Two Victorian Girls

Two women in their 90s describe their life as Victorian teenagers ' We never called ourselves teenagers - but we were certainly Victorians and quite proud to be it,' says Miss Frances E. Jones who in 1892, at the age of 17, trained as one of the first lady shorthand typists, and was hired out by her office at half a crown an hour. Miss Berta Ruck, the romantic novelist, also trained in London in the 1890s. ' I was very glad I was an art student,' she says, ' for we did do things and see things and go about as well-bred, sheltered girls never did. In those days, the thing to be was decadent.... '