A Short History of Newnham College, CambridgeGardner, Alice
History
A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge
Gardner, Alice
Newnham College
To return to the history of the College: in February 1892 it had to
sustain a loss which was hardly less a blow from having come in the
ordinary course of nature. Miss Clough was 72 years old in the January
of that year. She had to most people looked about the same age for
many years, as her hair had whitened early, and the vivid look in her
eyes never suggested old age. The portrait of her by Shannon, painted
in 1890, gives a better impression of her than Richmond's portrait of
1882.[8] The latter shows, perhaps, more strength, the former more
sweetness. But neither can possibly give an adequate interpretation
to a face so speaking and changeful. Shannon's is a sympathetic study
of calm, benevolent, but alert old age, suggestive of ripe experience
and of a patient outlook on life. It hangs in the College Hall with
the portraits of Prof. and Mrs. Sidgwick and Miss Kennedy, all of them
pleasing and profitable reminders to the students, at their meals,
debates, and dancing, of the character as well as the appearance of
those to whom they owe their present happy opportunities.
[Footnote 8: Now hanging in the Old Hall Library. The expression is
stern, and it was caricatured in _Punch_ as "The very ready
letter-writer; won't I give it him?" She remarked to a former student
that she wished she could have had some young friends to talk to whilst
it was being painted. "But didn't the artist talk to you, Miss Clough?"
"Yes, on subjects as to which we did not agree."]
During the later part of her life Miss Clough had been obliged to let
some of her work be lightened, and to give the management of Clough
Hall to Miss Katharine Stephen, who had formerly been Miss Gladstone's
secretary; but she still kept an eye on everything that happened in
the College, and many things far beyond. Miss Clough had always felt
a deep interest in the colonies, and she kept up a correspondence
with past students who had made educational ventures in many distant
parts. As one of them said, "her interest in us seemed to vary directly
as the squares of the distances," though certainly those nearer to
Cambridge would not have accepted such a formula. Such schemes as the
mixed education for blacks and whites in Jamaica, the starting of a
loan library in tropical Australia, the opening of a boarding-school
for aristocratic girls in Siam, aroused her warm interest and often
called forth wholesome advice as well as sympathy. She was always able
to enjoy a quiet country holiday in vacation time. The pleasures of
friendship brought her comfort and enjoyment all her life, during the
latter part of which she had the companionship of her niece--daughter
of the brother to whom she had owed so much in her early intellectual
development--and much care and solicitude from some of the lecturers
and of the elder students. She may be said to have died in harness. The
last time that she appeared at a meeting for students was to interest
them in Mr. Morant's educational efforts in Siam.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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