Vernon Lushington Thomas Hughes, and Richard Buckley Litchfield, became a unifying force at the College. He was a friend to artists, authors and activists, particularly those of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts Movement who gravitated to the Working Men's College. In 1856, it was he who first introduced Edward Burne-Jones to Dante Gabriel Rossetti in his college rooms. Rossetti used Lushington’s wife, Jane, as a model in 1865. Lushington, friend of William Morris, was a frequent visitor to Kelmscott Manor. He was a close friend of Leslie Stephen and his family; Stephen’s daughter Virginia (later Woolf) based her character
Maria Francesca Rossetti Maria Francesca Rossetti Maria Francesca Rossetti (17 February 1827 – 24 November 1876) was an English author and nun. She was the sister of artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well as William Michael Rossetti and Christina Georgina Rossetti, who dedicated her 1862 poem "Goblin Market" to Maria. She was born in London. She was the author of "The Shadow of Dante: Being an essay towards studying himself, his world, and his pilgrimage." (published 1871). She also acted as a governess during the years of family hardship brought on by her father's failing health and tutored a young Lucy Madox Brown,