Miss Beale left ample materials for the history of her work. Not only were all business documents, such as minutes of council meetings, nomination papers, examination questions carefully preserved, she kept also all letters which could be of any interest. She went further than merely arranging materials for a future book. In 1900 she compiled a very complete History of the Ladies’ College. Here she traced its origin, growth, and expansion; here, too, she named most carefully all who by earnest work and self-denial, by industry, talent, or generous gift, had in any way contributed to its wellbeing and influence. She was anxious that all faithful work should be known. But Miss Beale recognised that after her death there would be a demand for something more. She was earnestly desirous that in any account which might appear of herself, the work for which she lived should have the first place. With her innate sensitiveness, she shrank from the thought of a Life. It would not indeed be possible to write a life of Dorothea Beale which was not also, fully and intimately, a Life of the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham. Yet Miss Beale left some materials for the more personal side of the book—many letters, diaries, and autobiographical fragments. One paper opens thus:
‘In these days we all live in glass houses, and it seems useless to say, Let nothing appear in print. The life of the College,[viii] for which I have lived forty years, some reminiscences of the state of things as regards education, and some traces of the way in which the Potter has formed the vessel for the service of the household, may perhaps be allowed. It seems to me that the story of the inward life may be helpful. I should relate only those things which, on looking back over my long life, seem to have exercised a formative influence upon my own character, and tended under God’s Providence to fit me for the work which was given me to do. The circumstances and ideals of my childhood, the family influences, sometimes what seems a chance acquaintance, or even a passing remark; these viewed from within might have had an influence little dreamed of at the time.’
I have endeavoured in this book to follow Miss Beale’s own suggestions, but also to give some faint idea of what she was to the many she inspired and taught. In her History of the Ladies’ College she left little historical fact unmentioned: it is possible for another to show that she was the real founder, the main builder.
Many thanks are owing to those who kindly furnished me with letters from Miss Beale. It was difficult to select from the very large number received, and it was with much regret that many had to be excluded, lest the book should become unwieldy.
It remains but to add one word on my gratitude for the unfailing kindness and generous help of those who have read this book in manuscript and proof; to Mrs. Reynolds and Miss Bertha Synge; to Miss Helen Cunliffe who undertook the somewhat wearisome task of deciphering the diaries, and, lastly, to Miss Alice Andrews, whose name Miss Beale associated with mine when she asked me to write a History of the College.
ELIZABETH RAIKES.
June 2, 1908.