‘The true meaning of the word education is not instruction.... It is intellectual, moral, and physical development, the development of a sound mind in a sound body, the training of reason to form just judgments, the disciplining of the will and affections to obey the supreme law of duty, the kindling and strengthening of the love of knowledge, of beauty, of goodness, till they become governing motives of action.’
‘The true meaning of the word education is not instruction.... It is intellectual, moral, and physical development, the development of a sound mind in a sound body, the training of reason to form just judgments, the disciplining of the will and affections to obey the supreme law of duty, the kindling and strengthening of the love of knowledge, of beauty, of goodness, till they become governing motives of action.’
Mrs. Grey’s conclusions were the same as those of the Commissioners, who complained that there was no demand for the education of girls, the cause of the indifference being that low idea which regards only the money value of education, and estimates it solely as a means of getting on. Girls were taught with a view to increasing their attractiveness before marriage, rather than with that of increasing their happiness and usefulness after. This was the general cause of dissatisfaction, but there were many details.
One and all complained that, with the exception of quite a few schools, the education of girls in the middle classes was much worse than that existing in the elementary schools of the day. This was of course specially the case in subjects like arithmetic, and arose greatly from the mistaken notion that they were of no use to girls. The Commissioners were unanimous in condemning the prevailing method of instruction by means of such books asMangnall’s Questionsand the like, termed by Mr. Bryce ‘the noxious brood of catechisms.’ Of this, be it said, Miss Mangnall’s famous work, which bears witness to its author’s well-stored mind, and which reached nearly a hundred editions, was the best. The ‘Questions’ demanded indeed the knowledge of such useless facts as the number of houses burned in the Great Fire of London; but there were in use, in the numerous small private schools of the period, cheaper and more stupid books, in which the information wasnot merely useless, but even defied common sense. A small catechism on ‘Science,’ entitled ‘Why and Because,’ concluded a long list of inept questions with: ‘Why do pensioners and aged cottagers put their teapots on the hob to draw?’ In some books, facts of varying nature—of history, geography, grammar, etc.—were all jumbled together. It is not surprising that girls instructed by the parrot-like, inconsequent methods of such lesson-books, passed from school with no love of reading.
The Commissioners complained further, that though French and music were held to be the most important subjects to which a girl should devote herself, they were nearly always very badly taught. They spoke of time wasted at the piano; they calculated the thousands of hours given to music which was not worth hearing at the last. They gave instances of ludicrous mistakes in French, which no effort of visiting masters could improve into anything like a real knowledge of the language, because rudimentary grammar had never been mastered. They spoke of drawing taught with an equal disregard of thoroughness, and with still more disastrous result. ‘The common practice of masters touching up their pupils’ performances for exhibition at home fosters a habit of dishonesty, and that too prevalent tendency running through the whole of female education, the tendency to care more for appearance than reality, to seem rather than to be.’[43]
Some spoke of the absence of healthy interests, of the need for games, a need which appealed but little to Miss Beale, in whose own youth play was marked by its absence only. Many urged the necessity for founding in every town public schools similar to boys’ grammarschools, where girls could obtain a sound education, without accomplishments, at a low cost.
These reports embody a number of facts concerning a state of things now happily passed away. Hundreds of small private schools might have read their doom in them, for the establishment of many public schools, endowed and otherwise, soon followed the inquiry. We see the poor sham education, with its wrong notions of the beautiful and the best, vanish without a regret. Yet, since all human effort has its worth and place, is it possible and fair to say one word above its grave? Was there no genuine wish to give pleasure pleading in the miserable pieces of the boarding-school young lady, and even in the painful drawings which the master’s touch failed to make tolerable? They testify at least to something out of the work-a-day sphere, to the desire for the ‘something afar,’ often the first step to a truer vision. Precious years of girlhood spent on the vain effort to attain accomplishments speak of some dim perception of the refinement and uplifting which men look for in women. Ill-devised, badly attempted, poorly carried out, the thought of giving delight was not only mercenary in aim; behind it was some consciousness of a real human need. The educators of women to-day should know better than to despise its pleading, however imperfectly expressed. ‘May I not haveoneornamental one?’ said a brother when a third sister was about to devote herself to obtaining certificates for mathematics.
Nine ladies, including Miss Emily Davies, Miss Buss, and Miss Beale, were asked to give evidence before the Commission. Miss Beale’s, which was taken in 1865, is of double interest, at once touching the state of girls’ education in general, and the advance being made in theLadies’ College, Cheltenham. She took with her a hundred entrance examination papers arranged in order for inspection. Actuated perhaps by the marvellous carefulness which lost nothing, and seeing a use even in what would often be considered waste papers, as well as by the definite aim of preserving a record of progress, she had kept all the answers written by her pupils to entrance examination questions. With the College papers, she showed also some written by children in one of the national schools at Cheltenham, in order that the Commissioners might make a comparison for themselves.
On being questioned, Miss Beale explained in detail the whole system of the College, interesting the Commissioners in the method of teaching Euclid, one which at some points antedated by many years the present teaching of geometry in the public schools, and which has lately been adopted by the universities. At a time when schoolboys were learning Euclid by heart, Miss Beale was teaching it to girls by a method of explanation which they had to follow and finally reproduce without any learning by rote.
With regard to the teaching of Holy Scripture she said, ‘Each class teacher takes her own class, and that, I think, very important’; but on this subject little was said.
On the question of discipline and moral difficulties she explained that the government of the College was chiefly by personal influence, and that her plan was to make use of very simple means, such as changing the seat of a child who was suspected of being dishonest in her work. ‘It is a small thing, but it indicates want of trust, and it is by small things we govern.’ Such discipline obviously appeared slight to Dr. Storrar, who asked on hearing it,‘Perhaps girls are more sensitive than boys in such matters?’ ‘I will not attempt to decide,’ replied Miss Beale, ‘but my opinion is that they are not.’
Asked her opinion on a system of examination, Miss Beale recommended a general Board for the examination of teachers, to be founded with national sanction, and an inspection of the schools under the management of those who had passed the examination. ‘There is one other point,’ she added: ‘the cause might be helped on by the establishment of a model school for the training of teachers; I hardly know how such would work.’
The evidence of the Commission, published in 1868, produced a great impression on Mrs. William Grey and her sister, Miss Shireff. Under their able leadership there was formed, in 1871, ‘The National Union for Improving the Education of Women,’ for the purpose of organising effort and helping to create a sounder public opinion with regard to education itself. The work of this society led two years later to the foundation of the Girls’ Public Day-School Company. By this agency, which was commercial as well as educational, High Schools were established in most of the important towns of England. There followed the numerous independent efforts and companies which have covered the country with a network of secondary schools for girls. In 1872, Miss Buss giving up her private property in her very successful school, by an act of self-sacrifice and generosity made it a public school by placing it in trust. A lower school was also established in Camden Town under the same management.
Miss Emily Davies also found her work aided by the Commission. She was largely instrumental in the opening of Local Examinations to girls. The foundation of the first women’s college at a university was laid by herwhen, in 1873, the college she had opened at Hitchin four years earlier was removed to Cambridge, where it became known as Girton. This step was perhaps even less of a venture, though more startling to the public mind, than the first beginning at Hitchin. Of this Miss Maria Hackett had written to Miss Beale:—
‘The proposed Foundation of a College for the Superior Education of Women is another most important measure in the same direction. I had much correspondence about twenty years ago, with your dear father, Mr. Mackenzie, and Mr. Storrs, on the subject, but I did not venture upon so extensive a scheme.’
‘The proposed Foundation of a College for the Superior Education of Women is another most important measure in the same direction. I had much correspondence about twenty years ago, with your dear father, Mr. Mackenzie, and Mr. Storrs, on the subject, but I did not venture upon so extensive a scheme.’
Public examinations for girls necessarily followed the work of the Commission, the opening of women’s colleges, and the establishment of public schools for girls. Head-mistresses were called upon to face all the difficulties and drawbacks of these, as well as to accept their advantages, and in some cases also to incur odium, as they worked with measures which they knew to be not in themselves the best, but only the best attainable. Miss Beale had her own vision of what a public examination for girls should be. She had said at Bristol in 1865 that parents
‘are afraid of popular outcry, afraid that their children should take a low place, forgetting that (if the examination be conducted without any of the improper excitement of publicity), it is also a test and means of moral training, since those who work from the right motives simply do their best and are not overanxious about results. I do not desire that there should be a system of competitive examinations, but a general testing of the work done, and if this cannot be responded to in a quiet, lady-like manner, it does not speak well for the moral training of the school.’
‘are afraid of popular outcry, afraid that their children should take a low place, forgetting that (if the examination be conducted without any of the improper excitement of publicity), it is also a test and means of moral training, since those who work from the right motives simply do their best and are not overanxious about results. I do not desire that there should be a system of competitive examinations, but a general testing of the work done, and if this cannot be responded to in a quiet, lady-like manner, it does not speak well for the moral training of the school.’
She had also said:—
‘I do not think the plan for admitting girls to the same examination with boys in the University local examinationsa wise one; the subjects seem to me in many respects unsuited for girls, and such an examination as the one proposed is likely to further a spirit of rivalry most undesirable. I should much regret that the desire of distinction should be made in any degree a prime motive, for we should ever remember that moral training is the end, education the means. The habits of obedience to duty, of self-restraint, which the process of acquiring knowledge induces, the humility which a thoughtful and comprehensive study of the great works in literature and science tends to produce, these we would specially cultivate in a woman, that she may wear the true woman’s ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. As for the pretentiousness and conceit which are associated with the name of “blue-stocking,” and which some people fancy to be the result of education, they are only an evidence of shallowness and vulgarity; we meet with the same thing in the dogmatic conceit of the so-called “self-educated man,” who has picked up learning, but has not had the benefit of a systematic training and a liberal education.’
‘I do not think the plan for admitting girls to the same examination with boys in the University local examinationsa wise one; the subjects seem to me in many respects unsuited for girls, and such an examination as the one proposed is likely to further a spirit of rivalry most undesirable. I should much regret that the desire of distinction should be made in any degree a prime motive, for we should ever remember that moral training is the end, education the means. The habits of obedience to duty, of self-restraint, which the process of acquiring knowledge induces, the humility which a thoughtful and comprehensive study of the great works in literature and science tends to produce, these we would specially cultivate in a woman, that she may wear the true woman’s ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. As for the pretentiousness and conceit which are associated with the name of “blue-stocking,” and which some people fancy to be the result of education, they are only an evidence of shallowness and vulgarity; we meet with the same thing in the dogmatic conceit of the so-called “self-educated man,” who has picked up learning, but has not had the benefit of a systematic training and a liberal education.’
The formal admission of girls to the Cambridge Local Examinations took place in 1865, though they had been informally accepted as candidates as early as 1863. Miss Beale did not accept the examination at Cheltenham, mainly because its arrangements did not fall in with those of the College year; but she closely observed its working, noted each set of questions and reports, recognising that with these examinations new impetus had been given to the progress of education. She wrote and spoke on the subject, holding it to be the duty of the teacher to seek to guide this movement, which must increasingly affect girls’ schools.
The following extract from one of her papers is chosen because of its bearing on the larger and still unanswered question of university degrees:—
‘Examiners must be prepared not to domineer but to learn that the art is yet in its infancy, and their knowledge of what girls can or ought to do is at present very slight. They must be ready to admit the possibility of a teacher knowing better than his judges. The latter are sometimes tempted to exclaim,Quis custodiat ipsos custodes?If the school curriculum and the examinations are so far out of harmony that a large amount of special preparation is required, either the curriculum is at fault or the examination an evil.... I know that some make a great point of having the actual University examinations opened, because a mere “women’s examination” is spoken of contemptuously. I believe that in trying to avoid this, we should encounter greater evils, and that the wish is connected with a misplaced reverence which many women entertain for the learning of a “pass man.”’
‘Examiners must be prepared not to domineer but to learn that the art is yet in its infancy, and their knowledge of what girls can or ought to do is at present very slight. They must be ready to admit the possibility of a teacher knowing better than his judges. The latter are sometimes tempted to exclaim,Quis custodiat ipsos custodes?If the school curriculum and the examinations are so far out of harmony that a large amount of special preparation is required, either the curriculum is at fault or the examination an evil.... I know that some make a great point of having the actual University examinations opened, because a mere “women’s examination” is spoken of contemptuously. I believe that in trying to avoid this, we should encounter greater evils, and that the wish is connected with a misplaced reverence which many women entertain for the learning of a “pass man.”’
After some years of consideration a decision was practically forced upon Miss Beale. She must choose for her clever girls either to pass a public examination which she thought more suited for men, or to fall behind in a path which was surely leading in the right direction. She did not hesitate, but saw that on this, as on many occasions, it must be her part to labour to remove obstructions, to overcome obstacles.
In her interview with the Commissioners, on being asked if she would approve of the establishment of a special examination for ladies up to the standard of attainment of the London matriculation, she had replied, ‘Certainly,’ but advocated that it should be made possible for women to take German instead of Greek. This examination, she agreed, might be taken as a measure, though the measure might not be filled with the same subjects as for men. She was soon called upon to act in this matter, for in 1869 it was opened to women, and the University of Cambridge also instituted an examination for women over eighteen years of age.
Miss Beale accepted both for the College, but for some years there was no regular organisation of work for those who were taking the Cambridge examination. This was partly due to the higher limit of age. It wasthen thought extraordinary that girls should stay at school after they were eighteen. It was difficult to persuade many to do so. Some were ‘wanted at home,’ some wished to ‘come out’; those who were intending to be teachers thought they should be already earning. Then the absorbing work for the London examination made it difficult to arrange for much of a wholly different character. Consequently, at first, the older pupils and the young teachers who sought to pass the Cambridge examination had to look after themselves a good deal. Miss Beale would certainly not consider this a drawback. They had the additional advantage of lectures from herself on literature and history.
The ‘London’ must have seemed better worth while for many reasons. It might prove a first step to a definite degree. The degree examinations were not opened till ten years later, and might not have followed at all had zeal and courage not been shown by women over the matriculation. Again, the matriculation certificate enabled men to offer themselves as candidates for further examination with a view to certain careers, such as the medical profession. This would hold good for women. For it had the real advantage of being a recognised standard, while a certificate for an examination arranged specially for women would be like ‘foreign coin.’
One cannot too much admire the qualities which bore teacher and pupils up that steep initial step of the London examination; for steep it was. At that time it demanded a certain knowledge of subjects which were generally regarded as the prerogative of men. Hardly any of the girls who hoped to pass in them had, when they began their special preparation six terms before the examination, learned any Latin, chemistry, geometry, algebra, or natural philosophy—this last being a term whichembraced some acquaintance with optics, statics, dynamics, and hydrostatics. Little more than the rudiments of these new subjects had to be mastered, for the examination at that time required ‘a collection of minima, a smattering of everything, enforced with Procrustean rigour on Philistine lines.’ Primarily designed for boys with a grammar-school education, the Latin paper included some knowledge of Horace. It is scarcely necessary to say that disappointment as well as hope was woven into the strand of these brave beginnings. Many failed. Some who were not really equal to the work were persuaded to enter. Some who passed, complained that they could not retain knowledge which had been acquired too rapidly and not assimilated. Not avowedly, not ever consciously to herself—her sense of responsibility for the individual was too great for that, and she reckoned the training of value even if there were no success at the end—but in actual fact, the failures were accepted by Dorothea Beale as a necessary complement of victory to be.
‘Let the victors when they come,When the forts of folly fall,Find thy body by the wall!’
‘Let the victors when they come,When the forts of folly fall,Find thy body by the wall!’
‘Let the victors when they come,When the forts of folly fall,Find thy body by the wall!’
‘Let the victors when they come,
When the forts of folly fall,
Find thy body by the wall!’
All the weakness of the position was known to her. And she showed not only courage and daring, but patience and humility still harder to practise. On one occasion, after a specially difficult Latin paper, which had proved too much for many examinees, she wrote to another head-mistress whose disappointment was as keen as her own:—
‘The more I reflect, the more I think any protest unadvisable. No doubt some have passed (even in Class I.) in former years, who were worse in Latin than one at least who has failed this time. But then there are many things that may be urged.Perhaps the good have not done themselves justice, and the bad more than justice. Besides, I cannot myself, even in looking over one set of papers, unless I correct all at a sitting, mark them fairly even to my own mind; how much more difficult it must be when the examiners change, and the papers come in after a year’s interval. We, by submitting ourselves to examination, pledge ourselves in some sort to be content. It will never do, in my opinion, to impugn the justice of a University, and I really think they will do justice. Any expression of discontent would tend to throw back the granting of degrees. I believe the unification is more likely to take place soon, if we are patient. Remember, too, the decision has not been that of one individual examiner, but has been in some sort confirmed by the Senate.‘My impression is that the papers will be very carefully set next year, and that we must bear our disappointment this year as well as we can. I am very sorry you feel it so much. Your candidates have done so well in other subjects, that if they should try again next year, you might be certain of a large measure of success, andthena protest, or any remarks from us would tell so much more. I certainly do not mean to send in a large number, but I am pledged to a few, and to those who failed, if they like to go in again.’
‘The more I reflect, the more I think any protest unadvisable. No doubt some have passed (even in Class I.) in former years, who were worse in Latin than one at least who has failed this time. But then there are many things that may be urged.Perhaps the good have not done themselves justice, and the bad more than justice. Besides, I cannot myself, even in looking over one set of papers, unless I correct all at a sitting, mark them fairly even to my own mind; how much more difficult it must be when the examiners change, and the papers come in after a year’s interval. We, by submitting ourselves to examination, pledge ourselves in some sort to be content. It will never do, in my opinion, to impugn the justice of a University, and I really think they will do justice. Any expression of discontent would tend to throw back the granting of degrees. I believe the unification is more likely to take place soon, if we are patient. Remember, too, the decision has not been that of one individual examiner, but has been in some sort confirmed by the Senate.
‘My impression is that the papers will be very carefully set next year, and that we must bear our disappointment this year as well as we can. I am very sorry you feel it so much. Your candidates have done so well in other subjects, that if they should try again next year, you might be certain of a large measure of success, andthena protest, or any remarks from us would tell so much more. I certainly do not mean to send in a large number, but I am pledged to a few, and to those who failed, if they like to go in again.’
This conclusion showed special insight, willingness to bear, and readiness to learn; for the Latin paper was a far more real test of knowledge than any of the others. To have complained of it might have been to acknowledge inferiority which did not seek improvement. And looking back, it may be seen that the failures and mistakes were not of much moment. The real importance and the real triumph lay with the aim and effort. Miss Beale early foresaw what has been literally fulfilled.
‘It is clear,’ she said, ‘that it will before long be impossible in England, as it is now on the Continent, for any one to obtain employment as a teacher without some such attestation,’i.e.as a certificate. If she could help it, Miss Beale would not let girls who were intending to teach, pass from her without one; she persuaded the pupil,she reasoned with the parent, she frequently mastered both; she silently bore contradiction and misconception. She refused to be thwarted by any obstacle, much as she might wish to change it—such as the time of year at which it was held, the difficulty of sending candidates to London, or by any hesitation on her own part. She might write to a newspaper, ‘it is to some extent an open question what education is most suitable for girls,’ but she inspired her class to prepare for ‘the London’ with zealous drudgery and in the power of self-denial, as the best they could do to fit themselves for work.
Yet the College list of successes was from the first good. In 1869, the first year of examination, eight in all England went in for the matriculation examination, and six failed. The only candidate from Cheltenham passed. This was Miss Susan Wood. In the next year, of the three who passed from Cheltenham one was the famous Greek scholar, Miss Jane Harrison, another bore the name—so dear to its generation—of Marian Belcher.
There was plenty of criticism. There were many to repeat the old complaint that women were being unfitted for their proper duties. It was Miss Beale’s delight to show that those who did well in examinations could also excel in domestic duties. She would tell how one successful candidate of the London examination proved first a helpful sister, then a devoted wife and mother. She would show with pride a letter she received from one of whose ability and success she had great reason to be proud, signed ‘Yours in flour and dripping.’
It may be mentioned here that there is a home distinction connected with the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham. In 1868 it was resolved at an annual general meeting that pupils who reached a certain specified standard in the College examinations, and whose general conductwas approved, should be entitled to receive certificates. The first certificates under this resolution were awarded in 1869 to four pupils. In 1875 it was resolved at a Council meeting that those who obtained the College certificate should be entitled Associates of the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham. These associates are, with the consent of the Lady Principal, allowed to attend any ordinary classes of the College without the payment of fees.
Following hard upon the introduction of public examinations for girls came the cry of overwork. There was some reason in it; but it was much, very much due to timidity and want of knowledge, as well as to exaggeration. It is not necessary to repeat here the evidence which Miss Beale began to collect even before she was a teacher herself, and to which she was ever adding, to the effect that idleness andennuihave more and sadder victims than even misdirected energy and overwork. A healthy prejudice against an empty, self-centred life is steadily growing. The movement which its followers have named Christian Science—also that which is preferably called Faith Healing—daily bring to light instances of self-destruction caused by the slothful mind and unruled will. None the less, the cry of overwork was not an empty one. When first girls began to work for examinations, it was not known how much or how little they could do. Miss Beale’s own opinions upon this, as put before the Commission, were quite tentative. Clever teachers did not always allow for slower-moving brains than their own. Nor was the difference of temperament sufficiently observed and considered. The eager and artistic mind would feel strain and fatigue where one less delicately balanced might toil unwearied. It was not recognised how willing girls are to be pressed, how eager they areto please, how unreasonable they often are in their own arrangements for work, or how easy it is for them to fall into the insincerity of making protracted hours of reading take the place of concentrated mental effort. Head-mistresses and others who had mastered difficulties alone, and who still carefully prepared every lesson they gave, in spite of the pressure of daily affairs, had to learn to reckon with these drawbacks. Examinations when first introduced must from their very novelty have been a great anxiety to both teachers and pupils. The best way of working for them and of resting before them had to be discovered by experience. The pressure was less obvious with those actually first in the field, as they would naturally be all of good ability. The danger began when girls of smaller brain-power and equal ambition, but ignorant of their limitations, dared to follow.
Complaints of overwork came often from homes where there was little cultivation or regard for the things of the mind. Girls who could produce, in what they called their ‘notes of lectures,’ statements concerning ‘heroic cutlets’[44]and ‘Lincoln’s hotel’[45]had not, it may be well understood, much intellectual background. Yet the wholly unfounded complaints of the parents of such pupils would receive public attention that was little deserved. There were others, whose parents would have had them play a pretty part in home life in the afternoon and evening, but who naturally did not find enough time for lessons unless they sat up late or slurred them over. As it was never Miss Beale’s intention that day-pupils should consider themselves to be anything but ‘in the schoolroom,’ the home work was not arranged to allow time for more than the necessary walk or recreation.
The question of overwork is one that still agitatesthe scholastic world. The real difficulty, at Cheltenham as elsewhere, is not with the schoolgirl whose life is under supervision, but with the young teachers and the elder pupils who have the management of their own time and health, and have not yet learned their own limitations, or acquired a due measure of self-control.
During the early period of the history of the College, Miss Beale came in contact with minds and ideas outside her own school, chiefly by means of the Schools’ Inquiry Commission, and the matter of public examinations. Those who wished had the opportunity of learning her views through her magazine articles and the pamphlets which she began at this time to publish. The most notable of these was ‘The Address to Parents.’ Much of this valuable little paper—one which in her early years as head-mistress made Miss Beale’s ideas widely known among those who cared for real education—had been anticipated in her address to the Social Science Congress in 1865. Then she pleaded the cause of day-schools, urging for them that they offered a training which did not separate children from the influence of home.
‘Of course when children are educated at home, and an anxious mother daily sees and suffers from her children’s faults of temper and disposition, she will be tempted to think that she had better give up the training into other hands, and send them away. Doubtless this is sometimes wise, often unavoidable; but how frequently without necessity is the burden of parental responsibility temporarily cast aside, only to press with tenfold weight in later years. How many parents have learned bitterly to regret that they removed a daughter from the divinely appointed influences of home, and severed by long separation those bonds of affection which might have checked the young in the hour of temptation, and been the support and comfort of their own declining years.’
‘Of course when children are educated at home, and an anxious mother daily sees and suffers from her children’s faults of temper and disposition, she will be tempted to think that she had better give up the training into other hands, and send them away. Doubtless this is sometimes wise, often unavoidable; but how frequently without necessity is the burden of parental responsibility temporarily cast aside, only to press with tenfold weight in later years. How many parents have learned bitterly to regret that they removed a daughter from the divinely appointed influences of home, and severed by long separation those bonds of affection which might have checked the young in the hour of temptation, and been the support and comfort of their own declining years.’
In 1869, in another address to the same Society, Miss Beale unfolded for the first time her ideas of the helpwhich should be given to girls who were in need of education they could not afford, more especially to those who wished to prepare for a life of teaching. ‘I propose,’ she said, ‘the foundation of a new Benevolent Society, which shall be distinguished from other societies by its rigid adherence to the principle of giving nothing away.’ Instead of gifts, she suggested yearly loans of money, for the use of which an exact account and report of work done should be rendered. This Society has never been founded, but the work Dorothea Beale wished it should do was carried on by herself, quietly and thriftily, but with ever-widening operations, to the day of her death.
At one other point did Miss Beale at this period touch opinion outside her own sphere. This was by writing for the Kensington Society,—a little semi-educational association which during its short life included many names of women who were in their day leaders in philanthropic work and thought. The topics on which its members wrote or deliberated were such as these:—
17 Cunningham Place, London, N.W.,November 15, 1865.The Kensington Society.1. What are the limitations within which it is desirable to exercise personal influence?2. What are the evils attendant upon philanthropic efforts among the poor, and how may they be avoided?3. How does the cultivation of artistic taste affect the wellbeing of society?
17 Cunningham Place, London, N.W.,November 15, 1865.
The Kensington Society.
1. What are the limitations within which it is desirable to exercise personal influence?
2. What are the evils attendant upon philanthropic efforts among the poor, and how may they be avoided?
3. How does the cultivation of artistic taste affect the wellbeing of society?
Meanwhile the general work of the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham, was going on quietly and steadily, developing in every best way. The valuable time of the Principal was no longer taken up with the superintendenceof lessons and chaperoning music pupils. A larger and gradually improving staff enabled her to arrange her own work so that it might be of the greatest service to the College. But her increasing interest in education at large, her ever-growing sense of having a special place in a large movement, were never allowed to distract her mind from the work of the hour. Rather, she used them as an inspiration for daily drudgery.
The preparation of lessons, the minute and careful correction of notes of lectures,—monotonous work which demands a continuous strain of attention, went on week by week. By means of this quiet, diligent toil she and her fellow-workers were building the real College, of which the fine structure whose first edition was opened in 1873 is but a sign and a symbol.
‘Shepherds of the people had need know the Calendar of Tempests in the State; which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality, as natural tempests about the equinoctia.’—Bacon.
‘Shepherds of the people had need know the Calendar of Tempests in the State; which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality, as natural tempests about the equinoctia.’—Bacon.
‘With no feeling of exultation should we meet to-day, my children. Those of us who have long laboured at the work are indeed grateful that we have been permitted to see its accomplishment, but we are also deeply sensible that every increase of influence means an increase of responsibility;—that he who had five talents was required to bring other five. With larger numbers there is a stronger sense that we are a collective power for good or evil. And shall we doubt which is stronger? We dare not be so faithless. There is such a mighty prevailing power in the spirit of earnest devotion, that when only two or three are gathered together in His Name, for work as well as for prayer, His power is felt. What a power might we be for good if we were His disciplesindeed.‘Some say our school is Church-like. I am glad, for Churches are built to remind us that God is not far away, but very near to us, and this is the thought which should keep us from evil and fill us with gladness. May His Presence be seen in this house, seen in the lives and hearts of His children: May they remember that they, too, form one spiritual building. As each stone stands here in its appointed place, resting on one stone, supporting others; so are we a little community, a spiritual building; each is placed in her own niche, each has her appointed place, appointed by the Spiritual Architect; each is needful for the perfection of His design.‘May we ever form part of that spiritual building, whose foundations are laid in faith and obedience. “Whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, he is like a man who laid the foundation and digged deep, and built his house upon arock.” St. John wished for one of his converts that he might “prosper even as his soul prospered.” Let us desire only such prosperity. Let us ask for true wisdom, for lowliness of heart, that we may esteem others better than ourselves. Let us ask, above all, for that most excellent gift of charity, without which all else is as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. Something of this spirit of love for one another does live among us, as we see by those who have come to join their prayers with ours to-day. I would ask them not to forget us afterwards, but to remember us when they return to their homes; and I would fain hope that this bond will last through coming years, and that the College, though transplanted to a new place, will always be to you “the old College.”’
‘With no feeling of exultation should we meet to-day, my children. Those of us who have long laboured at the work are indeed grateful that we have been permitted to see its accomplishment, but we are also deeply sensible that every increase of influence means an increase of responsibility;—that he who had five talents was required to bring other five. With larger numbers there is a stronger sense that we are a collective power for good or evil. And shall we doubt which is stronger? We dare not be so faithless. There is such a mighty prevailing power in the spirit of earnest devotion, that when only two or three are gathered together in His Name, for work as well as for prayer, His power is felt. What a power might we be for good if we were His disciplesindeed.
‘Some say our school is Church-like. I am glad, for Churches are built to remind us that God is not far away, but very near to us, and this is the thought which should keep us from evil and fill us with gladness. May His Presence be seen in this house, seen in the lives and hearts of His children: May they remember that they, too, form one spiritual building. As each stone stands here in its appointed place, resting on one stone, supporting others; so are we a little community, a spiritual building; each is placed in her own niche, each has her appointed place, appointed by the Spiritual Architect; each is needful for the perfection of His design.
‘May we ever form part of that spiritual building, whose foundations are laid in faith and obedience. “Whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, he is like a man who laid the foundation and digged deep, and built his house upon arock.” St. John wished for one of his converts that he might “prosper even as his soul prospered.” Let us desire only such prosperity. Let us ask for true wisdom, for lowliness of heart, that we may esteem others better than ourselves. Let us ask, above all, for that most excellent gift of charity, without which all else is as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. Something of this spirit of love for one another does live among us, as we see by those who have come to join their prayers with ours to-day. I would ask them not to forget us afterwards, but to remember us when they return to their homes; and I would fain hope that this bond will last through coming years, and that the College, though transplanted to a new place, will always be to you “the old College.”’
In these words the Lady Principal addressed her staff, pupils, and a small sprinkling of friends on the first morning of assembling in the new building which, begun in January of previous year, was thus opened on March 17, 1873. As the school hours ended on Saturday the 15th, a simple order had been given to take home all the books, and to bring them to the new College at the usual time on Monday. In the course of the afternoon all desks and portable fittings were moved and arranged in order for work. The appointment of places in the new hall was, so far as can be remembered, a matter of a few minutes only, so quiet and free from fuss was all College organisation. There was certainly not half an hour of the ordinary lesson time lost. Yet it was a change which made an undying impression. The quietness with which it came was wholly in accordance with the spirit of the school. The regular work, undisturbed even for an hour by the totally new surroundings, spoke emphatically of the response of duty to every fresh inspiration and larger freedom.
And how beautiful those new surroundings seemed to the hundred and fifty girls who were privileged to experience the change from the square, unadorned roomsof Cambray House. Two churches at that time, one with its high, fine spire, another with its lavish decoration, were all that the town could show of the Gothic Renaissance which followed the teachings of Ruskin and Morris. The Ladies’ College was early among non-ecclesiastical buildings of this type. To some it may have seemed florid, but not to the eyes of youth and hope, which took delight in the pierced and patterned stone, the flowers in the coloured glass, the arch of the windows, the unusual design of the lecture-rooms. These caused teachers and pupils to ignore for the most part the undoubted chilliness of the new rooms, and the ‘currents of air,’ about which some parents wrote complaining letters, for at that time people were even more afraid of draughts than they are to-day. It is worth mentioning, as characteristic of Miss Beale’s mind, that she forgot very soon the exact date of entrance into the new College; though when reminded of it each year by her own birthday, or by the approach of spring and Lady Day, she would on some suitable March morning say a few words at prayers: ‘It is —— years to-day since we entered,’ etc.
In 1873 the building was but begun. It is a question if Miss Beale herself dreamed of all that was to follow. There was as yet no house for the Lady Principal, and for a year, while it was being built, she lived with Mrs. Fraser, who had one of the three boarding-houses then existing. The house completed in 1874, there followed in 1875 the first enlargement of the College, the two hundred and twenty pupils for whom it was first designed having rapidly become three hundred. At this time a second large hall and more classrooms were added. In seven years the College had doubled its numbers; hence in 1882 were built the art and music wings and thekindergarten rooms, to be followed almost immediately by science rooms and laboratories. After this the sound of the hammer was not heard for nearly four years; but it is one which has a resounding echo in the memories of College life. There were a few peaceful half-hours when it was stopped for Scripture lessons, at all other times it was but a too persistent reminder of prosperity and growth. A memory also abides of crowded doorways and passages, overfull lecture-rooms, and a continual looking forward to the increased accommodation which each new enlargement would give.
This constant expansion as funds permitted was entirely after Miss Beale’s heart. In 1891 she wrote to Miss Arnold:—
‘Yes, I do hope you will build, a good building is the best investment for money, if you have it. Let it be done gradually, as ours was. Plan for more than you can do at first, and build only what you can afford at the time. Don’t beg: it is much better to earn one’s living.’
‘Yes, I do hope you will build, a good building is the best investment for money, if you have it. Let it be done gradually, as ours was. Plan for more than you can do at first, and build only what you can afford at the time. Don’t beg: it is much better to earn one’s living.’
Strange as it may appear, the building of a fit home for the College had not taken place without opposition. Miss Beale relates in herHistorythat after the site for it had been purchased, the annual general meeting of proprietors in 1871 voted by a majority interested in the Cambray property that it should be re-sold. Dr. Jex-Blake, the Principal of the Cheltenham College, and a member of the Ladies’ College Council, came to the rescue, and in a special meeting of the same year spoke earnestly in support of the plan for building. ‘Teachers so able and energetic and successful 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 buildingof 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. It is quite right to say, “Let well alone,” but that does not involve lettingillalone. The College has achieved brilliant success, but that was not due to its having been cramped for room; and when no longer cramped, its success will be greater.’ The resolution of the earlier meeting was rescinded by fifty-nine votes to nine, and two months later a contract was accepted for building from Mr. John Middleton’s design. The site, for which £800 was given, was a part of the old Well Walk where, between their glasses, George the Third and other famous water-drinkers had once taken their daily constitutional.
In the matter of the building, Miss Beale had a struggle to get her bold and comprehensive ideas carried out, but eventually she won the day. It was hard for her, at the very moment when she seemed about to realise her dreams for the expansion of the work of the College, to receive orders which she felt to be new limitations. She had constantly to explain her reasons and requirements to those who had a deep interest in the welfare of the school, but who had not also the knowledge needed for arrangements which Miss Beale felt and intended should be in the hands of the Principal alone. The following letter which she wrote to a member of the Council suggests some of her difficulties, and also her method of skilfully and apparently accidentally stating the inconvenience or disaster which would ensue if another arrangement than her own were adopted:—
‘I have drawn up a ground-plan and tables, by the help of which I hope I may succeed in making clear to you the impossibilityof conducting the College without the use of four class-rooms. I have never in the slightest degree departed from my original intention. Time-tables, classes, teachers, furniture, and building were all arranged to harmonise. It never occurred to me that any one would wish to interfere in the internal management, as it had never been done during the fifteen years I have been here. Great, therefore, was my surprise to receive a letter saying,—“I have had strict injunctions not to have desks put back into room 2.” If it is thought well to reduce the number of pupils, it can be done after Midsummer but not now, and to give up two class-rooms we must reduce our numbers not by twenty, but by fifty,i.e.by two whole classes. Our Hall is only ten feet longer than that in Cambray, and we then had the use of four class-rooms and one supplementary room, besides that assigned to Drawing and Callisthenics. With fifty additional pupils we cannot do with less, even though the class-rooms are larger. It is not impossible to teach a class sitting on chairs, I should not, therefore, insist on having desks, but they will certainly be much more convenient, and much more sightly; chairs will always look untidy. The desks I have match the furniture, the room was built to fit them, for examinations. I am therefore unwilling to have them sold for nothing. It is certainly necessary for the well-being of the College that the internal arrangements should be in the hands of one person; if this is not done, I can only foresee the occurrence of such disasters as we are familiar with, when the Head Master of a public school is interfered with by those who cannot see the daily working, and know all the complications.’
‘I have drawn up a ground-plan and tables, by the help of which I hope I may succeed in making clear to you the impossibilityof conducting the College without the use of four class-rooms. I have never in the slightest degree departed from my original intention. Time-tables, classes, teachers, furniture, and building were all arranged to harmonise. It never occurred to me that any one would wish to interfere in the internal management, as it had never been done during the fifteen years I have been here. Great, therefore, was my surprise to receive a letter saying,—“I have had strict injunctions not to have desks put back into room 2.” If it is thought well to reduce the number of pupils, it can be done after Midsummer but not now, and to give up two class-rooms we must reduce our numbers not by twenty, but by fifty,i.e.by two whole classes. Our Hall is only ten feet longer than that in Cambray, and we then had the use of four class-rooms and one supplementary room, besides that assigned to Drawing and Callisthenics. With fifty additional pupils we cannot do with less, even though the class-rooms are larger. It is not impossible to teach a class sitting on chairs, I should not, therefore, insist on having desks, but they will certainly be much more convenient, and much more sightly; chairs will always look untidy. The desks I have match the furniture, the room was built to fit them, for examinations. I am therefore unwilling to have them sold for nothing. It is certainly necessary for the well-being of the College that the internal arrangements should be in the hands of one person; if this is not done, I can only foresee the occurrence of such disasters as we are familiar with, when the Head Master of a public school is interfered with by those who cannot see the daily working, and know all the complications.’
The new building was not the only cause of difference. The Lady Principal, with her advanced ideas on women’s examinations, her desire to help teachers, to increase the number of the pupils, seemed to some members of the Council to be pushing the work into other fields than those for which it was intended when first the Proprietary College for Ladies was founded. ‘Local interest,’ a term not ominous of good in the ears of great educators, demanded a good day-school for the daughters of gentlemen, and nothing more. Some felt that, in the pursuit of mathematical and scientific attainments for which special teachers and classrooms wererequired, accomplishments such as drawing and painting would be neglected. Some, who had watched the growth of the infant College, and looked upon it almost as their own, interfered in small ways, as in the arrangements of seats and rooms. The gossip mentioned already was at its height during the first year in the new College, and Miss Beale thought that it might have been prevented or much minimised had all connected followed her counsel of perfection by being superior to town talk.
More than all she felt the need of a larger outlook. The Council should in her view include some members whose personal acquaintance with the College and the needs of the town would give them a special interest in it; but she desired to unite with these men and women of intellectual power and large views whose experience would rank them among educationists. And for the management of the boarding-houses, which were now becoming each year a more important element in the College life, opinion which could be untouched by local prejudices was needed.
Some of the anxieties of this time were expressed by Miss Beale in a paper which she may have thought of reading to the Council. It began thus:—
‘Until we moved into the new College a year ago, I had been singularly free from interference. The lesson learned when Miss Procter resigned and our College was nearly wrecked, had not been forgotten. Besides, we were poor, so there was little to quarrel about. With the removal to Bays Hill our real difficulties began. I had drawn the ground-plan with the greatest regard to economy of space. I was told the porch must not be used for entrance, and I was obliged to show we could not do without it.... Then I was asked to do with two instead of four or five lecture-rooms, and so on. I was obliged to prepare elaborate documents with ground-plans, etc.,ere I could get leave to use the space provided, and without which the College could not be carried on.’
‘Until we moved into the new College a year ago, I had been singularly free from interference. The lesson learned when Miss Procter resigned and our College was nearly wrecked, had not been forgotten. Besides, we were poor, so there was little to quarrel about. With the removal to Bays Hill our real difficulties began. I had drawn the ground-plan with the greatest regard to economy of space. I was told the porch must not be used for entrance, and I was obliged to show we could not do without it.... Then I was asked to do with two instead of four or five lecture-rooms, and so on. I was obliged to prepare elaborate documents with ground-plans, etc.,ere I could get leave to use the space provided, and without which the College could not be carried on.’
There were perhaps others who cared for the College, who realised no less strongly than Miss Beale the advantage it would be to bring on to the Council those who were less interested in it as a local institution than as one of educational value for the country at large, but it was she who undoubtedly took the lead in the steps made to this end. In this she showed courage, for even those members of the Council who best understood her views hesitated to support them, fearing an abrupt change which would do more harm than good. They wrote to caution her:—