THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
655
the girls of the village are taught cooking, sewing, dressmaking, the making of baby clothes, and general domestic management from 10 A. M. to 6 P. M. every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The Norfolk County Council inspected and highly commended the school, but the Princess of Wales declined their offer to undertake its supervision and cost, preferring to maintain it at her own expense and keep it under her personal control. Her medical attendant, Doctor Manby, lately gave the elder girls a course of lectures for the Saint John’s Ambulance Association, and all who attended gained certificates. The school has gained many prizes at exhibitions held in London and different provincial centers, and the sale of the articles produced increases steadily.
In 1629 Baptist, Viscount Campden, bequeathed two hundred pounds, and in 1643 his widow likewise bequeathed two hundred pounds, “ to be yearly employed for the good and benefit of the poor of Kensington forever.” Two acres abutting on the High street of Notting Hill, London, are reputed to have been given for a similar purpose by Oliver Cromwell. The money was invested in land, and, thanks to “ unearned increment,” this modest capital of four hundred pounds and two acres now yields an annual increase of almost forty-four hundred pounds. Of this sum, thirteen hundred pounds is annually expended in pensions to the aged and deserving, and nearly nine hundred pounds more goes to hospitals, provident clubs and special relief of special cases of need. With this aid to the aged, sick and distressed, we are not here concerned. The remaining sum of about eighteen hundred pounds is laid out for the young of Kensington in apprenticeships, premiums, exhibitions and scholarships for the pupils of public elementary schools, and finally in providing the Campden trust lectures and evening classes formed in 1888, whereby they may continue their education on leaving school. The classes during last session were attended by one hundred and ninety-six boys who learned carpentry, wood-carving, and mechanical drawing, and by one hundred and forty-eight girls who learned cookery, dressmaking and drawing. Their success is, in no small degree, due to the untiring energy of the honorary secretary, Miss Catherine Hamilton. Out of four hundred and eighty-four pounds spent on these classes twenty-two pounds and nine shillings was contributed by pupils’ fees. The recent founding of the Kensington Polytechnic by the Marquis of Lome and others, promises to extend and develop the scheme still further, as this building has been assigned to the Campden trustees, of whom the vicar of Kensington is chairman.
The Recreative Evening School’s Association, of which H. R. H. Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lome, is an active president, is little more than seven years old. Its object is to provide further instruction and healthful occupation for girls and boys who have left our elementary day schools. Careful inquiry showed that not more than four per cent of these continued their education in any systematic way; while it was obvious that they were sent forth into the work of life unfitted for its duties, and exposed, at the most critical age, to the perils of the streets at all hours. The secret of the great success of the association lies in the fact that the evening classes have been made bright and attractive. Instead of the dreary book-lessons in the three R’s and English, which were formerly almost the only attraction for evening scholars, they introduced lantern illustrations of geography and travel, history and simple science. Among other subjects taught were bookkeeping, shorthand, musical drill, gymnastics, clay modeling, metal-work, wood-carving, dress-cutting, and cookery, which no government grants were then available. Ladies and gentlemen of culture and leisure were secured as voluntary teachers, and as managers of savings banks for the scholars, whom they also took for Saturday rambles and visits to public buildings and places of interest. The association soon worked wonders. New pupils flocked into schools which had been almost empty. In London the centers aided increased from twenty-nine in 1886 to two hundred and thirty-two in 1892, while the estimated average attendance grew from four thousand three hundred and fifty in 1887 to twelve thousand five hundred in 1892.
The Broomloan Halls Classes for Cookery and Sewing were founded at Govan,