HONOURS
‘He deserved well of his country.’
‘Shall we try to deserve more rather than to win more?’ said Miss Beale
when she quoted the phrase of the Roman senate, which heads this chapter,
to some children—not of Cheltenham—who were to receive prizes. It well
expresses her feeling about rewards. They should grow out of the work;
should be some fresh privilege of service. Hence her indifference to
prizes in the College. They were given on a percentage of marks obtained
in the midsummer examinations. They were announced when the marks of the
classes were read to them on the first morning of the next term, but
they were never presented: they had to be fetched by the individuals who
earned them from the secretary’s room.
‘I was opposed,’ she wrote on one occasion, ‘to this custom. I
did not think it necessary to make pupils work, they seemed as
earnest and painstaking before prizes were given as since. I
felt it was better they should work from a love of knowledge or
a simple sense of duty, but the Council took another view, and
as there is much to be said on their side of the question, I
yielded.
‘In life, prizes must be to a great extent the reward of
thoughtful industry, and it seems to me that on the one hand
we may thereby teach the children to put success at its true
value, and point out to them that it is at the bar of our own
conscience alone that we must stand approved or condemned;
that on the other hand they may learn to bear disappointment
patiently. I do not find that prizes create any feelings of
jealousy or ill-will, nor can I blame a child who looks forward
with pleasure to carrying home to her parents this proof that
she has tried to do as they would have her. It appears to me
a matter of less importance than is usually supposed, and in
any case can affect only a few pupils at the head of a class.
Stimulants to exertion, however, are rarely needed. There are
very few who are not interested and earnest in their work, and
our difficulty is more frequently to check too great zeal, and
to insist on the observation of those limits we place to the
time devoted to study than to demand more.’
The high ideal of _deserving_ rather than _gaining_ was what Miss Beale
set before herself as true wealth to be desired. So she was careful, when
the management of large public funds and a much increased personal income
came to her, to remain as frugal, as poor as ever. It was not merely that
she liked simplicity. Her simplicity of life was a deliberate intention.
There was a personal note in the fervour with which she would read the
words of Abraham to the king of Sodom: ‘I will not take from a thread
even to a shoe-latchet, ... lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram
rich.’ No monk was ever more faithful to his chosen bride of Poverty than
Miss Beale remained with her large income and successful investments. She
was consistent also in preferring for those she loved a simple personal
life, which would leave mind and time free for thought and the needs of
others.
When first Miss Beale went to Cheltenham she adopted a very simple mode
of living, such as she thought would sufficiently meet her needs, and
she never changed it. At the age of seventy she would even help to lay
her own table for the frugal midday meal, if the general servant had
been delayed by household work in the morning. She would walk to the
station to save a cab fare, and invariably chose the simplest means of
conveyance unless on a matter of urgency. It is true she became rather
grander in dress as years went on. ‘What did I wear,’ she wrote to Miss
Brown about 1876, after some function she had attended, ‘“velvet and
ostrich feathers?” Well, what could I wear but my felt bonnet and old
velvet cloak and old black serge? I looked quite smart enough.’ Kind
friends there were who liked to see the Lady Principal beautifully
dressed, and who were allowed in later life to guide her into velvet and
ostrich feathers. She submitted for the sake of the College, for whose
good she would cheerfully have worn either sackcloth or cloth of gold!
For the sake of the College, still more for the sake of that work for
women and the race which the College represented, Miss Beale gladly
greeted honours. That they had anything to do with herself personally,
she was not even aware. Her work did indeed receive recognition far and
wide from those who prized education, and who regarded it from various
points of view.
Among the first to honour it with special notice and a substantial, even
magnificent gift, was John Ruskin, when in 1885 he presented to the
College two beautiful and valuable manuscripts—one, of the four Gospels,
in Greek, written in the eleventh century; another (_Antiphonarium
Romanum_) of the thirteenth century. He gave also a collection of printed
books. These were the occasion of an interesting series of letters from
Mr. Ruskin to Miss Beale. Some of them are printed here.
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _February 10, 1882_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—I have to ask your pardon for never having
replied to your former letter; but it came when I was already
over-wrought and threatened with illness, and it gave me more
to think of than it was possible then to review.
‘I am now, however, most seriously bent on understanding the
principles and knowing some of the results of modern girl
education....
‘A very few lines would enable me to become of some use to
you—in my own fields of work—and without moving from my fields
of rest.
‘I have the deepest respect for Mr. Shields’ work, nevertheless
it is out of my _way_; and such drawing models as I may send
you would be altogether different in feeling.
‘But the first thing I want to know is what kind of library
or schoolroom you have, for quiet separate reading, and what
standard books the College possesses in Lexicons, works on
natural history, and classic literature, and what place Latin
and Italian have in your code of studies.—Ever faithfully yours,
J. RUSKIN.’
* * * * *
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _February 18, 1887_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—I can only thank you to-day for the most
interesting parcel, which gives me an idea of the College and
its branches, admitting every degree of enthusiasm in its
Principal.
‘ ... but for the moment, entirely puzzling to me, as I neither
want to confuse the strict College work with that of Ruskin
societies, nor the elementary and general teaching with that of
artists’ studios, or of general papers in your Magazine.
‘And when I give you books I should like them to be accessible
to the classes in general. I can’t scatter them among the
boarding-houses or give them only to the senior students at St.
Hilda’s. You can surely put up some shelves for me in a corner
of some generally inhabited room, and put them under the care
of an official librarian. It seems to me the office might be
given for a term at a time to any girl who cared to take it,
involving also the curatorship of any drawings, casts of coins,
or the like, which I could at times lend or present to you.
‘In the meantime, will you let me have a list of the classes,
with the books used in them, and times of required attendance.
‘Dr. Watson has trusted me for the present to arrange the work
for his daughter, without reference to any competitive honours
or testing examinations. I wish to keep her well at her music,
French, and if she cares for it, elementary drawing, with
beginning of Latin and the first making out of classic history.
What I chiefly need to know is the method of instruction in
the music and drawing classes. (Do your seniors touch Greek at
all?)
‘I have just been reading an excellent paper by Miss _Sophia_
Beale on Art instruction, in which, however, the general sense
and truth of the author’s views are prevented from taking a
practical form by her falling into the scarcely in our time
avoidable error of supposing that accuracy of drawing can only
be taught by the figure.
‘The figure can never be drawn accurately unless life is given
to the task. But a triangle, an arch, a cinquefoil, and a wild
rose are within the reach of ordinary girlhood’s observation
and delineation, to ordinary girlhood’s extreme profit.—Believe
me, dear Madam, your faithful servant,
JOHN RUSKIN.’
* * * * *
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _March 3, 1887_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—I shall be most thankful if you can find
anything in my books that the girls will like to have in the
Magazine: the ivied trunks were sent in no high spiritual but
lowly practical intent, simply as the sort of models which you
can’t cut and bring in for yourselves, and which, once drawn
real size, will teach more than all my talking.
‘I think her librarian cares will be ever so good for my wild
flower, and am looking out more fine books for her to-day,
chiefly a perfect edit, of Scott’s poetry and Heyne’s beautiful
_Virgil_.
‘I am wholly with you in liking Greek better than Latin, but
only as added to Latin by clever girls. The entire history of
the Catholic Church being in Latin, and half the language of
Europe derived from it, I would make every girl who passed
through any course of literature begin with understanding her
Pater Noster and Te Deum.
‘But I have put a lovely edition of _Hesiod_ aside for next
dispatch to the wild librarian.
‘I don’t quite know what the “Kyrle” Society means, but imagine
I have stores of things they could put to use.—Ever faithfully
yours,
J. RUSKIN.
‘Enclosed may be a pretty little gift to any of your good
girls.’
* * * * *
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _March 7, 1887_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—I have put the little volume of poems into my
near bookcase at the back of my arm-chair. They look really
very nice, and show an extremely high tone in the school.
‘I am going to send you with the Pindar, a beautiful 13th
cent. MS., with the Gregorian notes all written to the old
Latin songs. I think the College will be proud of it, and your
organist interested by it.
‘I shall be delighted to see whatever the teachers care to send
me. I have been languid and stupid this spring, or should have
written something for the drawing classes before now.—Ever
faithfully and respectfully yours,
J. RUSKIN.’
* * * * *
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _March 11, 1887_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—There is no way of enlarging those Kate
sketches: they were calculated for the little confusion
caused by their smallness, and are not well drawn enough for
magnifying.
‘I will send you some prettier ones for framing. I am very
glad the books have come safe. The grace and dignity of the
engravings in Heyne are of great educational value, and the two
MSS. are extremely good of the kind. They cost, curiously, the
same price each, £100 or £105,—I forget which.
‘The wild librarian sends me an extremely bad account of
herself to-day. I have sent her a beautifully impressive and
didactic answer, which she ought to show you.—Ever faithfully
yours,
J. RUSKIN.
‘I have sent your organist a Magister for himself. I am so glad
he likes it. I couldn’t make out his initials, or would have
put his name in it; people ought always to sign in print.
A.B.C. So and So.’
* * * * *
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _March 12, 1887_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—I send you two books to-day with real
pleasure. The old book of towns containing images of the
things that once were, in spite of their stiffness, liker the
realities now lost than any wooden efforts at restoration,
while the Arabian book is a type of all the subtle and faithful
skill of France can do at its present best.
‘I call it the _faithful_ skill of France. There is no nation
has ever produced such honest work in love of its subjects,
not in vanity, as the _Desc. de l’Egypte_ and the illustrated
beautiful books of modern times. The great Cuvier series is
degraded by its filthy anatomies, but in mere engraving and
colours stands alone. But I am going to send you some birds,
also matchless, as I can’t send you the Cuvier for its horror.
‘The English book on the Dee, with its rotten paper and vulgar
woodcuts, illustrates our English meanness in comparison, but
has its poor use too....’
* * * * *
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _March 14, 1887_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—There is not the least need of this flame
of gratitude. I am only too glad to find a place where I can
send books likely to be permanently useful to English girls. I
am sending three more to-day, which I think likely to be far
more serviceable than those finer ones, containing as they do,
quantities of sound historical information given in a simple
and graceful way on subjects which every Christian girl should
have knowledge of, while I suppose not one in fifty ever hears
any truth about them. They are nice collegiate books too, to
look at.
‘I am mightily pleased too at your having a girl-organist, and
hope to work out some old plans with her.—Ever most truly yours,
J. RUSKIN.’
* * * * *
‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _March 24_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—These candlesticks are lovely, but a little
too loose and catchy to be quite good design. The fillets of
the bases should be bars, and branch into the foliage, not be
entangled in it. But I am heartily glad to see such work.
‘The glass for the MSS. will be excellent,—but only the lazuli
and gold will stand sunlight—all colours of time fade in full
light. But there’s no harm in a little fading of the Greek
Evangelists, or the musical notes on a single page.
‘That Norway Bishops’ book will be a lovely companion to the
Old Geography.
‘You needn’t mind who is or isn’t in association with you.
‘You have plenty of power alone—and inventiveness enough to
boot.—Ever affectly. yrs.,
J. R.’
Mr. Ruskin’s munificent gifts did not stand alone. Almost every number
of the Magazine chronicled some present to the College, some book or
picture, scientific apparatus or specimen. Special mention should be
made of Dr. Wright’s collection of fossils which formed the foundation
for a museum, and of the grant of flint instruments and many animals
obtained through Sir William Flower from the British Museum.
The distinctions which came to both Principal and College in the later
years of Miss Beale’s headship were very numerous and came from widely
differing sources. The College gained gold medals for educational
exhibits at the Paris Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900.
The name of Dorothea Beale became known abroad as that of one who had
a real interest in education for its own sake and who had no exclusive
or insular views. The warm welcome she would extend to educationists of
every kind and tongue, the care with which she would personally answer
letters of inquiry, the high tone of her addresses at public gatherings,
her pamphlets and articles made the name of Cheltenham respected afar.
To this may be added the freshness and openness of mind with which she
would lend attention to new methods. She always took them seriously,
however empirical they might appear,—considered them, tried them if they
seemed hopeful, persevered in them if they were proved to be effective,
abandoned them if they were inferior to methods already in use. There
were many examples of this. Once, for instance, in the eighties, she
heard of a method of teaching reading and of preserving discipline which
had been evolved by Mrs. Fielden, a clever lady who had established a
good elementary school in a Yorkshire manufacturing village. Miss Beale
sent an old pupil who lived in the neighbourhood to visit the school,
watch its working, and send her full details of the management. After
receiving her report, she obtained the loan of one of Mrs. Fielden’s
teachers for a week, and had the system introduced by her into the
schoolroom of the Third (Junior) Division. It lived but a short time.
Miss Nixon, head-mistress of the division, found it mechanical, and it
was abandoned.
In Miss Beale’s last term, in September 1906, Mrs. Arthur Somervell’s
_Rhythmical Mathematics_ came to her notice. She not only wrote to the
author ‘The book is beautiful and the method very suggestive,’ but within
a few days introduced it to the teachers whom it concerned and had its
principles explained to a class of little children.
Foreign pupils were always welcomed at the College, and made to feel
at home. When first it was suggested that some Siamese girls should be
received there, Miss Beale wrote eagerly to secure them, and always
took the greatest interest in their work. The foreign teachers found
her sympathetic and interested, able to understand and allow for their
different training and points of view. With some it was not merely a
case of mutual esteem. There were those who found she welcomed their
friendship and returned it with kindred affection and confidence.
In the summer term of 1889 several foreign educationists came to
Cheltenham. Mrs. E. H. Monroe was sent by the Government of the United
States, and Signora Zampini Salazaro by the Italian Government, to study
English schools and methods. Madame Garnier-Gentilhomme, Officier de
l’Instruction Publique, spent a week with Miss Beale. These visits were
perhaps not unconnected with the International Congresses of Education
which met in Paris in August. These Miss Beale attended, and herself
wrote an account of them in the Magazine of autumn 1889, from which some
brief extracts are made.
‘I cannot sufficiently regret that so few English took part
in the most interesting International Congress of Secondary
and Superior Instruction which has just concluded in Paris.
It was an assembly such as one can scarcely hope to see in
a life-time. One had an opportunity of hearing not only the
leading educational authorities of France, who are doing a
great work for their country, but distinguished men from all
parts of the world.’
After enumerating the representatives present from different countries,
she continues:—
‘From England, the near neighbour of France, came the
Honourable Lyulph Stanley, member of the School Board, but not
one person having official rank as a member of the Education
Department, not one representative of a university. There was
one Professor from Edinburgh, the Secretary of the College of
Science from Dublin, Mr. Widgery, of University College School,
the Editor of the _Schoolmaster_, Miss Buss with one of her
staff, Miss Beale of Cheltenham with four, and two private
governesses.
‘ ... The first step was to add to the Committee a number of
foreign members; eighteen were chosen, amongst whom were Mr.
Stanley and myself. Then, after arranging the order of the day,
we separated and formed ourselves into sections, each person
selecting the question which interested him most. In each
section a President and Vice-Presidents and a reporter were
elected. I was chosen a Vice-President of Section IV.[83] ...
‘I was told that we were to speak our own language, as was the
case at the Congress held at the Health Exhibition in London.
However, the general wish was at last complied with, that we
should all produce our thoughts in more or less foreign French,
and it was nearly always intelligible.
‘ ... One question (“The methods best adapted for the Secondary
Instruction of girls, specially as regards Modern Languages
and Science”) gave rise to a good deal of warm discussion.
We were surprised to find that less than two hours in a week
were given to a modern language in French schools for girls.
The importance of beginning very early was not generally
recognised. The English, specially Mr. Widgery and Miss Beale,
contributed a great deal to this part of the discussion,
insisting much on a truly scientific gymnastic of sound as
opposed to the haphazard mode of teaching pronunciation.’
The Misses Andrews who accompanied Miss Beale on this occasion were
impressed by the way she was received and heard. Her deafness did not
prevent her taking a part in the discussion, and speaking as she did in
a foreign tongue, she yet dominated her large international audience.
She showed extraordinary indifference to her own comfort. Miss Alice
Andrews remembers, for instance, a luncheon in the neighbourhood of the
Sorbonne, at a little restaurant to which they had been guided by some
acquaintance. Miss Beale and Miss Buss found themselves in the midst of
artists and students, some of whom carried on pronounced flirtations with
the waitress girls. Miss Beale sat calmly writing her speech for the next
meeting, indifferent to her déjeûner and unconscious of her surroundings.
The Congress of Secondary and Superior Instruction was followed by a
Congress of Primary Teachers, for which Miss Beale was induced to stay.
One day she addressed it:—
‘I said a few words on the work of teachers in enlarging the
sympathies and diminishing prejudice and enabling us therefore
to understand one another better.
‘It is the seen, the material, about which nations quarrel; it
is the unseen, that which belongs to the intellect, the spirit,
which unites us in a generous emulation, in which all are
gainers, for in such contests all may obtain the prize.’
Greatly pleased as Miss Beale was with much she saw, she quickly
perceived that she could not work herself with such a system as prevailed
in France. ‘I do not wish to see secondary education in England subject
in any way to a Government department, or secondary schools in England
assimilated to primary.’
All the intervals of the Congress were filled with visits to various
educational institutions and interviews with leading educationists. There
was a visit to Fontenay-aux-Roses, to a deaf school, to a primary school
and kindergarten, to the Musée Pédagogique. There were also some visits
less of the nature of business. Once, at least, they went by invitation
to the Théâtre Français, where they witnessed a representation of the
_Femmes Savantes_. There were also many receptions. Miss Alice Andrews
wrote:—
‘We had two evenings at the Ministère de l’Instruction
Publique, just for the members of the Congresses. These were
more like our Guild meetings; no amusement was provided, but
the members found it for themselves in walking about and
conversing; and so did we, for by the end we had made many
acquaintances and a few friends, and there we met some of
those who, in the day, had been seated on platforms and had
interested us by their eloquence. On the last evening there was
a dinner-party of about fifty persons, at which the principal
foreign members of the Congress were entertained. To this Miss
Beale was invited, and placed at table on the right hand of the
minister.’[84]
It was a great happiness to Miss Beale to see so much good work going on,
and to meet so many who really cared for the cause for which she lived.
‘Many were the promises of visits; we left Paris with a
higher idea of the great work that France is accomplishing,
and grateful for the generous hospitality with which we were
welcomed, and allowed to see all that is being done by those
who are directing education in France.’
The immediate result to the College of this Congress of 1889 was an
honour for its Principal when Miss Beale was made Officier d’Académie.
In the following year a meeting of the ‘Société des Professeurs de
Langues Vivantes’ met at Cheltenham. Miss Beale was elected a member of
this Society, by means of which many French students came to Cheltenham.
After her death a little article upon Miss Beale appeared in _Les Langues
Modernes_, the monthly organ of this Society. It rightly acknowledged
the welcome and the constant kindness that foreign students always
received from her.
‘Il faudrait un volume pour analyser sa vie et son œuvre.
Les Anglais l’avaient bien comprise, parce qu’elle résumait
au plus haut point les qualités de leur race. Les étrangères
ont pu admirer son esprit d’initiative, son énergie et son
enthousiasme communicatif. Les jeunes filles françaises qui
ont eu la bonne fortune d’étudier à Cheltenham, lui étaient
particulièrement reconnaissantes de la sympathie large qu’elle
leur témoignait. La vivacité et la spontanéité françaises,
que les Anglais confondent volontiers avec la légèreté et
l’insouciance, étaient des qualités qu’elle prisait beaucoup.
La bienveillance pour nous se traduisait en actes. Dans ce
collège aristocratique où les frais d’études étaient assez
considérables, où l’on n’admettait que les jeunes filles
appartenant à un milieu social élevé, Miss Beale réduisait
volontiers les frais d’études des Françaises, et facilitait
leurs relations avec des familles anglaises distinguées.
‘Elle eut pour plusieurs de mes compatriotes et moi des
attentions qui nous allèrent au cœur. Quand nous la
rencontrions dans les couloirs avec son petit bonnet blanc
de douairière, ou quand elle nous invitait au thé dans son
home, elles s’informait de nos études, corrigeant elle-même
dans la conversation nos phrases défectueuses, nous parlant
avec sympathie de notre pays, et nous rappelant le souvenir
agréable qu’elle avait gardé de Paris, où elle était venue
passer quelques mois dans sa jeunesse, en vue de compléter son
instruction.’
A further result was the permission granted by the French Government for
the admission of students from the College to Fontenay-aux-Roses. This
permission was much prized by Miss Beale, who was comforted by it for
delays which had occurred in the opening of St. Hilda’s, Oxford.
Another recognition of her work for education came to Miss Beale in 1896,
when Durham University conferred upon her the distinction of Tutor in
Letters. The widespread influence of that work was emphasised by her
election in 1898 as a Corresponding Member of the National Education
Association, U.S.A. In her letter acknowledging this honour Miss Beale
said: ‘We receive much inspiration from the States, and possess in our
Library a large number of valuable works from Americans on Philosophy and
Education.’ She was specially attached to the writings of Dr. Harris.
The contrasts existing between girls’ education as it was in 1865 and
thirty years later must have been brought very forcibly before Miss
Beale when, in 1894, she was again asked to give evidence before a Royal
Commission. The chairman of this was Mr. Bryce, who had himself inspected
and reported for the Taunton Commission of 1864-7. The composition of
this later body marked the advance that had been made. Of its seventeen
members three were women. Well might Miss Beale say that the changes she
had witnessed were ‘inconceivably great.’ Her own position was changed.
On the first occasion she had merely been the able representative of a
little known and rather despised class of workers. On the second she came
as one of the recognised leaders of a band whose work was becoming yearly
more valuable and more important.
Miss Beale was first questioned on the co-operation and co-relation of
different schools in one neighbourhood. She expressed herself in favour
of the co-operation of teachers, not of unity in governing bodies,
‘because one governing body is rather apt to generalise and say that
everything that is suitable for boys should be done for girls.’ She
was also careful to say that there must be a supreme authority in each
school. One point of special interest to-day is the discussion which took
place on the teaching of the classics to girls. Miss Beale, as has been
shown, was never in favour of teaching either Latin or Greek to young
girls, and she maintained her objections on this occasion. She thought
it a mistake to begin Greek at the age of eleven or twelve, though she
admitted that it was easier to learn than Latin. ‘But children,’ she
said, ‘do not enter into the delicacies and refinements of the Greek
language, ... and they get tired of it.... I do not think the most
intelligent teacher could make a child like the intricacies of grammar
early.’[85]
Miss Beale does not seem to have mentioned one reason why she would
not teach Latin early until, in 1898, she wrote in _Work and Play_: ‘I
feel strongly that Latin should, however, properly come after German,
specially for girls. There is a pestilential atmosphere in the Campania,
and one needs to have one’s moral fibre braced by the poetry of the
Hebrews and of England and Germany, if one would remain unaffected by
writings saturated with heathen thought.’
Other points discussed were the training of teachers, a subject on
which Miss Beale had much to say. She insisted on the advantages of
associating training colleges with large schools: ‘If students get simply
lectures, and ideas which they have not an opportunity of carrying into
practice, they become unpractical, and they have to learn the practical
parts of their profession when they become teachers.’ The question of
scholarships was introduced; Miss Beale enunciated her theory that they
should be given irrespective of place. It ought not to be possible for
one institution to buy up scholars from another. She admitted that she
would like to make necessity a condition of holding a scholarship. ‘Would
not that,’ asked Dr. Fairbairn, I carry with it to a large extent what
one may term a social distinction,—even a stigma in certain cases?’ ‘I
think,’ was the reply, ‘if people are ashamed of being poor, they ought
to be ashamed of being ashamed of it.’
Some points there were on which the Commissioners desired enlightenment
from Miss Beale’s experience, but got little help. One of these was by
what means a passage might be effected from primary to secondary schools
and the universities. Miss Beale, who disliked free education, had in
1895 even less sympathy with elementary teaching than she had a few
years later, when she undertook to train students for it. The indication
she gave the Commission was a suggestion that to meet the needs of the
prize pupils of the elementary schools, it would be best to found higher
schools of the same class, as she maintained that, owing largely to the
influences of their homes, children coming from primary schools could not
profit by the kind of education existing in secondary schools as they are.
Three or four times the chairman also sought to obtain an opinion from
her on the difference between boys and girls, but was always met by some
such answer as, ‘I do not profess to say much about boys.’
It was an excellent thing that Miss Beale was asked by Messrs. Longmans,
Green and Co. to put forth her own original ideas, and state something of
her long experience concerning education, in the volume which appeared
in 1898 under the title _Work and Play in Girls’ Schools_. Designed
primarily for the enlightenment of the generation which first received
it, the book will remain as an historical record of methods actually in
use at the Ladies’ College.
With the two last sections of this work Miss Beale had nothing to do:
that on the ‘Moral Side of Education’ was written by Miss Soulsby,
the concluding chapter on the ‘Cultivation of the Body’ was from the
pen of Miss Dove. Yet it is worthy of notice that both these able and
original-minded head-mistresses were for a time teachers at Cheltenham.
Miss Beale felt that Miss Soulsby’s chapter should have been first in the
book; but as her own section is so very much the longest, and as it would
have been impossible to her to treat of education from the intellectual
side only and apart from its bearing on character, there is nothing to be
regretted in the arrangement. One of Miss Beale’s chapters is, moreover,
devoted to the question of Philosophy and Religion.
A letter she wrote to Miss Strong on this subject is interesting:—
‘_January 1897._
‘I have ventured to accept Mr. Longmans’ proposal. I am afraid
it is rather rash, and I hope I shall find that he gives me
the Midsummer holidays. This is what he puts in his programme.
“Order of importance. Cultivation of the body, cultivation
of the moral character, cultivation of the mind,” and so he
arranges the subjects in that order. You see what I have said,
it makes me so vexed to hear people say, “Of course health is
the first thing,” when I know they mean to put pleasure before
duty. In order of _importance_, of course, Miss Soulsby is
first.’
This book, the most important of Miss Beale’s mature age—she was verging
on sixty when it was published—was written with all the enthusiasm of
youth. The hopefulness and freshness of a young teacher, heightened
rather than restrained by the experience of years, glow on every page.
Nor is the idealism of the student missing. Notice specially for this
the passage on astronomy on page 254:[86] ‘Thus [is] the mathematical
passion awakened; surely most of us can remember the first time that our
soul really ascended into the seventh heaven.’ The chapter entitled
Psychological Order of Study,’ in which this passage occurs, is perhaps
the most suggestive in the book, which abounds in the results of ripened
thought and knowledge. But that on the ‘Relation of School to Home’ was
most impressive to those who did not already know the writer’s views on
the subject. In ‘A Few Practical Precepts’ occur one or two phrases which
might well pass into scholastic proverbs, as for instance this: ‘It is a
worse fault to teach below than above the powers of a child.’
Miss Beale did not write the whole of that part of the book for which
she made herself responsible. Some parts were given to specialists upon
the College staff, in order that all the subjects might be treated with
expert knowledge.
Miss Beale’s own life during this later period naturally became more
social than ever before. She attended many public functions, and was
brought constantly into touch with those who shared her high intellectual
aims or literary work. Among these was Dr. Jowett, to whom she felt she
owed a special debt for his translation of the _Republic_. A day came at
last, in 1893, when, as a witty friend said, she and the Master lunched
together, ‘with Plato as an unobtrusive third.’
In 1894, accompanied by Miss Draper, she made another visit to Paris,
to be present at the wedding of Lady Victoria Blackwood and Mr. W. L.
Plunket. She greatly enjoyed the experience, especially Lord Dufferin’s
friendliness.
‘Lord Dufferin proposed to send a young man to take us out
in the morning, and show us something of Paris. I rather
wondered that we grey-haired ladies should require an escort,
but of course accepted, and we were awaiting our young man in
the salon of the Hôtel Normandie when, to our surprise and
pleasure, we heard Lord Dufferin’s own voice in the hall.
Though he had to be present at the civil wedding at twelve
o’clock, he most kindly found time to take us up the Heights of
Montmartre. We had much interesting conversation on the way.’
The diary which Miss Beale still kept carefully, though briefly, gives a
glimpse of this fuller outside life, but remains faithful to its early
character as a record of thought and aspiration. A few extracts from the
last years are given.
1893.
‘_Jan._ 15. Retreat at Brondesbury. Canon Body 9th to 13th.
” 22. Last Sunday of Epiphany.... Perfect revelation of
God’s character only possible to man in Christ.
Arise, shine! Magi faithful to what was given....
” 24. More earnestness in work needed. Unnecessary
speaking of others’ faults.
” 31. Again a quarter of an hour wasted....
_Feb._ 2. Edward died.[87] Presentation in the Temple.
” 14. Friendless Girls’ meeting.
_Mar._ 31. All Saints. Mr. Illingworth.
_May_ 10. In London. Degree Day. Radley.
” 11. Ascension Day. H. C. Radley. At Cowley
House. Froude’s Lecture. Lunch at Balliol.
” 12. Text. “In Him was Life and the Life was the
Light.”
” 14. Mrs. Russell Gurney lunched.
_June_ 7-10. Royal Society. Staying with the Samuelsons.
” 19. Grandchildren’s party. Twenty-three present.
Five absent.
” 24. Council. Baker Street. Queen’s College. Greek
Play.
” 25. At Miss Clarke’s.
” 26. Oxford. Home.
_Dec._ (31?). Was at Sudeley for Christmas.
1896.
_April_ 21. Cambridge Conference.[88] Stayed at the [Vice-]
Chancellor’s.[89]
_May_ 3. Pressed in spirit. “I stand at the door and knock.”
Read Bishop French’s Life.
” 6. Girls came back.
” 7. First day. Full of self.
” 13. Slept at Bethnal Green.
1897.
_Feb_. 9. Bishop came.
” 10. Miss Clarke died.
” 15. Went to funeral. “He giveth grace for grace.” As we
spend, more pours in, the water level is kept up.
“He that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
” 25. Telegram to say £3000 subscribed by the Guild
[for St. Hilda’s East].
1898.
_Jan._ 8. Council.
” 14. After reading to-day [I thought] ... the smallest
living thing can stir tides of the boundless ocean,
the atom move the infinite.
” 23. H. C., St. Philip’s. Woman touched garment.
Sermon and lesson, to be healed of that weakness
which is undermining spiritual strength, not by
thinking, but by touching Jesus Christ.
_Sept._ 13. Had a very refreshing holiday. (1) Lord Farrer’s;
(2) Lodgings; (3) Miss Bidder’s; (4) Bonchurch;
(5) Forest; (6) Woodchester.
” 9. Studio looks well and all rooms.
” 23. Opened.
” 25. H. C. Fresh resolutions against spirit of indolence.’
The year 1895, which opened sadly with the death of Miss Buss, was marked
by wide extensions of the Cheltenham College work. The playground was now
in daily use. A triumph of the athletic tendency of the age, it was also
an emphatic mark of Miss Beale’s acceptance of new ideas. To the end she
could not quite understand why it was wanted, but she saw it had to be,
and even grew proud of it in its way.
In 1895 the old Cheltenham theatre, which the College had purchased a
few years before, was razed to the ground, and the erection of a new,
fine building in its place, as an integral part of the College buildings,
was begun. This was an immense hall,[90] capable of holding nearly two
thousand people, and possessed of remarkable acoustic qualities. It was
fitted up with a large stage and everything necessary for the acting
which had already become a feature of the Guild meetings. The Guild plays
grew to be Miss Beale’s recreation in her old age. It was an immense
pleasure to see the stories and poems she had prized all her life made
living on the stage. She had a keen dramatic sense, and delighted in
watching rehearsals and personally coaching some of the individual
actors. She was interested even in getting details of dress as correct as
possible, and in the schemes of colour, objecting to a predominance of
red, a colour she always disliked. The Guild plays were of course chosen,
like the subjects of her literature lessons, with a view to elevate
rather than to entertain. Three performances specially stand out in the
memory: _Comus_, in 1896, with its exquisite dancing and dressing; that
of _Griselda_, in 1904; and the last of all, with its prophetic note of
farewell, _Hatshepset_, in 1906. Probably _Griselda_ most of all appealed
to Miss Beale, who gave an interpretation all her own to Chaucer’s tale.
She saw in it a spiritual allegory of God’s dealings with the soul, and
she set it forth in a beautiful little introduction to the story. Years
before it had been proposed that Sir Edwin Arnold’s _Griselda_ should be
taken for the College play. She wrote very strongly against it to Miss
Wolseley Lewis:—
‘I am sure none of you would be able to bear the modernised
dramatised Griselda if you learned it. It is like painting
the face of an unearthly mediæval saint and clothing her with
garments which show the human form. In the Griselda of Chaucer
there is nothing of the vulgar love-making of the “merchant.”
The love of the “markis” comes as a gift from heaven.
‘Then that scene in which she ministers to his pleasure
by music; it is all such a low kind of ministry. Whereas
in the original, hers is just the worship of perfect
_faith_,—obedience to his _will_, because she will not question
it.... The whole thing jars on me.... The quiet, grave “markis”
(of Chaucer) may be a type of Him who tries us to confirm our
faith, but this human “marquis” is of the earth earthy, and
cannot stand for a spiritual type. It reminds me of the passage
in which Ruskin comments on the attitude of the Prophets in
“The Transfiguration.”[91] Do you remember it in _Modern
Painters_?
‘There! enough! I wish it might be _Comus_, or _The Princess_
or _Alcestis_ would not cost so much trouble as something
new,—but better nothing than something not really high.
‘There, I don’t want to dictate or to say you shall not do
what you wish, but I hope you won’t wish this _Griselda_.... I
do think we should like _Comus_, and we might have such good
music.’
In the early part of 1895 Miss Beale was more than usually active and
well. In the Easter holidays she paid a long-promised visit to Miss
Mason’s House of Education at Ambleside. Here she gave a lecture to the
students on Geometry. The visit was a great pleasure, she was in full
sympathy with Miss Mason’s work, and she enjoyed meeting Miss Arnold
at Fox Howe, and many friends and pupils. In June she was present at a
performance of the _Alcestis_ at Bradfield College; she also went again
to the Royal Society conversazione.
The active enjoyment of this summer received a check at the term-holiday,
when, while walking on Leckhampton Hill, Miss Beale slipped and broke her
leg. The period of forced inaction which followed was generally held to
be good for her, and she was well enough to be carried into the College
for the addresses of the Quiet Days at the end of the term. She was
unable, however, to be present at the Oxford summer meeting in August.
The paper she had written for this on the Professional Education of
Teachers was read by Mr. Worsley.
A school which has neither prize-giving nor speech-day does not easily
obtain very highly distinguished visitors. It was not till 1897 that the
College was honoured by the presence of Royalty. In that year the Empress
Frederick of Germany proposed a visit. Her interest in education led
her to wish to see the classes at work in their usual conditions. She
therefore went with Miss Beale from one room to another while the actual
teaching was going on. A few days after her visit Miss Beale received the
following letter from Major-General Russell, who was at that time member
for Cheltenham:—
FRANKFORT, GERMANY, _August 13, 1897_.
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—Yesterday I had the honour of lunching with
the Empress Frederick at Cronberg. As soon as I arrived there
she called me on one side, and begged that I would convey to
you the pleasure and satisfaction that she had derived from
her visit to the Ladies’ College at Cheltenham. She begged me
to tell you that she was much gratified by what she saw of the
arrangements, and what she learned of the system of education
pursued there. She was much impressed by the happiness and
contentment which appeared to be universal among the pupils,
and also with the strict and excellent discipline which she
hears and remarked you maintain both among the instructors and
the students themselves.
‘She added that she fully appreciates the great work that you
have accomplished in the interest of education, as well as the
personal sacrifice and self-devotion which you have consecrated
to the task.
‘I need not say how much pleasure it has afforded me to be the
medium of conveying to you Her Imperial Majesty’s gracious
message, and, I remain, yours sincerely,
FRANK S. RUSSELL.’
Two years later the Princess Henry of Battenberg came to unveil a marble
bust of Queen Victoria, the work of Countess Feodora Gleichen, which had
been presented to the College.
[Illustration: _The Empress Frederick at Cheltenham_
_from a photograph by Mr. Domenico Barnett_]
Among Miss Beale’s triumphs of this period should surely be mentioned
her mastery of the tricycle at the age of sixty-seven. It became a great
delight to her. She used it chiefly in the early morning—often very
early—when the streets were empty. ‘The men in the milk-carts know me
and keep out of my way,’ she would say. She greatly enjoyed the fresh air
and complete solitude gained with so little effort.
In 1898 England received a severe visitation of small-pox. No town in
the country suffered more than Gloucester, where for long it raged among
the unvaccinated, and even devoted nurses and doctors fell victims. It
was five times introduced into Cheltenham, but owing, Miss Beale was
pleased to hint in the Magazine, to the healthiness of the climate and
the good sanitation of the town, it never got a hold there. Cheltenham
largely owed its immunity to the exertions of the Lady Principal, who
insisted on revaccination where it was necessary for every one connected
with the College. This meant not only teachers, pupils, servants, but
all who had to do with any College girl in any capacity—all in the homes
of the day-pupils—all in the shops which served the boarding-houses—the
whole railway staff at the different stations. The College custom was too
good to lose, and she carried her point. Such a drastic measure had its
comic side, as was perceived by the saucy butcher-boy who shouted to a
boarding-house cook, ‘I must know if you are vaccinated before I deliver
this meat.’
Among the College victims was a girl within a few weeks of an important
examination. The daughter of an anti-vaccinator, she had of course never
been ‘done,’ and the father telegraphed that he would not permit it.
A married sister staying in the town urged the College authorities to
act on their own responsibility; but that Miss Beale would not do. The
girl made another appeal to her father; but a cab was actually at the
door to take her to the station, when his answer arrived in the second
telegram—‘May do as she pleases.’ This modified permission saved the
situation.
Miss Beale’s determined and successful action in this matter was
doubtless remembered when, in 1901, the Mayor and Corporation resolved to
bestow upon her the freedom of the borough. This was ceremonially done on
October 28, the Town Council, Governing Body of the College, and a large
number of Miss Beale’s friends being present.
‘The honour,’ said the Mayor (Mr. Norman) in his preliminary address to
the Council, ‘is given with discrimination, and somewhat rarely. We in
Cheltenham, during the thirty years of our corporate life, have only
conferred it in two instances.... I am charged to-day with the proposing
of a resolution which will add a third to that number. The resolution is
in these terms:—
“That, in recognition of the great work she has done for the
education of women in England, and especially of the unique
position to which under her direction the Cheltenham Ladies’
College has attained among the educational institutions of the
country, Miss Dorothea Beale be, in pursuance and exercise of
the provisions of the Honorary Freedom of Boroughs’ Act, 1885,
admitted to the honorary freedom of this borough.”
‘When I first approached Miss Beale on this subject, I did not know
whether any lady had before been admitted a freeman of the borough. But
from the wording of the Act of Parliament I was quite sure that the term
“freeman” in the section quoted was used in a generic sense, and that
ladies were as eligible as men to the honour which we propose to confer
upon Miss Beale. I was therefore prepared to create a precedent, if
necessary. But since then I have learned that at least in one case, that
of Baroness Burdett Coutts, this honour has been conferred upon a lady.’
In her reply Miss Beale said:—
‘ ... In some places those who should work together stand
opposed; elsewhere we have heard of fights between town
and gown; at some seats of learning women have been denied
titles that they have earned. In Cheltenham we have a happy
conciliation of opposites.... You Municipal authorities
recognise that; you care not only for pure water and open
spaces and cleanliness, but for the Free Library and Science
Schools and Art Galleries and healthy recreations; and we
school authorities cannot but make the body healthier by mental
discipline, by the sunshine of truth, by inspiring the young
with high aspirations, and so lifting them out of the rudeness
which is the outward sign of selfishness. I look upon to-day’s
ceremony as a sign of our faith for the individual and for the
community, health in its largest sense, _mens sana in corpore
sano_, is to be realised only by the harmonious working of the
inward and outward law. To invite a woman to be a Freeman of
a Town is, I venture to believe, an expression of the thought
that not the individual but the family, with its twofold life,
is the true unit and type of the state, that social and civil
and national prosperity depend on the communion of labour, and
that the ideal commonwealth is realised only in proportion as
the dream of one of our poets is fulfilled, and men and women
“Walk this world
Yoked in all exercise of noble ends.”
‘ ... Formerly we had no women Guardians, but one who is called
in her own town “the Guardian Angel”[92] visited us and won all
hearts, and then there were elected two ladies, who have been
re-elected ever since, who by their insight and gentleness and
wisdom have destroyed the last vestige of prejudice.
‘ ... Mrs. Owen was also a link between the Ladies’ College
and the Cheltenham College, that elder brother, under whose
protection alone our College could have grown up. It is a
strange thing that women are threatened with exclusion from the
projected Educational Authority; women, who are born to the
care of children, who are so much needed to hold the outposts
in our educational army, which are being deserted by men.
Visions I have of a closer union between all the schools of our
town.... Cheltenham, too, has made progress intellectually. A
Literary Institution died a natural death shortly after I came;
it was, I hope, only a case of _post hoc_. In my early days the
provision of books was scanty indeed. I tried to get Tennyson’s
last poem in one of the principal shops of the Promenade. I was
told, “We never have had any poetic effusions in our library,
and I do not think we shall begin now.” There was no Permanent
Library, and a Free Library was impossible and unthought of,
and in our own College I was fain to be content with a grant of
£5 for books. But more than all the material and intellectual
progress has been the raising of public opinion regarding the
moral law. Much there is still to deplore, much to amend, and
we long to see more efforts made to promote temperance, but I
am sure that the higher education of women, the opening to them
of larger opportunities of usefulness, has helped to lift many
above the unsatisfying pleasures of a frivolous life, and won
for them the respect which is always a blessing both to “him
that gives and him that takes.” We have, indeed, reason to
thank God and take courage.’
In the same year Miss Beale was co-opted a member of the Advisory Board
of the University of London.
The recognition by the town was from every point of view a triumph and
an honour. The year in which it took place and the preceding one were
marked by large extension of boarding-house property and many other
signs of wealth. But for Miss Beale herself it can have been no time of
great gladness. Though her vitality was as great as ever, her health was
less good, her deafness much increasing, her sight impaired. Constantly
she was called upon to part by death from some old and valued friend
or fellow-worker. In January she shared the general mourning for Queen
Victoria. In March 1901 Miss Caines died; a month later the beloved
sister Eliza and Canon Hutchinson, of whom Miss Beale spoke as a friend
and pastor of many years, were buried on the same day. Miss Beale turned
from her sister’s grave to write last words to be read after her own
death should she be called away while still head of the College. She also
revised her will and wrote directions concerning her personal belongings
and her funeral.
But if the road to the Dark Tower grew lonely,[93] it was greatly
brightened by the love of those she had taught, inspired, and helped. No
parent was ever more closely encompassed by the love of children. There
were those at Cheltenham who thought for her, waited on her, read to
her—no light task—those who, should she desire it, were ever at her beck
and call. Some of these were on the College Council. One, in particular,
Miss Flora Ker, who lived at Cheltenham, was always at hand, making the
interests of the College and little attentions to Miss Beale the first
duty of her day. Another, who had become head of a boarding-house,
thought of her daily needs to the smallest details. A third habitually
accompanied her on the visits which became so great an enjoyment in these
later years, and on the frequent business journeys to London, making
them easy by many little thoughtful arrangements. Miss Beale would seem
unconscious of these at the moment, but she deeply valued the thought
and the loving service of which she availed herself to the full. The
Chairman and different members of the Council showed also much personal
consideration for the Principal. Nor could she travel anywhere without
finding ‘old girls’ ready to welcome and make much of her in every way.
In these things she had indeed ‘all that should accompany old age.’
In 1902 came a crowning honour for the Ladies’ College when its Principal
was offered the LL.D. by the Edinburgh University, in recognition of her
services to education. Miss Beale was simply and unfeignedly delighted
with this acknowledgment of the worth of women’s work. Her loyal staff
seized the occasion to give her a personal sense of satisfaction also.
They presented her with her robes, which were made as costly and
beautiful as possible. A journey to Scotland was a great adventure to
Miss Beale, but the occasion warranted the effort. As usual, all the
arrangements were left in the hands of Miss Alice Andrews, who with
others of the College staff accompanied the Principal. It was examination
week at Cheltenham, or such a flight of teachers would not have been
possible. The degree was conferred on April 11 in the M’Ewan Hall of
Edinburgh University. Others who received it on the same occasion were
Lord Alverstone, Mr. Asquith, Mr. Austin Dobson, Sir John Batty Tuke, and
Dr. Rücker.[94] Only once before had the University conferred this degree
on a woman, viz. on Miss Ormerod, in recognition of her great services to
agriculture.
[Illustration: _Photo. G. H. Martyn & Sons_
_Dorothea Beale, LL.D._]
Sir Ludovic Grant, Dean of the Faculty of Law, thus summed up Miss
Beale’s claim to a national recognition:—
‘No feature of the national progress during the last fifty
years is more remarkable than the revolution which has
transformed our girls’ schools from occidental zenanas into
centres of healthy activity. In the great crusade which has
been crowned with this most desirable consummation, the
foremost champion was the cultured and intrepid lady who
guides the destinies of the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham. It
was largely due to Miss Beale’s indomitable advocacy, on
platform and on paper, that the barriers of parental prejudice
were broken down, that the ancient idols venerated by a
former generation—Mangnall, Pinnock, and Lindley Murray—were
shattered, and that barren catechism and lifeless epitome
were compelled to give place to fructifying studies, and the
futile promenade to invigorating recreations. I need not
remind you that Miss Beale’s apostolic ardour is equalled by
her administrative abilities. When she went to Cheltenham her
pupils were counted by tens; to-day they are to be counted by
hundreds, and the institution in respect of organisation and
educational efficiency will bear comparison with the best of
the great English public schools. Among the collateral benefits
resulting from the great movement for the higher education
of women, in which Miss Beale has played so conspicuous a
part, not the least important is the power which the Scotch
Universities have obtained of conferring their honorary degrees
upon women, and therefore it is with no ordinary satisfaction
that the University of Edinburgh now exercises this power by
begging Miss Beale’s acceptance of an honour which has been
brought within the reach of her sex largely through her own
endeavours.’
Her account of the ceremony is best read in her own letter to the
Vice-Principal:—
‘_April 12, 1902._
‘Just a few lines while waiting for breakfast. We start at
eleven for Glasgow, and I am in the midst of the agonies of
packing.
‘Yesterday was a long day. We started at 9.20, as it is a
long drive to the M’Ewan Hall. In the voting-room we met
our Chairman and various distinguished professors—Laurie,
Saintsbury, Professor Rücker—of the people I knew; but the
most important of all was the beadle. In a little while our
names were called, and one had to step into place. First came
the Doctors of Divinity. There were six LL.D.’s, headed by
the Lord Chief-Justice, who was followed by Mr. Asquith, whom
I followed in every subsequent procession.... Arrived at the
hall, we sat as it were in the front row below the stage in
our hall. There were central steps, opposite which sat the
Vice-Chancellor or Vice-Principal. Each went up and stood with
his back to the audience whilst the leader of his faculty
expatiated on his claims to the honours; he looked like a
person being reprimanded. Then the beadle invested him with the
hood, the V.-P. put the cap over his head, he wrote his name
in a book, and then seated himself with other exalted persons
on the platform. Various speeches followed, but none were made
to ordinary graduates. Music played, no sticks or umbrellas
were allowed, and no cries such as the savages utter at English
Universities; the only amusement was to fly paper from the
galleries; some seems to have been made into windmills, they
flew rather well. Then procession again to the voting-room,
where I was first to claim my box; there was nothing to
compare with my shabby things—cardboard most of them, but I am
persuaded that my robes were far superior to any other. Ask
those who saw them from a distance.
‘Well, we next proceeded to church, and St. Giles’ looked most
beautiful. The sermon I did not hear, but am assured that
was because the preacher had an Aberdeen accent. One thing I
omitted. Just after I had taken the degree, as I was seated on
the platform, came a porter with a telegram for me. I opened
it and found congratulations from the Kindergarten. Please
tell them how smartly it arrived at the right moment. The
others kindly sent arrived at the hotel, and I found them on my
return; please thank the senders.
‘After church some nice Miss Stevensons carried us off. They
have a beautiful house and a splendid view of the heights,—one
is Chairman of the School Board. They are always at work. Then
we came back and were visited by various old girls.’
At Glasgow Miss Beale stayed with a married pupil, and found herself in
the midst of ‘old girls,’ who made much of her. From Glasgow she wrote a
second letter, to be read to the assembled College before the dispersion
for the holidays:—
‘_April 16, 1902._
‘We are often in spirit in Cheltenham, and I must send a few
last words, to wish you all very happy holidays.
‘We are very busy. The first thing we visited was the Queen
Margaret Settlement, which is something like our St. Hilda’s.
It is a very large place, and a school for invalid children
was being held. Miss Bruce came down to the opening. On Monday
a large number of distinguished people were invited to meet
us, and yesterday afternoon we had a party of about thirty
Cheltonians. In the evening we dined with Professor and Mrs.
George Adam Smith. I sat next to Professor Henry Jones, who
has written a book on Browning, and on the other side was the
Rector, Dr. Story. He has kindly promised to take us over the
University this morning. There are about three hundred girls
studying here,[95] and they have a charming Miss Galloway;
she is as fond of Glasgow University as I am of our College.
To-morrow we are to go over the Cathedral.
‘I think we shall come back refreshed and with some new ideas.
‘I am glad to hear all is going on well.’
From Mrs. Osborne in Glasgow Miss Beale went on to stay with other old
pupils in Scotland, coming afterwards to Newcastle, where she was asked
to launch a ship. Her ignorance of use and wont under conditions fairly
well known to most people came out when she attired herself for this
event in well-looped-up dress and indiarubber shoes. Much as she disliked
adventure, she was prepared to march into the Tyne if the glory of the
Ladies’ College demanded it. However, she much enjoyed the ceremony
that actually took place,—the drive to the docks, the description she
received of the vessel, the bouquet of roses presented to her in honour
of St. George’s Day. Her diary at this point becomes crowded with facts
concerning steamers and dock labourers. From Newcastle Miss Beale went to
Durham, where she stayed with the Dean; then to York. Wherever she went
there were schools to visit, and perhaps address, ‘old girls’ to see. A
night in London ended the wanderings, and she came home well and happy
to enter in her diary: ‘Arrived to the hour, exactly three weeks after
starting, having spent the night in nine different places, and feeling
quite refreshed by meeting with so much kindness, and so many charming
old girls.’
The year which had so bright a spring brought but a sorry autumn for
Miss Beale. In October 1902 she was—an unheard-of thing—obliged to
leave Cheltenham for her health, and went to Bath, accompanied by Miss
Berridge, for several weeks. Her sight was a special anxiety, and during
this time she was not allowed to write or read. A letter from Miss
Berridge to Miss Sturge gives a glimpse of the life at Bath:—
‘_October 1902._
‘We brought with us Adam Smith’s work on the _Minor Prophets_,
and also Jane Austen’s _Persuasion_. At first we stuck to the
_Prophets_, but at last Jane got a hearing, and since then
she has utterly ousted the _Prophets_. It has been rather
amusing to note how many excellent reasons there were for
giving Jane the preference. Miss Beale was—tired—or sleepy—or
not very well, and could not attend to anything that required
thought—or it was near lunch—or tea—or supper-time, and
therefore it was not worth while, etc. etc., and I think she
has really liked the story very much. Please tell Miss Alice
Andrews,—it is her book, and Miss Beale at first refused to
bring it, but thought _I_ might do so, as it might amuse me.
The result of the experiment is that we are now going to read
some of Scott’s, beginning with _The Antiquary_. Miss Beale is
very much better, though of course far from being her former
energetic self. But we have still more than a fortnight before
us, and if she makes as much progress in that time as she has
done in the fortnight just gone, we may be very well satisfied.
‘Bath is a very pretty place, but, of course, I have not seen
much of it. Miss Beale is now able to take short walks; to-day
she went to Milsom Street.
‘I have written such multitudes of letters that I really do not
know to whom they have all been.’
Miss Beale was able to return to work before the end of the term. She
seemed in most ways as vigorous as ever. A doctor, whom she consulted
about her deafness in 1903, told her she had the pulse of a woman of
forty. But she became more and more careful about her health. Her summer
holidays were spent at Oeynhausen, where she followed a ‘Kur.’ There she
took with her always some friend who devoted herself to the care of Miss
Beale, and at the same time was a congenial companion, reading aloud to
her, or listening while Miss Beale read. On one occasion Miss Amy Giles
went, on another Fräulein Grzywacz. The life at the baths was carefully
planned even to minutes. Miss Beale liked to have her morning letters
before the early walk, which the daily régime demanded. While waiting for
the postman, even watching his appearance along the street, she would
have some deep book read aloud to her, able to give her whole attention.
‘The postman is just here, Miss Beale,’ Fräulein Grzywacz would say, as
she finished a chapter. ‘He is still ten doors off, you can read another
paragraph,’ would be the reply.
In 1902 a determined and successful effort was made to get a worthy
portrait of Miss Beale. Early in the College history a picture, which
bore but a faint resemblance to the original and was wholly unworthy of
her, had been painted, and at a Council meeting in 1873 it was ‘resolved
that it be placed (veiled) over the door of the Council room, as most in
accordance with the wishes of the donors.’ In 1889 the Council itself
approached Miss Beale on the subject of a portrait, Sir Samuel Johnson,
then chairman, writing to her:—
‘_February 25, 1889._
‘You cannot, you must not leave the College without something
that will identify it with the Founder. Fancy what unavailing
attempts will be made some day to supply the want! and the
blame which will attach to us for not having left something
behind worthy of such a woman! Think again, and do not let your
feelings stand in the way of a plain duty.’
On the envelope containing this letter Miss Beale wrote in pencil the
characteristic note: ‘Miss Stirling might make a clay or terra-cotta.’
A modelling class had recently been opened in the College under Miss
Stirling; Miss Beale was much interested in it and anxious to encourage
it.
The wish of the Council took the form of a resolution to which Miss Beale
replied:—
‘_June 1889._
‘I certainly have a very great objection to the thought of my
portrait being placed in the Ladies’ College during my life.
When our Guild asked me to allow this last year I refused.
‘Secondly, I should _much_ regret the diversion of funds which
are so much needed for improvements in the College, and for the
extension of work in many directions; whether that money is
contributed from public or private sources.
‘Lastly, I believe that putting myself forward in this way
would be a real hindrance to my work, as it would give a false
impression regarding the share I have been allowed to take in
helping on the growth of this College.
‘I thought of getting Miss Stirling, who models portraits, to
take one in clay, this would be executed in stone by Mr. Martyn
at small cost, and would answer all historical purposes. I have
a variety of photos, too.’
Later, she consented to give a few sittings to Mrs. Lea Merritt, for
whose work she had a great admiration. The approach of the College
Jubilee made a new moment for appealing to her again on this subject,
and at the Guild meeting of 1902 she was presented with the following
address, composed by Miss Amy Lumby and signed by a large number of old
pupils:—
‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—We, the undersigned, your “children,” once
in learning and always in affection, approach you with a very
earnest wish. There is not one amongst us who does not look
back with loving delight to the time when she saw your face
daily, and learnt from your lips what things were best worth
learning.
‘The face we can never forget, but we should like to be able
to have it constantly before us in such a form as shall call
up again the spirit of those happy bygone days. There exists
as yet no counterfeit presentment of our “School-mother”
which does this; only a great artist can accomplish the task
worthily; and so we beg, and beg most earnestly that, for our
sake and for the sake of those who come after us, you will
consent to let a portrait of yourself be painted by such an
one, and will accept it for the College in commemoration of the
Jubilee.’
Miss Beale was much touched by this appeal. She received it in eloquent
silence, but at the last gathering before the Guild members separated her
reply was read aloud by Miss Ker:—
‘I am touched by the kind wish of the Guild conveyed to me in
the resolution of yesterday. I am afraid a third attempt would
be no more successful than the preceding. The unbiassed artist
represents his subject as she is, not as she seems to be to
those who are good enough to overlook her defects, and love her
in spite of them. Still, if it is really wished that another
attempt should be made, I will willingly sit once more.’
The work was entrusted to Mr. J. J. Shannon, R.A., who had proved
his ability for the task by the portraits of Miss Clough and Miss
Wordsworth. No effort was spared by the painter to realise Miss Beale
at her best,[96] and she gave a good deal of time to sittings, which
were employed also in listening to reading aloud. Dr. Illingworth’s
_Personality Human and Divine_, a very favourite work of hers, was often
chosen. Sometimes this work was displaced by _Lorna Doone_, which Miss
Beale said ‘amused the painter.’ The Lady Principal was painted in her
LL.D. robes, but also in her familiar head-dress, _son petit bonnet de
douairière_. She is represented as looking up with the glance well known
to those who had watched her when she lectured. The attitude, which is as
much that of disciple as teacher, was fitly chosen.
The portrait was formally presented by the Duchess of Bedford on November
8, 1904, and with it an illuminated book containing the names of the
donors. Miss Beale in her reply said:—
‘You have all come here moved by loyalty to your College.
Loyalty is not a personal matter.... Tribute was due not to
Tiberius but to Caesar; so you wanted a portrait of a Lady
Principal—not of the person but of the representative,—and the
Principal has a great advantage over the person in that the
former lasts on when the latter passes away; loyalty outlasts
life:—so I look on your gift as a page of College history. But
not only have you brought a present for the College. I find
also a beautiful book for my own personal self, not my official
self, a record of affection from my children, which warms my
heart, and makes me long to be more worthy of it.
‘But if the affection of those we love is an energising power,
it produces a moral tension, not unmingled with fear.... He who
recorded the names in the ancient church wrote: “Let us fear
lest we also come short.” But as I have said, the Principal
does not die. Like the Lama she is re-incarnated. In her, if
the body dies, the _esprit de corps_ survives, and I look
forward to the time when another shall reign in my stead, ...
and a procession of rulers greater than their ancestors ...
shall see developments which we cannot foresee.’
For various reasons it was necessary to postpone the College Jubilee
celebrations until May 1905. On this occasion a bust of Miss Beale was
presented to the College by some admirers of her work who were not
connected with it. A large new wing built for science teaching was opened
by Lord Londonderry, then President of the Board of Education; and there
were many distinguished guests. Two memorable speeches were made on
this great occasion. One by the Chairman of the Council, Dr. Magrath,
Provost of Queen’s College, Oxford, who made a brief but very sympathetic
retrospect of the past history of the Ladies’ College. The other was from
Mrs. Bryant, Head-mistress of the North London Collegiate School. She,
as was fitting, looked forward to the future, and foreshadowed a large
development of the work so well begun and established at Cheltenham. This
Jubilee Day was the only public commemoration the Ladies’ College ever
had. It was fitting that there should be one great public acknowledgment
of Miss Beale’s work before the day came when she must leave it to the
guidance of another.