CHAPTER VII.GROWTH.
Men say the dreams of twenty-twoThe winds of thirty shall undo....We prove them liars, do we not?Which of our dreams have we forgot?—Frank Betts.
“At the end of five years’ hard struggle,” writes Dorothea Beale in 1863, “it was pleasant to read in the (Examiner’s) Report: ‘This examination has convinced us that the plan and working of this institution are admirable and calculated to supply a growing want in our community ... that of a real and solid higher education for ladies’.”
The year 1864 was a turbulent one. The Principal had long been dissatisfied with the college hours, feeling that they were most unsatisfactory for teachers and children. The new plan was to have school from 9.10 a.m. to 1 o’clock, thus increasing the length of morning school and having no school in the afternoon. This led to a great outcry in the town. The local papers condemned the innovation. Teachers who wanted a half-holiday everyafternoon were said to be idle. Parents complained that the children would be on their hands all the afternoon and they would have to engage governesses. There was practically war between the local people and the College authorities. The Council and Dorothea Beale felt very strongly on this matter, realising indeed that the future of the school probably depended on the carrying out of their plans. A memorial signed by the shareholders and others was sent, and the Council replied that the plan would be tried for one term, at the end of which they would consult the wishes of the parents. So successful, however, was the scheme that at a General Meeting held at the end of the time mentioned, only eight voted in favour of the old régime. As every one knows, the plan which Dorothea Beale introduced against such strong opposition has since that time been adopted by every High School, and has in the main made for a higher standard of work, and better health, both in pupils and in teachers. A number of children, as a rule, go to school in the afternoon, but it is chiefly for preparation and lighter lessons, such as drawing and needlework.
By 1864, underMr.Brancker’s careful administration, all anxiety about financial matters had come to an end. The Principal continued, however, to do much of the teaching herself, and the girls who were there at this time always reckoned themselves particularly fortunate that they came so directly under the influence of the Head. In later days this was, of course, impossible. All the classes were held in the big hall, but as soon as possible a schoolroom was provided for the lowest division. Dorothea Beale, as a rule, took her classes there, except very small ones which she often took in her own private rooms.
The strongholds of prejudice began to crumble. It became easier to teach Mathematics, Physics, etc., as a little of the old antagonism began to disappear and the number of the senior girls increased.
About this time she drew up her tabular scheme for learning English and World History. Many thought this system would bring a new era in the learning of dates, etc., but it does not seem to have been very generally adopted.
In these early days at Cheltenham Dorothea Beale was often distressed by gossip and back-biting. She was always particularly sensitive to this kind of thing, and her actions were at times subject to the criticism even of friends. But she gradually learnt to trouble less about outside adverse opinion, though she would never have been able to tolerate the least suspicion of criticism and disloyalty within the school. On one occasion an untrue rumour of a serious nature was set on foot against one of the boarding-house mistresses. Some in the College had listened to this rumour and the Principal spoke to the teachers on the subject.
“Now I have nothing to do to judge them that are without. We must cheerfully bear evil-speaking. But if it comes from within the matter is for that reason a serious one; for this reason I feel it must be traced up to its source.... I feel I can appeal to you as lovers of truth, as those who feel that no advantages of education, of health, or any other, can compensate for the disadvantages which would arise to any children who lived in an atmosphere of evil-speaking, lying, and slandering.”
More than most Heads, perhaps, Dorothea Beale had the gift of inspiring loyalty in her staff. As the College grew older the teachers were largely recruited from Old Girls. Some women there now, no longer young, have been at the College since childhood. It would be impossible to mention the number of teachers whose love and devotion to their Principal did much to ease her work and cheer her spirit. Perhaps of these none did more for her than the first Head Teacher whom she herself had trained. This was Miss Belcher, later Head of the great school at Bedford. She was in many ways of the greatest help toMiss Beale, not only in practical things but in her spiritual influence. In addressing the Head Mistresses’ Conference just before her death, Dorothea Beale spoke of some of the Heads of schools who had been trained at Cheltenham. Very affectionately she spoke of Miss Belcher, and told a story of her great loyalty to the College.
Miss Belcher and another teacher, at a time when headships were very rare, came to her and told her that they had determined to apply for one. Miss Beale said, “Events are imminent which will shake the College to its very foundations”. They said, “We shall not apply”.
Her early days at Cheltenham were very full, so much so that her father wrote in a teasing spirit:—
“You always write as if you were at the top of your speed, and this is not good. I doubt not you have a great deal to occupy your time and your attention, but pray do not be always in a hurry, you will inevitably break down if you are so—you will lose in power what you gain in speed as certainly as in mechanics: and with greater danger to the regularity of the machine.... I am really fearful to take up your time.... I daresay now that you are scrambling through my note without that respect to which the writer and the subject are entitled. But pray remember that to neglect (the care of your health) is the worst economy in the world.”
In 1862 Dorothea Beale had the great sorrow of her father’s death, an event which left a great blank in her life.
Holidays at this time were spent partly at Cheltenham, partly abroad. When on the Continent she visited schools and gained new ideas for her work. For, to her, life and work were one. Nearly everything she did bore directly or indirectly on the one purpose of her life. It is impossible to enter into the spirit of her life unless one realises this singleness of aim. No nun, bound to her vocation by holy vows, could be morededicated than was Dorothea Beale to the great work of education. It was to her the call of the Master to forsake all and follow Him.
This spirit in her expressed itself in many ways; in her simplicity of life, which she maintained always. Her way of living was always plain, as was her style of dress. In later life she dressed more grandly, but this was forced upon her by others who felt she ought to do so, and was not the expression of her own wishes. When she went to Cheltenham, she decided for the sake of her work not to go out in the evenings. I believe, as a matter of fact, that it was quite easy to keep this resolution, as Cheltenham society was extremely “exclusive” at that time, and was not sufficiently assured of the social position of women teachers to invite them out to anything except perhaps a quiet tea.
Dorothea Beale had very little small talk, and was too quietly thoughtful to be a great success socially. She was quite content to go on steadily with her teaching, her careful preparation of lessons, her painstaking correction of the children’s work, her thoughts and plans for wider work, all of which were slowly but surely laying the foundations of a new intellectual world for women. One of the ideas which she was never able to carry out was that of a Sisterhood of Teachers, consisting of a band of teachers who should live frugal, self-denying lives in a Community under a Mother Superior. These should have no personal possessions, but should live, as nuns do, a life devoted to their vocation. Later in life she became less anxious for such a Sisterhood, believing that the inward spirit of consecration could exist equally well without the outward and visible signs of devotion.
In our day we urge the necessity of having interests outside our special calling; to have hobbies, games, or a different kind of work which will be recreative; to have, as it were, in our brain several lines of rails to preventthe chief one from getting worn out. But though we have become more scientific in the management of life the main fact remains the same, that the work to which we are called is a stern mistress and will demand our whole-hearted service.
Growth is rarely a painless process, and Dorothea Beale felt that some of her greatest difficulties began after the College entered on its period of rapid development. By the year 1871, it had grown too big for Cambray House, and a site for a new building was purchased for the sum of £800. This purchase had to be endorsed by the Annual Meeting of Shareholders in June, but this was considered a mere formality. A good many shareholders, however, were interested in the Cambray property, and the meeting decided not to ratify the purchase but to re-sell the land. This was a great shock to the Council and the Principal, who knew the need for having bigger and better premises, and the Council announced their intention of resigning.
A special General Meeting was called for September 30. At this meetingDr.Jex-Blake, the Principal of Cheltenham College, who was in the chair, pleaded most eloquently the cause of the Ladies’ College. I will quote part of his speech as showing something of the esteem in which the College was held at this date.
“Teachers so able and energetic and successful,” said he, “have a right to the greatest consideration and the very best arrangements for teaching. A Ladies’ College so distinguished, second to none in England, has a right to every advantage that can be secured for it: a right to be lodged in a building of its own: a building perfect in its internal arrangements, and outwardly of some architectural attractiveness: one that should be a College and should look like a College.”
At this meeting those who desired extension carried the day, and soon the erection of the new buildings was begun. On Lady Day, 1873, the College moved intothe new building. So quietly and unobtrusively was this done, that hardly a single half-hour of lessons was lost. Many extensions followed, including the addition of art and music wings, and kindergarten rooms. Those who were at the College in those days were familiar with the continual noise of building; in 1882 it ceased: “after this the sound of the hammer was not heard for nearly four years.” Dorothea Beale’s policy of building was a sound one: it was to plan for extensions long before they were necessary, but to build little by little as the premises were needed and money was ready for the purpose.
About this time many questions arose that had to be settled once and for all. One was whether the College was to be simply a local day school, or an institution for the furthering of women’s higher education generally: another was the government of the College and the defining of the Principal’s powers: a third was whether the boarding-houses should become an intrinsic part of the College. Around all these questions storms arose and the Principal began to feel that in leaving Cambray House she had left behind her peace and happiness.
The College was finally incorporated under the Companies’ Acts, and the government of it revised and radically altered. The Principal’s powers were more clearly defined, and the Council decided to take over full responsibility for the boarding-houses.
About this last decision she wrote to her friend, Miss Arnold, the headmistress of the Truro High School:—
“I think I told you that after many years, I have prevailed upon our Council to take the whole risk of the boarding-houses—the pecuniary risk is of course very great, and in case of war or sudden depression I don’t exactly see how we should meet it, but one must have risks and we find the moral risks of not taking pecuniary ones so great that we decided for the latter—and indeed we had to pay pretty considerable sums in law expensesand to get rid of unjust claims too. We could notprovethat these ladies had not lost money, if they said they had—and if they were bad managers they did perhaps lose—and an outcry was raised that we ruined poor ladies.”
Of her attitude towards a Principal’s position and powers, part of a letter from Miss Buss to Miss Ridley gives some idea.
“I had a long and grave talk with Miss Beale, who counsels fight, but not on any personal ground. She says: ‘Resign if there is interference with the mistress’s liberty of action. That is a public question and one of public interest.’ She was so good and loving: she was so tender: and she is so wise and calm. She told me some of her own worries and said that sometimes she quivered in every nerve at her own Council meetings.”
At the end of these various controversies it was realised that the College could not be a merely local institution, but had a great future before it, and was destined to play a very important part in the higher education of women from every part of the country.
I must not close this chapter without giving a brief account of the much-loved Cambray House, in which the Ladies’ College started. For a time after the College left it was a boys’ school, but in 1889, Miss Beale had the chance of re-purchasing it for £2,000 and using it as a boarding-house and overflow school for girls awaiting admission to the College. In 1895 it was enlarged, and in 1897 the Principal, by Deed of Gift, made it over to the College, though she still ran it on her own account. Not until 1906 was it actually reckoned part of the College. This is only one of the many instances of how Dorothea Beale spent or invested her own money for the growth and welfare of the College.