In these words the Lady Principal addressed her staff, pupils, and a small sprinkling of friends on the first morning of assembling in the new building which, begun in January of previous year, was thus opened on March 17, 1873. As the school hours ended on Saturday the 15th, a simple order had been given to take home all the books, and to bring them to the new College at the usual time on Monday. In the course of the afternoon all desks and portable fittings were moved and arranged in order for work. The appointment of places in the new hall was, so far as can be remembered, a matter of a few minutes only, so quiet and free from fuss was all College organisation. There was certainly not half an hour of the ordinary lesson time lost. Yet it was a change which made an undying impression. The quietness with which it came was wholly in accordance with the spirit of the school. The regular work, undisturbed even for an hour by the totally new surroundings, spoke emphatically of the response of duty to every fresh inspiration and larger freedom. And how beautiful those new surroundings seemed to the hundred and fifty girls who were privileged to experience the change from the square, unadorned rooms of Cambray House. Two churches at that time, one with its high, fine spire, another with its lavish decoration, were all that the town could show of the Gothic Renaissance which followed the teachings of Ruskin and Morris. The Ladies’ College was early among non-ecclesiastical buildings of this type. To some it may have seemed florid, but not to the eyes of youth and hope, which took delight in the pierced and patterned stone, the flowers in the coloured glass, the arch of the windows, the unusual design of the lecture-rooms. These caused teachers and pupils to ignore for the most part the undoubted chilliness of the new rooms, and the ‘currents of air,’ about which some parents wrote complaining letters, for at that time people were even more afraid of draughts than they are to-day. It is worth mentioning, as characteristic of Miss Beale’s mind, that she forgot very soon the exact date of entrance into the new College; though when reminded of it each year by her own birthday, or by the approach of spring and Lady Day, she would on some suitable March morning say a few words at prayers: ‘It is —— years to-day since we entered,’ etc.