“the very pulse of the machine
? ? ? ? ? ?
the reason firm, the temperate will,
endurance, foresight, strength and skill;
a perfect woman, nobly plann’d
to warn, to comfort, and command.”
the record of the life of frances mary buss includes within it, in brief, the story of the modern educational movement, in which she took so leading a part. it is not the less a story of perfect womanliness, in a career that is one of natural and steady growth, from seed to full fruitage. the woman simply fulfils the promise of the child.
it is a life most remarkable in this completeness. to very few of the greatest even is it given to see their life-work crowned with complete success. frances mary buss was one of the few who begin life with a fixed aim, and who live to see self-devotion end in triumph. and the end left her, as the beginning had found her, as humble as she was loving.
in an age of incessant movement it is very restful to find a life of constant action which is yet so quiet and orderly, with continuity of place as marked as its continuity of purpose. all her work, widely as its influence extended beyond these limits, was carried on 26within the parish of st. pancras—fifty years of ceaseless energy, from eighteen years of age to sixty-eight.
in holiday-time she used her freedom for as much change as could be compressed within holiday limits, thus seeing much of europe as well as of her native land. but, excepting for one term of absence from illness, she might always, in working time, have been found at her post.
“not for her name only, but because of her love and good works do i love to connect her with st. francis!” writes an old pupil;[3] and though at the first shock there may seem a touch of incongruity in thus linking the great ascetic saint of the past and this essentially modern worker, there is, nevertheless, much suggestiveness in the association.
3. in a bright little sketch in the woman’s penny paper, of june 8, 1889.
are they not, after all, of the very same order? what is the greatest saint but that child of god who is most aware of his divine sonship, and therefore most intent on doing his “father’s business”? fashions of service may change, but this fact remains changeless. the fashion of the past was to mortify the flesh, and to serve the world by prayer rather than by work. the fashion of the present sees that “laborare est orare,” and serves the world by self-devotion instead of self-denial. the past was ruled by negations, and the stern “thou shalt not!” rose as a barrier between man and man. the “saint” was not merely, as the word signifies, one “set apart” to do the will of god “on earth as it is [done] in heaven,” but he became instead one cut off, or separated, from the life of ordinary humanity. in our day we have risen to the power of the affirmation, “thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and we 27go on to the inevitable sequence, “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” not the denial or the evasion of human duties, but their fulfilment utterly, is our test of sainthood in the present. it may be less easy to trace our saints by the quiet fireside or in the busy street; in the senate house or on the market-place; but none the less saintly are these in their modern garb than those who went their way apart, as stately abbot or humble anchorite, as hooded friar or cloistered nun.
the form may change, but the fact is the same. with the fact of a great love filling his soul, st. francis, vowed to poverty, is still richer than the richest; and our modern saint, with all life’s gifts consecrated to service, may safely make the most of life, having thus the more to share. having love, riches and poverty alike fall into their true place, as accidents, and not essentials of being.
we go back to far assisi, and, looking across the umbrian plain, see the quaint quiet little hill-town—unchanged in seven centuries—still looking like a white dove fluttering down the dark slope of monte subiaco. here we find the boy francis, gay and careless, dreaming his boyish dreams of royal courts and of knightly fame; till, falling as a dark shadow across the glittering pageant, comes the vision of the world’s poverty and pain, and the dreamer wakes to take his chosen place among the poor and sorrowing. to spend and be spent for love’s sake is henceforth the aim and the achievement of this perfect life.
then we turn to commonplace st. pancras, within sound of the crowding, hurrying, tumultuous life of the great modern city. here we find the girl, frances, dreaming over her books, with who can tell what ambitious dreams of her own future, as her heart burns with the sense of conscious power? but to her, too, 28comes the vision of struggle and of hard toil, and to her ear the cry of pain. and she awakes from her dream, to spend and be spent, that in the future every woman may rise to her full stature, set free for ever from the trammels of ignorance and of fear.
it is the very same story, only read in the light of a different age. the key-note to these harmonious lives is the same—love. love, simplicity, humility, poverty of self, and devotion to others, form the common chord of this heavenly music, vary the movements as we may.
with merely technical or dogmatic theology neither the medi?val nor the modern saint has much to do. religion forms an integral part of daily life. love to god—accepted in his appointed channels, and for his appointed ends—is the sum and substance of this creed. the life of our modern worker had its roots deep down in the love and life eternal, as is seen by its fruits. one who knew her best—her eldest brother—says of her, “all through her life she acted on the highest principle—as a loving christian. out of this came, as the natural fruit, her large-hearted charity, her help she gave ever willingly to all who needed assistance.” this love interpenetrated all her being and expressed itself in service, in deeds, not words. “don’t preach, but be; your actions will do more than your words!” she was wont to say to her pupils.
it must all come back again to the key-note—love. and we notice as the special quality of the modern, as opposed to the medi?val saint, a certain humanness which stoops to the smallest things, and, so stooping, lifts them to highest uses. we read of one of the typical saints of the olden days how she pressed into the seclusion of her convent, stepping over the prostrate body of her old father, whose prayers had failed to move her. “heaven is the price,” she would have 29said, in the favourite words of another such saint of our own century, the mère angélique, who, lying pillowless on the bare ground, spent her last dying breath in sending from her the one human creature for whom she had a human love, a young novice, who obeyed her, broken-hearted. the inevitable outcome of the ascetic ideal—of pain for pain’s sake—has always been and must be inhumanity. the distinctive outcome of the wider grasp of god’s love which in our day says instead, pain for love’s sake only, is the exact opposite—an ever deepening humanity, in which human love is lifted up into the divine, gathering into its embrace not only every race of mankind, but the brute creation too.
that this was characteristic in a most remarkable degree of her whom we are glad to recognize as one of our foremost teachers, remarkable especially in her power of loving and of inspiring love, we see most clearly in the word which seems by common consent to be that chosen to describe her—motherly, the most human as it is the most divine word of mortal speech.
few things are more delightful than the effort to trace the process by which a great personality is fitted for a great work. we may rejoice that we possess sufficient indications of her childhood to show how this child grew up to make life different for the children of after times.
frances mary buss, born august 16, 1827, was the eldest child—and only daughter who survived infancy—of parents who were both persons of exceptional force of character. her father was not only an artist of skill far beyond the average, but was a man of cultivated literary and scientific tastes. his influence was a powerful factor in the training of the child who was his joy and pride in her public career, as well as the most obedient and devoted of daughters.
30the mother, almost adored by her children, was one of those strong loving souls whose silent lives are eloquent beyond all speech, who are enshrined in the hearts of all within their sphere as very ideals of love and loyalty.
mrs. septimus buss thus writes of—
“the large-hearted loving mother, whose motherliness was not only for her own, but for all children. it was a family joke that she came home from her walks penniless, as she could never see a poor child looking longingly into a cake-shop without sending it happily away in possession of a ‘goody.’ many of us remember how we naturally went to her for comfort, and always felt the trouble lightened by some brave or kind word, or personal help, if possible. what merry, cheerful, little impromptu parties there were in her ever hospitable house, among her own children and others who, having finished their work, remained to play!
“her watchword, like miss buss’, was duty. i once answered, in real fright, ‘oh, aunt, i am sure i cannot!’ she replied, ‘child, never say i cannot, when called to any duty, but do the best you can!’ the devoted love that her children bore her was only the due return for her unwearied care of, and tenderness to, them in every detail of their life.”
her family regard it only as traditional that their mother was descended from mrs. fleetwood, the daughter of oliver cromwell; but i had it as an accepted fact from one of the undoubted members of that family, who was proud to claim even so remote a connection with one whom she had so much admired. miss andrews must have been educated at mrs. wyand’s school, in the generation preceding miss buss, and she probably spoke with authority on the matter. she also had remarkable power as a teacher, with quite original views on education, a fact interesting as throwing a sidelight on the school in which miss buss was educated, the best in the neighbourhood of mornington crescent.
31in a book of “memories,” compiled for the family circle of dr. henry buss—the “uncle henry” to whom, as a girl, “fanny” owed some of her first holiday trips abroad—we find it recorded that “in 1689, william and mary brought in their train from holland a mrs. buss, who held the post of nurse to the princess anne, afterwards queen.”
the descendants of mrs. buss settled chiefly in the county of kent. at bromley, in 1775, we find one of them, robert buss, holding a post in the excise. he afterwards became a schoolmaster at tunbridge. his son, william church buss, became known as “a skilled engraver,” and, marrying “pretty mary anne starling,” made his home, in 1803, in jewin street, aldersgate.
we must dismiss entirely all our present associations with aldersgate, and go back to the beginning of the century, to the description given by dr. buss of the city at the time when his parents made their home there—
“at this time the city itself was separated by fields from the village of islington. it was the custom for pedestrians, especially after dark, to collect at aldersgate-bars in sufficient force to protect each other from footpads, while crossing the fields to this village.
“the site of the existing city road basin was a market garden, thus utilized when the grand junction canal company extended their waterway through the city to the thames. from the village of islington to highgate and hampstead it was nearly all fields. copenhagen house stood in the midst of cornfields. this spot is now the centre of new smithfield cattle market.... the river fleet was then as wide as the new river, and was supplied with boats for rowing. excepting the thames, it was the nearest river, and also a favourite bathing-place for the youth of london.”
there was probably no great change, as it was still before the days of steam and rail, when the little granddaughter of william church buss was sent to visit her grandparents, who had then removed to newgate street. her maternal grandparents still lived in clerkenwell, near the market gardens there.
32william church buss was a very skilful engraver, and his son, robert william buss, was trained by him, and was a clever engraver before he became a painter, and subsequently a well-known etcher on copper and steel, and draughtsman for wood-engravers. working in this way, he illustrated the novels of mrs. trollope and captain marryat, and other writers, and two of the first etchings for “pickwick” were his doing. for charles knight he illustrated “chaucer,” helping also in the “shakespeare,” “london,” and “old england,” issued by that publisher. many of his own original pictures were engraved and had wide sale, such as “soliciting a vote,” “the musical bore,” “satisfaction,” “time and tide,” etc. and, with all this, he still found time for lectures on “the beautiful and picturesque,” on “fresco,” and on “comic art”—this last re-written at the close of his life, and dedicated to his daughter, under the title of “graphic satire.”
it was when on a visit to her paternal grandparents, in newgate street, that the future educationalist made her first acquaintance with school-life, after a very quaint fashion, as she thus tells us—
“to get me out of the way, my grandparents sent me to a little school in the city, on a first floor, with a few forms, and, as far as i remember, with no other appurtenances for a school at all.
“the second school to which i went was kept by a miss cook—a mixed school of boys and girls. in miss cook’s school we sat on forms, and learned lessons which it never occurred to her to explain. i remember learning a good deal of ‘murray’s grammar.’”
in frances power cobbe’s “autobiography” she tells us that the first practical result of her attainment of the arts of reading and writing—throwing a lurid light on the agonies of the process—was to inscribe on the gravel walk, in large letters, “lessons, thou tyrant of the mind!” a similar inscription might have been 33engraven for the benefit of miss cook by frances mary buss, after this prolonged course of lindley murray without explanation. but she seems to have found other solace. the tyranny of lessons was powerless to crush this independent young mind, or to repress an independence of action more suitable to the age of “revolting daughters,” than to that of “mrs. trimmer” or of “evenings at home.” her next story tells how she invited a little companion to a juvenile party, which existed only in her own active imagination, until the kind mother gave it objective reality, on hearing of the small boy’s bitter disappointment. it might be at this school that miss buss acquired that ideal of “mixed schools” which she kept before her to the end, though she knew it was not to become fact in her day.
she was very far from spending her young life only in sitting on a form, learning lessons by rote. “children,” says mr. ruskin, “should have times of being off duty, like soldiers;” or, as dr. abbott puts the same truth very clearly, “children should have time to think their own thoughts.” these privileges certainly did belong to the children of the past, and, like many another clever child, the little fanny made full use of her liberty, for she continues—
“as soon as i could begin to read i revelled in books, and especially fairy tales. i devoured every fairy tale that was to be had. in those days the books available for children were ‘the pilgrim’s progress,’ ‘miss edgeworth’s tales,’ ‘the arabian nights,’ and the old nursery stories. of these i had single copies, which i managed to buy out of the money given to me. i had, in addition, translations of the countess d’aulnoy’s tales. as my father had a very fair library for the date, and as i had access to all his books, i had a wide course of reading. i knew milton’s introduction to ‘the history of england,’ with the legends of bladud, lear, etc.; ‘hume’s history,’ in every part, except the political, which i invariably skipped; the novels of the eighteenth century—‘tom jones,’ ‘pamela,’ ‘the man of feeling,’ ‘joseph 34andrews,’ ‘peregrine pickle,’ etc. ‘pamela’ was in four large volumes, the first of which i could never get because my mother hid it. at about ten years of age i became acquainted with scott’s novels, and knew all the stories by heart, except ‘rob roy,’ for which i did not care. my father had the ‘abbotsford edition,’ with the poems, in twelve volumes. i never, however, read the poetry. in consequence of my father being engaged to illustrate books for charles knight, and for bentley and colburn, the publishers, i used to have the opportunity of reading the proofs, by going down, at six o’clock on summer mornings, to his room before any one was there. i remember my chief difficulty, however, with the proofs was paging them correctly; this i never learned to do, and therefore i read the pages as they came, fitting them into my mind properly afterwards. in that way i read mrs. trollope’s ‘widow married,’ marryat’s ‘peter simple,’ etc.... during this early period of my life i must have become acquainted with the contents of about forty volumes of plays, published by cumberland. there were also many volumes of plays of the previous century, which i knew almost by heart. amongst these were volumes of peruvian, persian, and turkish tales, belonging to a young aunt, my mother’s sister, who lent them to me. in these tales there was no attempt at connection, every person introduced merely telling his or her own story.
“i remember that, as my brother alfred grew up, i used to find it necessary, in order to enjoy my book, to hide myself under a sofa, in a room on the second floor, which was occupied by a government clerk. this gentleman was out all day, and therefore his room was available. my mother must have known this, because we children—the boys at any rate—were not allowed to go to this room.”
at about the same time we find the insatiable child reading miss strickland’s “queens of england,” of which she says “each volume came out by itself, and i remember i used to save up all my pence to hire a volume to read, and even at that early age i made many notes.”
history remained her favourite study, and her mode of teaching it must have made it fascinating to her pupils. one of these, afterwards a member of the staff, remarks of it—
35“i was at school from 1864–67, and the pleasantest part of the time was the lessons i had in history, french, geography, and literature from miss buss. how thorough her teaching was! it seems to me that i have never forgotten what she taught, while most of the lessons from others (except dr. hodgson and miss chessar) seem to have passed away without leaving any definite trace in my memory. her lessons were alive; the historical characters and scenes she described seemed as familiar as if one had known them personally, and she made everything interesting because she herself had such interest in what she taught.”
another of the old pupils says also—
“but for picturesqueness and interest her history lessons excelled all others. it was then she gave us ‘the cream of her life’s reading,’ as i have heard her say. two lectures specially remain in my mind on ‘the rise of the hydes.’ there were many in the class who lost not a point from beginning to end, so graphically was the story presented to us.”
and at any time, to the last, to hear her sum up the characteristics of any special period, or describe any great event, with her instinctively picturesque presentation of the scene, was a treat of no common order.
to this graphic power of description, her early artistic surroundings must in no small degree have contributed. at one time she taught drawing in her class, but she never had the time for any artistic work of her own. she had, however, keen and cultivated artistic tastes, and her feeling for colour was especially marked. her visits to italy intensified this delight in colour, and she indulged it in ways sometimes regarded as hazardous by eyes accustomed only to sober british tints. but they were in the end obliged to admire these innovations. she was among the first to appreciate the new developments of decorative art, and myra lodge and the cottage at epping revealed her taste at every turn.
in the account of the next stage of her school-life, 36we get glimpses of her social surroundings which show that there must have been much to stimulate the child’s eager and inquiring mind—
“at ten years of age i was sent to a much higher school, kept by mrs. wyand, at the corner of rutland street, hampstead road. here i met with the daughters of david roberts, clarkson stanfield, and other artists. mr. wyand had a boys’ school, largely attended by the sons of artists. a few doors lower down lived george cruickshank. clarkson stanfield also lived in mornington place; and, still nearer the school, frederick bacon, the engraver, with whose niece and adopted daughter i was on the most intimate terms. at a later date the daughters of goodall entered the school, and also isabella irving, the daughter of edward irving, a tall, fine dark girl, very like her father. her brother, martin irving, was in the boys’ school.”
we have to bear in mind that at this date mornington crescent occupied much the same position, as a literary and artistic centre, which is held by hampstead at the present day. even as late as 1850, the westward migrations had not begun, for market gardens filled the space between kensington high street and chelsea proper, and notting hill square was on the verge of the country. in 1850, university and king’s colleges made a centre in the west central district; and the establishment even of a collegiate school for ladies was regarded as a slight infringement of the dignity of camden street, which could boast at that date of so choice an intellectual cotérie as professor de morgan, professor key, professor hoppus, and dr. kitto. it was near enough to town life, and yet near the country, long stretches of green fields and flowery hedges leading to the heights of hampstead and highgate. regent’s park was the nearest of the parks, and the new road had not then outgrown the freshness of its name.
in these records of miss buss’ childhood we seem 37taken back to another world, as we read of the “long coast journey to the docks,” on the way to margate, when the child sees “the remains of the illuminations of the day before for the celebration of the princess victoria’s birthday.” in the next year also there are, again at margate, “triumphal arches in honour of the queen’s coronation.” and then there is the first sight of the young queen—
“i had been taken to the park by my grandmother, and an open carriage passed with three ladies in deep mourning—one was the queen, the other the duchess of kent, and the third a lady in waiting. the following year i also saw the queen in an open carriage going to the academy. she then wore a white dress, and a very large bonnet lined with pink. i think she had a green parasol.”
on another occasion there is “a vision of scarlet and of a mass of white drapery” as “the young couple are returning from st. james’ chapel on the queen’s birthday.”
very pleasant, in its old-fashioned simplicity, must have been the life of this artistic circle, united in tastes and occupations, and living, as it were, between town and country, with the advantages of both. it was no wonder that, under such influences, this child early developed intellectual tastes. but her growth was equal on all sides, love of books being only one of her varied “talents.” she tells us—
“at that date it was considered necessary that every girl should work; and before i was ten years of age i had made a shirt for my father, all the parts being cut out and arranged by my mother, sewing machines not being then invented. so, too, as it was long before the days of peak and frean, or huntley and palmer, for our childish parties, i used to help my mother make all the biscuits, as well as the cakes and tarts. i remember one large grown-up party which my parents gave, on which occasion the door was smoothed in some way, and a very handsome 38border painted round it by my father (an elaborate design about two feet wide). this was my first appearance among grown-up people, and i quite well remember the delight i felt at the idea of being asked to dance by a very tall man, an engraver, whose name i forget, whom i met in after years and found to be very insignificant. the belles of that evening were the miss cumberlands, daughters of the publisher, for whom at that time my father was painting a series of theatrical portraits.”
among the celebrated actors forming this series were charles matthews, reeve, harley, mrs. nesbit, buckstone, ellen tree, vandenhof, macready, and dowton. at an early age “fanny” had been taken to the theatre, of which we learn that “at that date the sadler’s wells theatre was held in high repute. the stage was very large, and being situated near the new river was able to utilize a great deal of water.” we may imagine the excitement of the children over the arrival of these wonderful personages; how they peered silently over the banisters, and how, when the sittings were over, they stole into the studio to examine the costumes which were left for the artist’s use, with what glee to discover, for instance, that vandenhof’s cap, in some great character, was “made of a large blue sugar-bag covered with some coloured material.”
amateur theatricals were a favourite amusement at the young parties—at first, when the kind father was the chief performer, in “a series of dancing card figures, exhibited on a sheet as shadows, he writing and reading the text;” afterwards, the performances were of more ambitious character, at mr. wyand’s school, when the boys were allowed to invite their sisters and friends, and “where the plays were written by the boys, and the women’s parts taken by boys, to our great delight, as they invariably tumbled over their skirts.”
in one play, the king’s part is taken by john blockley, son of the author of the then favourite song 39“love not,” in a play in which the chief characters are “king edward” and the “sultan of turkey,” edward being a “tall, thin, shy lad, who in the meekest possible way announced that while he lived no turkish prince should wield edward’s sceptre” (a folded sheet of exercise paper). “my brother alfred contributed a large cloak, lined with red, which continued to be a famous piece of stage property. the swords, shields, etc., were made by my father.”
the pupils who knew the school when miss buss was in full vigour will read with interest these early developments of the dramatic power which played such part in the tableaux vivants, plays, charades, or costume dances of that period. these entertainments, involving parties counted by hundreds where ordinary folk have units, were a great feature of school-life. they must have formed a delightful break in that excessive study so condemned by the world outside, which assuredly in no wise prevented the most hilarious enjoyment of these revels, shared by all, from the dignified head down to the most frolicsome of the “little ones.”
and for all readers it is pleasant to have these glimpses of the happy home-life in which this loving nature had such free room for growth. so much is implied as we see the busy father making time for play with his children, as well as for “writing letters on grammar,” which the studious little daughter “used to find on the stairs;” or again, as we note the good mother, not less busy, kindly shutting her eyes to those surreptitious studies under the sofa, instead of calling on her only girl to take her part in amusing the younger children, of whom, in course of time, one sister and eight brothers made their appearance in the active household. of these, however, only four brothers attained manhood.
40in later years the elder sister needed no bidding to stand by the mother to whom she was devoted, and whose comfort and stay she became in the long struggle with the many claims on a narrow income. in those days life was a struggle to even the most distinguished artists, and fame was by no means synonymous with fortune.
in the natural course of things more than one opportunity came to the girl to change this home struggle for a life of her own under easier auspices. and once she had felt the force of the temptation; but duty had early become the watchword of her life; and as she looked at the mother burdened with her weight of cares, the good daughter, at a cost none but herself could measure, turned from the dreams of her girlhood, from the hopes of womanhood, and kept her place by her mother’s side.
years afterwards in a few words she tells us all the story—
“i have had real heart-ache, such as at intervals in earlier life i had to bear: when i put aside marriage; when mr. laing died; and again when my dearest mother, the brave, loving, strong, tender woman, left all her children. i quite believe in heart-ache! god’s ways are not our ways!”
