She then started to hold drawing evenings at home in her father's library where she and other women artists could draw from "undraped" (i.e. nude) models. After a few years she began instruction with the purpose of educating women to the point that they would qualify for admittance to the Royal Academy schools, and one of her students, Laura Herford, succeeded on the basis of a drawing that only included her first initials. Herford was admitted to the Antique School as the first woman to do so.
