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
Alice Boyd ménage à trois was established: Boyd spent winters with William and his wife in London, while they came to Penkill in the summers. Other Pre-Raphaelite artists and their friends also came to Penkill work on their art, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. In 1862, Dante Gabriel Rossetti drew Boyd's portrait in profile. Trained by Bell Scott, Boyd worked in similar genres: historical and mythical subjects, landscapes, and portraits. She also illustrated some of Bell Scott's poems. After his death in 1890, her output dropped off steeply. She did not exhibit much, if at all, during her