St Hugh's College, Oxford - Club Paper, Jan 1901

but No.

Waver.

JAN UARY, 1901.

6.

f. 7isugO's Miss Moberly, President (till July, 1902).

B. Langston, Vice-President (till July, 1902).

E. M. Olivier, Editor (till July, 1902).

F. M. Langston (till July, 1901).

W. M. Mammatt, Vice-President (till July, 1902). H. M. Hudson, Treasurer(tildJuly,r902).

Mrs. Simon (till July, 1901).

J. Watson (till July, 1901).

J. E. Turner (till July, 1901).

B. M. Sparks, Secretary (till July, 5902).

W. E. Buxton (Senior Student).

"glitern6ers.

Abbott, A. M. *Abdy, D. C.

Hedley, C.

9, St. Cross Road., Ovford.

f High School, Tunbridge Wells.

118, Queen's Road, Tunbridge Wells.

Ash, L.

f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

1Burleigh House, Croydon.

*Ashburner, C. E. High School, Lincoln. f High School, Nottingham.

Barter, C. D. iSonning Vicarage, Reading.

Batchelor,F.M.S. St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

Bird, P.

f

Letcombe Basset Vicarage, Wantage.

f z6, Verulam Street, Liverpool.

Colfe Road, Forest Hill, S.E.

*Birley, M. II.

f Girls' Collegiate School, Port Elizabeth, S. Africa.

A. 20, St. Michael's Road, Bedford.

Bond, A. Woodborough Vicarage, Nottingham. *Blamire-Brown, f Maria GreyTraining College, Brondesbury, N.W. R. E. 1Chalgrove Vicarage, Wallingford. *Braine-Hartnell, Mrs., The Cotswold Sanatorium, nr. Stroud, Glos.

(C. L. Barker).

Browne, M. E. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

4, Rosslyn Mansions, S. Hampstead, N.W. Bulkeley, M. M. The Rectory, Morpeth.

65, Queen's Gate, W. Burnett, M. E. Buxton, W. E. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

17, Bath Road, Bedford Park, Chiswick.

Cooper, V. 42, Portman Square, W. ,

{

Cox, Mrs. A. (S. M. Iles).

Crick, M. M.

Markree Castle, Collooney, Ireland.

58, High Street, Watford.

f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

1Litton Cheney Vicarage, Dorset. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

Cunynghame G.M. E. 'Parson's Hill, King's Norton, Worc.

De Castro, f Maria Grey Training College, Brondesbury, I. P. M. L. 1 N.W. Dening, C. L. A. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

1Manor House, Stow-on-the-Wold.

Eakin, M. L. f Church High School, Hull.

The Bridge House, Shrewsbury. *Emmerson, J. A. f Yorkshire College, Leeds.

155, Court Hill Road, Lewisham, S.E. Etlinger, F. von 28, Clyde Road, Dublin.

Fairbanks, A. L. Melbourn, Wells, Somerset.

Fear, H. M. f Spring Villa, Moat Road, E. Grinstead. t. The Vicarage, Brenchley, Paddock Wood, Kent.

Flamsteed, M. N. D., St. George's Vicarage, Bristol.

Fowler, A. C. The Polytechnic, Tottenham, N. Gent, Mrs. H. C. St. Katherine's Lodge, Knowle, Bristol.

(S. E. Kershaw).

*Goodchild, A. C. f C.M.S. Chundicully, Jaffna, Ceylon.

1 111, Eaton Terrace, S.W. Grant, M. A.

f Grey Cqat School, Westminster, S.W. 128, Linden Road, Bedford.

Grattan, E. H. G. f Grey Coat School, Westminster, S.W. 1Katharine House, Addiscombe, Croydon.

Hamilton, G. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

13, Wallbutton Road, Brockley, S.E. Hamilton, R. E. f St. Anne's, Abbot's Bromley, Rugely.

3, Wallbutton Road, Brockley, S.E. Hatch, E. M. 2, Hinde Street, Manchester Square, W.

f St. Mary's College, Harrow Road, W. 17o, Talbot Road, Southport.

Hickinbotham, C. C. E., Woodlands, Rolvenden, Kent. *Hodge, D. M. V. f Queen Anne's School, Caversham, Reading.

10mbersley Road, Worcester.

Hudson, H. M. Elderslea, Bushey Heath.

Hunt, E. A.

St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

Joel, C. S.

f Bishop Otter College, Chichester.

1Bute Cottage, Highcliffe, Christchurch. *Jourdain, C. E. f The Lodge, Marlborough.

-163, Chesterton Road, Cambridge. *Knox, E. M. Havergal College, Toronto.

Langston, B. f Westminster City School.

65, Warwick Square, S.W. Langston, F. M. 65, Warwick Square, S.W. *Lee, M. L. f 773 Banbury Road, Oxford. tLeafield, Witney, Oxon.

Levett, D. M. N. St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

The Parsonage, Brenchley, Kent.

Lidbetter, E. M. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

1St. Paul's Vicarage, Southampton.

Malone, A.

4, Brunswick Square, W.C.

Mammatt, W. M. Brookside, Ilkley, Yorks.

Marriott, Mrs. J. A. R., 3, Holywell, Oxford.

(H. Robinson).

Matravers, E. C. f Eaton House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 119, Howard Place, Carlisle.

May, E. G. Ravenscliffe, Oxford Rd. ,Moseley, Birmingham.

Medill, G. I. K. f Nortrepps Hall, near Norwich.

Rostrevor, Denmark Avenue, Wimbledon.

Mitchell, W. J. de L., St. Paul's Home, Salisbury.

Moberly, C. A. E. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

Parsonage, Sydenham, S.E. Olivier, E. M.

Wilton Rectory, Salisbury.

f Diocesan Girls' School, Grahamstown, S. Africa. lDamerham Vicarage, Salisbury.

Parsons, G. I. f High School, Falmouth.

13, York Grove, Peckham, S.E. Payan-Dawney, Mrs., 48, St. Mary Abbots Terrace, Kensington,W.

Owen, E. A.

(A. B. Townsend.)

Penny, E. M. f St. Thomas' Sisterhood, Oxford.

112, Belsize Road, S. Hampstead, N.W. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

Price, H. 1Claverdon Vicarage, Warwick.

Prideaux,E.M.C.f Grammar School for Girls, Bradford.

1St. Saviour's Vicarage, Redland, Bristol. f St. Anne's, Abbots' Bromley, Rugeley.

Rice, M. A. 1Kingscote House, East Grinstead. *Rickards, H. A. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

i_Dixton Vicarage, Monmouth. *Selby, G. M.

Avening Rectory, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Simon, Mrs. J. A., 90, York Mansions, Battersea Park.

St. Mark's Rectory, Bexhill, Sussex.

Simpson, V. A. Simpson, J.t St. Bernard's, Newton Abbott, Devon.

Warleigh House, Southbourne Road, Sheffield.

Simpson, M. L. f St. Bernard's, Newton Abbott, Devon.

Warleigh House, Southbourne Road, Sheffield. *Spackman, R. J. Bowers House, Harpenden, Herts.

Sparks, B. M. f Grey Coat School, Westminster, S.W. 1Carrington Vicarage, Nottingham.

*Watson, E. B. L. 15, Scarsdale Villas, Kensington, W.

Spooner, E. M. 37, Hogarth Road, S.W. Stark, H. D. M. f Graham Street High School, S.W. 19, Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth, S.W. f Godolphin High School, Salisbury.

Steer, G. E. 1Ryhall Vicarage, Stamford. f Willow Bank, Eynsham, Oxon.

Stoton, F. E. lTrinity College, Oxford. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

Titley, E. M. 1169, Brixton Hill, S.W. f Cappleside, Settle, Yorks.

Thompson, M. E. E.lMount Ararat, Richmond.

Turner, J. E. f City of London School for Girls, Victoria 141, Myddelton Square, E. C. [Embankment,E.C. 3, Arundel Terrace, Brighton.

Ward, F. Wardale, E. E. f 23, Woodstock Road, Oxford.

12, Benet Place, Cambridge.

Old House, Codsall, Wolverhampton.

Warner, E. B. 7, Upper Cheyne Row, S.W. Watson, J.

*Weston, M. D. {16, II6akawa Cho, Gochome, Kojimachiku, Tokio, Japan.

16, Chalfont Road, Oxford.

White, S. A. f High School, Bishop's Auckland.

16, Prince Arthur Road, Hampstead, N.W. Williams, A. M. f 6, Bardwell Road, Oxford. tWavertree, Mulgrave Road, Croydon.

Williams, E. Bede House, Stamford.

Wilson, M. A. f Horbling Vicarage, Folkingham, Lincolnshire.

Fettes College, Edinburgh.

Wilson, H. I. Tudor Cottage, Bushey.

Woodhouse, A. I. {St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

Shrewsbury House, Surbiton.

Woodman, H. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford. lIvy Cottage, Beeding, Sussex.

Wright,Mrs. C. P. f Chaukpazat Gold Mine, Nankan P.O. (New (A. L. Barker). I, Valley Railway), Upper Burmah.

Wyld, F. M. f St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford.

1Grittleton Rectory, Chippenham.

• Denotes life-membership.

Where two addresses are given, the second is the permanent home address. The Editor hopes that Members will inform the Secretary of any change of address.

All Subscriptions should be paid at once to the Treasurer and not to the Secretary.

LETTERS AND NOTICES. RESOLUTIONS. 1. That Miss Owen's School at Grahamstown, South Africa, be allowed to adopt S.H.H. colours.

2. That there be, if possible, annual Hockey and Tennis Matches between past and present Students of the Hall.

NEW COMMITTEE ELECTED. President Miss Moberly.

Vice-Presidents B. Langston, W. M. Mammatt.

B. M. Sparks.

Secretary E. M. Olivier.

Editor H. E. Hudson.

Treasurer S.H.C. ACCOUNTS, 1899-1900.

4 s. d.

RECEIPTS. Balance in hand ...

Life Subscriptions ...

3 3 7 Oo 3 7 o

Annual ditto

47 10 7 S. H. C. Paper, July, Ditto, January, 1900 Secretary's Expenses Editor's „ Treasurer's

s. d.

EXPENDITURE.

1899 ...

• 0.

3 o o 3 3 o o 5o o ro 3 O 54 7 3 7

o 7o

Balance in hand ...

£7 to 7 November, 1900.

WINIFRED

M.

MAMMATT,

EDITORIAL. This year is to be an important one in the history of St. Hugh's. It will certainly be good news to all of us to hear that our numbers are growing too large for our present buildings, and that fresh accommodation is to be provided. But we ought to have a chapel and a library worthy of an increasing

Hall. The chapel is, even now, too small for our numbers, and it will be quite unworthy of us soon.

If we could make a beginning ourselves, it might possibly bring about, before long, the building of a chapel worthy of Oxford and women.

A satisfactory library seems a necessity to any Woman's Hall in Oxford just at present. The Senior Student tells us that the perennial Bodleian controversy has been again to the fore during the past autumn, and it is certainly a serious question.

The Bodleian Buildings are not as elastic as the Women's Halls. While we increase in numbers, the seats in the Bodleian and Radcliffe Buildings remain as before, and it is obvious that there soon will not be room for all would-be readers, even if that point has not arrived already. St. Hugh's is to be congratulated on seeing this, and determining as far as possible to provide for its own members. Of course we know a private library can never take the place of the University one, but there are many books which we certainly ought to possess, and which need not be read at the Bodleian. The Senior Student has sent me a list of some of those most urgently needed, which I print below in the hope that some members of the club may feel disposed to present a new or second-hand copy of any of them to the library :—Landor's Imaginary Conversations ; Raleigh's edition of Milton's Works; Dryden'sPrefaces, edited by W. P. Ker ; Daniel's Defence of Rhyme ; Lamb's Letters ; Dowden's (I) French Revolution and Literature, (2) Shakespeare : His Mind and Art; Works of Racine and Corneille.

I have a suggestion to throw out to the members of St. Hugh's Club, which I hope they will meditate over, and I shall make it into a definite proposal at the Summer General Meeting. It is that the Club should become one of the " Associated Societies " connected with the Women's Institute in Grosvenor Crescent. The advantages would be that we should be in touch with many other Women's Societies, and with women's work in general, and also we should have a centre in London and could get a room at the Institute's very fine house at Hyde Park Corner for our annual meetings, and so on. There is no doubt

that a Society becomes more real and full of life when it has its own headquarters, and as we cannot afford to take a house of our own, I think we should gain the same sort of advantage by making our pied-Ă -terre at the Women's Institute. There would, of course, be some extra expense, but it is extraordinarily small.

The subscription from an Associated Society is ro/6 per annum, and we should have the right of electing a representative into the Women's Institute to attend their meetings and hear all that goes on there. The fee for a room for our meetings is another i of 6. So I think if we raised our subscriptions from 1/- to t/6 per annum, we should cover the extra expense, and each individual would scarcely feel the difference.

S. Hugh's Hall, Oxford, December, moo.

Dear Old Students, A happy New Year to you and all good wishes from S. Hugh's !

Those of you who have known the felicity of Senior Studentship will be able to sympathize with your present correspondent as she cudgels her poor brains to furnish material for this term's news-letter concerning Oxford in general and S. Hugh's in particular.

Oxford has been overshadowed by the loss of some of her great names. Sir Henry Acland and Professor Max Muller have died ; but perhaps the death of Mrs. Paget, the Dean's wife, after a short illness, was the saddest of all.

The next thing that comes into my mind is Rain. I only wish I could remember some delightful statistics I heard the other day about the rainfall ill Oxford this term, but perhaps it is as well that I cannot, the subject is altogether too damping I Nature's wet blanket, however, did not quite succeed in quenching the life of the University, and lectures, concerts, debates, etc., have gone on as usual.

Of public lectures, the first that occur to me are those on the recent discoveries in Cnossos, which attracted a very large audience, the lecturer being one of the explorers, Mr. Evans. He showed excellent lime-light views and pointed out the various distinctive features in the plan of the building and the architecture, the axe-head of Zeus, etc., which led him to conclude that nothing less than the palace and labyrinth of King Minos had been laid bare.

The views of the frescoes were especially interesting, showing as they do the type of the men and women of that time, and the inscribed tablets of stone, which are thought to be the records of the reign of Minos and other kings of pre-Mycenean date, will probably give us altogether new ideas of Greek mythology.

Some of us who remember spending many hours in the schoolroom learning gender and agreement rules and the formation of the plural of compound nouns in French, listened with deep interest to Mr. Markheim's lecture dealing with the points of the arrete issued by the Minister of Public Instruction in France on the Simplification of the French Syntax, and we envied future generations and wished that in our time the rules had been so purely optional.

Two lectures were given at S. Hugh's for the University Extension by Mr. Coulton of Cambridge on " University Life in the days of Chaucer," and I

think that we all came to the conclusion that modern Oxford is preferable and that women students would have fared but poorly in those days.

The Archbishop of Canterbury spent three days in Oxford, one afternoon of which he gave up to address the Society of the Annunciation ; this meeting, being thrown open to all students, was the largest on record.

The Union has had desperate fights over the unhappy Colonial Secretary and has got a good deal of amusement out of Miss Marie Corelli.

The Bodleian question was again raised, as a good many of you already know, at the end of last term. Certain letters then appeared in the Oxford Magazine objecting to the presence of the womenstudents, who, it was said, took up much of the available space and used the Bodleian merely as a central waiting-room in the intervals between lectures. Feeling has become more acute this term and we have been requested by our authorities to confine ourselves as much as possible to the Nettleship, so as to give the troubled feeling time to subside ! To obviate the immediate difficulty the A.E.W. have now secured another large room in the Clarendon Building, next to the Nettleship Library, which will be fitted up with tables and chairs, ink, etc., and can be used by all students. We are now more than ever anxious to improve our own Hall Library and we hope some day even to be the proud possessors of the Dictionary of National Biography.

To turn now to the affairs of our own particular part of the seat of learning : Reading parties were a marked feature of the Long Vacation, and the end of June and early July saw various members of S. Hugh's still in the neighbourhood of Oxford. E. Hunt and H. Rickards passed some time in John Street, W. Buxton, E. Lidbetter, and I. Woodhouse betook themselves to Littlemore, the village beyond Iffley, where J. H. Newman spent two years before his secession to the Church of Rome. " The Farm" proved an ideal place for a reading party, and after a long morning at the Bodleian and a hot, dusty ride along the Iffley Road, we appreciated all the more the quiet walled garden, with the tangle of old-fashioned flowers, shady bushes and view over the pond up the orchard, finding them specially conducive to calm hours of work, and dividing our attention between Homer and Milton, strawberries and cream. Sometimes we had the pleasure of receiving a visit from tutors and other old friends. On one occasion we went to see M. Wyld and L. Ash who were pursuing History and Science at Wolvercote on the Upper River, but we secretly came to the conclusion that our surroundings at Littlemore were superior to theirs, and that we would not change our hills for their flats, notwithstanding the attractions afforded by the river.

We must also mention a most enjoyable afternoon spent in S. Hugh's garden, where Miss Wardale and Miss Kirkaldy entertained nearly the whole of Oxford.

Thus several of us had glimpses of the Oxford in the Vacation visited by Elia, where the walks " the tall trees of Christ's, the groves of Magdalen, are so much one's own," when the Radcliffe Square is deserted and the " High" abounds in a type of passenger rare in term-time.

There is no doubt as to what the first impression of the visitor to S. Hugh's would be, namely, that all available space is amply filled by the twenty-four students in the Hall, and that we are indeed over-

crowded, since two more sleep out, coming in before morning Chapel and leaving again before io p.m.

A peep inside the bicycle shed would confirm the impression and we are hoping that we shall soon have a larger and more convenient space for the many bicycles. While I am on the subject of bicycles I think that many of you who bicycled when up, will rejoice to hear that Norham Gardens was, during the Long Vacation, made into quite a good, level road, and we are no longer obliged to ride in the gutters to prevent being jolted off our machines.

In Chapel it is quite surprising what a difference one or two extra people make to our accommodation.

Indeed, Miss Moberly has suggested to us that the limitations of S. Hugh's Chapel would form a suitable topic of conversation with any millionaires we may happen to know. I mention this because it applies equally well to past students and their millionaire friends.

Radley this year, in honour of its Jubilee, acted "The Frogs" of Aristophanes in place of the usual Latin play—the five classics who went from the Hall thoroughly appreciated it.

The losses caused by Schools are not this year numerous. I. de Castro, our last year's Senior Student, is now teaching at Winchester High School.

D. Hodge has a post at Queen Anne's School, Caversham. E. Blamire-Brown is going through a course of training at the Maria Grey College, and B. Warner has also gone down.

On the other hand there are eight Freshers this term, three of whom are to take the Final History Schools, three English, one German and one Science. Our Hall Scholar, C. Ady, is reading History, and D. Shuttleworth, who holds the new close scholarship from Worcester High School, is taking Science. We are very grieved that no new classic has come up ; however, Honour Mods. claim four victims next March.

We still improve our acquaintance with Shakespeare, Browning, and Architecture in our Societies, and Miss Moberly has kindly continued Dante readings one evening a week. We have now read the Inferno and the Purgatorio and are enjoying the Paradiso.

Sharp Practice is also flourishing, and the plan of electing our President for the term seems to answer well. We have some promising debaters among the freshers, and I am sure you will like to hear that two of the officers of the Inter-Collegiate Debating Society for next term, President and Secretary, have been elected from S. Hugh's, which gives us all no small satisfaction. The result of the poll was announced at a grand "bump cocoa" given by, the Vice-Principal to celebrate two successive hockey victories.

You will have seen in the Fritillary a Hockey notice, written in a spirit of calm resignation after a series of defeats, but perhaps the new red ties worn by the XI. for the first time turned our luck, for we had the satisfaction of inflicting upon L.M.H. 2nd XI. the first and last defeat their club had suffered this term : thus encouraged we proceeded to beat the Etceteras 2nd. But the match we enjoyed more than any was, without a doubt, our encounter with the old students who came up for their half-term. The "old ladies' (to use Mrs. Davis' polite appellation) were able to muster a strong team, including W. Mammatt, H. Hudson, H. Fear, E. May, I. de Castro, D. Hodge, B. Warner, E. Blamire-Brown, G. Steer, with C. Hedley as Captain, many of last year's first XI.

being among them. We had a capital game, the result being a draw, two all. After the match the Present XI. entertained the Past XI. at a large tea in the Library, and the occasion was further celebrated by a Sociable in the evening and the singing of Auld Lang Syne. We hope the old ladies enjoyed their visit as much as the young ones enjoyed seeing them again.

On the last Saturday of term a Fancy Dress Sociable produced a most motley gathering. Othello and Desdemona were there and the Walrus and the Carpenter went about in tears and oyster-shells.

Classical costumes too were much in vogue and amongst them appeared a stately Juno accompanied by a strutting peacock.

Here perhaps I may mention that several members of the Hall are anxious to have a shield with S. Hugh's swan on a rather smaller scale than that which now hangs in the dining-room. Opinions are divided as to the merits of a shield with or without an oak mount. I should be glad to hear from any old students, who would care to have one, what their wishes are in the matter.

Now I think I have told almost everything of interest but one grand piece of news I have reserved to the end. It has been decided by the authorities that the new wing has waited long enough for wallpapers and the paper-hangers are at this very moment at work in the Hall 1 Some very pretty wall-papers were on view last term in the drawing-room.

More than this, we have had two new bookshelves for the Library promised by members of the Council, so we shall indeed find some alterations when we go up again in January.

We have had visits this term from Mrs. Simon, Miss Hayes-Robinson, G. Steer, C. Hedley, B. Warner, E. Brown, W. Mammatt, E. Olivier, F. Stoton, H. Hudson H. Fear, I. de Castro, D. Hodge, E. May and 'A. Williams. We hope to see more next term.

Once more S. Hugh's sends best wishes.

WINIFRED E. BUXTON, Senior Student. '

DURBAN,

NATAL, July 8,1900.

OF ST. HUGH'S CLUB, This is holidaytime at last, the first real holiday for the last fifteen months. The term has been a more than usually hard one. But now the strain is over. A few days must be given to reports and accounts, and when these are finally despatched we pack our necessities, providing for extremes of heat and cold, a fig-leaf for the daytime, and Laplander's furs for the night, as Mr. Ralph has it, and start on our travels. First, a night journey to Port Elizabeth, and then a coasting voyage in a ship which shall be be nameless, since it is not the good old " Dunotter," nor worthy a place in the same line of ships. After four days of indescribable rolling, in spite of the calmest of seas, we endure a day of misery in landing.

We are put into a large clothes basket and set sharply down upon the deck of a small tug which then rocks us violently up and down at the side of the big vessel, till all the basket loads have been swung over by the creaking old crane, and then when our feelings have passed all power of expression in words, the climax comes in the tossing journey over the bar. Pale and enfeebled, we crawl into the great Customs shed on DEAR FELLOW-MEMBERS

the quay, and wait for hours until the tug returns with the luggage, after which follows an hour of wildest confusion, while we rush about amid shouting Kaffirs, silent coolies, distressed passengers, and indignant officials, seeking our own particular belongings. At last it is over, and we are safely settled for the night in a very cosy home-like hotel, and next day begins the delight of exploring. And Durban well rewards the explorer, it has such a winsome beauty of its own.

The roads are much more thickly lined with trees than those of Cape towns, and the shade of these trees, with their immense glossy leaves, is curiously dark and cool in contrast with the white sunny glow of the road. Durban is a wonderfully modern go-a-head place, with all sorts of European luxuries curiously mixed with traces of primitiveness.

The trams run side by side with the rickshaws, and the different races jostle one another in the streets.

You meet Zulu women in red blankets, with rings in their noses, and long horns of hair projecting behind their heads, their ankles loaded with bangles ; soldiers in khaki, dark handsome Indian coolies in pure white, midshipmen of the Naval Brigade just leaving for home, scarlet and blue nursing sisters going up to the front, all rubbing shoulders together in these busy streets, but no one in a hurry. There is a spell of leisureliness which comes upon one out here, and which is irresistible. Everyone strolls easily about his business, so why should not you ? There is no look of indifference about these faces, however. Far from it. Only mention the War and you will see the glow of enthusiasm light up the face of your listener, the same enthusiasm which has fired Natal to send of her best men to shed their blood for the Empire.

There is no undercurrent of treachery to be feared here : the Great Mother's plucky little daughter can look her bravely in the face—fearless, because of her perfect loyalty.

It has been a wonderful experience, to live all these months in the country where England's life struggle is being fought out, and to feel the actual smell of war in the very air about one. It was wonderful enough for you to feel it all as vividly as you did, living on the hourly news as if no six thousand miles of ocean rolled between you and those whose failure and victory shook your very hearts.

And here we were in the very bustle of it all. The trains that passed through, bearing their loads of cheering soldiers, left them at stations we had often passed on business or pleasure, now become the scenes of hard-won glory and of cruel loss. We saw wounded men return with the sweat and dust of the battlefield still upon them. We grasped a friend by the hand one night, and heard of his gallant death two or three days later. Even now we are on our way to stand in the very fields whose names are so familiar to every Englishman : Elandslaagte, Colenso, Ladysmith, and besides the little white crosses which many a mother in England would give much even to set eyes upon. Yes, the War has been much with us, and I, for one, shall always be thankful it has been so.

But this was not meant to be a War letter, only that one must speak of what is uppermost in one's thoughts. To-morrow we are to visit a sugar plantation some miles out of Durban, along the coast, and the day after our travels go forward to Maritzburg and on through Natal. I really ought to keep this open to give you some impressions of these places, but this must depend on mail-day. Experience proves that a mail-day missed is a serious danger to

a half-finished letter.

I go back for a moment to everyday life and work. I have so often been asked how far the troubles out here have affected the school, that perhaps an answer will not be out of place. It is really wonderful how little we have been affected in the matter of numbers.

Of course there have been losses. Some of our nicest girls have gone home to England to be out of the way of trouble, South Africa being " no place for women and girls" as one father told me last Christmas as the reason for carrying off three daughters at one

blow !

But, all through, our numbers have steadily advanced by five, six or eight each term, and this August we are hoping to begin with a higher number than the D.S.G. has known for several years, never since it began to compete with other schools of the same type, which, after some years of unrivalled prosperity to the D.S.G., began and continued to spring up in all the larger towns of the Colony and in Grahamstown itself, so that the poor old school had to struggle against heavy odds. Let us hope that with the setting in of a tide of English immigration to this country a time of prosperity will begin in which all the good schools may share alike.

It will be a case then of the survival of the fittest, for people will come out from England with a home-grown standard of their own in regard to education, and a fifth-rate school will not satisfy them just because it is within a walk and can produce a vast number of inferior "pictures" every term as the work of its "art classes!'

Progress is before us and we must be ready for it. This is why I am anxious to gather in and keep together a first-rate staff. But this is terrible "shop" and must cease. One's mind has a fatal tendency to sink into " shop " towards midnight.

In view of this fact and of the more inexorable fact that the English mail closes (for us who are on our travels) to-morrow morning, I will bring this to an end, with the hope that I may have another word at some future time.

Always yours, EDITH A. OWEN. IT has been suggested that some reminiscences of the early days of St. Hugh's, when the swan was as yet an ugly duckling, would be interesting to present students.

Imagine then four, or shall I say five, home-sick people, established in a small and scantily furnished house in Fyfield Road. The four original students all worked in one room, the dining-room. There were little tables in the corners at which we wrote, and into the drawers of which we put the note-books and papers, the results of our labours. There was no library and no chapel, hardly any garden, no tennis, and no boat. Next door there was a girl who played the piano. She was practising for some examination, and continued from morn till dewy eve, with scales, arpeggios and studies. This was not conducive to the study of classics and mathematics. How often did we desire to bombard the partition wall, and lay the enemy low with the poker. We, who were also examination candidates, ought to have had a fellowfeeling, but human nature has its limitations.

The room in which we breakfasted looked out into the back gardens of Fyfield Road. The

proprietor of the piano had. also another possession,

some white rabbits, which lived in a hutch at the bottom of the garden. These served a very useful purpose. When we came down feeling desperately shy of each other, and perhaps a little more homesick than usual, as one is apt to do in the mornings, we found that the only subject of conversation which seemed possible was the health, manners and customs of the rabbits. The brother of our senior student came one day to call upon her, and looking out of the window, he observed, "What a deadly dull place!

I should think you never talk about anything but the rabbits." As that continued to be the stock subject of conversation, she was often impressed with the truth of his remark, and, let us hope, tried to arouse interest in other topics : though it is astonishing how soothing and consolatory rabbits may be under some circumstances.

In those days "50 per cent. of the students of St. Hugh's were Science," as the Science Tutor of Somerville observed, and one of them had an interesting experience when taking her final. The Final Honours School of Botany had only just been opened to women, and when the fatal moment of the examination arrived, it was found that no other candidate, either man or woman, had entered. The University did not wish to pay two examiners to examine this solitary woman, and the subject was debated in Convocation, with the result that they decided to examine the candidate, though the resolution was carried by only three votes. A notice with regard to this discussion appeared in the Oxford Magazine. It began "The case of the misguided female who seeks to be examined in Botany came on yesterday in rather a thin house." Someone in the course of the debate observed that he had " always considered Botany a suitable subject for well-nurtured females." Perhaps it was this rather objectionable remark which moved the Council to admit the "female" to the examination.

When St. Hugh's was in its infancy the members of the Hall were admitted to the Somerville and Lady Margaret debates, but for a long time no one had the courage to contribute an observation or speech of any kind. When the last debate of the first summer term arrived, we all implored each other to speak, to get up and say something, however stupid : as an extra inducement we all promised a halfpenny to the one who should thus screw her courage to the sticking point. As there were then five of us, you will perceive that the large sum of 2id. would be the reward, for Miss Moberly had also offered to contribute. Now, whether it was the prospect of aid. or a sense of duty cannot be told, as all our motives are known to be mixed, but certain it is that one of our number arose in the course of the debate, with horrible heart-beatings and trembling limbs, and gave vent to an exceedingly feeble remark, which, to her surprise,• was received with rapturous applause.

The explanation of this was, that at the businessmeeting which had taken place before we came in for the debate, a resolution had been passed to the effect " that the members of St. Hugh's Hall be invited to the debates next term, and that they be encouraged to speak."

In those early days the residents of Oxford were exceedingly kind to the students of St. Hugh's. We shall always have a grateful remembrance of the goodness of Mrs. Johnson, Miss Weld and Mrs. Toynbee, and the Science students especially at the

friendly interest taken in their welfare by Prof. Clifton, Dr. Watts, Mr. Harcourt, Mr. James Walker, Prof.

Vines and Prof. Poulton. There are compensations in every situation, and though our home arrangements were not so comfortable as those enjoyed now in Norham Gardens, we had many privileges which the present students cannot have. We had much more personal intercourse with Miss Moberly than can be possible now that the numbers are so much larger.

We used to read Dante on Sunday evenings then as now, and we tried to translate for ourselves : some of our wild attempts were rather amusing, no doubt.

A great feature of this time was the band which met at S. Hugh's. Several violinists came from Somerville and Lady Margaret, and we had some very good music under Miss Moberly's direction. I believe at first she had to conduct with the hearthbroom for want of a baton, but it answered very well.

At the first garden party we had in the present Hall garden the band performed with much éclat, and those who did not play in the orchestra contributed to the musical entertainment by singing some of Mendelssohn's duets and Brahm's four-part songs for female voices.

GRACE PARSONS.

Miss Weston is anxious to find some lady to help her in her most interesting work at Tokyo, Japan. It would be chiefly high-grade educational work, with great opportunities for teaching Christianity. She would specially delight in having a companion who had been at St. Hugh's.

By the kindness of Mrs. Simon, the general meeting last summer (July 2 8th) was held at 90 York Mansions, Battersea. Mrs. Simon was the most hospitable of hostesses and allowed us to crowd into her pleasant room overlooking the Park. There was a good gathering, and, though the business was not overwhelming, it was a particularly enjoyable and genial meeting, and it was not so intensely hot as the year before.

Two scholarships will be competed for in March, the annual scholarship of £25 and the Clara Evelyn Mordan scholarship of £40. ,

.

The President suggests that one or two members of the Club should be appointed to collect news of past students for the Club paper. Unless it is someone's special business to produce a budget of news, it is to be feared that past students will pass their lives in an obscurity impenetrable to their fellow Club members: unless they become so famous that the public newspapers record their comings and goings.

The annual service on Low Sunday should not be forgotten.