“I remember how, as the story of the Crucifixion was read, the church would grow dark, as it seemed.... I know nothing of the substance of the sermons now, but I remember the emotion they often called forth, and how I with difficulty restrained my tears.... The hymns were a great power in my life. I remember the joy with which I would sing, in my own room, Ken’s Evening Hymn, and the awful joy of the Trinity Hymn ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’.”
In later years she said that she could not remember a time when God was not an ever-present Friend, a knowledge which sustained her through the darkest periods of her life, and her many struggles.
Whether she had at this time realised what her life-work was to be, I cannot say, but it was at home that she began to enjoy her first experience of teaching. Her brothers at the Merchant Taylors’ School suffered much from the unintelligent teaching prevalent in the boys’ schools of that day, and received help in their Latin and Mathematics from their clever elder sister. All this work doubtless helped to develop in Dorothea that clear vigorous mentality that characterised the great Head Mistress of Cheltenham, and impressed still more definitely on her mind the need for reforms in education.
Duty seems to have been, even at this early age, the key-note of her life, and she apparently bore an older girl’s usual share in domestic affairs, helping with the mending and the usual work of the house.
But this time at home was just a quiet breathing space before wider opportunities of study were granted to her.
CHAPTER III.
AT QUEEN’S COLLEGE.
“Can you remember ... when the great things happened for which you seemed to be waiting? The boy, who is to be a soldier—one day he hears a distant bugle: at once he knows. A second glimpses a bellying sail: straightway the ocean path beckons to him. A third discovers a college and towards its kindly lamp of learning turns young eyes that have been kindled and will stay kindled to the end.”—James Lane Allen.
The opening of Queen’s College marked a great advance in the cause of girls’ and women’s education. It had its root in the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution, which was founded for the purpose of helping governesses in times of need. This was originated by the Rev. C. G. Nicolay, but in the year 1843 the Rev. David Laing, vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Kentish Town, was made honorary secretary. It was he who first saw that an institution that existed merely to relieve distress was unsatisfactory, and sought to establish, rather, an organisation to prevent the need for relief. Accordingly, he established a Registry for Teachers, and set on foot a scheme for granting diplomas. The latter naturally led to the starting of examinations, which revealed such appalling depths of ignorance in those who were supposed to instruct others, that the need for their tuition was realised.
As is always the case in great movements many were thinking along the same lines, and Miss Murray, Maid of Honour to the Queen, was at this time meditating the starting of a College for Women, and was, as a matter of fact, collecting funds for this purpose. As soon, however, as she heard of Mr. Laing’s plans she handed over to him the money she had collected. He consulted with the government about the establishment of this college, and the Queen graciously allowed it to be named after herself. A house in Harley Street, next door to the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution, was taken. Professors from King’s College were asked to give lectures, and to many women for the first time higher education became a possibility.
The committee, as at first constituted, included such well-known people as Charles Kingsley, Sterndale Bennett, John Hullah, F. D. Maurice, and R. C. Trench. It is still possible to see in book form the lectures which inaugurated the work undertaken by Queen’s College. Though it originated with the idea of helping governesses who wished to qualify for their work, it numbered among its earliest students girls who were to play an important part in many ways in the life of the nation. Among the first pupils were Miss Buss, Adelaide Ann Proctor, Miss Jex-Blake, and Dorothea Beale. At first there were no women lecturers or women teachers, but many women offered their services as chaperones, and very faithful they were in carrying out their trying and exacting duties.