Tryphena Sparks

[2] In late 1866, she took the role of a paid pupil-teacher in the Church of England school at Puddletown, founded by John Brymer, described as a vigorous and stern paternalistic squire.

After a year of good performance, the log for 16 January 1868 states: “Reproved pupil-teacher for neglect of duty – parents very angry in consequence – determine to withdraw her a month hence,’ and a few days later Mrs. Collins, the headmistress, spoke to the school about the Seventh Commandment, which prohibits adultery, a possible indirect reference to Sparks' relationship with Hardy.

[3] Faced with the loss of a job that would have provided her the experience needed to enter teacher training college and further her career, Sparks received support from a number of women close to her.

Her mother "acted in defiance of the Puddletown school.” Miss Elizabeth Samson, a member of the Dorset branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society, hosted by Mrs. George Wood at Athelhampton House, offered her a job as pupil-teacher at the Congregationalist school at Coryates a few miles away on the other side of Dorchester.

This was a direct replacement for the role she had lost at Puddletown and allowed her career to continue; it is unclear whether she started straight away or at the beginning of the school year in November 1868.

The group most likely provided Sparks with a recommendation to this college; she took the entrance examination at the end of her year's teaching at Coryates and passed in second class, but was still able to start the course in January 1870.

[4] Late in 1871 Sparks completed her studies at Stockwell, passing out with a first class in the final examinations, and in fifth place (there had been 127 students two years earlier, the closest available date).