WORK OF LOVE.
“The fellowship we long for is one in which men shall be themselves
as well as fellows to each other, in which each shall know his own
desire, and there shall be a harmony among them because of a holy
concord in their desires.”--CLUTTON BROCK.
In the year 1880, the College Magazine was started under the editorship
of Dorothea Beale, who remained its editor until her death in 1906. Nor
was she only the editor, but a very frequent contributor: many of her
articles which may be seen collected in book form first appeared in
the Cheltenham Ladies’ College Magazine. The contributors were chiefly
old pupils, though Dorothea Beale sometimes sought contributions from
writers outside College circles. Shortly after the magazine was started
it became a vehicle for news of old pupils, and was a means of binding
past and present students together. It is interesting to see in old
College Magazines the names of those who are now well-known in the
literary world--Beatrice Harraden and others.
The year 1883 was what the pupils called Miss Beale’s “Silver Wedding”:
as she had then been twenty-five years at the College. The Old Girls
were anxious to give her a present on that occasion, and the Principal
asked that they should give something to the College. The gift took the
form of a beautiful organ, to be placed in the First Division Room--the
largest hall at that time--above the Principal’s daïs.
The meeting of Old Girls was fixed for July 6 and 7. Less than a month
before it, Dorothea Beale had the sorrow of losing her great friend,
Mrs. Owen. She went on, as was her wont, with the preparations for the
“silver wedding” assembly, quietly and calmly, not letting her own
private griefs intrude on her public duties.
The Principal received her guests at eight o’clock on Friday evening.
About a thousand old pupils were present. To many of them the building
was quite new, and they were charmed with the beauty of it, decorated
for the occasion by flowers and plants everywhere.
On the Saturday morning she had a large breakfast party, and prayers
were held in the great hall. It must have been a thrilling experience
for Dorothea Beale to hear for the first time so many of her Old Girls
sing, “O God, our help in ages past,” to the accompaniment of the new
organ. After prayers she gave an address, chiefly on music. She spoke
first of the different kinds of music, the noble and the ignoble, the
lofty and the base: the music which, like the song of the lotus-eaters,
lulls us to forget all sense of duty, and obligation to home and
kindred, and that which arouses all our highest powers. She spoke then
of the different music of life, of nature, of faith, of every human
soul.
The end of this speech expressed an idea that had been in her mind for
a long time, that of forming a guild of former pupils. The fundamental
aims of the Guild would be to bind old students to their Alma Mater: to
keep them, by means of the magazine and Old Girls’ meetings, in touch
with one another: to enable them to help one another: and perhaps by
and by to take up some corporate work.
This suggestion of an Old Pupils’ Association was taken up at once, and
a meeting was fixed for the following year.
A year later the Guild was established. The daisy had been chosen as
the emblem of the Guild and a brooch had been devised, the design
combining the flower and the monogram of the College. The guests were
welcomed on Tuesday evening, July 8, 1884, and on Wednesday morning
after prayers Dorothea Beale gave the inaugural address of the Guild.
Her outlook on life was essentially that of the devout poet, who sees
in the visible world the signs and symbols of spiritual truths. To her,
the daisy, the emblem of the Guild, was full of suggestion. She dealt
with allusions to the daisy in our poets, explaining why they loved
this little humble flower. She spoke of its sturdy independence--“You
never see it turning towards other flowers: it can only look up”.
She took the independence of the daisy as a symbol of the friendship
of middle and later life, the friendship which means little direct
intercourse, only the consciousness of a union in spirit and a looking
towards the same ends.
“We have chosen the daisy as our emblem, the single eye, the true
sunflower, the real heliotrope that stands ever gazing upward. It is
changed into an image of the sun himself: it is like a censer ever
burning towards heaven, a speck of heavenly beauty, a star come down to
brighten the dark places of the earth.”
The Guild meetings were held every second year, and were a source
of great pleasure, interest, and inspiration to those who had known
Dorothea Beale as Principal.
“She had a wonderful memory,” writes one of her former pupils, “for
her Old Girls, especially for those who, like me, belonged to the old
days of Cambray House, and could remember the excitement and delight
of going into the new building. I shall never forget the warmth of her
greeting at that last Guild or how at the ‘At Home’ in the evening she
stopped me in the corridor to say, ‘I was told that all five C----’s
were here, and I have only seen four. Where is M----?’ I believe that
there were about 1200 Old Girls there, and to think of her keeping
count like that of those whom she had seen was simply amazing.”
Pupils of a later date, who thought Dorothea Beale had hardly known
them at College, were often astonished to find that their old Principal
not only knew them, but remembered incidents of their College days, or
events which happened afterwards.
An older girl and her sister were both sent to College and the latter
left from the third division because her people left Cheltenham; but
her elder sister, Gertrude, stayed on and eventually joined the Guild.
Years after the younger one met the Principal and went up to speak to
her and, never thinking that she could possibly remember her, meant to
explain who she was. But before she could do so Miss Beale, on seeing
her, began without any preliminaries: “Why has your sister left the
Guild?”
In the year 1876 Miss Margaret Newman had made an offer to Dorothea
Beale that she would start a boarding-house for students who wished
to become teachers and found it difficult to obtain the necessary
training. She offered to pay £75 a year towards expenses, and in
addition to give her time and services. This involved a good deal of
strain and work, as it meant living in a small house with only one
maid, and having in addition the responsibility of the girl students.
At the end of one year Miss Newman became ill and died after a short
illness. Those who knew her felt that death had been hastened by the
devoted work for which she had hardly had sufficient strength. Her
work, however, was not ended. In the brief space of one year Miss
Newman had won such love and affection for herself and such sympathy
with her noble object that people felt her work must go on. It was this
strong feeling which made Dorothea Beale depart from her usual plan
of not asking for money. As soon as she asked, £1200 was immediately
given, half of it by the College staff.
“She had left,” said Dorothea Beale, “a legacy of £100 to carry it on,
and, as has been mentioned, further sums were given by friends, and
about £600 by the College staff. The number of students had steadily
increased, and it was determined by the trustees in whom the management
was vested to build a residential college and trust to the small
profits each year gradually to pay off the debt thereby incurred. They
therefore purchased the site on Bayshill, and arrangements were made
for the erection of the building to designs prepared by Mr. Middleton.
Cheltenham was one of the first colleges to establish training for
Secondary Teachers. After much thought it was decided to call the new
hall of residence St. Hilda’s.
“St. Hilda’s,” said she, “seemed a particularly appropriate ideal for
our students. She was consecrated by Bishop Aidan and made Head of
the most important house of education of her day. She had, Bede tells
us, been diligently instructed by learned men and she was the patron
of our earliest poet, Caedmon. She insisted much that those under her
direction should attend to the reading of the Holy Scriptures. She
taught the strict observance of justice and other virtues, particularly
of peace and charity.”
On November 27, 1885, the building was formally opened. A beautiful
statue of St. Hilda was presented by a brother of some old pupils.
She holds in her hand the Vulgate open at the words “Videmus nunc per
speculum in aenigmate: tune autem facie ad faciem. Nunc cognosco ex
parte: tunc autem cognoscam sicut et cognitus sum” (1 Cor. xiii. 12).
Over the door are the words of Plato, χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά. On the study
walls are these texts--“Shew Thy servants Thy work and their children
Thy glory”: “Knowledge puffeth up, charity buildeth up”: “Let nothing
be done through strife or vain-glory”.
Seven years later another Saint Hilda’s was established, this time at
Oxford.
Dorothea Beale had for long years realised the enormous advantage
to students of living for a time in the atmosphere of the older
Universities. She thought that a time at Oxford or Cambridge could give
to a student, who had already begun her teaching career, inspiration
and mental stimulus that nothing else could give. Her idea was
that they should have a year for general reading, rather than for
examination work, though those who wished to take examinations should
be allowed to do so.
In 1892, Miss Beale purchased from Dr. Child, Cowley House, Oxford, a
beautifully situated house, overlooking Christ Church meadows. The work
was begun in October, 1893, there being at that time seven students
with Mrs. Burrows as Principal. It was formally opened on November 6,
the mid-term holiday of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and many of the
staff and pupils went to the opening ceremony.
St. Hilda’s work was soon extended in another direction, not indeed
along Dorothea Beale’s lines, though she was too wise to offer any
opposition. In the year 1888 a meeting of the Guild was held, and the
proposal was made that it should take up some definite outside work.
There were several proposals, but an overwhelming majority of the Guild
decided on the plan of starting a settlement in the East End of London.
As a result of this decision Mayfield House, close to Bethnal Green,
was taken by the Committee. Dorothea Beale was greatly disappointed and
did not conceal the fact. At a General Guild Meeting in alluding to
this subject she said:--
“I trust we shall be able to try to win harmony out of notes not
altogether concordant. Some of us come with a feeling of disappointment
that the scheme we desired has been rejected--I am one of these. I not
only accept my defeat, I feel sure that you have sought guidance of
that inward oracle which must ever be our supreme rule, you have done
what conscience bade and so it is right. As regards my own scheme, I
only allude to it to say that, having now to continue it single-handed,
I cannot help you as much as I could wish, and I just refer to it
to-day in the hope that you will remember it when I am no longer here.”
After some years of work at Mayfield House a house was built specially
for the Guild settlement close to Shoreditch Church. The latter was
opened in 1895. The Guild took up this task in the East End with great
enthusiasm, and many of the members were willing to sacrifice time and
money to help on the work they had undertaken.
Dorothea Beale seems never to have taken kindly to charitable work.
She had a great horror of the demoralisation caused by the giving of
“doles”. Many of her friends thought that she realised little of the
suffering and demoralisation caused by extreme poverty. After a time
she became much more interested in the Guild settlement, realising
what a valuable centre it formed for training young workers. It was
this aspect of the work rather than its charitable purpose that
appealed to her most strongly. All through her life she touched with a
very doubtful hand enterprises connected with giving to individuals.
She felt very strongly that the effect was in almost every case
demoralising. When free meals for necessitous school children were
introduced, she was very much concerned about them, dreading the
weakening of parental responsibility. She knew little of the poor,
however, and of the evil effects of poverty itself, and was in
consequence less harassed by doubts than those of us who see these
social problems following one another in an endless vicious circle.
In this connection one might mention that she never cared much for
scholarships, though as time went on she accepted one or two for
the College, and she herself founded one at Casterton School. She
preferred to lend money to those who wished for training which they
could not afford. During her time at Cheltenham she lent money to many
students: it had to be returned when the student began to earn money,
and in hardly any cases did the student fail to do so. She felt very
strongly that people value much more highly that for which they have to
struggle, and had an almost morbid dread of the demoralising effect of
charity on character.