Last
week on the blog I published the first part of an article about two previously unknown letters by William Morris. The article originally appeared in
the William Morris Society Newsletter in autumn 2013. The letters had been glued into an incomplete set of Morris's The
Earthly Paradise which belonged to Reverend John Pincher Faunthorpe, principal of
Whitelands Training College.
Th e Collected Letters of William Morris,
Volume II, Part 1 1881 – 1884, ed. Norman Kelvin (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1987)
Further Sources
Rite of spring: Mr Ruskin’s
May Queen, 1 May 2013, Blog by Local StudiesLibrarian, Kensington Library http://rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/tag/whitelands-college/
In
addition to the two Morris letters, Book I of the set contains a slip of paper dated “Nov 27th
1883” which reads: “Dear Mr Faunthorpe,
Please accept this little gift as a token of gratitude & affection from
your Senior Pupils for Language. Kate Stanley. Harriet A Martin.” This
paper bears the stamp of “Whitelands Training College, Chelsea”.
A grim
sense of humour and kindness of heart: Kate
Stanley
Kate
Stanley was one of the two signatories of the 1883 note to Rev Faunthorpe “from
your Senior Pupils for Language”. This suggests that she herself was, with
Harriet A Martin, a “Senior Pupil”. In fact, she was at this time Principal
Faunthorpe’s most senior member of staff.
Kate
Stanley came from St Mary Church, Devon. Her father was a slater and
plasterer. Like so many of Whitelands’s
students, she worked as a pupil teacher before entering the College in 1855.
Her training was funded by a scholarship, and while at the college she studied
mathematics, English, science, French, needlework and religious studies.
In 1857,
Kate Stanley left Whitelands to take charge of Lord Ashburton’s School in
Alresford, Hampshire. Originally a cottage school for 45 children built by the 1st Lord Ashburton, by Kate Stanley’s time the school
accommodated one hundred children. In 1859 she went back to Whitelands as a teacher. She became a
member of College staff in 1862, and in 1876 was appointed Head Governess – the
most senior role after the principal’s.
Whitelands
College had a reputation for the excellence of its needlework. Kate Stanley was
such a proficient needlewoman that a book she wrote for teachers – Needlework and cutting out: being hints,
suggestions and notes for the use of teachers in dealing with difficulties in
the needlework schedule (1883) – was praised by John Ruskin in Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen
and Labourers of Great Britain, a monthly
publication founded by Ruskin in 1871. In her will, she provided for a Stanley scholarship
in needlework at Whitelands. She also became a Fellow of the Royal Botanic
Society in 1882, although too modest to put “FRBS” after her name.
Kate
Stanley was Head Governess for twenty six years, and retired in 1902. She died
on 31 May 1913, aged 81, after a short illness and was buried in Brompton
Cemetery. The Whitelands choir sang at her funeral service. She was remembered
for her grim sense of humour and kind heart by Rev Faunthorpe's successor, Miss
Clara Luard.
It was
very lovely, the Irish message coming: Harriet
A Martin
Harriet A
Martin was another Whitelands student who returned to the College as a teacher.
She held the post of governess between 1874 and 1884. When she left Whitelands
to become head of Cork High School for Girls the students gave her a set of
botany books.
Shortly
after taking up her post at Cork, Miss Martin consulted Ruskin about setting up
a Rose Queen Festival for the school, along the lines of the Whitelands May
Queen Festival. Ruskin was delighted to hear from her and told Rev Faunthorpe
in a letter written in May 1885, “It was very lovely…the Irish message coming”.[1]
Each year he presented a golden brooch of wild roses to the Cork Rose Queen,
together with books to distribute to her maidens as at Whitelands. He also
wrote letters of advice to her: “be yourself…in sincerity and simplicity”.[2]
I am Dear
Sir William Morris
I have
always treasured my Morris letters. Reading something written in his own hand
brings me a sense of connection to this great poet, novelist, artist, and
socialist. It’s true that my two letters reveal nothing of the writer. They
contain no personal information apart from the reference to gout, nor do they
expose any secrets or scandal. I like them all the more because they are so
humdrum and business like, and so embedded in Morris’s everyday life.
Now I
have discovered more about them, I find that sense of connection has expanded.
There is not one connection, but a network of them. Through these apparently
insignificant books and letters, many lives coincide. William Morris, John
Ruskin, Edward Burne Jones, John Pincher Faunthorpe, Kate Stanley and Harriet A
Martin meet and mingle. Their stories are written in the ink of those hasty
notes dashed off by a gouty man in March 1883.
Sources
Printed Material
Whitelands College: The History, Malcolm Cole
(Whitelands College: 1982)
The William Morris Chronology, Nicholas
Salmon with Derek Baker, (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1996)
The Whitelands Annual, June 1913
Printed Material in Digital Editions
The Life of John Ruskin, E T Cook, Vol
II 1860 – 1900, (London: George Allen & Company, 1912), Internet
Archive http://archive.org/stream/lifeofjohnruskin02cook#page/n9/mode/2up
(accessed 24 July 2013)
Letters From John Ruskin to Revd. J. P.
Faunthorpe M.A.,
Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924064987310/cu31924064987310_djvu.txt (accessed 24
July 2013)
Who’s Who 2013 and Who Was Who
http://www.ukwhoswho.com
The Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
http://www.oxforddnb.com
Internet Sources
History
of Whitelands College, University of Roehampton http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/whitelands/history/
AIM 25: Archives in the London and M25
Area: Roehampton College – Whitelands College
http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/50/5488.htm
With
a special thank you to Gilly King, Archivist, The University of Roehampton
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