lly. Miss Smallwood had had nothing herself but the trumpery
education provided everywhere at that time for girls by the part of
humanity which laid undisputed claim to a superior sense of justice,
and it had not carried her far enough to enable her to grasp any more
comprehensive result of the battle of Hastings than was given in the
simple philosophy of Guy. Most of the girls at the Royal Service
School would have to work for themselves, and teaching was almost the
only occupation open to them, yet such education as they received,
consisting as it did of mere rudiments, was an insult to the high
average of intelligence that obtained amongst them. They were not
taught one thing thoroughly, not even their own language, and remained
handicapped to the end of their lives for want of a grounding in
grammar. When you find a woman's diction at fault, never gird at her
for want of intelligence, but at those in authority over her in her
youth, who thought anything in the way of education good enough for a
girl. Even the teachers at St. Catherine's, some of them, wrote in
reply to invitations, "I shall have much pleasure in accepting." The
girls might be there eight years, but were never taught French enough
in the time either to read or speak it correctly. Their music was an
offence to the ear, and their drawings to the eye. History was given
to them in outlines only, which isolated kings and their ministers,
showing little or nothing of their influence on the times they lived
in, and ignoring the condition of the people, who were merely
introduced as a background to some telling incident in the career of a
picturesque personage; and everything else was taught in the same
superficial way--except religion. But the fact that the religious
education was good in Beth's time was an accident due to Miss
Clifford's character and capacity, and therefore no credit to the
governors of the school, who did not know that she was specially
qualified in that respect when they made her Lady Principal. She was
a high-minded woman, Low Church, of great force of character and
exemplary piety, and her spirit pervaded the whole school. She gave
the Bible lessons herself in the form of lectures which dealt largely
with the conduct of life; and as she had the power to make her subject
interesting, and the faith which carries conviction, both girls and
mistresses profited greatly by her teaching. Many of them became
deeply religious under her, and mos