THE, PASSING OF THE ANNEX = 237 
sonal history. One evening my wife told me that she 
had seen Mrs. Agassiz that day, that Mrs. Agassiz 
looked troubled, and was much distressed and per- 
plexed about Radcliffe College and its degrees. At 
that time, to my shame be it said, I knew little and 
cared less about Radcliffe College, but I was sorry that 
Mrs. Agassiz should be harassed, and I began wonder- 
ing whether anything could be done to relieve the diffi- 
culty. Shortly before, I had happened to be counsel for 
a famous school of learning in a case in which the func- 
tions of visitors had been much considered. And the 
idea came into my head: “Why should not Harvard 
University be the Visitor of Radcliffe College? ” 
What is a visitor? Under the English law all col- 
legiate institutions have visitors. If there is no other 
visitor provided for by the statutes of the college, 
then the Crown is the visitor. .. . The Board of Over- 
seers are the visitors of [Harvard] University, and I 
need not say how important and controlling are the 
functions of that Board. No one can be chosen a mem- 
ber of the Corporation or a professor in the Univer- 
sity without the Overseers’ consent. 
| It was determined that the Corporation of Harvard 
University should be asked to become the Visitor 
of Radcliffe College. 
The last sentence anticipates our narrative somewhat. 
The chapter in the story that follows Professor Gray’s 
happy thought of “visitors” to the Annex is told in a letter 
to him from Mrs. Agassiz, in reply to one in which he had 
outlined his scheme to her, but which unfortunately has 
not been preserved. 
