CHAPTER V.SMALL BEGINNINGS.
O, I am sure they really came from Thee,The urge, the ardour, the unconquerable will,The potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words,A message from the Heavens whispering to me even in sleep.These speed me on.—Walt Whitman, “Prayer of Columbus”.
Until about 1825, Cheltenham was simply a small market-town, famous for its mild climate and fertile soil, but at this time its medicinal springs were discovered, and it became the fashion for royalty and aristocracy to take the waters. Between 1801 and 1840 the population of Cheltenham increased tenfold. In 1843, Cheltenham College, a proprietary school for boys, was opened. Ten years later, on September 30, 1853, a meeting was held in the house of theRev.H. Walford Bellairs, who was Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools in Gloucestershire, and a prospectus was drawn up of “A College in Cheltenham for the education of young ladies and children under eight”.
The instruction was to include the Liturgy of the Church of England, grammar, geography, arithmetic, French, drawing, needlework. The fees were to range from 6 guineas to 20 guineas a year, and the capital was to consist of £2000 in £10 shares. The entire management and control were to be in the hands of the founders, theRev.H. W. Bellairs; theRev.W. Dobson, Principal of Cheltenham College; theRev.H. A. Holden, Vice-Principal; Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzmaurice;Dr.S. E. Comyn; andMr.Nathaniel Hartland.
They appointed as Principal Mrs. Procter, the widow of Colonel Procter, and as Vice-Principal her daughter, Miss Procter, who was understood to be the actual head. Mrs. Procter was to furnish the wisdom and stability of mature years, Miss Procter the youth and vigournecessary for teaching. A younger sister held the post of secretary.
At first it was intended that the college should be restricted to day pupils, but it was soon found that this would limit its usefulness, and some months before the opening of the school the proprietors had arranged for three boarding-houses, the fees of which were extremely low, being only £40 a year.
Cheltenham Ladies’ College was laid on good foundations. The founders had an ardent desire for a thorough and liberal education, and their ideas were well carried out from the very beginning of the school’s career. The teaching appears to have been of a high order, the teachers were people of conscience and ability. In her “History of Cheltenham Ladies’ College,” Miss Beale quotes from old pupils who spoke most highly of the early days.
The school was opened on February 13, 1854, in Cambray House, where the great Duke of Wellington had once stayed for about six weeks. It was a fine square-built house with a beautiful garden. By the end of the first year the 100 pupils had increased to 150; the second year also marked an increase. But after that the numbers began to go down, until at the end of 1857 the numbers had fallen to 89, and the capital had begun to diminish.
Some disagreement on educational methods then arose between Miss Procter and the Committee, with the result that the former resigned and started another school in Cheltenham, which was continued for thirty years.
The Principal’s letter to the Committee on her departure shows her scrupulous care of the property of others:—
“My Dear Sir,“I thank you much for your kind letter enclosing your cheque for £41 10s. 6d.“I take this opportunity of sending you the keys of the college. The house has been cleaned throughout. The chimneys have all been swept.“Some few stores—nearly ¹⁄₄ cwt. of soap, some dip candles, and two new scrubbing brushes—are in the closet in the pantry.“The new zinc ventilator is in the press used for the drawing materials.“Two cast-iron fenders, of mine, have been removed from two of the class-rooms.“I remain, my dear Sir,“Yours very sincerely,“S. Anne Procter.”
“My Dear Sir,
“I thank you much for your kind letter enclosing your cheque for £41 10s. 6d.
“I take this opportunity of sending you the keys of the college. The house has been cleaned throughout. The chimneys have all been swept.
“Some few stores—nearly ¹⁄₄ cwt. of soap, some dip candles, and two new scrubbing brushes—are in the closet in the pantry.
“The new zinc ventilator is in the press used for the drawing materials.
“Two cast-iron fenders, of mine, have been removed from two of the class-rooms.
“I remain, my dear Sir,“Yours very sincerely,“S. Anne Procter.”
It was in May, 1858, that the advertisement for a new Principal of Cheltenham College appeared in various papers.
Cheltenham Ladies’ College.“A vacancy having occurred in the office of lady Principal, candidates for the appointment are requested to apply by letter (with references) before June 1 to J. P. Bell, Esq., Hon. Sec., Cheltenham.“A well educated and experienced lady (between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five) is desired, capable of conducting an institution with not less than one hundred day pupils.“A competent knowledge of German and French, and a good acquaintance with general English literature, arithmetic, and the common branches of female education, are expected.“Salary, upwards of £200 a year, with furnished apartments and other advantages.“No testimonials to be sent until applied for, and no answers will be returned except to candidates apparently eligible.”
Cheltenham Ladies’ College.
“A vacancy having occurred in the office of lady Principal, candidates for the appointment are requested to apply by letter (with references) before June 1 to J. P. Bell, Esq., Hon. Sec., Cheltenham.
“A well educated and experienced lady (between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five) is desired, capable of conducting an institution with not less than one hundred day pupils.
“A competent knowledge of German and French, and a good acquaintance with general English literature, arithmetic, and the common branches of female education, are expected.
“Salary, upwards of £200 a year, with furnished apartments and other advantages.
“No testimonials to be sent until applied for, and no answers will be returned except to candidates apparently eligible.”
Dorothea Beale applied for this post and was acceptedas a candidate for the headship. She had now to set about getting testimonials and recommendations. Some of these are interesting.
Miss Elwell, at whose school she had taught, wrote:—
“You have succeeded in making subjects usually styled dry, positively attractive, whilst your plan has been successful in forming not merely superficial scholars, even whilst producing results in a remarkably short period.”
Her friend, Elizabeth Ann Alston, wrote:—
“Of her power of teaching others and making them delight in their studies, there is no doubt. But you do not know her, as I do, in her home and daily life: there all look up to her and seek her counsel.”
Many testimonials were given as to her character and work, and these made such a favourable impression on the Cheltenham Committee that she was summoned for an interview on June 14.
She evidently had not any suitable clothes to wear on such a formidable occasion, and had to borrow a blue silk frock from her sister Eliza. Perhaps the work on her history had prevented her from attending to her wardrobe. She was appointed and everything seemed happily settled. One can imagine with what joy she looked forward to this opportunity of doing the work she longed to do untrammelled by bonds made by those of differing ideas. After all these months of waiting she had at last obtained her heart’s desire.
But the stigma of leaving Casterton was not easily removed, and a great blow awaited her.
On July 12 she received a letter fromMr.J. Penrice Bell, the Honorary Secretary of the Committee, saying that he had received from two gentlemen letters about her religious views, that might make it necessary for the Cheltenham Ladies’ College Committee to reconsider their decision. He quoted briefly their allegations:—
“‘She, Miss Beale, is very High Church, to say the least, and holds ultra views of baptismal regeneration.’... ‘She has also a serious and deep religious feeling, and a self-denying character.Butshe is decidedly High Church. Her opinions on the vital and critical question of sacramental grace are altogether those of the High Church or Tractarian school.’”
To a sensitive girl like Dorothea Beale this was indeed a shock, but she was determined not to lose the desired work through any misunderstanding, and replied at once toMr.Bell explaining her views on baptism, which were said to be “extreme”:—
“If you understand by theopus operatum‘efficacy’ of baptism that all who are baptized are therefore saved.... I explicitly state that I do not hold that doctrine. I believe baptism to be ‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us: to be the appointed means for admitting members into the Church of Christ’.”
The allegation that she belonged to the High Church party she dealt with:—
“Your second question [i.e. did she belong to the High Church?] ... cannot be categorically answered, since it has never been defined what are the opinions of the High Church party; I would say that I differ from some who assume that title.... I think no one could entertain a greater dread than I of those Romish opinions entertained by some ‘who went out from us, but were not of us’: indeed, during the last six months, I have been engaged in preparing an English history for the use of schools,becauseInce’s “Outlines” (a book used in your college) inculcates Romish doctrines.”
The conclusion of her letter shows how clearly she realised the effect that might be produced if the Committee revoked their decision:—
“I have endeavoured to be perfectly candid: should the Council decide that my views are so unsound that I am unfit to occupy the position to which I have been appointed, I shall trust that they will allow me to makeas public a statement of my opinions as they are obliged to make of my dismissal, for I shall feel that after this no person of moderate views will trust me, and my own conscience would not allow me to work with the extreme party in either High or Low Church.”
The suspense whilst the Committee’s decision hung in the balance must have been great. Her diary indicates this:—
July 12.—Mr.Bell’s letter about High Church from Cheltenham, and my answer. Some vanity. (Prayer) for resignation.July 14.—Letter from Cheltenham. Neglect of prayer. Several times rude.
July 12.—Mr.Bell’s letter about High Church from Cheltenham, and my answer. Some vanity. (Prayer) for resignation.
July 14.—Letter from Cheltenham. Neglect of prayer. Several times rude.
The Committee, however, seem to have been satisfied with her letter toMr.Bell, and another toMr.Bellairs, in which she referred him to two friends who knew what her religious views were, sending him also two books, “which I have published without my name—not because I was ashamed of expressing what I thought right, but because one naturally shrinks from expressing without necessity one’s inner religious life”.
They still had one more question, whichMr.Bell asked in his next letter:—
“Holding the opinions you have expressed, should you consider it a duty and feel it incumbent on you to inculcate them in your Divinity instruction to the pupils?”
To this she replied:—
“I quite feel it to be a Christian duty, if it be possible, to live peaceably with all men, not giving heed to those things which minister questions rather than godly edifying, but I am sure you would feel I should be unworthy of your confidence could I through any fear of consequences resort to the least untruthfulness.”
A
DOROTHEA BEALE IN 1859p. 32
The difficulty was thus ended, and Dorothea Beale entered her kingdom. In spite of the many possibilities of giving offence, from the beginning she made the Scripture lessons the very centre of her teaching. Tothese she went herself not only with her carefully prepared work but with her heart and soul equally equipped. She demanded equal reverence in her pupils, and during times of building at the college the noise of the hammer was suspended when these lessons were being given.
There is little record about the beginning of her work at Cheltenham. Twice Miss Brewer, who was to be Vice-Principal, called upon her: and there are one or two entries in her diary about “shopping” and “turning-out”. Even the date (August 4) on which she set out for Cheltenham with her mother is only known by deduction. One can imagine, however, the spirit in which Dorothea Beale set out into the unknown. Was it to be failure or success? Were her powers equal to the many difficulties that lay before her? Would the Committee turn out to be the kind of people with whom she could work? But we know enough to be sure that she looked to God as her guide in all things, and that in offering herself for this great work of education she laid her life and all her powers at His feet.
Dorothea Beale’s first two years at Cheltenham were a struggle from beginning to end. When she arrived the College had begun to go down, and many of the elder girls had left with Miss Procter, so that the oldest pupils were now only thirteen or fourteen years of age. Mrs. Raikes in her “Life,” quotes a description of her from a pupil who was at the school when she arrived:—
“I can see her now as she appeared in reality—the slight, young figure, the very gentle, gliding movements, the quiet face with the look of intense thoughtfulness and utter absence of all poor and common stress and turmoil, the intellectual brow, the wonderful eyes with their calm outlook and their expression of inner vision.”
One of her first decisions was to continue and make permanent the rule of silence, which Miss Procter had introduced at the beginning of the college. She was, at first, full of doubts as to the wisdom of this rule but wasso well satisfied with the results that she never saw any reason to alter it. Pupils were allowed to speak only with a teacher’s permission, which was always given when it was necessary. Her reasons for the ordaining of this rule were to inculcate habits of self-control, to prevent the making of friendships of which parents might not approve, to secure concentration and good discipline. It was very rigidly enforced, and if a girl broke it only a few times in the term a remark to that effect was inevitably put into her Report. One of the jokes frequently made against the Ladies’ College was that no Cheltenham girl could talk!
The history of these two years is given very graphically in Miss Beale’s History of the College, from which the following account is almost entirely taken. When Miss Beale was appointed there were only sixty-nine girls left, of whom fifteen had already given notice (of these only one actually left). Only £400 was left out of the original capital. The ladies who had kept boarding-houses gave up on account of the uncertainty, and several of the original shareholders sold their £10 shares for £5.
“Several birds of prey,” said Miss Beale, “were seen hovering about expecting the demise of the College, and it would probably have ceased to exist had there not remained two years of the Cambray lease, for the rent of which £200 a year had to be found. It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the hard struggle for existence maintained during the next two years, and of the minute economies which had to be practised.Haec nunc meminisse juvat.The Principal was blamed for ordering prospectuses without leave at the cost of fifteen shillings, and the second-hand furniture procured would not have delighted people of æsthetic taste. Curtains were dispensed with as far as possible, and it was questioned whether a carving-knife was required by the Principal in her furnished apartments.”
The teaching staff was reduced as far as possible andthe Principal and Vice-Principal gave up their half-holiday to chaperone those girls who took lessons from masters. The Principal did a great deal of teaching at this time including Scripture throughout the College.
Everything that could be done in those two years to curtail expenditure was done. The gain or loss of one pupil was considered an important event. One day Miss Beale was at dinner when a father called with two girls. The maid sent him away, saying that her mistress was at dinner. Miss Beale, however, sent her at once in pursuit after the departing visitors. She spoke to the maid afterwards about this matter and said, “I am never at dinner”.
At the end of these two years the lease of Cambray House expired, and, though the deficit was less at the end of 1860 than in 1859, there was not a single member of the Committee who was willing to take the responsibility of renewing the lease. Many causes conspired to make the school unpopular at this time, and the question of giving it up had to be seriously considered.
Just when things were at their worst a deliverer appeared in the person ofMr.J. Houghton Brancker, who was asked to audit the accounts. After a thorough investigation this gentleman gave his verdict that it was impossible for the school ever to pay its way with the then system of fees. Accordingly he drew up a scheme which he considered satisfactory, lowering the ordinary fees, but making music and drawing, which had hitherto been included in the ordinary curriculum, extra subjects.Mr.Brancker was asked to join the Council; under his able rule as chancellor of the exchequer, the College finances began to improve, and grinding anxiety about money matters soon became a thing of the past. Cambray House was taken by the year until things were in a more satisfactory state, but such a precaution was unnecessary, as the College after this had a career of almost unbroken progress and prosperity.
Financial difficulties were not, however, the only ones that Miss Beale had to fight, nor were they the hardest. Far greater foes to her peace of mind were those of ignorance, prejudice, and lack of ideals about girls’ education. Practical difficulties, too, stood in the way of high attainment. Dorothea Beale relates some of these in her “History of the Ladies’ College”. It was said that college life would “turn girls into boys”. Day schools for girls were unpopular, and the custom of having morning and afternoon school caused parents a great deal of trouble in sending maids with their children. Teachers were scarce and those to be had were very inferior.
“Do you prepare your lessons?” asked Dorothea Beale of a candidate.
“Oh no!” she replied, “I never teach anything I don’t understand.”
Parents looked with horror on the teaching of mathematics and even advanced arithmetic, in spite of the poverty to which ignorance of investments often reduced women.
Some reminiscences of former pupils give a little idea of what Dorothea Beale was like in her teaching and in her relationship to her children.
“I never remember her raising her voice, scolding us, being satirical or impatient with dullness or inattention. She was not satirical even when a small girl, on being asked what criticism might be passed on Milton’s treatment of “Paradise Lost,” ventured the audacious suggestion that the poet was ‘verbose’.”
Her methods were designed to encourage rather than to repress. A pupil recalls “an afternoon when she visited the needlework room and found me being most justly blamed for inefficiency. In kindly tones she said to the shy and clumsy culprit: ‘You ought to sew well, for your mother has such beautiful long fingers,’ and somehow I felt comforted and encouraged. Then therewas a day when I summoned up courage to go and tell her that I had been guilty of some small disobedience as well as others who had been detected and punished. She seized the opportunity of impressing upon me that as I was (though only fourteen) a teacher in my father’s Sunday School—a fact of which I did not know she was aware—I must surely see that obedience to rule was necessary. I can still hear the low, earnest tones in which she made her appeal to my sense of justice and right.”
At this period of her life her power was probably as great as it ever was, though the scope was comparatively narrow.
“It is my peculiar privilege,” writes one, “to have spent all my college career in her class, to go through years of her special personal teaching. In later days when the College assumed large dimensions, such an experience must have been rare; to those who could claim it, it meant a potent influence for life. How vividly can I recall her sitting on her little daïs, scanning the long schoolroom and discovering anything amiss at the far end of it; or making a tour of inspection to the various classes with a smiling countenance that banished terror.”
Her personal relationship to any of her children in sorrow was always a very tender one.
“When I was almost a child at College I lost my mother and shall never forget Miss Beale’s tender sympathy and help. She took such interest in my preparation for Confirmation and brought me herself to my first Communion—just she and I alone: a day I shall always remember. All through my girlhood she was a kind and ready adviser, and continued her interest throughout my married life. One always felt whatever happened to one, ‘Now I must tell Miss Beale’.”
So with the varied joys of teaching, and the difficulties of narrow means, and the opposition of supporters of the old régime, did Dorothea Beale’s life at Cheltenham begin.
Forty years later she wrote of this time:—
“How often I was full of discouragement. It was not so much the want of money as the want of ideals that depressed me. If I went into society I heard it said: ‘What is the good of education for our girls? They have not to earn their living.’ Those who spoke did not see that, for women as for men, it is a sin to bury the talents God has given: they seemed not to know that the baptismal right was the same for girls as for boys, alike enrolled in the army of light, soldiers of Jesus Christ.”
No knight of olden times who rode forth against the evils of his day needed greater courage than this woman who set out to destroy the evils of prejudice, custom, and ignorance. I have spoken sometimes with her “old girls,” who were with her in the early days, and were among the first to enter on paths untrodden by women’s feet. They were like men who seek a new land; no sacrifice seemed too great; no toil seemed too hard. Following their dauntless leader they knew themselves to be the vanguard of a great army of women infinite in number and of unknown power.