Miss Beale’s outside interests were concerned, as was natural, chiefly with education. With every educational movement made during the last fifty years in the direction of progress she became to some extent associated. She presided at the first meeting of head-mistresses held in 1874 at Myra Lodge, when the Association for Head-mistresses was founded with Miss Buss as president. ‘I see,’ said Miss Beale of this meeting in 1906, ‘it is recorded that I presided. My recollections are only of lying in great pain on the sofa and taking only a feeble part in the discussion. I little thought that I should be allowed to address a conference which more than thirty years after numbers over two hundred and thirty members.... At our first meeting certain principles were asserted which tended to settle some difficult questions.’ Miss Beale here doubtless refers to the very first resolution passed by this aristocratic body, which was to the effect that no school can work satisfactorily unless the head-mistress be entirely responsible for its internal management. Miss Ridley, in writing of Miss Buss,[79] (to ‘whose insight and foresight,’ said Miss Beale, ‘the founding of the Association was entirely due,’) has shown that the passing of this resolution was in itself almost a _raison d’être_ for the Association. For the rightful position of a head-mistress was not recognised without some difficulty and controversy. The governing bodies of girls’ schools could not at first be selected on the ground of interest and experience in educational matters. Another resolution passed on that occasion was to the effect that an examination to test the power of teachers is desirable. On the death of Miss Buss, in 1895, Miss Beale became president until 1897, when her term of office expired. She never sought re-election, her increasing deafness making it difficult for her to conduct meetings. She thought a great deal of the importance of the Association and of the discussions which took place at its meetings, and strove in every way to render them not only earnest but fair-minded. ‘I hope,’ she said on one occasion, ‘that our assemblies will not become such as the discussions in Parliament, merely formal, every one having taken a side before and being unmoved by anything said.’ Miss Beale several times read papers to the Association, and in later years the deferential welcome she received from its members was very noticeable. Her last address, given on the request of the Association in June 1906, only a few months before her death, may be regarded as her farewell to the educational world.