At first she was educated at home but she then went to a school at Laleham created by Hannah Pipe in 1869.
The first was Synesius of Cyrene: Philosopher and Bishop which was her debut published by the SPCK in 1885.
Studies in John the Scot was published in 1900[1] and Theodore of Studium: his Life and Times in 1905 and The Lascarids of Nicaea: the Story of an Empire in Exile in 1912.
Cambridge was not yet authorised to award a woman a degree, but Newnham's Principal, Anne Clough, supported her research in Asia Minor and Bulgaria.
[1] Gardner was teaching in Bristol in 1921 when Newnham celebrated its fiftieth birthday.