PREFACE
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,
