There is an amusing letter to Miss Davies just before the examination of 1865, which shows how these things looked thirty years ago— “12, Camden Street, Dec. 5, 1865. “MY DEAR MISS DAVIES, “Pray excuse my not answering your note till now. I am literally ‘over head and ears’ in work. There is so much to look after just now. “Those dreadful Cambridge examiners! Their digestion would certainly be impaired if they only knew how indignant I am with them. Why, the time hitherto allowed for an examination is an ‘insult’ to us; but now they have added ‘injury,’ by curtailing the time for English subjects—English, too! _The_ subject in which a girl might hope to pass with credit! But we must endure it, as we can’t cure it. “No doubt _you_ are blissfully ignorant of the change. You are not an unfortunate school-mistress, with a reputation to maintain! “And our girls! We sometimes think they have taken leave of their senses. Either we have taken up too much, or they are hopelessly stupid. I almost fear the former. “Is the Cambridge Exam. to take place at that room in Conduit Street? And, please let the unhappy victims have plenty of paper before the bell rings. And I hope Miss Craig or Miss Bostock, or some one, will be there to help you in distributing the examination papers, wherever there is any English going on, for even one minute is worth something when the time is so limited. “I hope this is not asking too much; it is for _all_, at any rate.... “Believe me, “‘Genuinely and heartily’ yours, “My dear Miss Davies, “FRANCES M. BUSS. “I mean to worry, worry, worry for a _carte de visite_ of you. If you do not give way, then I shall worry, worry, worry Mrs. Davies.” In the same letter Miss Buss says— “I am half-inclined to think of trying inspection next year on our own account; the expense would, however, be one consideration, but the experiment would be worth trying.” In 1864, Miss Buss had been inspected by Mr. Fearon, on behalf of the Schools Inquiry Commission, and her account of it to her sister is very characteristic. That the inspector did not share her own estimate of her girls is proved by the place given to her school, and by the invitation to appear before the Commissioners in 1865. “Camden Street, June 24, 1864.