I was born on July 15th, 1844, at 10, Upper Thames Street, City of London. My father was managing clerk to a Government Coal Contractor. Our house had been built, directly after the Great Fire, on part of the site of Castle Baynard, of which some small fragments remained. The house was a delightful one, with tall, carved wooden mantel-shelves, blue and white Dutch tiles, secret drawers and cupboards, which opened when springs were pressed, everything that would delight the heart of people now. It had always been inhabited by wealthy citizens, and had all sorts of comforts, even a large bathroom, an almost unheard of appendage to a city house. A large elm grew at the back, the boughs came up close to our nursery window and through them we saw the river. My first real trouble was having to leave this much-loved house. It was brought about through the growth of railways. Our coals were all sea-borne from Wallsend and that neighbourhood, railway coals superseded sea-borne ones, and the river-side trade ceased to be profitable. Our West-end life, in an utterly common-place house, seemed sadly dull, and I never became really reconciled to West-end conditions.
I went to a dancing class at Miss Wilson's school in St. Paul's Churchyard in 1853 and 1854. We left the City in 1854, and I went to a small private day school in South Molton Street, kept by Mrs. Lamb, from September, 1854, to July, 1858. From August 27th, 1858, to October 3rd, 1858, I went to Irton Cragg, Rugby, to the very peculiar boarding school kept there by my mother's old friend, Miss Nicholson.
I come of a teaching stock; my mother, before her marriage, and her two sisters were private governesses, and so were my father's three sisters. I cannot remember a time when I did not look forward to a life as a teacher as my destination. Before I was fifteen I began teaching a little pupil of my aunt's for a few months. I was fifteen and she was nine on the same day. For the next seven years I had a good deal of varied experience as a private governess, several engagements were for the London season only. Altogether, I taught in ten families during these seven years. One engagement, in the family of Mr. Thornycroft, the sculptor, lasted more than four years. At the same time I was having lessons in Latin, Italian, Drawing, and German, and my mother read with me many standard English books. Indeed, I consider that both my father and mother taught me far more than any of my school teachers. At fourteen I began to take a class in a Sunday School, and then the first possibility of real class teaching came before me. At the day school I attended we worked, for the most part, independently of each other. In arithmetic, for example, we each had " Joyce's Arithmetic " in our hands, we were expected to read over a rule and work the examples under it, which were then corrected from a key. The plan had some advantages. No two girls were at the same place, so there was no temptation to copying, and each went on at her own pace; quick pupils were not kept back by slow ones; but I never remember having a single word of explanation of any arithmetical difficulty given me at school.
In 1861, I went first to Queen's College for German only. My younger sisters had gained scholarships there and were there as pupils taking the full course. In February, 1866, a pupil teacher was needed in the school attached to Queen's College; she would have opportunities of practising class teaching, and would be free to join any classes in the college which came at hours when the teacher was not needed in the school. I offered myself for the post, and was accepted at once. Thus began a new life for me. I was keenly sensible of my weaknesses and deficiencies; my seven years' experiments in teaching had, at any rate, done this for me. I was eager to learn anything or everything, I felt my ignorance so deeply, and almost equally eager to try experiments in class teaching. That year, 1866, was the turning point in my life. Dean (afterwards Archbishop) Trench's lectures on Church History ; Dr. Plumptre (afterwards Dean of Wells) on Theology; Stopford Brooke on English Literature; William Hughes on Geography; Canon Benham on Modern History; Alphonse Marriette, French; Dr. Weil, German ; Signor Bioggi, Italian; Rev. Henry White, Ancient History; Mr. Meyrick, Latin; T. A. Cook, Arithmetic and Algebra,—all these classes I joined, and most of them I heartily enjoyed. Then there was the College Library, a large collection of very well-chosen books, there I browsed. I had saved enough to cover my expenses for this delightful time, but I had to make a fresh start at remunerative work, and from 1867 to 1873 I returned to private teaching, without, however, wholly severing my connection with Queen's College. I continued to attend Stopford Brooke's classes in English Literature, and when Dr. Plumptre started a Greek class I joined it, and greatly enjoyed my work with him. After the first term or two he made use of me to help weak members of the class and to start beginners, and after a year or two I was appointed Greek tutor. I was out, either learning or teaching, three days a week from 8 a.m to 7 p.m., two days from 8 to 6, and on Saturdays I came home about 3. My fondness for making time-tables was known to Miss Parry, the lady superintendent at the college, and, as it was not work which she enjoyed, she often handed it over to me. I was not allowed to try for a Queen's College General Certificate because I had not fulfilled the conditions of being for two years a compounder, that is, a pupil taking the full course. I wished to measure myself in some way, and when I heard that Cambridge was opening a Women's Examination I determined to enter for it. This was in April, 1871. Our friend at Rugby paid my fees, and arranged that for the two months before the examination I should join an Arithmetic class taught by Mr. F. E. Kitchener, and an English Literature class taught by Mr. Robert Wright Tayler, both of whom were then masters in the Rugby School. Group A, for which I had entered, then contained Divinity, Arithmetic, English History, and English Literature. I passed in the Ist class with distinction in Divinity, and was offered a small scholarship if I liked to go to Cambridge the next year and join the classes just being started there. After much consideration, I decided that I could not afford to do this, so I contented myself with joining several correspondence classes both at Cambridge and Rugby, in preparation for the Language and Moral Science groups, which I intended to take in 1872. Political Economy with Mr. Henry Sidgwick, Latin with Prof. Mayor, Greek with Dr. Peile, Logic with Mr. Venn, were the Cambridge classes I joined; and English Literature with Mr. R. W. Tayler, and Essays with Mr. Arthur Sidgwick were Rugby classes. I found that I had undertaken more than I could manage, in addition to my regular teaching work, so I had to give up the Logic. I much enjoyed my work in the other subjects, and gained a ist class in Group B, with distinction in French and Greek, and passed in Political Economy. Prof. Mayor's prize for Languages, £30. for buying books, was given me, and I had one of the £5. gratuities. In 1873, I went in again and took another Ist class in Languages, gaining distinction in Italian and in English Literature. In the latter subject I had had help from Prof. Hales. While I was at Rugby for the Women's Examination in 1873, Mrs. Kitchener, the local Secretary, told me that she had had a letter from Manchester about me, that a public girls' school was about to be opened in Manchester, and asked whether I would offer myself for the head mistressship. I said at once that I knew no one in Manchester and should not think of becoming a candidate for the post. As soon as I got back to London, I was told that Dr. Cowie, then recently appointed Dean of Manchester, had suggested that I should apply for the Manchester head mistressship. I again said " No, thank you." A day or two afterwards I got a letter from Prof. Mayor telling me about the school, and saying that he had mentioned me to Mrs. W. Kennedy. I began to think I had better know a little more about the plans, and I met Dean Cowie at Queen's College and had a long talk with him. After consulting with several friends, especially Canon Burrows, whose daughters I was then teaching, I determined to offer myself. I therefore wrote to Miss Vernon, the Secretary of the Manchester Committee. She invited me to come to Manchester to meet the Provisional Committee. I came early in July, 1873, and I was appointed at a meeting which was held in the Museum, now the Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. and Mrs. Darbishire most hospitably received me on this occasion, and again early in October, when I came to see the houses in the Oxford Road proposed for the school, and again for several weeks in November and December while the houses were being prepared and furnished. We provided for sixty pupils ; a few days before the opening day we had only eleven applications, but during the last two or three days they poured in, and we were obliged to refuse the last who applied, or rather to keep them waiting till the half-term. On January 21st, 1874, we began with our sixty girls.
ELIZABETH DAY.
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