2-982-117 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Going to School" by Mdlle. J. Bole, from a photograph by Messrs. Goupil and Co., 1876. 'The young village maiden of France or Belgium who is demurely walking to the seminary of daily tuition with her large "cahier" of copied manuscript under one arm and with a basket full of lesson-books hanging to the other, has a really pretty face; but she does not look so strong and cheerful as...our English little girls...[Due to the excellent provision for girls' schooling] we feel confident that the young women of the next generation in the humblest class of society will possess a degree of cultivated intelligence, a moral dignity and sense of propriety, and a capacity for the business of life, which will put to shame many of the idle young men. It is probable...that the subject of Mdlle. Bole's agreeable picture will be an honour to her own sex, as well as a comfort to some honest fellow of the other sex'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.