But before the first tripos student had definitely entered on her career, another great step had been taken: the opening of a house for the residence of women who had been attracted by the educational facilities of Cambridge and desired to devote themselves there to some course of serious study. The securing of a house for students had become necessary in the eyes of Mr. Henry Sidgwick, and foremost among the many and great services which he rendered to the College (then hardly existing even in idea) was that he persuaded Miss Clough to come and take charge of the resident students. A house was found in Regent Street, and in the autumn of 1871 Miss Clough and five students began their common life there, and initiated a new stage in the movement.
Long years afterwards, when Newnham was large and flourishing, with four Halls of residence, a large party up for Commemoration met to explore the cradle of this College, which was the more easily done as the house had become a hotel (The Bird Bolt Temperance Hotel). Two of the original five (Mrs. Marshall and Miss Larner) pointed out to the students of that day the one room which served as dining-room and as common study for these pioneer students; the other sitting-room used in the afternoon for lectures, overlooking Parker's Piece, where they, without a scrap of garden, could envy the boys playing on the Piece; the small rooms which were their bedrooms. The first generation had little elbow-room, no games, a scanty library, a non-luxurious _ménage_, and very little of what is now considered necessary freedom in work and play. Yet they seem to have been exceedingly happy. They felt, and the feeling remained for at least a dozen years, that they were pioneers. The lectures given by greater men than any they had ever seen before; the pleasures of intercourse, especially for those who had found little intellectual sympathy at home; the long walks over the Gogs or along the Cam, more enjoyed in pre-hockey, pre-bicycling, even pre-tennis days than now; the associations of an ancient and beautiful town; the sympathy shown by the generous men and women who had adopted their cause: all these things must far have outweighed the passing inconvenience of straitened accommodation and even the painful consciousness that the eye of the world and yet more of his wife was upon them, for better and for worse. But perhaps above all, in later days, these pioneer students felt most thankful to think that in that house they had enjoyed the constant presence of Miss Clough and frequent intercourse with the leaders of the movement, particularly of Mr. Henry Sidgwick.