A LONDON GIRL OF THE 'EIGHTIES
By M. Vivian Hughes
Readers of Mrs. Hughes's previous Looks, A London Child of the 'Seventies and Firkins will need no urging to read their continuation in the present volume (Oxford University Press, 7s. 6d.). We begin in 1880 with the author at the age of twelve:- Her.child- hood was not..in . every_ respect typical of the period, her mother allowing her a great deal more . freedom than was usual in those days, though keeping from her " any knowledge of the evils of the world." _ Her pleasure at satis- fying the examiners in the Oxford Senior locals is beautifully' described : " I pictured these examiners, grave and reverend signiors,, all bearded, gazing at my answers and leaning back with ' complete contentment—satisfied." She entered the North London Collegiate School for Girls in 1881, considered a most advanced institution, actually determined to earn her living ! To inculcate tidiness and obedience seems to have been the aim of the 'teachers, whose pioneer difficulties Mrs. Hughes however appreciates, for nobody was sure what a young girl ought to know
in those days. She was one of the first pupils of the Cambridge Training College (for teachers), and her account of it and her subsequent work captures the strange atmosphere of those _remote days when a woman school-teacher was a startling novelty.
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