‘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 disciples indeed.
‘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 a[159] rock.” 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 rooms[160] of 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 the[161] kindergarten 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.’
Strange as it may appear, the building of a fit home for the College had not taken place without opposition. Miss Beale relates in her History that 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 building[162] 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. It is quite right to say, “Let well alone,” but that does not involve letting ill alone. 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 impossibility[163] of 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 were[164] required, 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.,[165] 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:—
‘You must not expect men of Mr. Lowe’s mark to work on the C.L.C. Council; and you must not expect to see all go as you would wish at the meeting. You will find no member of Council but myself anxious to increase the powers of the Lady Principal, and probably they will not be much increased. And if you secure the majority of Council being non-local, which will be hard to secure, you will not secure their attendance at meetings held out of London.
‘And to get a satisfactory List to propose to Shareholders will be hard, for the best-known men in England will not join; and those who will join will not command votes largely; and so I advise moderation. I did my best at this last Council meeting to prepare the way for a “bloodless revolution” or quiet transition ... and I have seen Mr. Verrall. He is very friendly to you and to the College, and is a man of very good judgment as well as energy, and you are safe in talking or writing to him. For myself I feel less and less inclined to advise strong measures; and I do not see my way to getting the College on as broad a basis as I think it should stand on.... I advise you to think well and long before you get into an inextricable difficulty; and I think you will find your best friend and best support in one who for fifteen years (or nearly) has given much time and thought to the College, Mr. Brancker.
‘At the last Council meeting you showed great wisdom in accepting the adverse Resolution with equanimity.’
[166]
Differences of this kind pointed to a change of administration. As early as 1865, in her address at Bristol, Miss Beale had pointed out the difficulties besetting a school organised on the lines of Cheltenham:—
‘The machinery of proprietary colleges is somewhat complicated, and it is liable to get out of order. Thus, for example, if the shareholders agitate when a measure does not at once commend itself to their judgment, they may interfere with the efficiency, and endanger the existence of the institution. Secondly, none must attempt to carry out reforms in education, unless they have faith enough in their own system to work on quietly for a time, in the face of popular opposition, and unless they have a capital to fall back upon.’
union for the general good—a single purpose in Principal, Council, shareholders alike—this alone could prevent all serious and hindering differences of opinion among them. It was for this union Miss Beale was specially striving now. Her paper to the Council went on thus:—
‘ ... I should like this and other matters fixed, not in reference to my personal wishes, but according to what the most experienced persons think best. I shall see the Heads of all the principal Girls’ Schools probably when I am in London, and probably also an Endowed Schools’ Committee, and I shall learn from Mrs. William Grey what has been done at the Board of the Girls’ Day School Company; perhaps this may modify my views. Meanwhile I enclose a few suggestions I sent to Mr. Verrall.... I feel very strongly with you that if the College is at all to go on doing good work, it must not be governed by local members, and that it is a matter of the greatest importance that we should have upon our Board men of experience and judgment in educational matters. I would not keep more than two or three members of the present Council. It should be made a rule that no person who derives pecuniary profit, either directly or indirectly, should be a member of it. The point on which I feel most strongly just now is that the Principal must be able to select her fellow-workers, to appoint and dismiss.’
[167]
There is also an interesting letter to Mr. Verrall on the subject of her authority:—
‘Of course, you are more likely than I am to know what is best in matters of government, still I think it may be well to express, as clearly as I can, what I feel in reference to the subject of my authority.
‘It does not seem to me as if things would be likely to go on long without revolutions in an institution governed by two irresponsible powers. The authority of an irresponsible Principal must of course be checked in some way, if not by constitutional means, then by a Russian system. It may be that the Czarina has been trying to carry out some good reforms, but if her plans differ from those of the Councillors, there is an end of them. Our present Councillors are now afraid of being in their turn made an end of by a shareholders’ meeting, but if the constitution, as I understood it, were carried, the shareholders would be powerless, and the Council might, for mere personal dislike, get rid of a Principal who opposed what was wrong. Of course, it will not do for a Committee to interfere with the Principal’s choice of teachers, and there will be anarchy unless she has the power of dismissal; but virtually there will always be a power of appeal to the Committee inasmuch as they would, if partisans of any official, dismiss the Principal to reinstate her.’
Many members of the College Council desired change and enlargement. One wrote: ‘I cannot think it right to leave Miss Beale or any other Lady Principal to the mercies of a purely local Council ... for I think with such a Council no good Lady Principal could long agree.’
Among those whom Miss Beale consulted at this crisis, and from whom she received sympathy, were Dr. Jex-Blake, then head-master of Rugby, and Sir Joshua Fitch, who later on became a member of the Council.
The desired reform was brought about in 1875, when at a general meeting in Mar............