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
In the same year, six months later, Bedford College was founded, mainly
by Mrs. Reid and Miss Bostock, and among the ladies interested we find
many names afterwards prominent in the movement for opening the
Universities to women, as those of Lady Romilly, Lady Belcher, Mrs.
(afterwards Lady) Crompton, Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Goldsmid, Mrs.
Jameson, Mrs. Bryan Walter Procter, Lady Pollock, Miss Julia Smith, Mrs.
Strutt (afterwards Lady Belper), Miss Emily Davies, Miss Anna Swanwick,
and Mrs. Hensleigh Wedgwood.
One distinct difference between Queen’s College and Bedford College is
that the first was managed by men, with a man as the principal and women
only as lady-visitors. Bedford College had from the first a mixed
committee, and the visitor who represented the head might be of either
sex. Latterly Miss Anna Swanwick has held this post. Results seem to
indicate the advantage of giving women an equal share in the education
of girls.
It was by Mr. Laing’s introduction that Miss Buss became one of the
first pupils of the evening classes at Queen’s College. The Queen’s
College of that day (1848) bore little resemblance to the colleges of a
quarter of a century later, but there was an enormous stride onwards in
the curriculum offered to its first pupils.
In her “History of Cheltenham College,” Miss Beale gives us a glimpse of
these classes—
“Queen’s College offered to grant certificates to
governesses.... My sisters and I were amongst some of the first
to offer ourselves for examination. For Holy Scripture the
examiner was the Rev. E. H. Plumptre, afterwards Dean of Wells,
so well known for his Biblical Commentaries, his great learning,
and his translations of the Greek dramatists and Dante. He also
examined in classics. In modern history and literature we had
the pleasure of being examined by Professor Maurice. The _viva
voce_ was a delightful conversation; he led us on by his
sympathetic manner and kindly appreciation so that we hardly
remembered he was an examiner. For French and German our
examiners were Professors Brasseur and Bernays; for mathematics,
Professor Hall and Mr. Cock; for music, Sterndale Bennett; and
for pedagogy, the head of the Battersea Training College.”
The names of the Rev. Charles Kingsley, for English literature and
composition; of Professor Nicolay, for history and geography; and of
Professor Hullah, for vocal music, also appear on the list.
It was of classes like these that, as a girl of twenty-one, Frances Mary
Buss became a happy pupil. Her father’s interest in art and science had
prepared her to enter into the spirit of such teaching, and to profit by
the influence of the great men who threw their whole souls into their
work. What this meant to the girls thus privileged is shown in lives
like those of Miss Buss, Miss Beale, Miss Frances Martin, or Miss Julia
Wedgwood, and many more perhaps less known to fame.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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