Chapter XIV: Honours (1)

‘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.

_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.