‘thy kindred with the great of old.’
tennyson, in memoriam, lxxiv.
those who had often the advantage of hearing miss beale speak, either in general addresses to present or past pupils, or in the more regular course of literature lessons, soon learned that there were certain heroic names which had for her an almost romantic fascination. among those of great women who influenced her imagination are specially to be remembered st. hilda, st. catherine of siena, la mère angélique, mme. guyon. of these the most dominant, the most inspiring was that of the great northumbrian abbess, known to those whom she taught and ruled by the name of ‘mother,’ not by virtue of her office, but on account of her signal piety and grace.[60] hilda, the earnest student who ‘had been diligently instructed by learned men, who so loved order that she immediately began to reduce all things to a regular system.’ hilda, the patron of the first english religious poet, ‘who obliged those under her to attend much to the reading of the holy scriptures; who taught the strict observance of justice and other virtues, particularly of peace and charity.’[61] this great[227] hilda and her work were to dorothea beale not merely romantic names, they were an ideal, an inspiration. and when the due time came, though for the sake of miss newman she hesitated for a moment over the alternative title of st. margaret’s hall, the name of st. hilda was the one she chose to grace her own foundations. there are, possibly, members of the ladies’ college who felt a pang of envy when the students’ house became st. hilda’s college. they could have borne to exchange the prim early victorian title bestowed by the godfathers of 1856 for this more inspiring name. there is, however, consolation in the thought that the ladies’ college is still free to adopt the name of its second founder.
st. hilda’s hall, as it was at first called, was formally opened on november 27, 1886; but its real building was a much longer process, even if dated only from miss margaret newman’s death at the close of 1877. miss beale thought much and anxiously how she could best lay out the money which she and her staff and some friends had given in order that miss newman’s work might be carried on and enlarged. she advised with a few who cared for education and for the college. among those who helped and counselled were miss soames, who subscribed largely to st. hilda’s, and mr. brancker, some of whose letters on the subject remain. if there seems now to be little that is original in the suggestions and plans discussed by miss beale and mr. brancker, it is because they were to a great extent pioneers, and among the first to bring about a real system for attaining the educational objects they had at heart. in 1878 mr. brancker wrote:—
‘the object you advocate is a very desirable one, and one i have longed for many a time as an adjunct of the ladies’[228] college—but while we were struggling upwards i could never see an opportune time to advocate my ideas on the subject. the means you suggest are very undesirable, to my mind at least, as partaking too much of the “charitable object” idea to commend themselves to me.
‘so necessary do i consider the future training of those who in their turns have to teach that for the present i should be inclined to treat every case on its own merits; as there may be many who may be anxious to get their education on such easy terms and yet have not the very least idea of imparting that knowledge to others, and in such cases the object you seek is not attained.
‘my idea, which is perhaps a crude one, would be that the capabilities of each pupil as regards teaching should be tested, and if she showed suitable powers she should be drafted into one of the boarding-houses, or if thought better into a separate house; that the fees of the college in her case be remitted, and that the expense of her board be paid all or in part by the college. that for this she should engage to become a regular teacher; that the college should have the first claim on her services, and that she should pass all the necessary examinations appointed by the college. if in a boarding-house she might assist in keeping order and authority, not as a governess but as an elder pupil,—not as a spy but by moral power, keep her position, something like a pr?postor in a public school; a great deal of evil might then be prevented by being nipped in the bud. should she eventually wish to take a college degree she should be assisted by the college if she remained with them or under their control. my great object would be to get ladies to accept such a position, as there must be many who would come within the rules of the college as to position who would be very glad to have such a vocation in prospect, and the college ought to be in a position now, unless the funds have been unnecessarily squandered, to afford to assist such cases in the hope that in the future they would help it.
‘such are my rough ideas on the subject, as i do not believe in the isolation of those who want a practical knowledge of human nature to enable them to become teachers worth their salt.’
in a second letter on the same subject mr. brancker said:—
‘i quite understand what you feel about this matter relating to the governess of the future, and it was only my fear that[229] you might be unwittingly getting into troubled waters that induced me to write you at once about it. it is a very difficult question to solve, and one that wants a good deal more thought so that no mistake may be made. my plan is to take up the idea of a “pupil teacher” in government schools, and from that form some plan for the education of those who aspire to be the teachers of the future. i should then carry out the idea i have always entertained of giving a preference to our own pupils, and working them up to our standard. i have always regretted that we missed bessie calrow, as she was a born teacher and would have delighted in the work. it seems to me that as you do not take these pupils until they are seventeen, you have a great chance among your own pupils, and would certainly know their own character better than any stranger; therefore, to any one who had passed through the college—could pass the necessary examination, and was willing to be such pupil teacher—i would pay the college fees and half the boarding-house expenses, or all if you like, and would give her a fair trial, and if at the end of twelve months, or longer as might be thought desirable, it was not satisfactory to all parties, let her depart and no harm would be done. this is a far better and more dignified position than being educated by charity; and the person enjoying it would lose nothing of her dignity, if it was not even added to by the position. if the plan is to do any good it must be grafted on to the college, and i for one should be very sorry to see that obliged to go to the public for any funds it requires to do good. i would make the pupils sign nothing on my plan, my hold upon them would be their association with the college. i can quite understand the difficulties raised by the boarding-houses about new pupils at that age, but with old ones that difficulty is at once removed; as, like the pr?postors, they would have certain privileges, but at the same time they must submit to the discipline of the house. my plan may be, and no doubt is very crude, but these are the lines i should start from and feel my way tentatively, so as not to destroy the independence of the individual. look where you get the best masters of public schools:—the man who succeeds is a scholar and very likely fellow of his college; he may have been bible-clerk, sizar, or undergraduate, and so has worked his way upwards and obtained his position from hard work, thus adding to his dignity and power of teaching. and i should follow as much as possible in these tracks.’
eventually the ideas expressed in these letters were[230] carried out in the arrangement of st. hilda’s, which became not only a home for pupils who could not afford the normal boarding fees, but also a residence for senior students who needed more liberty than they could have in the other houses. by this means the house was put on a self-supporting basis. miss beale could have borne with no other. the loan fund, up to this time, had been the means of assisting over a hundred students. miss beale now asked a few personal friends to support it, pointing out that such a means of help was far better than any system of scholarships, which she never ceased to dislike, and against which she continually spoke and wrote. her chief objections to scholarships have been already noted.[62] she was moreover opposed to the principle of material giving involved in the system. she only cared, at any time, to give what would embrace and ennoble character. she thought it best that people should pay for advantages received, thought they would value them more, thought it made girls more careful and self-denying when first the management of money came into their own hands, to feel that it was not their own to do as they pleased with. a mere gift seemed to her like a dead thing compared with the money which, lent and returned and then lent to others, was thus used over and over again. yet the want of response to appeals for the loan fund must have been partly due to a difference of opinion on its method rather than to want of sympathy with miss beale’s aims. there are many who feel an objection to saddling with a loan a young teacher starting on her work, or who recognise that an unpaid loan may help to lower the standard in money affairs, and on that account shrink from giving help in this way. there[231] are few indeed who could lend money so successfully as miss beale could, because there are few who could so successfully command repayment. of the first ￡500 advanced by the loan fund, ￡495 was repaid in a very few years. the pressure she would exercise for repayment sometimes led to the wrong notion that she cared for money for its own sake. she had at all times great skill in wringing the utmost use out of a sum of money to promote those ends for which she lived; but in the ordinary commonplace sense she was indifferent to money and the things for which it is usually exchanged. her own personal life was as bare of luxury when she was a rich woman as it was when her capital was reckoned in hundreds only. but she did care deeply for character, and anxiously avoided all forms of easy generosity which might injure those she sought to help.
for several years before a turf was cut for st. hilda’s college, miss beale was, as she would herself have expressed it, building it: student teachers were being trained in the college, and in 1881 one of these passed the cambridge examination in the theory and practice of education. gradually she gathered an increasing body of students in a separate house—a house which was as unlike as any could possibly be to the beautiful home which was shortly to be opened. she waited year after year for money with which to build without interrupting the work she had begun in assisted education, and for the reasons named made no public appeal for it. it was enough, she maintained, to state the real needs—to show the value of a work by the way it was done—and thus let it make its own appeal for support. she had a horror of plant which might be a mere empty shell, or which in its establishment might become a[232] diversion of energy from spiritual work. she felt this especially in the matter of church building, as may be seen in the following extract from a letter: ‘what i disapproved of was the amount of begging for the cathedral. i do not disapprove of it, but i think you know what i felt. however, the bishop will do all he can to make it a strong spiritual centre. i can never get over the feeling of spiritual destitution at one very beautiful cathedral.’ it was also, perhaps less consciously, a principle not to take money except from those who were willing for her to carry out her own ideas. she wrote to one friend in 1888:—
‘as regards our students’ home, i have given up the idea of a public meeting. it seemed not right to refuse the offer at first. but i shall go on with the work, and i doubt not the money will come. there is such a great need for training teachers. if we had a meeting things might be said and money be given in a way which would pledge us, or be thought to pledge us, and now we shall be free.’
and again in 1884 to one who helped her oxford scheme:—
‘i grieve over that protestant spirit which forbids people to read books, to associate with people, who do not think precisely in their way. is this done in science? no; we put various theories before the student and show why we accept them. but we don’t ever want to impose our beliefs; so i want not to impose mine in religion, but to bring the learner to the “fountain of living water.” any transferred opinion is without root, and cannot endure the storm. teachers must, if they are to help, gain the sympathy they need by entering into the religious modes of seeing and feeling of many different souls. i think in a university town they would come in contact with various influences, and in a house like st. hilda’s i should want thoughtful people who have gone through some of the experience of life,—old teachers to help the young. there is a little more of my dream, but i am quite content to wait. if it be god’s will that such a house should grow up, the way will be pointed out. i felt i could not say all this to you when we meet, and i have got to care that you should not misunderstand me.’
[233]
as the time to begin the actual erection of the house drew near she had no exultation over the fulfilment of a dream. yet in the beginning of august 1885, surrounded by young teachers from her own and other schools drawn together for a retreat and a brief educational conference, her mind was naturally full of that dream. some few of her own thoughts about it she wrote down; such as the following, with their characteristic heading:—
‘sunday, aug. 2, 1885—on st. hilda’s. some thoughts at church.
‘god fulfils himself in many ways. lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
‘how often have we seen endowments thus rendered injurious, not helpful. so it is with many of the institutions around us. can we hope better things from this one? no, we can only hope for it not a perfection but a temporary usefulness. “he, after he had served his generation according to the will of god, fell on sleep”;—so it is with men, so with institutions, they need not a body but a spirit. as long as the spirit lives the body is the instrument of all good works. when the spirit dies, the body becomes the source of disease and corruption. for this reason i have cared more to awaken the spirit than to gather funds and build first. the spirit will, i hope, shape the body.
‘now what we want is a body of women whose one desire is to consecrate themselves to the ministry of teaching.
‘“get work in this world.
‘be sure ’tis better than what you work to get.”
‘ye are the salt of the earth,—light of the world, said the lord to the teachers he sent forth.’
the first stone of st. hilda’s college was quietly laid by canon medd (one of the trustees and a member of the ladies’ college council) in 1884. the opening, which took place on november 27, 1885, was far more dignified than that its illustrious parent had known in 1856.
‘the ceremony of opening the institution,’ so ran the[234] account in the cheltenham examiner, ‘which was performed by the bishop of the diocese, took place at three o’clock, and was attended by a large and influential company, who assembled in the study, a spacious—but on this occasion none too spacious—apartment on the ground floor.’ among those present were the dean of winchester,[63] then chairman of the college council, who conducted the short service, the late bishop of ely, and many of the clergy of the town, besides the friends and benefactors of st. hilda’s. on entering the study the eye was caught at once by the words which miss beale quoted so often that they seemed like the motto of her work: ‘knowledge puffeth up, but charity buildeth up.’ here, in this ‘godly place,’ as he called the house, the bishop of gloucester, who since 1875 had been both nominally and actually visitor of the ladies’ college, gave an address full of sympathy for the ideals of the founder.
thus the first resident training college for teachers, other than elementary, was planned, and built, and opened. in order to make its position more permanent it was constituted into a separate college with a council of its own. in 1886 a statue of st. hilda was presented and placed in the hall. on unveiling it, miss beale spoke of the saint’s life, and especially of her work as a teacher. she concluded with a thought, the deeper for the personal touch in it, of memory of what she had had to bear in the past, and indeed in later years also, of misconception and misrepresentation.
‘shall i touch in conclusion upon the mythical elements in st. hilda’s story? myths are truths expressed in poetry. you see the ammonite at her feet, one of the serpents that she, like st. patrick, is fabled to have turned into stone. there may[235] have been, once, at whitby, serpents who, with the poisoned tooth of calumny and evil-speaking, wounded and slew. i think she turned them into stone with her look of sorrow. we have not represented the wild geese, whom she is said to have destroyed because they wasted her lands. i half believe that story too; i feel sure that all these disappeared from her abbey lands, but perhaps they were turned into swans.’
st. hilda’s college was scarcely built and opened before it was necessary to enlarge it by adding a new wing. it was not until this had been done that miss beale felt free to devote herself to another foundation, which also was to bear the name of the sainted abbess.
as early as the year 1882 miss beale, attracted by the increasing facilities offered to women by the elder universities, had purchased three acres of land in north oxford. these she retained for building uses should the right moment or a definite reason for such a purpose occur. but no one showed much sympathy with the scheme, there was no offer of money, and for long much of her own capital was absorbed in st. hilda’s, cheltenham. impulsive to a fault as she often was, miss beale could school herself to wait. after five years came an opportunity of purchasing a ready-made college in dr. child’s beautiful house on the cherwell. it seemed well to accept this, and begin there the new house of education.
there were many reasons why miss beale allowed so long a time to elapse between her purpose and her act. her own ideas and her aims for her hall at oxford shaped themselves but gradually. somerville college[64] and lady margaret hall were still in their first youth. miss beale’s scheme seemed uncalled for where there were already so many workers for the cause of women’s[236] education in the field. her educational experience had been different from that of those whose minds had developed among university surroundings; her methods were unacademic, unconventional. consequently there were some to warn her as she prepared to take her new step: ‘the university may easily receive a shock from which it will take long to recover.’
it may well be asked even now, as it was often asked at the time, why miss beale wanted to come to oxford at all, and particularly while she was uncertain of the value of university examinations for women. but she valued even more than the certificate gained by taking schools the atmosphere of oxford. she saw that the students of st. hilda’s, cheltenham, missed this. when she founded that institution she had written of it, that she hoped it ‘would be a hall similar to the halls at oxford and cambridge.’ now she felt the need of what only the older universities could give. she hoped her new house might become a place of intellectual enlargement and refreshment such as oxford could best supply to some who had already begun their work of teaching, and who needed new thoughts and inspiration, more time for thought, a higher intellectual standard. she thought that a year at oxford could supply that feature in education which is sometimes more developed at home.
‘i have often felt ... that a year in which they should be allowed to expatiate in intellectual pastures in a way that we older women used to do before examinations for women existed, would be of great value. and they can do this best in some university town, where they can have libraries and museums and such lectures and private help as they most require—both hearing and asking questions, rather than being asked and answering.... many could take one year who could not take three.... the students of st. hilda’s (oxford) will have the same opportunities of attending lectures and offering themselves for examinations as at the other ladies’ colleges—but we[237] should not press examination upon any who can do better work without. of course we must be assured that those who come to us will work seriously.’
yet these reasons were secondary. the purchase of three acres of ground at oxford was a definite result of her own suffering of mind in 1882. as she emerged from that she at once began to build in vision a house where teachers should be established in the faith, where they should learn to feel that their calling was not to do mere journeyman work, but to deal with the deep problems of life.
finally, it may be added that, whether conscious of it or not, she could not keep herself out of the great movement which was enabling women to share with men many of the incomparable advantages of university life, she had also her own conception of what university life might do for women, and by means of a college at oxford for her own college at cheltenham. for cheltenham the connection would be of great value. seeing all that might be won by a well-placed move, she planned that move, waited, then made it at the right moment. ‘i bewail your news,’ wrote an oxford friend to whom she communicated the fact that st. hilda’s was about to be opened, ‘and disclaim all responsibility for your mistake.’ miss beale opened her hall and begged the students to accept the words non frustra vixi as their motto, that being the thought which the ammonite at the feet of st. hilda’s statue now suggested to her.
in october 1893 seven students took up their residence at st. hilda’s. mrs. burrows, who had had a college boarding-house at cheltenham, came to be head of the new hall, assisted by her daughter, who had been a student at lady margaret hall. the house was[238] formally but quietly opened on november 6 by the bishop of the diocese, dr. stubbs, who placed himself at miss beale’s disposal for all arrangements. ‘i will keep,’ he wrote, ‘november 6 free for miss beale, but she must let me hear what, when, and how what is to be done’; and to miss beale, ‘you do not want me to bring robes on the 6th, do you? a line to reassure me would be grateful.’
on the occasion of the opening, after the little service conducted by the dean of winchester, the bishop of oxford spoke a few ‘grave and weighty words’ on the duty of ‘self-culture of the whole mind, soul, and spirit.’ the dean, who thanked him for his address, said that ‘the new venture of the cheltenham ladies’ college was by no means so ambitious as the bishop seemed to think.’ he spoke of the way in which it might prepare women to be of real service in their generation, and added: ‘one cannot think of this opening day for the oxford st. hilda’s without strong emotions of gratitude and hope. this is the crown and highest result of all that work for women’s education which has been carried on under miss beale’s wise rule at cheltenham these many years past; the college, with its varieties of activity, and its eight hundred students, justly claims to be represented here in the home of highest education.’
photo. w. h. rogers
s. hilda’s hall, oxford.
among the friends gathered for this opening ceremony was the founder of the ladies’ college, cheltenham, canon bellairs. he welcomed this house in oxford, though he would have named it differently.
‘i am very glad to hear,’ he had written a month before, ‘that you are starting what will no doubt become a veritable college. you should christen it at once. st. clare would be appropriate. she founded an order, and your college will be[239] the foundation of an order. i do hope the g. w. r. will alter its time-table to suit your convenience. it would do so if it had as high an opinion of your excellence as the father of your college, and your pupils and all that know you have. fancy, thirty-five years since we first met! what a period for evolution.... i should like very much to have a chat with you to see where you are now.’
after five years, st. hilda’s, oxford, was recognised by the association for the education of women in oxford as st. hilda’s hall. miss beale finally, in 1900, connected it with st. hilda’s, cheltenham, by presenting it to the association of that college.
that miss beale was fully alive to changes that must come in the course of time to such an institution as st. hilda’s hall, and could be content to see her own personal wishes set aside in everything that did not affect the essential life of the place, is clear from the following letter to mrs. wells in january 1903:—
‘thanks for your nice letter and the suggestions. i think with you that the giving of scholarships will have to be reconsidered, and some clear rules made. i am, however, no less strongly opposed to the modern slave trade than before, and should be much grieved if we entered upon it. i see you would limit the giving to those who need help. of course i see that i can no longer have the freedom i had in choosing scholars when the house was mine, and i alone was responsible for all expenses, and mrs. hay allowed me to dispose of her gifts, but i do hope we shall go on somewhat the same lines.
‘1. that we shall not ask for money.
‘2. that we shall not advertise in order to get scholars.
‘3. that we shall not pledge ourselves to choose merely by intellectual pre-eminence.
‘4. i think we are justified in giving the preference to cheltenham girls.
‘might we not say that a scholarship should be offered on certain fixed conditions to certain girls, say to associates and to those who, not having been long enough to gain this, should have taken a high rank in the cambridge room.’
[240]
the year marked by this crown and result of labour was saddened by the death of miss catherine newman at mayfield house. it was a death which caused not only personal sorrow, but extreme perplexity and loss to all connected with the mission. they found themselves at the end of four years’ trial of their scheme without a head, with a scattered band of workers, and an insanitary house. no one felt the sorrow of it all more than miss beale; no one was more courageous in meeting it. the necessary, difficult, and toilsome work which was the result of the crisis did not indeed fall to her share, but to that of some members of the committee on whom the responsibility specially pressed. but such difficulties to be met, such a death for a cause, were exactly what roused miss beale to feel the worth of it as she had never done before.
a small untiring sub-committee was formed, with mrs. batten as secretary, to re-arrange the work. the cost of efficient drainage operations was so heavy that at first it seemed better to seek a new house for the settlement than to undertake such a great expense. a long search in the neighbourhood for such a house proved fruitless. it therefore became a question whether the guild members should move their work from the place they had deliberately chosen at a large general meeting, or go to the expense required for making mayfield house fit for habitation. however, an appeal to the surveyor resulted in the cost of the drainage work being thrown upon the landlord, who consequently made harder terms for his tenants. the question whether to stay or go came before the guild in 1894, and a vote for continuing the work at mayfield house was passed by a large majority. after an interval of some months the house was re-opened under a new[241] lady warden, miss corbett,—no cheltenham worker having been found to undertake it.
in her first report miss corbett was able to show a full complement of workers. there was no falling off, but in less than two years it became evident that a more complete change must be made. the oxford workers, who by a temporary arrangement lived at first in mayfield house, had now a prosperous settlement of their own—st. margaret’s—in the very same square as mayfield house. this settlement of the ladies’ branch of the oxford house could not well be in any other neighbourhood. it was seen to be ludicrous that two large communities of women workers should concentrate their energies on one small corner of the vast field of london work. added to this, the high rent and rates of mayfield house pointed to the need of a change, and at the guild meeting of 1896 it was definitely proposed to move either to east ham or lambeth. finally, however, shoreditch was chosen, a district having sore needs, and near enough to bethnal green to enable those members of the settlement engaged there in board school management, charity organisation, and other extra parochial work still to carry it on.
then came the question of a house. there was none. it was clearly necessary to build, but for so large an undertaking the reserve fund was insufficient. miss beale, always averse to begging for money, refused to make any definite appeal for charity, but as a happy inspiration, the idea came to her that the guild should meet the difficulty with the same kind of means used by mrs. grey in starting high schools in 1874. this idea took shape in february 1897. miss verrall, who had been treasurer of the settlement from the beginning, sent out notices to members of the guild to inquire[242] whether shares for ￡3000 would be taken up, and a ready response was given, all the shares being quickly appropriated within a fortnight. this, which seems to be a mere business transaction, was really a great deal more. it was rather a channel for interest and help which had been so far unable to force their way freely. the money was subscribed in the form of debenture stock at three per cent., repayable at the end of eighty years. ￡3800 was subscribed within a fortnight by 310 subscribers. a large part came from women to whom the sacrifice of control or recovery of the capital made it practically a gift. to most the yearly-paid few shillings of interest meant little in comparison with a few pounds available for immediate expenditure. of the money subscribed, over ￡400 has now been released by gift from the holders. other holders have authorised the council of st. hilda’s east to retain their interest. this brings in about ￡30 a year. the transaction was a fine example of miss beale’s use of this world’s goods, as means to great ends, and a fine instance of the response she could command from those she had led to her own point of view. generous aid came also from mr. dutton, whose sister was an old cheltonian,[65] and who undertook all the legal business gratuitously; also from the honorary architect, mr. philip day, the husband of an old pupil, who volunteered his services for the new house. the workers found temporary quarters during the building, which took less than a year; and on april 26, 1898, the house was opened by dr. creighton, the bishop of london, under the name of st. hilda’s, shoreditch. for miss beale remained faithful to the name and all the ideas it implied for her. on the letter[243] of a friend who wrote, ‘could not the new house be called cheltenham house or some such, binding it to the college? it would be better than a picturesque saint’—she wrote, ‘i disagree.’ mrs. reynolds, an old pupil, became head of the settlement during the busy time of furnishing and organisation of work in a new centre. a year later she was succeeded by another old pupil, miss bruce, the present lady warden, who had worked in the settlement from the first. since that time the house has twice been enlarged. the growth of the settlement, as its beginning had been, was marked by the loss through death of an enthusiastic worker when mrs. moyle, who was for a time its secretary, died in july 1899.
as the permanence of the settlement became assured, and the interest of both past and present pupils increased, being augmented by the organisation of shares, and by the formation of st. hilda’s association, miss beale’s own interest in the work grew. she regarded st. hilda’s east less as a centre of help for the poor than as a place of training for workers. in this aspect it appealed to her as rightly an integral part of the work of the college. in the year 1898, which she said might be called for the college an annus mirabilis, she was able to point to the three institutions bearing the name of st. hilda, each firmly established, flourishing, and full of promise of future usefulness.
‘this year st. hilda’s, enlarged from six to sixty students, is full and free from debt.
‘this year the link with the university of oxford, so early formed, has been made permanent by st. hilda’s, oxford, becoming a hall of the university.
‘above all, this year st. hilda’s east has been built by the spontaneous co-operation of past and present girls, and this has specially cheered us, that those who have left us for other spheres, the heads of other great schools, still stretch out their hands to[244] us, work with us in the guild and the mission, and the old ties are not broken.’
but the three great institutions bearing the name of st. hilda by no means included all that thought-training work which was what miss beale specially associated with it.
the existence of st. hilda’s college at cheltenham made it convenient, if not imperative, to find exercise for the energy there inspired and directed, and to supply classes for practice. to keep this stream of energy within her own guidance for a longer period than the time of training involved, it was necessary to have scope for it at hand. even the great and growing college was not large enough to employ all the workers it trained, and the principal was ever alive to the necessity of having a certain number of teachers from outside, bringing with them fresh ideas and methods.
the kindergarten was the first addition to the ladies’ college proper to need such young helpers as miss beale now had at her disposal. it began, like miss beale’s other creations, without a local habitation of its own in 1876. the college, owing to the quick perception of its lady principal, who was sensitive to each fresh tendency in education, was one of the first schools in england to avail itself of the kindergarten mistresses trained by madame michaelis, who began her work in her own house at croydon as early as 1874.
miss beale at once secured a mistress, and on her arrival a number of little boys and girls were immediately found to constitute a kindergarten in miss beale’s own drawing-room. ‘the’ drawing-room, as she always called it, did not well bear out its title. as a baby-class room it looked well. morris’s daisy and columbine paper, then a new thing, was on the walls, to suggest the[245] thought, which was probably correct, that in first choosing it miss beale had already an intention of beginning a kindergarten, though she did not find it advisable to mention it then to the council. some of the younger teachers in college helped a little with this baby-class. the system and organisation, the carefully trained head, all seemed rather alarming in those days when froebelian ideas and german methods were little known in england.
as early as 1876 there were twenty-five children in the kindergarten, for which a classroom had to be found in the college. in 1881 miss welldon came to cheltenham as head of the kindergarten. hers was one of the first appointments made by the croydon kindergarten company, which had been founded in 1876, with madame michaelis as principal.
in 1882 the new room, purposely built and fitted for a kindergarten, was opened. it was much enlarged in 1887. but soon again more scope was needed for the large number of students who now flocked to cheltenham. miss beale could not bear to let one of these escape her. she recognised their needs, she saw their possible value. there were then very few places in england where they could be trained; the demand for kindergarten mistresses daily increased. the immediate difficulty was met in 1889 by the establishment of a kindergarten school in connection with st. stephen’s church in cheltenham, supported by the vicar of the parish and a few voluntary contributors. this was staffed by kindergarten students of the ladies’ college. fifty-seven children actually appeared in the school the first day, and the numbers rapidly increased in spite of the fact that each child paid twopence weekly. five years later college students penetrated into a still poorer school at naunton, a hamlet adjoining the town of cheltenham. in 1896 the[246] infant school of the parish of holy trinity in the town invited teachers from the college.
in 1889 cambray house was offered for sale. miss beale, who had a strong lingering affection for this first home of her school, had with regret seen it ‘alienated to barbarian boys,’ the trees cut down, and the garden turned into an asphalted playground. the building was well fitted for the school purposes for which it had been adapted and long used. there was enough space in the part which had not been altered, and which was not wanted for a day-school, to be utilised as a boarding-house. miss beale seized the chance she saw of opening a school which should serve the double purpose of taking overflow pupils or others for whom, for many reasons, the ladies’ college was not suited, and of affording an opening under her own eye for some of the teachers she was training. the rules for admission, discipline, etc., were identical with those of the college. by this time, too, she saw the use of the racquet-courts and tennis-grounds. it was a great satisfaction to get back this house. she wrote of it to miss arnold:—
‘i dare not take any extra fatigue, as i have so much on my hands—i must try to be alone for a while. i have just bought back the old cambray house in which i began thirty-one years ago. i want a second miss wilderspin, i have got to put it in order and furnish by may.... i heard canon body at all saints, margaret street, last friday. it was a very good sermon, and seemed to fit in well with the thoughts that came to me, as i had just got my offer for cambray accepted, rather to my surprise.’
in 1895 cambray was enlarged at a cost of about ￡2000, and in october 1897 miss beale, by deed of gift, made over the property to the ladies’ college, though it was arranged that she should still continue[247] there the school and boarding-house. miss beale marked this return of cambray house, ‘enlarged and alive again with girls,’ into the possession of the college, as another notable event of the annus mirabilis.
cambray house, on its acquisition by the college through the gift of miss beale, was leased to her for a nominal rent; the school and boarding-house being carried on as a private venture until 1906, when their existence was recognised in the college prospectus for the first time. miss beale spent another ￡2000 out of her own income upon additions and improvements after she had made over the house to the college. this was a large sum, but even from a financial point of view by no means wasted. in five years the profits of school and boarding-house amounted to ￡1000, for which miss beale planned further fruitful use.
cambray school, or, to give it its true title, cheltenham ladies’ college school, and cambray boarding-house, which took pupils belonging to both the new school and the college, was not the only undertaking for which miss beale made herself personally responsible. she also started, and placed in a good financial position, two cheap boarding-houses, st. helen’s and st. austin’s, and in course of time presented them to the college. her position in regard to all these institutions was surely very unusual, not to say unique. the foundation of a school of over one hundred pupils, and of houses containing the same number of boarders, would be a respectable life’s work for many a woman. this work appears to have been only one of the many occupations miss beale found for the little leisure left her by the cares of the great college and its ever-multiplying interests.
it was perhaps primarily interest in young teachers which led miss beale to join a movement made in 1897[248] to induce ladies to take up work in elementary schools. miss beale was present at a large meeting held that year in westminster town hall, when the need and importance of this work were set forth in speeches by the bishop of stepney,[66] sir joshua fitch, and others. as a result a government training department was at once formed at the ladies’ college, and work began with seven students, who in the same year were encouraged by addresses from sir h. e. oakeley, h.m.i., and sir joshua fitch. the field of practice for these students was found in all saints’ schools, where there were four departments all supplied with the best apparatus. other schools in the town were also glad at different times to receive these teachers. miss beale became much interested in the work, and proposed to build a practising school of her own for the elementary department of the college, engaged a head-mistress, and bought land for building. then in 1901 came the regulations for local education committees, which would have put miss beale’s school under local control. she therefore gave up the idea of building and sold her land. later regulations made her find it impossible to continue the elementary work on the lines she wished. the government demands proved a fetter to one who felt she should be free to work towards her ideal. to her mind the real progress of elementary education in the country depended, not on the ‘introduction of new subjects of instruction, which must impose new and burdensome labour on teachers and children. it should be gained by the better training of teachers, by the adoption of better methods, by a wiser economy of time, and by showing teachers how to put more knowledge, more skill, more thought, more love, and more enthusiasm[249] into their work.’ the legislation of 1901 made her feel that ‘my lords’ did not recognise these principles as all-important; that they undervalued such an effort as she was making at cheltenham; that they were unjust to voluntary schools. she felt as if she were playing an unfair game, and declined any longer to help forward a movement of which she could not see the goal. it may be marked also that she could never feel full sympathy for free education. from this time she again limited herself to training secondary teachers. conditions which made elementary training the one serious work which miss beale took up only to abandon it, are indeed to be regretted. the magnificent plant, the fine opportunities for learning and practising, such as the ladies’ college could supply, above all the large-minded teaching, the sense of real education which the lady principal would give, were thus lost to a cause which affects the wellbeing of the whole nation.
the secondary training department became a recognised division of the college in 1885. so high a value did miss beale put upon this that she wrote of the work of the mistress in whose charge it was, as ‘only second in importance to that of the head.’
st. hilda’s work, using the term which miss beale herself would have used, meant much more than teaching definite subjects and preparing for examinations: it meant inspiration and the leading out of minds. it demanded unlimited devotion to a cause. it is probable that miss beale had for long cherished, and had only gradually relinquished a hope, though she never formed any definite plan, of seeing arise out of her work for education a body of women willing to form a teaching order. opposed to sisterhood schools as she was, chiefly because her ideal of education was so high and apart,[250] that she could not bear to see it receive in any way a secondary place, she recognised the immense value that some kind of rule would have, if voluntarily imposed for the sake of education. in other words, while she did not like to see people taking up teachers’ work because they were sisters, she would have liked to see those she inspired and trained voluntarily take upon themselves some of the restrictions of a sister’s life because they were teachers. the thought may have come to her first when, in 1856 and 1858, mrs. lancaster pressed her to undertake penitentiary work under rule. it was this which led to the severity of her dress and grave demeanour at casterton, this which was echoed in a half-expressed wish that her staff at cheltenham should wear black. when, after long years of waiting, it became her part to train women for the work of education, the aim of inducing them to adopt a separate devoted life, with or without visible signs of it, was ever before her.
now that st. hilda’s work may be witnessed in the three great institutions bearing this name, it is of no common interest to trace miss beale’s own plan for its development. the plan itself and the noble ideal behind it are not more remarkable than the ability with which she waited, resigned her individual fancy, and became an agent rather than an author. the following extract (circa 1884) states her first design:—
‘it is thought that a protest in act is specially needed in these days, now that teachers are so highly paid, and that an association of teachers who should be ready to take up any work required, whether it was paid or not, would be able to carry on work more effectively and continuously than an unorganised body of women.
‘it is proposed, therefore, that after three years,—ten of those who agree in this general principle should unite together as members of the society of st. hilda,—that they should pay, if young, into the funds of the society whatever they earn from[251] that time (but keeping complete control over any invested property), the society providing them a fixed salary, a home when disengaged or out of health, but holding a right to send them out to any work which seems needed. the community may, if two-thirds agree, reject any member on returning to her what she has paid in, minus a fair sum for her maintenance. a member may withdraw with half any calculated surplus of earnings over expenditure, on giving one year’s notice. some members might reside permanently and assist in various ways as writers and editors.
‘it is proposed that the members contributing the money should form the governing body,—elect a superior,—that the votes should be in proportion to the money contributed. that all the money should, after paying maintenance, be expended, after leaving a moderate reserve fund, on providing some charitable work, and that the members should, at the will of the superior, be assigned to any post she may think fit.
‘the work should be primarily teaching or assisting in some way in educational work amongst rich or poor, specially religious teaching, to which, it is hoped, some members will chiefly devote themselves, e.g. by lectures, by corresponding with those who need advice or help in religious matters, opening the house to receive as visitors any who need a time of quiet and retreat doing mission work at home and abroad. there should be only a very simple rule to be signed by the workers. prayer at morning, evening, and midday; and such special rules as seem desirable. a holiday in proportion to the character of the work. the dress should be simple, but not conspicuous, and some badge should be worn by the members.’
in this connection it is interesting to read this extract from a letter written to a teacher who was unsettled as to her vocation, and was contemplating entering a sisterhood:—
‘april 89.
‘i was much interested in your letter. i feel strongly that when in god’s providence we have been trained for one work, we should not lightly turn to another. as you say, there is more scope in a large sisterhood. miss —— is very happy at clewer. still, i think the rules of an ordinary sisterhood are difficult to combine with the life of a teacher. i cannot help thinking that out of the society of the holy name may grow up a somewhat[252] freer teaching sisterhood.... i hold strongly that there ought to be some women, whose energies should be devoted to sending out young teachers, with a true sense of their vocation. you have gifts as a teacher; you ought not, it seems to me, to bury them....’
among the women whose saintly lives were a source of inspiration to dorothea beale, there was one whose acquaintance (so to speak) she did not make until herself in mature life. none the less did the name of mary astell become a thought of encouragement and hope to one whose heart was ever fresh. when in 1890, after various unsuccessful experiments, a properly managed house was opened for the regular teachers in the college, miss beale named it astell house, after the lady who, in the reign of anne, put forth ‘a plan of a college for the higher education of woman, which should be at the same time a religious house. the ladies were to spend some time in study as well as prayer, mrs. astell holding that they had as much right as men to improve their minds.... their special work was to be the education of girls of the higher class, and also, if their means would admit, of the daughters of poor gentlemen, who must otherwise remain untaught.... mrs. astell’s scheme aroused considerable interest, and an unnamed lady (supposed to be the queen) was ready to give ￡10,000 for the foundation of such an institution; but bishop burnet, who seems to have been consulted in the matter, put an end to the plan, saying it would be too much like a nunnery.’ miss beale certainly wanted a nunnery no more than did the timorous bishop. as time went on she cared less for the outward shape the spirit she strove to foster might adopt; but she grew more and more earnest and active in seeking to influence young teachers[253] to become serious and high-minded and self-sacrificing. the quiet days, which were instituted chiefly to this end, affected many wholly outside the college. they are therefore better mentioned in connection with those other interests which, to borrow her own nomenclature in the magazine, may be included under the title of ‘parerga.’
