I want to know in which Victorian novel first published in 1860 was
there a Miss Furniss's Boarding School.  I have checked Great
Expectations, The Woman in White and The Mill on the Floss and it does
not seem to be in any of these.

Hello.

Actually, the book IS the "The Mill on the Floss" by George Eliot.

"Furniss" is a misspelling.  It's "Miss Firniss."

Here are some excerpts from the book:

"So Tom went on even to the fifth half-year--till he was turned
sixteen--at King's Lorton, while Maggie was growing with a rapidity
which her aunts considered highly reprehensible, at Miss Firniss's
boarding-school in the ancient town of Laceham on the Floss, with
cousin Lucy for her companion."
source:
"The Mill on the Floss," Chapter 7: The Golden Gates Are Passed,
hosted by thefreelibrary.com
http://eliot.thefreelibrary.com/The-Mill-on-the-Floss/2-7

""Yes, he died of apoplexy nearly a year ago. I remember hearing you
say you had to pay money for him; and he left his daughters badly off;
one of them is under-teacher at Miss Firniss's, where I've been to
school, you know."
The book was indeed first published in 1860."
source:
"The Mill on the Floss," Chapter 8: Daylight on the Wreck , hosted by
thefreelibrary.com
http://eliot.thefreelibrary.com/The-Mill-on-the-Floss/3-8

"The Mill on the Floss was published on April 4, 1860."
http://caxton.stockton.edu/victoriannovels/stories/storyReader$28

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search strategy:
I used the "search inside" feature at Amazon.com to search for
"boarding school" in ""The Mill on the Floss."
I then searched for "miss firniss" on Google.

I hope this helps.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 01 Jan 2004 03:59 PST

"The book was indeed first published in 1860" should have appeared
right before the final link:
"The Mill on the Floss was published on April 4, 1860."
http://caxton.stockton.edu/victoriannovels/stories/storyReader$28

Sorry about that.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 01 Jan 2004 04:24 PST

Oh, and by the way, good luck with the Daily Mail contest. :-)

Excellent - just what I wanted - many thanks.  I particularly
benefitted from the explanation of the search strategy used - I didn't
know that Amazon had a 'search inside' facilty on their US (but not
apparently UK) web site.  Well done!