Strange as it may appear, the building of a fit home for the College had not taken place without opposition. Miss Beale relates in her _History_ that after the site for it had been purchased, the annual general meeting of proprietors in 1871 voted by a majority interested in the Cambray property that it should be re-sold. Dr. Jex-Blake, the Principal of the Cheltenham College, and a member of the Ladies’ College Council, came to the rescue, and in a special meeting of the same year spoke earnestly in support of the plan for building. ‘Teachers so able and energetic and successful have a right to the greatest consideration, and the very best arrangements for teaching. A Ladies’ College so distinguished, second to none in England, has a right to every advantage that can be secured for it, a right to be lodged in a building of its own, a building perfect in its internal arrangements, and outwardly of some architectural attractiveness; one that should be a College, and should look like a College. It is quite right to say, “Let well alone,” but that does not involve letting _ill_ alone. The College has achieved brilliant success, but that was not due to its having been cramped for room; and when no longer cramped, its success will be greater.’ The resolution of the earlier meeting was rescinded by fifty-nine votes to nine, and two months later a contract was accepted for building from Mr. John Middleton’s design. The site, for which £800 was given, was a part of the old Well Walk where, between their glasses, George the Third and other famous water-drinkers had once taken their daily constitutional. In the matter of the building, Miss Beale had a struggle to get her bold and comprehensive ideas carried out, but eventually she won the day. It was hard for her, at the very moment when she seemed about to realise her dreams for the expansion of the work of the College, to receive orders which she felt to be new limitations. She had constantly to explain her reasons and requirements to those who had a deep interest in the welfare of the school, but who had not also the knowledge needed for arrangements which Miss Beale felt and intended should be in the hands of the Principal alone. The following letter which she wrote to a member of the Council suggests some of her difficulties, and also her method of skilfully and apparently accidentally stating the inconvenience or disaster which would ensue if another arrangement than her own were adopted:—