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N an article that I wrote for The Outlook in September, 1897, I alluded to country holidays for girls' clubs and of the great advantage they were to the members. I am glad of the opportunity given to me of writing more about these pleasures, now become so general in England. I know that in the States attractive homes are provided for girls during their one, two, or three weeks' holiday, where they spend a very happy time together, and come back refreshed and rested by the lovely country and quiet, and by the enjoyments which are provided for them; but I still think that the plan adopted by us in England is better, and not only furnishes the girls with more varied pleasures, but also brings them in contact with a greater number of people, who seem most anxious to help them in every way to have a delightful holiday. Thus many share personally in this excel

lent work, not only by supplying funds, but also by taking part themselves as hostesses in looking after their guests during the holidays.

The first girl I ever sent out from London was a poor lace-cleaner, who was overdone, not only with one year of toil, but with many years, as until on the occasion of this visit she had never been into the country or slept a night out of Soho. This was in 1870, the first time, I imagine, that such an idea had been carried out. It was to Lady Amberley's home, a beautiful spot overlooking the Wye and the ruins of Tintern Abbey, that this girl went. She was free to roam about wherever she liked, over commons and in woods, or she could sit in the garden with her book, or play with the children. She came back to London a different being; not only had she experienced for the first time the delights of country life, but she had been

cheered by the warm and cordial hospitality of her hostess, who had for all who came near her the brightest and happiest welcome.

Other ladies, hearing of this visit, occasionally gave me the same privilege of sending down to them a visitor. In 1882 a party of girls went down to stay in Cumberland, at Naworth Castle, that romantic home of Lord and Lady Carlisle. Here they saw for the first time a real old border castle, a large baronial hall with its wide fireplace round which many could sit, tapestry on the wall, men in armor round the hall, and pictures of Belted Will and his wife Bess of the broad apron, the Lord and Lady William Howard spoken of in Scott's "Marmion." They could visit Lord William's library and oratory, seeing the secret passage by which in troubled times the priest was able to escape, and the mysterious dungeons, and they could walk on the roof, seeing far away across the border to the Scottish hills. To Castle Howard, by the kindness of Lady Carlisle, our girls have also been, lodged in the Guest House that is so beautifully arranged for the sick and ailing of the manufacturing towns in Yorkshire, who find there renewed health and

strength which enable them to return to their various employments, whether at the mill or the factory. The park, which is full of deer, was open to them, and they could go where they liked. The garden and the wood they could walk about in, and they were taken through the beautiful rooms of the Castle, where hang pictures of world-wide renown.

In 1885 Mr. Sartoris arranged three rooms in his house for poor people, and many have been the parties of girls whom I have been allowed to send. They have two bedrooms and a sitting-room provided for them. The first evening they arrive, after being fetched from the station, they find a delicious tea prepared for them. After that an allowance of money is given to each to buy their food, whilst they receive from the house milk, butter, and vegetables. Between them they do their own cooking and housework, but this leaves them time to make long and distant excursions, and sometimes they have visited Blenheim Palace, about eight miles distant.

Another constant friend, Lady de Clifford, used yearly to invite two or three girls to spend three weeks with her. They slept in the gardener's house, having all

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their meals with the servants in her house. Mrs. Maxwell (Miss Braddon) has also been a very good friend to us, and has had many girls down to the New Forest, where she lives in the summer; and she now helps many poorer members who cannot afford all the expenses of the holidays.

Once we took a cottage near Virginia Water; six girls went down together and boarded with the mistress of the cottage. This was a most beautiful neighborhood to stay in, and so well could they walk that they thought nothing of visiting St. Anne's Hill, and Windsor Castle, which was ten miles off. Sometimes we found lodgings for our girls in farm-houses and cottages in the country.

The first visit we paid together in a large party was to an iron house that Mr. Weigall had put up at Ramsgate for the holiday use of working people. Eighteen girls slept together in one large dormitory. I had a sort of closet adjoining with the window opening on to their room, and by

eleven at night I was obliged to enforce silence, so excited were the party that the talk and the laughter never seemed to cease. But sleep was not for long, for as the first rays of the summer sun burst in upon them they woke to joyous laughter and incessant talk. We had to make our holiday, as usual, at the time of the Bank Holiday, when the working-girls can have three and four days away from business. Some food we had brought with us; the rest had to be cooked as best it could. The sea air and happiness gave us good appetites, which made us not over-critical. We had two more visits on this coast. Our most kind friend, Mrs. Williams, at the Westcliffe Hotel, Westgate-on-Sea, lent us, in 1884, several rooms in a hotel, which she put at the disposal of myself and eighteen girls. Here we had a splendid time, bathing most days, walking to Margate and Birchington, and making expeditions to Canterbury and other places. We were prepared for our visit to Canterbury by having read in the

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evenings the "Memorials of Canterbury," that people can hardly imagine? When they walked down to the sea, they could on one side look on the steep rocks of Hartland Point, and on the other side were the wild spurs of the Cornish coast. Then at other times they could wander about the delicious garden, through all the luxuriant growth of Devonshire flowers. The three weeks' visit is never concluded before they have been taken to see that unique and most enchanting spot in England, Clovelly, with its steep, precipitous road down to the sea, which no cart or carriage can traverse, as it

by Dean Stanley, so that when we were shown through the Cathedral, and the scene of the murder of Thomas à Becket was pointed out to us, one of the girls exclaimed, "Why, that is just what was in the book!" They thus gained their first idea of history. Not a moment was spared from the enjoyment of the fresh air; sometimes the girls would rub their cheeks with the salt water and then lie down in the sun unprotected from the rays, in hopes they would thus get red faces, which to their minds was the greatest beauty

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A GROUP OF CLUB GIRLS AT HOLYHEAD

they could possess, as it was a sign of health. It was a happiness to see their joy, and any trouble or fatigue was amply compensated by the sense of the perfectly pure, simple, wholesome happiness which was given to this holiday party.

Another time a house was lent to us at Herne Bay for a few days. This again we enjoyed very much.

One of the ladies of our Soho Club Council, Mrs. Stueley, has for many years invited two girls in August to stay in her own house at Hartland Abbey. Can you fancy the happiness of these visitors, who come from the toiling, noisy, heated atmosphere of London, to revel in these natural beauties, which take hold of them in a way

is by many steps that you descend the long street.

Let me speak of one of the three visits we paid to the Marquis and Marchioness of Sligo at Loseley Hall, a beautiful Elizabethan house belonging to Mr. Molyneux, whose ancestors had received here the great Queen Elizabeth on a visit. We were all lodged during our four days' visit in June of the Whitsun holidays in the daintily furnished guest-rooms.

I do not think any fairy tale could have devised a more lovely transformation scene than that of our eighteen Soho Club girls, released from their toil, freed from the noise and bustle of the great city, transported from their overcrowded streets

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