In her reply Miss Beale said:—
‘ ... In some places those who should work together stand opposed; elsewhere we have heard of fights between town and gown; at some seats of learning women have been denied titles that they have earned. In Cheltenham we have a happy conciliation of opposites.... You Municipal authorities recognise that; you care not only for pure water and open spaces and cleanliness, but for the Free Library and Science Schools and Art Galleries and healthy recreations; and we school authorities cannot but make the body healthier by mental discipline, by the sunshine of truth, by inspiring the young with high aspirations, and so lifting them out of the rudeness which is the outward sign of selfishness. I look upon to-day’s ceremony as a sign of our faith for the individual and for the community, health in its largest sense, mens sana in corpore sano, is to be realised only by the harmonious working of the inward and outward law. To invite a woman to be a Freeman of a Town is, I venture to believe, an expression of the thought that not the individual but the family, with its twofold life, is the true unit and type of the state, that social and civil and national prosperity depend on the communion of labour, and that the ideal commonwealth is realised only in proportion as the dream of one of our poets is fulfilled, and men and women
“Walk this world
Yoked in all exercise of noble ends.”
‘ ... Formerly we had no women Guardians, but one who is called in her own town “the Guardian Angel”[92] visited us and won all hearts, and then there were elected two ladies, who have been re-elected ever since, who by their insight and gentleness and wisdom have destroyed the last vestige of prejudice.
‘ ... Mrs. Owen was also a link between the Ladies’ College and the Cheltenham College, that elder brother, under whose protection alone our College could have grown up. It is a strange thing that women are threatened with exclusion from the projected Educational Authority; women, who are born to the care of children, who are so much needed to hold the outposts in our educational army, which are being deserted by men. Visions I have of a closer union between all the schools of our town.... Cheltenham, too, has made progress intellectually. A Literary Institution died a natural death shortly after I came; it was, I hope, only a case of post hoc. In my early days the provision of books was scanty indeed. I tried to get Tennyson’s last poem in one of the principal shops of the Promenade. I was told, “We never have had any poetic effusions in our library, and I do not think we shall begin now.” There was no Permanent Library, and a Free Library was impossible and unthought of, and in our own College I was fain to be content with a grant of £5 for books. But more than all the material and intellectual progress has been the raising of public opinion regarding the moral law. Much there is still to deplore, much to amend, and we long to see more efforts made to promote temperance, but I am sure that the higher education of women, the opening to them of larger opportunities of usefulness, has helped to lift many above the unsatisfying pleasures of a frivolous life, and won for them the respect which is always a blessing both to “him that gives and him that takes.” We have, indeed, reason to thank God and take courage.’
In the same year Miss Beale was co-opted a member of the Advisory Board of the University of London.
The recognition by the town was from every point of view a triumph and an honour. The year in which it took place and the preceding one were marked by large extension of boarding-house property and many other signs of wealth. But for Miss Beale herself it can have been no time of great gladness. Though her vitality was as great as ever, her health was less good, her deafness much increasing, her sight impaired. Constantly she was called upon to part by death from some old and valued friend or fellow-worker. In January she shared the general mourning for Queen Victoria. In March 1901 Miss Caines died; a month later the beloved sister Eliza and Canon Hutchinson, of whom Miss Beale spoke as a friend and pastor of many years, were buried on the same day. Miss Beale turned from her sister’s grave to write last words to be read after her own death should she be called away while still head of the College. She also revised her will and wrote directions concerning her personal belongings and her funeral.
But if the road to the Dark Tower grew lonely,[93] it was greatly brightened by the love of those she had taught, inspired, and helped. No parent was ever more closely encompassed by the love of children. There were those at Cheltenham who thought for her, waited on her, read to her—no light task—those who, should she desire it, were ever at her beck and call. Some of these were on the College Council. One, in particular, Miss Flora Ker, who lived at Cheltenham, was always at hand, making the interests of the College and little attentions to Miss Beale the first duty of her day. Another, who had become head of a boarding-house, thought of her daily needs to the smallest details. A third habitually accompanied her on the visits which became so great an enjoyment in these later years, and on the frequent business journeys to London, making them easy by many little thoughtful arrangements. Miss Beale would seem unconscious of these at the moment, but she deeply valued the thought and the loving service of which she availed herself to the full. The Chairman and different members of the Council showed also much personal consideration for the Principal. Nor could she travel anywhere without finding ‘old girls’ ready to welcome and make much of her in every way. In these things she had indeed ‘all that should accompany old age.’
In 1902 came a crowning honour for the Ladies’ College when its Principal was offered the LL.D. by the Edinburgh University, in recognition of her services to education. Miss Beale was simply and unfeignedly delighted with this acknowledgment of the worth of women’s work. Her loyal staff seized the occasion to give her a personal sense of satisfaction also. They presented her with her robes, which were made as costly and beautiful as possible. A journey to Scotland was a great adventure to Miss Beale, but the occasion warranted the effort. As usual, all the arrangements were left in the hands of Miss Alice Andrews, who with others of the College staff accompanied the Principal. It was examination week at Cheltenham, or such a flight of teachers would not have been possible. The degree was conferred on April 11 in the M’Ewan Hall of Edinburgh University. Others who received it on the same occasion were Lord Alverstone, Mr. Asquith, Mr. Austin Dobson, Sir John Batty Tuke, and Dr. Rücker.[94] Only once before had the University conferred this degree on a woman, viz. on Miss Ormerod, in recognition of her great services to agriculture.