Knowing that education was not always customary for women of that era, I glanced at this old book.
To my surprise, there was a sticker inside:
Jane Stenhouse, Isabella's aunt, her father's sister, had won a prize in 1871 for 'Excelling in English Writing...' from Leith Academy. But here's a mystery. Leith Academy is a very old school and still exists. It worked from this building, just across Leith Links from Isabella's home:
But it was a boys school, and the website says it didn't change its name to Leith Academy until 1888. How on earth did Jane get a prize from a school that did not take girls and did not exist? Were there open summer competitions, like cake baking, flower-arranging and such like and jane now a prize for the beauty of her hand-writing? Was it the school her brother attended? Or was there another girls' school called Leith Academy at that time which has nothing to do with the historic school? Somehow I can't imagine that.....I think it would have called itself 'Leith Academy for Girls' or 'Leith Academy for Young Ladies'......
Were they an enlightened family where women's education was valued? Or not?
To my surprise, there was a sticker inside:
Jane Stenhouse, Isabella's aunt, her father's sister, had won a prize in 1871 for 'Excelling in English Writing...' from Leith Academy. But here's a mystery. Leith Academy is a very old school and still exists. It worked from this building, just across Leith Links from Isabella's home:
But it was a boys school, and the website says it didn't change its name to Leith Academy until 1888. How on earth did Jane get a prize from a school that did not take girls and did not exist? Were there open summer competitions, like cake baking, flower-arranging and such like and jane now a prize for the beauty of her hand-writing? Was it the school her brother attended? Or was there another girls' school called Leith Academy at that time which has nothing to do with the historic school? Somehow I can't imagine that.....I think it would have called itself 'Leith Academy for Girls' or 'Leith Academy for Young Ladies'......
Were they an enlightened family where women's education was valued? Or not?
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