LEIGHTON HOUSE 



happened. Among the characters of the Schools when I was there, 

 was a certain Annie Little Little was not her name, but it will 

 serve. In comparison with most of us, she was old when she was 

 admitted, which was at the time I was. If she had ambitions 

 they were not satisfied, for she never succeeded even in passing out 

 of the Antique school, but finished her seven years' training there. 

 Whereupon she once more sent in the specimen works required, 

 was re-admitted, and began the routine of study all over again ! 

 Visiting the Schools one day, long after I had ceased to work there, 

 I was greeted by the little, pale-faced, elderly lady, who had first 

 been a probationer when I was, and who was still patiently slaving 

 away at chalk drawings of the Discobolus and the Antinous. 

 Whether she died in harness or not, I do not know. I hope she 

 did, if the rules allowed of it, for wherever her nominal home may 

 have been, she was happiest within the Academy walls. 



In competition with the men for the very few prizes open to both 

 sexes, the women, in my time, were handicapped by their limited 

 training. I felt this severely when the only girl-competitor 

 I successfully tried for the Gold Medal for Historical Painting, a 

 biennial prize, and in those days, at any rate, very highly coveted. 

 I think it carried more outdoor prestige then than now, when so 

 many of the best male students finish their training abroad, or did 

 so before the war. 



I recall the genuine and unselfish joy among the students of my 

 own sex, and the ignoble annoyance of the men, who with one or 

 two exceptions, promptly sent me to Coventry. Long afterwards 

 I learnt on unimpeachable authority, that that night, in their absurd 

 wrath at the success of a girl, a mere tyro, as they considered me 

 for I had but very recently passed into the Upper Painting School, 

 and to the majority of the more advanced students was unknown 

 the men students smashed a cast in the schools either a statue or 

 a bust. Their attitude was unjust, as well as ungenerous, because 

 the voting for the students' prizes by the Academicians, is by ballot. 

 I think and hope that a better spirit among men towards women 

 now prevails, and did so even before the war ; but I am not quite 

 sure that it does, for as yet there are no women lawyers in this 

 country. However, a generation and a half ago there were no 

 women doctors, so there is hope for the woman attorney, and 

 barrister the more so as ere long the women's vote will make itself 



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