Item 56 - Letter from Henry Sidgwick to his sister Mary "Minnie" Benson

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Refers to 'a "Biograph" of December', which Nora sends to Minnie. Explains that it is an 'Organ of opinion', which 'contains the Lives of really eminent men - not the people whose names appear in the newspapers, but those who Mould the Age.' Emphasises that it should not be shown to anyone.

Reports that Miss M[oberly] 'has just come out practically first in the Moral Sciences Tripos', but that her name does not appear publicly, as she has only been examined informally. Recounts that '[t]he joke is that she and another Newnham student [Miss Finlay] are the only candidates whose work has come up to first-class standard!' They have paid off all the debt on Newnham, and that it is now a business paying its way, 'owning a capital of two houses which when they are full yield a fair endowment fund, for exhibitions, future buildings etc'; and thinks that 'for the first time in ten years... the institution can stand alone, altogether independent of my fostering care', although he does not want this to be noised about as they 'can still do with donations, etc'.

Claims to be '[chaffed] in Hall' because his nephew [Arthur Benson] is said to have brought forward, in the King's debating society, a motion to the effect that the higher education of women is undesirable. He has been informed that the motion was carried by eleven votes to ten. Sends Nora's love, and announces that they are going to Scotland 'in a week or so for most of the holidays.'

Part transcription in Sidgwick, Arthur, and Sidgwick, E. M, 'Henry Sidgwick'. London: Macmillan, 1906, p 359.