Grace Anne, Lady Prestwich

Artistic Connections

Grace Milne as a school child had a talent for portrait painting, and later, when acting as an assistant both to her uncle, Hugh Falconer, and her husband, Joseph Prestwich, she sketched specimens and diagrams to illustrate their geological work.Grace Milne wrote two novels, under her married name, Grace Anne, Lady Prestwich. Both were set in fictitious towns in the north-east of Scotland, which can be identified as the part of Scotland where she grew up, and describe the local life of the characters. These are called: The Harbour Bar : a tale of Scottish life  (1874) and Enga [a novel] (1880). The Harbour Bar has been digitised and can be read online here, vol. 1 & vol. 2

The Memoir written by her sister, Louisa E. Milne, includes the full text of Grace’s letters and extracts from her journals, and there she describes her enjoyment of music, and of hearing the Stabat Mater and the Miserere sung in churches in Rome.

Music

Title: The March of the Women of Science 
Composer: MARY MAXWELL CAMPBELL
Arranged by: FRANCES M LYNCH & Herbie Clarke
Written: 1829 (2018)
For: Voices and Drums
Performed by: Frances M Lynch and Herbie Clarke
Premiered: National Library of Scotland, Jan 18th 2018

The March of the Women of Science, has become the anthem of Minerva Scientifica and is performed at almost every event. It is very suited to this early female adventurer into the sciences.

In her Memoir of Grace, her sister, Louisa says that Grace was sent to a boarding school in London and possibly elsewhere, but gives no names of these schools. A governess lived with the family for a time, so Grace and her younger sisters were very likely to have been taught by her.

Grace learned to read when she was very young, and it was said that she could read the New Testament when aged only four. Letters included in the Memoir suggest that her maternal grandparents, David Falconer, a merchant in Forres, and his wife, Isabel Macrae, would have taken an interest in helping to educate Grace.

It is clear that Grace took every opportunity to learn. When her young brother was preparing for a military examination, she studied alongside him, and delighted in helping him. She also attended Lectures on English Literature when she was visiting her mother in Edinburgh, and studied Italian when in London.

Occupations

Geological Assistant
Grace’s uncle was the eminent geologist and palaeontologist, Hugh Falconer (1808-1865).  With no children of his own, it is clear that from her earliest years, her uncle appreciated her intelligence and communicated his scientific ideas with her, knowing that she would understand.  Five years before Darwin’s Origin of Species, he wrote to her of his belief that life on Earth had been around for millions and millions of years.  This was not a widely accepted view at that time.  In 1858, two years after Grace was widowed and had lost her only child, Hugh Falconer suggested she travel with him as his assistant, accompanying him on his travels in the UK and Europe, as he observed and collected geological specimens and fossils.  Both travelled with a servant, and on at least some of these travels, one of her sisters also accompanied them. 

Illustrator
Grace frequently sketched for her uncle – a letter describes her first attempt at drawing the jaw of a rhinoceros.  She also drew geological sections as they appeared in the landscape.   

Later she prepared diagrams for her second husband, geologist and palaeontologist, Sir Joseph Prestwich (1812-1896).  These diagrams were used to accompany his lectures and for his published papers, for example, in his 2 volume work: Geology, Chemical, Physical, and Stratigraphical (1886 & 1888). 

Travel Writer
The Memoir written by Louisa Milne includes lively descriptive and often humorous passages written by Grace and telling of her travels with Hugh Falconer through France and Italy.  She is observant and curious, and her writing is in a style which still appeals to us today.  She also clearly appreciated meeting some of her uncle’s illustrious friends, including Mary Somerville. Her biography of her husband, Joseph Prestwich, also includes passages relating to their travels in the UK and Europe. 

Author and novelist
At least one of the two novels which Grace wrote, The Harbour Bar, was popular in her day.  It has been digitised, and nowadays we may read it as a social history of the Findhorn and Forres area and the daily lives of the people.

 Biographer
At the very end of her life, Grace devoted herself to writing a biography of her husband, Life and letters of Sir Joseph Prestwich (1899), enlisting the help of all three of her sisters to finish it.  It was a substantial work, of over 400 pages, including a contribution by Sir Archibald Geikie and letters to and from other leading scientists of the time such as Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell.  Joseph had started in the family business as a wine merchant, but always had a passion for geology, becoming Professor of Geology in Oxford in 1874. 

Scientific Achievements

• Grace could be called a communicator of science, especially geology.  Her sketches for both her uncle and her husband would certainly have elucidated the accompanying text.   
• She was also an author of several articles on geological and geographic topics – but these did not appear in the scholarly scientific journals of the day – they were published in popular magazines often read by women, such as Good words and Routledge’s every girl’s annual.  It was clear that she understood the topics about which she was writing, and she had an ability to explain science so that it could be understood by the non-specialist.  These magazines contained a range of articles by different authors –  fiction, non-fiction, poetry and topical content – and would have reached a wide audience of general readers, possibly from all classes of society. 
• One of Grace’s articles describes what the construction of a Channel Tunnel or Channel bridges would entail. 

Did You Know?

In 1859, Grace, her sister and her two uncles called on Mary Somerville at her home in Florence, where the company included Mary’s husband and two daughters.  Grace gives a vivid description of the visit, which is reprinted from one of her articles in the Memoir.  Mary Somerville immediately put them at ease, she had a strong Scottish accent and took a keen interest in all the conversation, whether Hugh Falconer was telling her about his discoveries in Sicilian caves, or his brother was describing his recent spell living in Australia. 

‘Dr Somerville, meantime, was more of a listener than a talker, but ‘followed [his wife’s] every movement with loving eyes.’ 

Grace and her uncle experienced some difficulty when they tried to take a rhinoceros skull packed in a ‘white deal box’, through customs in Naples.  They succeeded eventually, but Grace tells a very amusing tale of the incident in one of her articles, once again reprinted in the Memoir. 

An Inspiring Woman

Grace experienced great tragedy in her life.  She married her first husband, George McCall in 1854, and he died less than 18 months later.  They had a baby son, and he too died shortly after his father.  Grace fell into deep depression after this and moved back to live with her mother.  Nevertheless, by 1858 she had grasped the opportunity to leave home and travel with her uncle as his secretary and geological assistant and thereby begin a new and fulfilling life.  

Grace was a fierce advocate of higher education for women, writing an essay about the recently opened Oxford College, Somerville Hall, in Routledge’s every girl’s annual in 1883.  This was expressly intended to inform young women that this facility existed, with residential accommodation for those who did not live in the vicinity. 

In the essay she also made the point that while it was expected that married women would be occupied in running a home, that they would be much more fulfilled by having also acquired a higher education.  Equally, she emphasised that single women should not be denied the blessing of access to higher education and culture.  She finishes her essay by saying:

“If one woman in a thousand is made happier and better by this higher education, a great result will be achieved, and we wish the promoters of such education — God speed.” 

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