In 1902 came a crowning honour for the Ladies’ College when its Principal was offered the LL.D. by the Edinburgh University, in recognition of her services to education. Miss Beale was simply and unfeignedly delighted with this acknowledgment of the worth of women’s work. Her loyal staff seized the occasion to give her a personal sense of satisfaction also. They presented her with her robes, which were made as costly and beautiful as possible. A journey to Scotland was a great adventure to Miss Beale, but the occasion warranted the effort. As usual, all the arrangements were left in the hands of Miss Alice Andrews, who with others of the College staff accompanied the Principal. It was examination week at Cheltenham, or such a flight of teachers would not have been possible. The degree was conferred on April 11 in the M’Ewan Hall of Edinburgh University. Others who received it on the same occasion were Lord Alverstone, Mr. Asquith, Mr. Austin Dobson, Sir John Batty Tuke, and Dr. Rücker.[94] Only once before had the University conferred this degree on a woman, viz. on Miss Ormerod, in recognition of her great services to agriculture. [Illustration: _Photo. G. H. Martyn & Sons_ _Dorothea Beale, LL.D._] Sir Ludovic Grant, Dean of the Faculty of Law, thus summed up Miss Beale’s claim to a national recognition:— ‘No feature of the national progress during the last fifty years is more remarkable than the revolution which has transformed our girls’ schools from occidental zenanas into centres of healthy activity. In the great crusade which has been crowned with this most desirable consummation, the foremost champion was the cultured and intrepid lady who guides the destinies of the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham. It was largely due to Miss Beale’s indomitable advocacy, on platform and on paper, that the barriers of parental prejudice were broken down, that the ancient idols venerated by a former generation—Mangnall, Pinnock, and Lindley Murray—were shattered, and that barren catechism and lifeless epitome were compelled to give place to fructifying studies, and the futile promenade to invigorating recreations. I need not remind you that Miss Beale’s apostolic ardour is equalled by her administrative abilities. When she went to Cheltenham her pupils were counted by tens; to-day they are to be counted by hundreds, and the institution in respect of organisation and educational efficiency will bear comparison with the best of the great English public schools. Among the collateral benefits resulting from the great movement for the higher education of women, in which Miss Beale has played so conspicuous a part, not the least important is the power which the Scotch Universities have obtained of conferring their honorary degrees upon women, and therefore it is with no ordinary satisfaction that the University of Edinburgh now exercises this power by