Benson and her sister lived with Mary Sidgwick and her husband who was a Reverend in Rugby.

[1] When she was nineteen her brother agreed that she could continue to study and work as a governess in Germany.

Her German was good enough for her to be able to publish her translation of John Ruskin's King of the Golden River in 1861.

The school was at the Judge's Lodgings at 16 St Giles', central Oxford.

The school moved to 38 St Giles' in 1879 [3] but by then the head was Matilda Ellen Bishop[4] as Benson was obliged to resign again due to illness.