353 
Oo 
3 
oa 
a 
4 
0 
5 
if 
if 
tU 
l 
ie 
- 
J 
FROEBELS EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 361 
It may not be uninteresting, before speaking of the present condition of 
(fairs, to cast a glance at the past, at the early beginning and the history 
of the movement in England, and I cannot do better than to quote a pas- 
sage from the preface to the interesting translation of Froebel’s letters by 
Madame Michaelis and Mr. Keatley Moore, in which a slight review is 
given of the period since the first introduction of the system in England 
'n 1854, just fourteen years after Froebel opened his first kindergarten. 
‘“ One generation only of Englishmen has passed away since that, and 
yet in tnis short time, with all the inertive force of insular and conservative 
England to strive against, hampered at the same time by a foreign name, 
foreign interpreters, and by much that was foreign in its actual working 
detail, the kindergarten has struck deep root in our land, and has already, 
so to speak, acclimatized itself. Its foreign name has been adopted, and 
is now reckoned as very good English. Those who remain to us of its for- 
eign interpreters—the ladies to whose enterprising exertions we owe so 
much—have also become as good Englishwomen as any others. Its foreign 
details have entirely disappeared, and we have now a vigorous and thor- 
oughly national English kindergarten.” 
To return to the history of this change, we may begin by quoting a few 
words from Baroness von Mahrenholtz’s account of her first visit to Eng- 
land. She came two years after Froebel’s death, in 1854. * ‘I found,” 
she says, “the first kindergarten established in Hampstead, and during 
my stay in London several others were founded. In Manchester and in 
sundry other towns in England, as also at Dublin, kindergartens existed. 
During the six months of my sojourn in London, where I gave many 
lectures on Frocbel, proofs of sincere recognition of his merits were not 
wanting. Already some English writings on the kindergarten had 
appeared ; and also a practical manual or pamphlet, which I published in 
English in 1855 under the title of ‘Infant Gardens,” was quickly taken up.” 
[tis interesting, as I have remarked elsewhere, to be reminded that Dickens 
was one of those who gave an early welcome to the kindergarten among 
as, and that he wrote several articles upon it in Household Words. 
Following the very useful chronological abstract given by Madame 
Michaelis at the end of the book I have just quoted from, we find that 
Miss Heerwart and Madame de Portugal both came to England in 1861 to 
sonduct different schools at Manchester, whence Miss Heerwart subse- 
quently went to Dublin ; that in 1866 Miss Doreck (afterward the first 
aresident of the Froebel Society) came to London and founded the admi- 
sable kindergarten and school where she remained till her death, a few 
years later ; while Miss Heerwart left Dublin to become principal of the 
Stockwell Training College. 
Again, it is recorded that the Froebel Society was founded in London 
in 1874 ; that it held its first examination for kindergarten teachers in 1876, 
Madame de Portugal having come over from Geneva for the purpose, as