ABSTRACT
In 1879 there may have been a score of women students in Oxford; in 1910 there are considerably over 300. They are obviously no longer a negligible quantity. They have their own libraries, debating societies (collegiate and inter-collegiate), their own organizations for out-door games, their own magazine, &c. They can claim a more than creditable list of successes in the various " Honour " schools ; and their record after they have quitted Oxford contains some very distinguished names, especially among Heads of Women's Colleges and Headmistresses of Schools, as well as in literature, travel, &c. A large number have married and have families ; in fact, a good deal of the life of the rising generation is being influenced, and on the whole well and happily influenced, by women who have been at O.xford. Quite a good proportion have undertaken missionary work ; some in sisterhoods, but a good many outside them. It will be easily seen that the original machinery is hardly equal to coping with modern developments. While on the one hand it may be sa.id that, so far the conduct of the women students in Oxford has been . conspicuous for the absence of insubordination, vulgarity, or "fastness," and that instances of discreditable behaviour have been excessively rare, yet the fact that such is the case is due not so much to rules (though rules have always existed) as to the influence of a small but exceptional group of women, whose names might easily be given, and will indeed suggest themselves to any one familial' with Oxford life.
