Mr. Ruskin’s munificent gifts did not stand alone. Almost every number of the Magazine chronicled some present to the College, some book or picture, scientific apparatus or specimen. Special mention should be made of Dr. Wright’s collection of fossils which formed the foundation for a museum, and of the grant of flint instruments and many animals obtained through Sir William Flower from the British Museum.
The distinctions which came to both Principal and College in the later years of Miss Beale’s headship were very numerous and came from widely differing sources. The College gained gold medals for educational exhibits at the Paris Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900.
The name of Dorothea Beale became known abroad as that of one who had a real interest in education for its own sake and who had no exclusive or insular views. The warm welcome she would extend to educationists of every kind and tongue, the care with which she would personally answer letters of inquiry, the high tone of her addresses at public gatherings, her pamphlets and articles made the name of Cheltenham respected afar. To this may be added the freshness and openness of mind with which she would lend attention to new methods. She always took them seriously, however empirical they might appear,—considered them, tried them if they seemed hopeful, persevered in them if they were proved to be effective, abandoned them if they were inferior to methods already in use. There were many examples of this. Once, for instance, in the eighties, she heard of a method of teaching reading and of preserving discipline which had been evolved by Mrs. Fielden, a clever lady who had established a good elementary school in a Yorkshire manufacturing village. Miss Beale sent an old pupil who lived in the neighbourhood to visit the school, watch its working, and send her full details of the management. After receiving her report, she obtained the loan of one of Mrs. Fielden’s teachers for a week, and had the system introduced by her into the schoolroom of the Third (Junior) Division. It lived but a short time. Miss Nixon, head-mistress of the division, found it mechanical, and it was abandoned.
In Miss Beale’s last term, in September 1906, Mrs. Arthur Somervell’s Rhythmical Mathematics came to her notice. She not only wrote to the author ‘The book is beautiful and the method very suggestive,’ but within a few days introduced it to the teachers whom it concerned and had its principles explained to a class of little children.
Foreign pupils were always welcomed at the College, and made to feel at home. When first it was suggested that some Siamese girls should be received there, Miss Beale wrote eagerly to secure them, and always took the greatest interest in their work. The foreign teachers found her sympathetic and interested, able to understand and allow for their different training and points of view. With some it was not merely a case of mutual esteem. There were those who found she welcomed their friendship and returned it with kindred affection and confidence.
In the summer term of 1889 several foreign educationists came to Cheltenham. Mrs. E. H. Monroe was sent by the Government of the United States, and Signora Zampini Salazaro by the Italian Government, to study English schools and methods. Madame Garnier-Gentilhomme, Officier de l’Instruction Publique, spent a week with Miss Beale. These visits were perhaps not unconnected with the International Congresses of Education which met in Paris in August. These Miss Beale attended, and herself wrote an account of them in the Magazine of autumn 1889, from which some brief extracts are made.
‘I cannot sufficiently regret that so few English took part in the most interesting International Congress of Secondary and Superior Instruction which has just concluded in Paris. It was an assembly such as one can scarcely hope to see in a life-time. One had an opportunity of hearing not only the leading educational authorities of France, who are doing a great work for their country, but distinguished men from all parts of the world.’
After enumerating the representatives present from different countries, she continues:—
‘From England, the near neighbour of France, came the Honourable Lyulph Stanley, member of the School Board, but not one person having official rank as a member of the Education Department, not one representative of a university. There was one Professor from Edinburgh, the Secretary of the College of Science from Dublin, Mr. Widgery, of University College School, the Editor of the Schoolmaster, Miss Buss with one of her staff, Miss Beale of Cheltenham with four, and two private governesses.