Frances Mary Buss and her work for educationRidley, Annie E.
History
Frances Mary Buss and her work for education
Ridley, Annie E.
Buss, Frances Mary, 1827-1894
which has always been called Founders’ Window, because it was
partly filled by the arms of those companies and individuals who
have endowed the school, is to be completed as the special
memorial of her who was, after all, our main founder. Along the
opposite side and across the end runs a gallery of pitchpine.
The walls have a dado of pitchpine, and are lined with smooth
terra-cotta brick, let into which at one end, under the gallery,
are two medallions, one a portrait of the Princess of Wales, to
mark the day of her visit, and all that it signified, ‘with a
white stone,’ as Miss Buss said. Five class-rooms open into the
hall along one side under the gallery, five more on to the
gallery, and others on to a corridor above. To secure quiet in
the hall for examinations, etc., curtains can be drawn shutting
off the part under the gallery as a passage-way to the
class-rooms. These are bluish-green, and, with the flowers of
the platform and window-ledges, give a pretty effect of colour.
To the left of the platform hangs Miss Buss’ portrait, so that
she seems to be amongst us still in a strange quiet fashion.
“To describe one class-room is, to the outsider, to describe
them all. A teacher’s platform facing thirty desks, with a large
slate or blackboard behind—Tobins’ pipes, and ventilators over
the doors—this is the now familiar appearance of a schoolroom.
More distinctive features are the window-gardens, the pitchpine
dado, and eminently practical lining of smooth brick, on which
numerous photographs display themselves. Miss Buss’ Roman visits
explain the fact that very many are views of Rome and of
classical sculpture. To those interested in the details of the
school class-rooms take on distinctive features. In one is the
challenge cup held for the term as the result of a singing
competition amongst a number of classes. In another are copies
of Raphael’s Cartoons. In another a very special and original
fireplace decoration. In some we notice spinal chairs, or
modified desks, recommended for special girls by the lady doctor
attached to the school.
“A complete survey is a long business, and even a cursory
inspection involves some walking, for we cannot omit to mount to
the end of the top corridor to see the large drawing-school,
with its array of casts, glass, perspective planes, etc. This is
lighted from above, and contains over the fireplace a large
painting by Mr. R. W. Buss, of an Elizabethan Christmas,
throwing out a fine glow of colour. Several small isolated rooms
on this floor also are used as music-rooms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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