It was thus made clear from the outset that the new college was to be no self-centred institution, but was to derive its teaching, inspiration, and standard from Cambridge, provided always that the University were willing to accept the new responsibilities thus proposed. For this end it seemed desirable to make an informal experiment, and through the kindness of the individual examiners five of the students were submitted to the test of the Previous Examination. All were successful; four attained the standard required for a First Class, and one that of a Second. Two years later three students entered for Tripos Examinations in the same informal manner, two passing in classics and one in mathematics. Thus three years after the opening of the College three of its students had fulfilled all the conditions required by the University of Cambridge for a degree in Honours. That was a sufficient answer to the doubters; the founders had justified their action. Henceforth the future of the College was fixed. Meanwhile vigorous efforts were being made to raise money for the permanent building to be erected in or near Cambridge. This was no easy task. Generous donations for the needs of women were at that time unknown. The _Quarterly Review_ recommended ‘simplicity of living and the strictest economy’ as alone suitable for women who might have to earn their own living, and desired to combine with this ‘training in housekeeping, regular needlework ... such cultivation as will make a really good wife, sister, and daughter to educated men.’ Against such selfish and confused notions it was difficult to contend. As Miss Shirreff wrote at the time: ‘Never yet have a company of women been able to scrape together funds for an object specially their own, be it club, or reading-room, or hospital, or, as now, a college.’ It is pleasant to realise that this is no longer true, and that the writer of these despairing words lived to see the change she had helped to bring about.