The child who wrote this quaintly-illustrated diary, eighty-three years
ago, was the second daughter of William Browne, Esq., of Tallentire
Hall, in the County of Cumberland. She was born there, February 15,
1807.
Descended, on her father's side, from a race of sturdy Cumberland
yeomen, and on her mother's from the Royal Stuarts and Plantagenets,
she grew up, as might be expected from this childish production, an
original and uncommon woman.
A keen naturalist and observer of nature, at a time when such pursuits
were unusual, she delighted in long solitary country rambles round her
beautiful home: an old border watch-tower, dating from 1280 A. D., in
full view of the Solway to the north, and of Skiddaw and the Cumbrian
mountains to the south.
An exquisite collection of butterflies and moths is still in existence,
painted by her clever fingers from specimens reared by herself.
Each one is depicted upon its favourite flower, and accompanied by
its caterpillar and chrysalis on the food plant. This was, alas!
left unfinished at her death, on May 30, 1833, at the early age of
twenty-six.
A picture poem, painted on the page of one of the albums of the
period, in drawings so minute and so finely finished that, like
the butterflies, they can only be adequately seen through a
magnifying-glass, still shows her accuracy of observation, and the
dainty and patient care of her work.
She loved flowers, and the garden may still be seen where, in the very
early mornings, she planted and tended with her own loving care such
fragrant, and old-world flowers as rose de meaux, clove pinks, and
gillyflowers.
But these were only the pastimes of a busy life of unselfish devotion
to others. Shy, retiring, and strangely indifferent to appearance and
to worldly advantages, she was little understood by the merry young
circle around her. She was, as a child, even considered stupid and
slow, her governess declaring that 'friend Mary does as well as she
can.' But children loved her, and if there was sickness or sorrow in
the village it was always 'Miss Mary' who was wanted, and who was never
appealed to in vain.
At a time when rural education was viewed with suspicion, and Mrs.
Hannah More was contending for the right of the poor to win knowledge,
she and her clever elder sister opened the first Sunday-school in the
neighbourhood. They also devoted several hours of every morning to
teaching in the village dame school.
The visit to France recorded in this diary extended from April 25th to
August 12th, 1821. Mary Browne went abroad when she was fourteen, with
her father and mother and five brothers and sisters, all but one being
younger than herself, and all being alike in their childish loyalty to
their own country, and their whole-hearted conviction that everything
un-English must be bad; and that even to admire anything foreign was
the blackest treason. Starting in this firm belief, they treasured up
everything ugly, eccentric, or uncouth that they came across in their
travels, as may be seen in the primitive but forcible illustrations of
her diary, with no dawning suspicion that, though different, foreign
customs might nevertheless be better than the familiar ways.
They travelled slowly, in two of their own carriages, being a party
of thirteen, including the six children, a governess, nurse, cook,
manservant, and courier.
The long journey; the brief sojourn at school; Madame Vernier, their
cross landlady; and, above all, the children's delight at finding
themselves again in their beloved England--these are all recorded with
a vivid and naive wealth of detail, which makes the child life of the
early days of the nineteenth century live again as we read of it.
The eldest daughter, Catherine, had been in France before with her
parents, in the spring of 1815, when Napoleon Buonaparte escaped from
Elba. They were then obliged to leave Paris hurriedly, travelling night
and day for fear of detention.
To all the other children everything was new and marvellous, and their
keen, though unconscious, delight in all that they saw is evident
throughout these pages.