“Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.”
‘“The readiness is all.” Let us bear our grief with calmness and dignity. We know that it would be her wish that work should go on as usual.... We believe that love lasts on, and that the noble work she did for fifty years has done much for England and for womanhood, and that not only we who have been blessed by her gracious presence, but generations also to come shall reap the fruit of her toil, and rise up and call her blessed. Let us pray.’ Then followed a thanksgiving, adapted from the form of memorial service issued by authority in January 1901 after the death of Queen Victoria.
Of the days immediately following Miss Beale’s death, Miss Sturge wrote: ‘Many of the staff and elder pupils were privileged to see the beloved form as it lay in the peace and majesty of death. Though not one of the thousand workers at College can have been unconscious of the mighty change that had come for all, the work went on as usual, and the College was closed only on November 16, the day of the funeral.’
The paper which Miss Beale intended should be read at College prayers on her death was not found at the time. This was well. She certainly had not weighed what the effect of her words, written with calm deliberate detail years before, would be if read to assembled numbers at the very moment of shock and loss.
In this paper she first explained the directions she had left in her will about the funeral:—
‘First let me say I have put in my will two things, which have to do with the disposal of this perishable body.
‘(1) I desire that it should be cremated. It seems so wrong to place in the ground the disease germs which may injure others, when they could be destroyed. No feeling of sentiment should hinder our doing what is reasonable or right.