Brereton described his scheme in his book County Education. Cavendish College was instituted as a public hostel of the university, students in residence being eligible for a university degree. The undergraduates were younger than was customary, and the cost of board and tuition, which was covered by an inclusive charge of eighty guineas a year, was much lower than in the established colleges. The venture received educational and ecclesiastical support. However, the proprietary principle was not welcomed by some, and the public schools withheld their recognition. Other factors were the distance of the college from the centre of Cambridge, (more than 1 mile), and inferior accommodation. The scheme proved financially unsuccessful, and the college was dissolved in 1892. The buildings were sold in 1895 and were used as a training college, Homerton College, for women teachers, which in 2010 finally became a full college of Cambridge University. In 1881, Brereton formed the Graduated County Schools Association, whose aim was the establishment of self-supporting schools and colleges for girls and women, the last step in his practical scheme for a national system of county education. The association collapsed in 1887 leaving Brereton with large debts. A contributing factor in the failure of some of his schools was the agricultural depression in the 1880s and the competition which arose as a result of the increasing responsibility for secondary education being assumed by counties, e.g. the Free Education Act of 1891 provided some access to low cost secondary education. A key feature of all Brereton's schemes was the proprietary principle. Significant foundation funds were to be raised from investors rather than from charitable endowments. In the end this was a millstone too great for some schools to sustain in times of hard competition. Rural affairs and railways Brereton was interested in agricultural questions, and while in Devon founded in 1854 the Barnstaple Farmers' Club, of which he was president. Later he was president of the west Norfolk chamber of agriculture. In north Devon his interest in rural prosperity was marked by many permanent works of reform and improvement, and by his efforts he helped to bring the railway from Taunton to Barnstaple, a line known as the Devon and Somerset Railway and afterwards absorbed into the Great Western Railway. Similar efforts in west Norfolk led to the Lynn and Fakenham Railway, which was subsequently extended to Norwich, Cromer, and Yarmouth. Portraits A portrait