter of
the poet, says that "this memoir was undertaken chiefly in the hope of giving pleasure to Miss Clough's friends," and for the benefit of Newnham students ; that it is, therefore, more lengthy and detailed than the general public require. But the apology was not needed, for she has unfolded with singular discretion, clearness, and sympathy the early history of an important institution and the personality of a great pioneer. The book is very well arranged, and neither over-compressed nor too diffusive. Miss Clough did not begin her public work till 1871, when she was over fifty (so long had she to "wait for happiness "), but the preceding years were not without significance, and it is by studying the very interesting journals here quoted that we may learn what manner of woman she really was, the exact nature of her ambitions, and the width of her generous sympathies. "It seems to me," she wrote as long ago as 1843, "that to be quiet and to be active, or rather to be quietly active, constantly going on with untiring energy, and yet so softly as scarcely to be perceptible, this seems to me to be an approach towards per- fection. And this lesson we learn from Nature, which is un- ceasingly and yet imperceptibly changing." This was assuredly the ideal to which she early attained, and her steady pro- gression to calm happiness is the more remarkable in the light of the roughness, wildness, and desire to "cut a regular- flash," of which—in a certain fashion of youthful piety—she so frequently accuses herself. But the emotions which struck her as wild, and her mother as wilful, were but the first inarticulate stirrings of a daring and independent imagi- nation, determined to understand her fellow-creatures and. help them without regard to precedent or convention. She was always cautions in speech or action, but freely speculated from the beginning on the need for searching, reforms in the position of women. She notes, for example, that "married life too often becomes dull and hard. And surely, as woman begins to take a more prominent part in the-
duties of life she will no longer leave the business she had entered upon to go after her husband In a.
holy and beautiful communion she lives with her chosen one,. but each walks alone in a round of duties, and the days of union are the Sabbaths of rest, the foretaste of a better life." At another time she is surprised that a girl friend does not agree with her as to the desirability of women learning Greek and Latin; and again remarks : "I don't much fancy men often understand women; they don't know how restless and. weary they get."
Although frequently rebuking herself for private complaints,
and never counselling noisy revolt, Miss Clough was not one who believed in sitting down and bearing things. Nor was she inclined to rest contented with other people's methods of reform. But she cannot be credited with elaborating general principles or carrying theories to their logical conclusions. She did not value strenuous consistency ; and the memoir records, for example, several instances of her placid indifference to such an abstract science as rolitical economy. "It was one of her pet heresies," writes her niece, "that it was a good thing even for poor people to have large families, and that it was unnecessary to be alarmed at the rapid growth of population in England, because there were such hordes of black men and other uncivilised races, that it was well to have as many white ones as possible to oppose them, and struggle with them for the mastery of the world." And when there was a strike during the building of Newnham she "went directly to the men, and proposed that she should herself pay the difference of wages which was the cause of
dispute."
The personal attitude was entirely characteristic of all her work for higher education, which was not inspired by any impatience for the rights of women or any desire to prove • A Memoir of Anne .Temima Omagh, late Principal of Neu-nham College, 001110. bridge. By her Nana, Blanche Athena Clough. London; B aimed Arnold.
their equality to men. What appealed to her was the actual unsatisfactory and unsatisfying conditions of the women around her, which she never despaired of being able to im- prove. She did not trouble about marshalling the attack, because her faith in beauty and happiness left no room for fear of consequences or dread of unsound philosophy. She seldom ascended a platform or issued a programme, partly, no doubt, from inability to arrange her ideas or speak well, tint principally because these methods were uncongenial. She spent her life in "finding a way," and when found she would quietly talk it over and sift it among those most in sympathy with her object, until it gradually took shape and found expression in some act of generous beneficence.
The most striking example of far-reaching results, not even contemplated in her dreams, is the growth of the whole system of Extension Lectures from one of her plans for im- proving girls' schools. But, indeed, she was intimately asso- ciated with all the important educational movements of her day. She witnessed, and assisted to obtain, the admission of girls to the Local examinations and the first Royal Com- mission's Report on girls' schools ; while the "North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women," which was mainly her creation, was directly con- cerned with the origins , of Girton College, teachers' training Colleges, classes by correspondence, the Girls' Public Day Schools Company, and the Cambridge Higher Locals. Further, while settled at Cambridge she took an active interest in the problems of elementary education, the foundation of the Parents' National Educational Union, and the National Home Reading Union.
Newnham College itself grew, incidentally as it were, out of these movements, and originally had not any defined academic ambitions. We have noted that the standard of girls' schools was to be raised by public inspection and public examinations, of which the Higher Locals were the ultimate expression. In their interest Professor Sidgwick and others now organised a scheme of lectures at Cambridge, where teachers are plentiful ; and it naturally followed that they soon felt dissatisfied with audiences composed entirely of residents in the town. Hence arose the need for a boarding- house or hostel, afterwards destined to become Newnham College, which Professor Sidgwick himself founded, and put under the charge of Miss Clough.
Seldom probably has any institution been so profoundly influenced by its first Principal. It is extremely difficult to analyse the unique combination of sweetness and strength which united to form the winning personality of Miss Clough. Her lofty moral stature never made her unapproachable, and if smallness shrank before her piercing eyes, the tender smile would revive its courage. She was supremely interested, as we have seen, in individuals, and never forgot a student; every one came to her with their own concerns, and she had love and sympathy for all. Her somewhat hesitating manner and difficulty in expression combined with a subtle kindly humour to give her conversation a peculiar charm of quaint originality ; and she was always surprising even her intimates by some totally unexpected suggestion or comment.
At first sight her general policy might be called timid ; for she looked upon every concession from the University as a personal favour, designedly modified the course of study to suit the incomplete training in girls' schools, and was most anxious that none of her students should attract notice by their unconventionality. But her conduct was not governed by timidity. She was an opportunist in so far that she believed in gradual measures and a conciliatory attitude ; but no opposition or fear of consequences could turn her from the path, and her particular methods were directed towards a definite purpose. She wanted to help and inspire a large number of women who, for various reasons, were not then ready for a strictly academic experience, and she adopted the only possible means towards that end. She wished her " children " to become worthy citizens and noble women more than scholars or bookworms; and the words of her last address to the students leaving College may be read as the expression of her guiding spirit;—" One word more. Take the little pleasures of life, watch the sunsets and the clouds, the shadows in the streets and the misty light over our great These bring joy by the way and thankfulness to our Heavenly Father."
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