A Short History of Newnham College, CambridgeGardner, Alice
History
A Short History of Newnham College, Cambridge
Gardner, Alice
Newnham College
We have already mentioned the lectures on Literature which were at one
time given by first-rate men of letters to students of all faculties
four or five times a year. Attendance at them was never compulsory, but
the interest of the subject and distinction of the lecturer attracted
many, and this continued to be the case with the Sidgwick Memorial
Lecture. A student of natural science has expressed her deep debt to
the attraction to good literature which these lectures afforded.
Latterly the lectures given by holders of the new professorship of
English (Dr. Verrall and Sir A. Quiller Couch), which are open to other
than special students of the subject, amply provided for the objects
aimed at in the earlier Newnham lectures.
Naturally the societies or clubs that loom largest in the life of
present and the memories of past students are those connected with
games. Hockey, as already said, was started by the first Principal
herself, and it has remained for a long time one of the most prominent
of the games societies. The several Halls have their teams, and play
against one another; the College team plays against Girton and more
distant colleges and schools as well as other clubs; also matches are
played between past and present students. Fives is provided for by good
courts. Cricket is played in the summer term. Tennis had been with us
from the beginning of Lawn Tennis itself, and ash courts made the game
possible all the year round. Lacrosse was introduced a good deal later.
The introduction of bicycling during the middle nineties furnished a
new mode of exercise and stimulated exploration of the country.
There have been, of course, many smaller societies: Sharp Practice, to
make students ready in debate; boating, which has recently arrived at
having an eight of its own; others of names incomprehensible to any but
the initiated. In connection with the Women's Settlement in Southwark,
there has from its beginning been a society following its progress and
contributing to its funds. The visits of Residents in the Settlement
to explain to the students their work or some branch of it have been
very interesting occasions--especially in the days when Miss Gladstone
was Warden, and came to give a humorous account of her experiences,
professedly to the first-year students, practically to as many of the
students and staff as could crowd into the room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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