A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge — John Shaqi
A Short History of Newnham College, CambridgeGardner, Alice
History
A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge
Gardner, Alice
Newnham College
The new buildings necessitated a new nomenclature. The points of the
compass were rejected in favour of the names of the founders. North
Hall, which had been inaugurated by Mrs. Sidgwick's Vice-Principalship,
became Sidgwick Hall, the new Hall was named Clough Hall, the South
Hall--not being connected with any founder so intimately as with Miss
Clough herself--retained a portion of its prestige in the title of
the Old Hall. Other names of founders and benefactors were reserved
for later additions to the College. Miss Clough herself took up
residence in the Hall which bore her name. Miss Gladstone was still
Vice-Principal in Sidgwick Hall; Miss Jane Lee, a very earnest scholar
of Italian literature, entirely devoted to the best interests of
the College, became head of the Old Hall, also with the title of
Vice-Principal. This title for the person presiding over one particular
Hall, and giving special attention to the needs of the students in that
Hall, became somewhat misleading, and has since been replaced by that
of Tutor, to which (in the Cambridge Colleges) it roughly corresponds.
The Vice-Principal in each Hall had much more to do with house-keeping
arrangements than later on, when more unity in this respect had been
achieved and a regular Steward appointed. The Vice-Principals presided
at table in their several Halls, corresponded with the parents of
students, arranged, within the limits of a few simple laws, rules
for the discipline of the students, read prayers in the morning; in
fact, were generally responsible for the social, physical and moral
requirements of the students. As, when there were only two Halls,
Miss Gladstone held the office in Sidgwick Hall for many years, she
imparted to it a certain character, and for a long time _the_ V.-P.
was a title regarded as almost individual to her. The separation into
Halls, inevitable for a time, had, in Miss Clough's estimation and
perhaps in reality, a very decided advantage. Students in one Hall
naturally saw more of one another than of those in other Halls; Old
Hall especially was somewhat cut off from the two others, so long as
the public road ran between. And for games, clubs, and other social
purposes, it was often a help to have a natural division into the three
Halls. The larger societies--such as the Debating Society, the Musical
Society, and some others, as well as the more regular of the Games
Clubs--belonged to the College as a whole. The teaching arrangements
were, of course, always made for the whole College and not separately
for each Hall.
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