Lady Winchilsea's poems were composed between 1683 and 1720, and

during this period she tried nearly all poetic forms. Songs, satires,

fables, tragedies, translations, are fully represented. She was

the most voluminous of the minor poets of her time, and in vigor

and scope she outranks most of them. But her literary importance

to-day rests not so much on the amount or variety of her work, as

on the fact that in an age of didacticism and satire she delicately

foreshadowed tastes that ruled in the romanticism of a century

later. It was her _Nocturnal Reverie_, with its minute accuracy of

observation, its sense of the mystery of nature and of the mystic

union between man and nature, that secured Wordsworth's praise,

gave her an honorable place in Ward's _English Poets_, and finally

established her in the heaven of literary fame as, in Mr. Gosse's

phrase, "a minor excelsitude."

In the present study quite other points are to be made concerning

Lady Winchilsea. She is particularly interesting when considered as

a heretic against certain prevailing social and educational ideals.

In the gay dissipations of court life under Charles II she maintained

a conception of life serious and even austere. In close association

with Mary of Modena and James II she yet maintained her devotion

to the Church of England. With the world of fashion flocking to

the comedies of the Restoration dramatists she yet condemned the

immoralities of the stage with the bitterness of a Jeremy Collier.

There was, then, in Lady Winchilsea an independence of judgment, a

stoutness of fiber in forming and defending her own views, which

would lead one to expect some trenchant remarks on the contemporary

attitude towards women. It is much to be regretted that the letters

of Lady Winchilsea, if any are extant, have never been published. Her

interests were so varied, her friendships so ardent, her hours of

country leisure so numerous, her pen so facile, that she must have

found, in what Anne Seward called "epistolary solicitudes," one

of the most convenient outlets for a spirit often kicking against

the pricks of social conventions, and her keenness of insight,

her caustic phrasing, would make her letters worth many pages of

pindarics. But in default of such letters we turn to the one prose

essay and to the poems. From scattered passages we can build up the

elements of her heresies. Though she loved her home and was the most

devoted of wives, she utterly rejected the _hausfrau_ theory of life.

She declared that she, at least, was never meant for "the dull manage

of a servile house." She asked little of her table except that it

should be "set without her care." Rich food and elaborate service

could be dispensed with, but leisure and a free mind she must have.

The frivolous occupations of the town lady, the endless discussions

of laces and brocades, the rivalries as to dishes and screens from

China, the gossip and ill-natured jests at fashionable tea-tables,

she found unendurable. Feminine accomplishments, such as embroidery,

amateurish drawing and painting, awakened her active hostility.

This definite rejection of all that ordinarily filled the feminine

mind, and a rejection, moreover, in the interests of books and

writing, of course made Ardelia the unhappy victim of many a sneer.

The attack on her by Pope and Gay, in _Three Hours after Marriage_,

in 1717, may be taken as an extreme example of the indignities to

which "a petticoat author" might be subjected, but there must have

been many lesser evidences of social disapproval or the irritating

theme would not so often recur in her poems. In "The Introduction"

she says:

Alas! a woman that attempts the pen,

Such an intruder on the rights of men,

Such a presumptuous Creature, is esteem'd,

The fault, can by no vertue be redeem'd.

They tell us, we mistake our sex and way;

Good breeding, fassion, dancing, dressing, play

Are the accomplishments we should desire;

To write, or read, or think, or to enquire

Would cloud our beauty, and exhaust our time,

And interrupt the Conquests of our prime.

She congratulates herself that she had at least had the good sense

to keep her rhymes a secret while at court, where a "Versifying

Maid of Honour" would have been looked upon "with prejudice, if not

with contempt." During a visit to London she heard the young gossip

Almeria describe a certain lady as "A Poetess! a woman who writes!

A common jest!" Conscious of her growing folio at Eastwell, Ardelia

resented the implied censure. What law, she asks, forbids women

to think? Women, she protests, are "Education's and not Nature's

fools." Ardelia had high praise from noted contemporaries and cordial

appreciation at home. But these did not avail to conquer her morbid

sensitiveness to criticism. She seemed to embody in herself two

warring tendencies, a demand for complete intellectual freedom and

the author's inevitable desire to spread his wares abroad, with the

shrinking modesty of the lady to whom any sort of publicity was

hateful.

The "Matchless Orinda," Lady Winchilsea tells us, was the model on

whom, from her early girlhood she formed herself. The first verses

she wrote were in honor of Orinda. By Orinda's example she justified

the efforts and aims of her own muse, but she is in no sense a

copyist. It was Orinda's fame as a noted and virtuous woman poet

that inspired her rather than any close study of Orinda's work. Lady

Winchilsea, in that small portion of her work on which her fame

rests, is very delicately and truly original. Her spirit reacted

against court life as definitely as did Anne Killigrew's, but she

found no satisfaction in satiric comment. She shrank from any sort of

contest. She argued and protested only when pushed to the wall. She

was shy and easily intimidated, and her best work does not come from

the heat of conflict or from bitterness of spirit. She is essentially

contemplative. The poems on which her fame rests blossomed out

quietly, exquisitely, under the gentle stimulus of a happy home life

in the midst of lovely natural surroundings. She is typically a

lady of letters because, without the spur of necessity, urged on by

no popular applause, she yet, for more than thirty years, made the

reading of books and the writing of books the central occupation of

her life.

[Sidenote: The Honorable Mrs. Monck (d. 1715)]

The honorable Mrs. Monck[212] was the daughter of Lord Molesworth, a

nobleman of Ireland. Mr. Ballard says of her learning: "She, purely

by force of her own natural genius, acquired a perfect knowledge of

the Latin, Italian and Spanish tongues: and by a constant reading of

the finest authors in those languages, became so great a mistress of

the art of poetry, that she wrote many poems for her own diversion."

In 1716, after her death, Lord Molesworth published her poems under

the title _Marinda. Poems and Translations on Several Occasions._ In

his dedication to Caroline, the Princess of Wales, he says that the

book represents the works of the leisure hours of a young gentlewoman

in a remote country solitude, with no assistance but that of a good

library, and with the daily care of a large family on her hands. In

commending her character he says, "I loved her more _because she

deserved it, than because she was mine_." Various slight poems show

Marinda's knowledge of Italian and Spanish. Better than all these

are two cleverly turned epigrams on "a lady of pleasure," and some

affecting farewell lines written in her last sickness to her husband.

Mrs. Monck's repute for learning comes largely by hearsay, her

printed memorials are slight and unimportant, but she nevertheless

gives an impression, elusive but real, of a most interesting

personality.

[Sidenote: Martha, Lady Giffard (1639-1722)]

Lady Giffard was Sir William Temple's sister. She was twelve years

younger than Dorothy. After her marriage and almost immediate

widowhood, in 1661, she made her home with the Temples. Her _Life

and Correspondence_ has been published by Mrs. Longe as a sequel to

the _Letters of Dorothy Osborne_. The volume contains letters from

Lady Chesterfield, from Lady Sunderland ("Saccharissa"), and others,

to Lady Giffard. The letters by Lady Giffard are few in number and

are all written to her niece Lady Berkeley, later Lady Portland, and

belong in the years 1697-1722. These letters have none of the sparkle

and humor and literary charm of Dorothy's. But we get indications

that Lady Giffard was a woman of intellectual interests. We find

her reading Turkish history daytimes with recourse to Virgil, "as

less exacting," for evenings. She knew Spanish and French, and one

of the specific items in her will is a bequest of the books she had

collected in these two languages.

[Sidenote: Sarah Byng, Mrs. Osborne (1693-1775)]

A third series of letters, published under the title _Political

and Social Letters of a Lady of the Eighteenth Century_, though

belonging later in the century, may be brought in here because they

carry on the series of Osborne letters. Sarah Byng, the daughter of

Admiral Byng, Viscount Torrington, married, in 1710, John Osborne

of Chicksands Priory, the old home of Dorothy and the place from

which she wrote most of her letters. Mr. John Osborne was Dorothy's

grand-nephew. He died in 1719 and his father in 1720, leaving to

Sarah Osborne an infant son, Danvers, the heir to the title and a

heavily burdened estate. Her letters fall in several series, the

first set from 1721 to 1739 being to her brother George on business

matters concerning the property. Most interesting are the letters

to Danvers from 1733 to 1751. When he came of age in 1736 she was

able to turn over to him an unincumbered estate, and on his marriage

in 1740 she superintended the establishment of the new household at

Chicksands. A third set of letters has to do with the sentence and

execution of her brother Admiral Byng, in 1757. Through the death of

the wife of Danvers in 1743 and the death of Danvers in 1750 Mrs.

Osborne was left with two grandsons to bring up, and her last letters

are to John, one of these grandsons, who was traveling in Holland.

Through two generations Mrs. Osborne bore heavy administrative and

financial burdens. She was both father and mother to her son, and

then to her grandsons. And she was left single-handed to conduct

the defense of her brother Admiral Byng. It is not strange that

the letters are frequently hurried and harassed in tone. She is

constantly vexed and baffled because, as a woman, she cannot conduct

affairs directly. Some man must be her intermediary. She lays plans,

foresees difficulties, writes explicit directions, and then she must

urge and cajole her representative to due interest and prompt action.

The especial interest in her letters is their abundant and exact

account of social life and especially of domestic economy. Energetic,

courageous, resourceful, keenly observant, and with a clear head for

business, Mrs. Osborne shows herself to be. Perhaps if we had her

letters before the burdens of life fell so heavily upon her we might

find some hint of the charm in Dorothy's letters, for even Dorothy's

letters after marriage became "tame and flat to what was before."

As it is, Mrs. Osborne's letters are valuable for scattered social

detail, not for any permanent charm of expression.

[Sidenote: Elizabeth Singer, Mrs. Rowe (1674-1737)]

Mr. Walter Singer, a dissenting minister of Frome, was early left a

widower with three daughters. Two of these daughters showed while

still young exceptionally good minds and a natural interest in

study. One daughter, who died at nineteen, was devoted to medicine

and collected books on that subject. Elizabeth preferred drawing and

poetry. She began drawing when her fingers could hardly hold the

pencil, and she squeezed out the juices of plants to make colors. Her

father furnished her an excellent master, and she attained sufficient

skill so that throughout her life her work was highly prized by

her friends. She also loved music "to excess." But poetry was her

chief delight. She began writing at twelve, and by the time she

was twenty-two she had on hand a store of verse so pleasing to her

friends that they insisted on its publication, and there accordingly

appeared a thin little volume in 1696 under the title _Poems on

Several Occasions. Written by Philomela._ The "Preface to the

Reader," by one Elizabeth Johnson, is another of many contemporary

indications of feminine irritation at the limitations imposed

upon them. Miss Johnson allows "Mankind the _Brutal Advantages of

Strength_," but when they "wou'd Monopolize _Sence_ too, when neither

that, nor Learning, nor so much as _Wit_" is granted the women, they

are forced to protest against such "_notorious_ Violations on the

_Liberties of Free-born English Women_." "This makes the _Meekest

Worm_ amongst us all, ready to turn agen when we are thus _trampled_

on; But alas! What can we do to _Right_ our selves? _stingless_ and

_harmless_ as we are, we can only _Kiss_ the _Foot_ that _hurts_

us." But it sometimes pleases Heaven to succor a distressed people

by sending them some bright genius, "an Epaminondas, a Timoleon,

a Nassaw." "Nor is our _Defenceless Sex_ forgotten--we have not

only _Banduca's_ and _Zenobia's_, but _Sappho's_, and _Behn's_, and

_Schurman's_, and _Orinda's_, who have _humbled_ the most haughty

of our Antagonists, and made 'em do Homage to our _Wit_, as well

as our _Beauty_." Miss Singer's consent to the publication of this

volume was gained only by a promise of strict anonymity, and the

"Philomela," then chosen as a pen-name through a naïve adaptation of

"Singer," became her permanent appellation.

One interesting fact with regard to these early poems is the

indication we have of a kind of poetical commerce maintained among

the members of a group of persons similarly inclined to verse.

Philomela writes a _Pindarick Poem on Habbakuk_ which she sends to

"The Athenians" and they respond with a poem beginning,

We yield! we yield! the Palm, bright Maid! be thine!

She sends a _Poetical Question_ to the Athenians and gets a long

answer. _The Vanity of the World_ and _The Wish_ are likewise

addressed to the Athenians and have similar responses. In a

_Pindarick to the Athenian Society_ she brings as "_Zealous

Tribute_," "The early products of a Female muse," praising especially

their piety and heroic sentiments and the courage with which they

have lashed the darling vices of the times.

A friendship so exalted and immense,

A _female breast_ did ne'er before commence.

A little poem in humorous vein, _To one that persuades me to leave

the Muses_, gives some account of her school-days. "I fairly bid

the Boarding Schools farewell," "Old Governess farewell with all my

heart," are lines indicative of her attitude.

Spite of her heart, _Old Puss_ shall damn no more

Great _Sedley's_ Plays, and never look 'em o're;

Affront my _Novels_, no, nor in a Rage,

Force _Dryden's_ lofty Products from the Stage,

Whilst all the rest of the _melodious crew_,

With the _whole_ System of _Athenians_ too,

For Study's sake out of the Window flew.

But I, to Church, shall fill her Train no more,

And walk as if I sojurn'd by the hour.

In like vein she bids adieu to "dancing days," singing lessons,

Japan work, and even her "esteemed Pencil," and vows to give herself

to poetry. And true it is that the rest of her life is mainly of

literary and pious significance. When young her beauty and charm had

resulted in "a train of lovers," but no one of them, not even Mr.

Prior, the poet, could lure her from her serene solitude--possibly

because she was "destined by heaven for the possession of another

gentleman." At any rate, she went smoothly on with her chosen

literary life till she was thirty-six, when she married Mr. Thomas

Rowe, thirteen years younger than herself, but of like tastes and

himself an author. Their extraordinarily happy life together was

brought to a close by his death in 1715, and, after this five years

of happiness, she spent the twenty-seven years of her widowhood

in a stricter solitude, a more absorbed religious communion, a

completer devotion to literary pursuits, than before her marriage.

Her essays, her poems, her letters, were the events of her life. She

had early come to know the family of Lord Weymouth at Longleate.

Mr. Thynne had taught her French and Italian; various members of

the family and various family events were celebrated in her verse.

She was on most intimate terms with the Countess of Hertford and

corresponded with her for many years. Over a hundred of her letters

to the Countess were published in _The Works of Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe

and Mr. Thomas Rowe_, and though they make dull and monotonous

reading now were highly esteemed at the time. In fact, the modest and

anonymous Philomela had great eighteenth-century vogue. She had the

friendship of many in the great world, she was abundantly praised

by poets and divines, and her works went through numerous editions.

Her husband said that she combined the fire and passion of Aphra

Behn with the chaste purity of Mrs. Katherine Philips. But Astræa's

passion underwent some strange alchemy when it was transmuted into

Philomela's religious ecstasy. Orinda's purity was fatal to the

combination. Yet Mrs. Rowe's "divine transports" have--Mr. Watts

admits it--sometimes a soft and passionate sound, even an amorous

note, capable of misinterpretation, but evidently reminiscent of

the _Songs of Solomon_, beloved of her youth. It was not an age for

enthusiasms and ecstasies. That her "flights" were so popular may

possibly be explained by the fact that through them all she was

curiously prosaic and intellectually commonplace.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Bland (1660?-1765?)]

Mr. Ballard speaks of "Mrs. Bland,[213] a Yorkshire gentlewoman so

well skilled in Hebrew that she taught it to her son and daughter."

Mrs. Bland was born about 1660 and married Mr. Nathaniel Bland in

1681. Her instructor in Hebrew was Lord Van Helmont from whom she

learned to write the language with great exactness. At the request

of Mr. Thoresby she wrote a Phylactery in Hebrew and presented it to

the Royal Society, where it was preserved among their curiosities.

Mr. Bland became Lord of the Manor at Beeston and Mr. Thoresby

visited him there. To the astonishment of the guest Martha Bland, the

young daughter of the house, was translating Hebrew into English,

having been taught by "that ingenious gentlewoman," her mother. Four

years later Mr. Thoresby took his son Ralph to see "Mrs. Bland,

the Hebrician." She had also studied Anglo-Saxon, for she borrowed

Elizabeth Elstob's book from Mr. Thoresby and kept it long enough to

copy out the grammar part.

[Sidenote: Miss Jane Barker (fl. 1688-1723)]

Miss Jane Barker is a literary lady whose productions belong in

two epochs. Her collected poems appeared in 1688 under the title

_Poetical Recreations: Consisting of Original Poems, Songs,

Odes, etc. With Several New Translations. In Two Parts, Part I.

Occasionally Written by Mrs. Jane Barker. Part II. By Several

Gentlemen of the Universities, and Others._ Twenty-seven years after

the publication of this verse Miss Barker again came before the

public, this time as a writer of romances which proved very popular.

They were collected under the title _The Entertaining Novels of Mrs.

Jane Barker_, and a second edition had appeared by 1719. In 1723 she

brought out _A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies; or Love and Virtue

Recommended: In a Collection of Instructive Novels. Related after a

Manner intirely New, and interspersed with Rural Poems, describing

the Innocence of a Country Life. By Mrs. Jane Barker, of Wilsthorp,

near Stamford, in Lincolnshire._[214]

The long silence between the verse of 1688 and the romances of

1715-26 is unbroken by any explanatory hint or reference. Yet Miss

Barker had but one story to tell and that was told in her youth. In

her novels she uses the characters, events, and emotions recorded in

her early verse. Under the form of a sustained narration, with the

addition of much in the way of romantic adventure, they make more

entertaining reading, but offer no essentially new elements. The

fifth novel, _Clodius and Scipiana_, is perhaps but an enlargement

of a romance entitled _Scipina_, which had been published and

concerning which she had received several congratulatory poems,

before 1688.[215]

One persistent element in Miss Barker's verse and prose is

autobiographic reference. Especially is this true of the poems,

_The Amours of Bosvil and Galesia_ and _A Patch-Work Screen_. From

these sources various facts emerge concerning Miss Barker's life and

personality.

She says that she was sent at first to the "Putney School," but

that she was taken home at about ten by her mother who had come to

consider such schools as "Academies of Vanity and Expense, no Way

instructive in the Rudiments of a Country Gentlewoman's Life." At

fifteen she was sent to London under the care of an aunt to learn

"Town Politeness."[216] Her father lived near Cambridge,[217] and

through her brother, a Cambridge man, she was well known in the

younger literary set at the University. The praise accorded her

verse was excessive. "Philaster" of St. John's hails her as the true

heiress of the great Orinda. To "C. G." she is the Elijah for whose

mantle meaner poets wait. "Exilius," also of St. John's, celebrates

the miracles of her Almighty Pen. "S. C." wonders to see men "tug at

Classic Oars" and "sweat over Horace" when along comes a lady who

without effort utters "well-shapt Fancy and true Digested Thought."

"Fidelius" rejoices to see "Physick and Anatomie done into purest

Verse." And "J. N.," Fellow of St. John's, praises her Scipina as

writ in lines,

More than Astrea's soft, more than Orinda's Chaste.

Another gentleman from St. John's said that she surpassed "the

Scaroons and Scudderies of France" and showed that England could

originate as well as translate.[218] Miss Barker was evidently in the

stimulating and unusual position of being the temporary literary idol

of an academic coterie.

There was a false lover in Miss Barker's early life who, as

"Strephon" in verse[219] and as "Bosvil" in prose,[220] is copiously

written up along with her own emotional experiences as "Galesia."

The most interesting portion of the affair has to do with Galesia's

original ways of reëstablishing her happiness. She found comfort in

contemplating the wonderful works of Creation.[221] She wandered

along shady paths, by little streams, and through the meadows. She

loved the early morning, the evening dews, the starry night sky.

There is no felicitous phrasing in the references to nature, but

the fact remains that Galesia found in nature a satisfaction and

sometimes an exaltation quite foreign to the heroines of her time.

Galesia's second resource is study. She says of this new occupation:

Finding myself abandon'd by _Bosvil_ and thinking it impossible

ever to love any Mortal more, resolv'd to espouse a Book, and

spend my Days in Study ... I imagin'd my self the _Orinda_ or

_Sapho_ of my Time. In order to this, I got my brother, who

was not yet return'd to Oxford,[222] to set me in the way to

learn my Grammar, which he really did, thinking it ... a Freak

without Foundation to be overthrown by the first Difficulty I

shou'd meet with in the Syntax, knowing it to be less easy to

make Substantive and Adjective agree, than to place a Patch or

Curl.[223]

Her indulgent brother, when he came back from his studies abroad,

also taught her medicine. With him she went on long "simpling"

excursions to gather flowers for the "large natural Herbal" they were

making. With him she read "Bartholine, Walæus, Harvey, his Circulatio

Sanguinis, and Lower's Motion of the Heart."[224] She learned to

write prescriptions, or "bills" as she called them, in Latin, with

the same "Cyphers and Directions as Doctors do," so that even the

apothecaries were misled and filled her "bills" with those of the

regular physicians.[225] She also ventured on something in the way

of practice and gained some repute for curing cases of gout given up

by the doctors.[226] She began to abandon the Muses for Paracelsus.

Or if she wrote poems the processes of digestion and the circulation

of the blood were her themes.[227] If the shackles of rhyme hindered

scientific accuracy of statement, she squared herself with facts by

abundant footnotes in which the proper Latin terminology was given

full scope. Her interest in medicine was a vital one. She even thanks

Strephon, through whose falsity she had been driven to study, and had

so gained a joy beyond "the sottish ease" that waits on love. In her

new love of learning she even took a vow of virginity:

In this happy life let me remain,

Fearless of twenty-five and all its train

Of slights or scorns, or being call'd Old Maid,

Those Goblings which so many have betray'd.[228]

Somewhat later Galesia gained a complete victory over her lovelorn

self by a most original and sensible method. She took entire charge

of her father's farm. She planned the work, hired the laborers,

superintended in person the occupations of each day, paid the wages,

and kept the accounts. The wholesome interests of each day and

equally wholesome fatigue at night left no intervals in which to

regret her lost lover.[229]

Galesia's recourse to hard study and responsible farm management

as a cure for a wounded heart sets her as a heroine in a class by

herself. She is so sensible and reasonable as to seem out of place

in a romance. It is therefore something of a surprise to find her

out-distancing the most sentimental in sighs and sobs and tears. Her

utterance in recounting the baseness of Bosvil, "It is fitting that I

should weep on all occasions," might serve as her permanent order of

business. "My sighs alternately blew up my Tears and my Tears allay'd

my Sighs" till "fresh Reflections rais'd new Gusts of Sorrow,"

describes her stormy woes. Sometimes she is able to restrain "the

briny Ebullition," but usually "a new Flux of Tears" breaks down all

barriers.

With the death of her brother the joy of Galesia's life went out.

Books and medicine lost their charm. Without his inspiring presence

all her occupations became insipid. Her view of learned women also

changed. She says a learned woman is as ridiculous as a spinning

Hercules; that books are as unfit for women as paint, washes, and

patches are for a man; that a studious woman and an effeminate man

may be classed together as out of their sphere. A learned woman is

"like a Forc'd Plant that never has its due or proper Relish but

is wither'd by the first Blast," or "like the Toad in the Fable,

that affected to swell itself as big as the Ox," and burst in the

enterprise.[230] This bitter view of learning comes only in the

novels, and probably indicates some unhappy experiences on Miss

Barker's part since the days when her muse was honored by the

University wits.

[Sidenote: Celia Fiennes (fl. 1691-1703)]

Celia Fiennes was the daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes and the

sister of the third Viscount Saye and Sele. The one book by which she

is known is _Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William

and Mary, Being the Diary of Celia Fiennes_, first published in 1888

by the Honorable Mrs. Griffith, to whom the original manuscript

was given by her father, the thirteenth Baron Saye and Sele. In

her interesting "To the Reader" Miss Fiennes explains that these

journeys were undertaken that she might regain her health by "variety

and change of aire and exercise"; that she picked up such information

as came in her way because her mind could not remain totally

unoccupied; and that she wrote down her observations merely for the

pleasure of her near relations, the manuscript not being designed for

more public use. She then proceeds to justify her travels:

Now thus much without vanity may be asserted of the subject,

that if all persons, both Ladies, much more Gentlemen, would

spend some of their tyme in Journeys to visit their native

Land, and be curious to Inform themselves and make observations

of the pleasant prospects, good buildings, different produces

and manufactures of each place, with the variety of sports and

recreations they are adapt to, would be a souveraign remedy to

cure or preserve ffrom these Epidemick diseases of vapours,

should I add Laziness?--it would also fform such an Idea of

England, add much to its Glory and Esteem in our minds and

cure the evil Itch of over-valueing fforeign parts; at least

ffurnish them with an Equivalent to entertain strangers when

amongst us, Or jnform them when abroad of their native Country,

which has been often a Reproach to the English, ignorance and

being strangers to themselves. Nay the Ladies might have matter

not unworthy their observation, soe subject for conversation,

within their own compass in each country to which they relate,

and thence studdy now to be serviceable to their neighbours

especially the poor among whome they dwell, which would spare

them the uneasye thoughts how to pass away tedious dayes, and

tyme would not be a burden when not at a card or dice table,

and the ffashions and manners of fforeign parts less minded

and desired.... But now I may be justly blamed to pretend to

give acc: of our Constitution, Customs, Laws, Lect, matters

farre above my Reach or capacity, but herein I have described

what have come within my knowledge either by view and reading,

or relation from others which according to my conception have

faithfully Rehearsed, but where I have mistaken in any form

or subject matter I easily submitt to a correction and will

enter such Erratas in a supplement annext to y^e Book of some

particulars since remark'd; and shall conclude with a hearty wish

and recommendation to all, but Especially my own Sex, the studdy

of those things which tends to Improve the mind and makes our

Lives pleasant and comfortable as well as proffitable in all the

Stages and Stations of our Lives, and render suffering and age

supportable and Death less fformidable and a future State more

happy.[231]

Miss Fiennes's separate journeys are not dated, but we know that

they began before 1691 because the earlier trips from her home at

Newtontony in Wiltshire to Bath, to Oxfordshire, to "Salsebury,"

were taken with her mother, and her mother died in 1691. The

description of the coronation of Queen Anne would indicate that the

travels extended beyond 1703. "My Northern Journey in May 1697"

was one of the most important of her travels. She thus records its

close: "Thence to Highgate 6 miles, thence to London 4 miles where

I returned and all our Company Blessed be God very well w^{th}out

any disaster or trouble in 7 weeks tyme about 635 miles that we went

together."[232] Cambridge, Ely, Peterborough, Nottingham, Lincoln,

Hull, and Scarborough, indicate their general route north. Encouraged

by the success of this difficult trip, Miss Fiennes determined upon a

still more hazardous enterprise. "My great Journey to Newcastle and

to Cornwall"[233] records a remarkable achievement. She went north to

Peterborough; then west to Chester; then north by way of Liverpool,

Preston, Lancaster, Kendall, Lake Windermere, Ambleside, Ulswater,

Penrith, Carlisle, and so over into the edge of Scotland; then east

to Newcastle; then southwest by Durham, Manchester, Worcester,

Exeter, Plymouth, Land's End; and finally home to Newtontony.

Arthur Young is famous for his English tours, but his travels

are nearly three quarters of a century later than those of Miss

Fiennes.[234] Gray's notable visit to the Lakes was in 1769. In

1756-1766 Amory, in his _Life of John Buncle_, described the Lake

Region, and as early as 1760 Dr. Brown wrote a letter praising the

Lakes. But Celia Fiennes's visit and description belong at the very

beginning of the century and confer upon her the honors belonging to

the pioneer. Her book has also a distinctive interest of its own.

I cannot forbear to quote her account of her journey through the

Westmoreland Hills:

Thence I Rode almost all the waye in sight of this great water

[Windermere], some tymes I lost it by reason of y^e great hills

interposeing and so a Continu'd up hill and down hill and that

pretty steep, even when I was in that they Called bottoms w^{ch}

are very rich good ground, and so I gained by degrees from Lower

to higher hills w^{ch} I alwayes went up and down before I came

to another hill. At last I attained to the side of one of these

hills or ffells of Rocks, w^{ch} I passed on the side much about

the Middle, for Looking down to the bottom it was at Least a Mile

all full of those Lesser hills and jnclosures, so Looking upward

I was as farre from the Top which was all Rocks, and something

more barren tho there was some trees and wood growing in y^e

Rocks and hanging over all down y^e Brow of some of the hills.

From these great ffells there are severall springs out of y^e

Rock that trickle down their sides, and as they meete with stones

and Rocks in the way, when something obstructs their passage and

so they Come with more violence, that gives a pleaseing sound

and murmuring noise.... As I walked down at this place I was

walled on both sides by those inaccessible high rocky barren

hills w^{ch} hangs over ones head in some places and appears very

terrible, and from them springs many Little Currents of water

from the sides and Clefts, w^{ch} trickle down to some Lower part

where it runs swiftly over the stones and shelves in the way,

w^{ch} makes a pleasant Rush and murmuring noise.[235]

Wordsworth's "And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of

waters," has here an interesting early statement. Of Ulswater, she

says:

I rode the whole Length of this water by its side, sometyme a

Little higher upon the side of the hill and sometyme just by the

shore.... I observed the boundaries of all these great waters

(which are a sort of deep Lakes or kind of standing waters) are

these sort of Barren Rocky hill w^{ch} are so vastly high. I Call

this a standing water because its not like other great Rivers as

y^e Trent, Severne, Hull or Thames, etc. to appear to Run w^{th}

a streame or Current but only as it Rowles from side to side Like

waves as the wind moves it.[236]

As a rule scenery is but slightly touched upon. Miss Fiennes's

interest was in roads, bridges, markets, dwellings and grounds,

churches; in the quality and price of food, in dress, in pictures and

furniture, in manners and customs; in pageantry, processions, and

ceremonials. Her description of the customs at Bath, of the funeral

of Queen Mary, of the Lord Mayor's Day in London, may be taken as

illustrative of her method of writing. Her manuscript was printed

_verbatim_, and that was, indeed, the only course to pursue. Any

attempt to correct or methodize, or modernize it, would result almost

in rewriting it. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a generation later, was

a keen observer of affairs in Turkey, but Miss Fiennes surpasses her

in fullness of detail. Nothing escapes her quick, accurate eye, her

sharply retentive memory, and her unwearied pen. The facts crowd

in upon each other with breathless haste. There is no such thing

as grace or melody or beauty of style. There is hardly anything

so tranquilizing as order and clearness. There is no time for any

personal reactions on the things seen. There is only here and there a

reflection, there are only the scantiest notes on people. But there

is an astounding assemblage of external facts, undiscriminating,

uninterpreted, unenlivened by a spark of emotion or imagination,

but, in their total effect, genuinely impressive. What energy, what

courage, what endurance, it required for a woman to make these

unusual and very difficult journeys! And yet at first reading the

dry, rapid, confused narrative is as uninspiring as a guidebook. It

is only gradually that we become conscious of the burning enthusiasm

that kept Miss Fiennes at her self-imposed task. She had the zeal

of a devotee with the intellectual method of a chronicler or maker

of inventories. But whatever may be the counts against her style,

there can be no deductions from the high estimate of her book as a

contribution to social history. And still more must it stand to her

credit that not only no other woman, but no man of her day knew so

much about England as did this earliest of the women travelers.

[Sidenote: Elizabeth Elstob (1683-1756)]

A lady who can in the strictest interpretation of the word be called

learned is Elizabeth Elstob. For this reason and because she is very

little known, I shall give as full an account as I have been able

to obtain. In Ballard's _Collection of Original Letters_, in the

Bodleian Library are several to him from Miss Elstob, and among them

is the following brief memoir of her life, in her own handwriting,

enclosed in a letter dated November 23, 1738:

Elizabeth Elstob, Daughter of Ralph and Jane Elstob,[237] was

born in the Parish of St. Nicholas, in New Castle upon Tyne,

September the twenty ninth, sixteen hundred and eighty-three.

From her childhood she was a great lover of books, which

being observed by her mother, who was also a great admirer of

learning, especially in her own sex, there was nothing wanting

for her improvement, so long as her mother lived. But being

so unfortunate as to lose her when she was about eight years

old, and when she had but just gone thro' her accidence and

grammar, there was a stop put to her progress in learning for

some years. For her brother being under age when her mother

died, she was under the guardianship of a relation, who was no

friend to women's learning, so that she was not suffered to

proceed, notwithstanding her repeated requests that she might,

being always put off with that common and vulgar saying that one

tongue is enough for a woman. However, this discouragement did

not prevent her earnest endeavours to improve her mind, in the

best manner she was able, not only because she had a natural

inclination to books herself, but in obedience to her excellent

mother's desire. She therefore employed most of her time in

reading such English and French books (which last language she

with much difficulty obtained leave to learn) as she could meet

with till she went to live with her brother, who very joyfully

and readily assisted and encouraged her, in her studies,

with whom she laboured very hard as long as she lived. In that

time she translated and published an Essay on Glory, written in

French by the celebrated Mademoiselle de Scudery, and published

an English-Saxon Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory, with an

English translation and Notes, etc. Also the Rudiments of Grammar

for the English-Saxon Tongue. She designed, if ill fortune had

not prevented her, to have published all Ælfrick's Homilies, of

which she made an entire transcript, with the various readings

from other manuscripts, and had translated several of them into

English. She likewise took an exact copy of the Textus Roffensis

upon vellum, now in the library of that great and generous

encourager of learning, the Right Honourable the Earl of Oxford.

And transcribed all the Hymns, from an ancient Manuscript

belonging to the Church of Sarum. She had several other designs,

but was unhappily hindered, by a necessity of getting her bread,

which with much difficulty, labour, and ill health, she has

endeavoured to do for many years, with very indifferent success.

If it had not been that Almighty God was graciously pleased to

raise her up lately some generous and good friends, she could not

have subsisted, to whom she always was, and will, by the grace of

God, be most faithful.[238]

[Illustration: ELIZABETH ELSTOB

From a drawing by herself engraved in an initial for her translation

of _The Pastoral of St. Gregory_, 1709, and used also in her

_Grammar_ in 1713]

The brother of whom Miss Elstob speaks was William Elstob, who was

ten years older than she. At eleven he was sent to Eton. At sixteen

he went to Cambridge, and later to Oxford, where he was finally, in

1696, elected fellow of University College. In 1702 he became rector

of the united parishes of St. Swithin and St. Mary Bothaw, in London,

where he died in 1715 at the age of forty-two. He was a highly

trained linguist, a great lover of antiquities, and one of the most

promising Anglo-Saxon scholars of his time. He apparently had liberal

sentiments concerning the education of women, so that as soon as his

sister came under his care all her desires for study were gratified.

Just when she went to Oxford is not certain, but it was probably

about the time he took his fellowship, when she was thirteen. She

gives the date of her entrance upon her Anglo-Saxon studies as 1698,

when she was fifteen. In that year her brother had made a transcript

of King Alfred's version of the Latin historian Orosius which he

designed to publish. She wished to understand it and says, "Having

gained the Alphabet, I found it so easy, and in it so much the

grounds of our present Language, and of a more particular Agreement

with some Words which I had heard when very young in the _North_, as

drew me to be more inquisitive after Books written in that Language."

Her brother was well pleased and recommended the _Saxon Heptatuch_.

From this she went on to other treatises, and finally began to

divert herself with taking transcripts of such ancient manuscripts

as she could find.[239] She proved to be particularly facile with

her pen. The copies she made of the old manuscripts were said to be

marvels in the way of beauty and accuracy of lettering. Her copy of

the _Textus Roffensis_ is described by Nichols as "one of the most

lovely specimens of modern Saxon writing that can be imagined." She

was well received in the University, for Mr. Rowe Mores speaks of

her as "the _indefessa comes_ of her brother's studies, a female

student in the University and a favourite of Dr. Hudson and the

Oxonians."[240] In 1702 she went with her brother to London and they

kept on in their work together with great eagerness and satisfaction.

There gradually grew up in Miss Elstob's mind a desire to translate

and publish some Anglo-Saxon manuscript. She was encouraged in this

not only by her brother, but by Dr. Hickes, "the great patron of

the Septentrional Studies," who said that by publishing somewhat in

Saxon she might invite "the ladies to be acquainted with the Language

of their Predecessors, and the Original of their Mother Tongue."

The text finally determined upon was the _Homily on the Birthday of

St. Gregory_. Dr. Hudson, "a man of so generous a mind as not to

discourage learning, even in the female sex," gave her access to the

ancient parchment Book of Homilies in the Bodleian. The book on St.

Gregory appeared in 1709 under the title, _An English-Saxon Homily on

the Birth-Day of St. Gregory: Anciently used in the English-Saxon

Church. Giving an Account of the Conversion of the English from

Paganism to Christianity. Translated into Modern English, with

Notes._ It was a stately and dignified volume with a full-page

engraving by Gribelin, and many engraved letters and head and tail

pieces. In the capital "G" of Gregory was a portrait of Miss Elstob

done by herself.[241] The Dedication to Queen Anne apologizes for

using a language so "out-dated and antiquated," a language which "few

Men and none of the other Sex have ventured to converse with" since

the time when it was the current speech. But she adroitly pays the

necessary compliment and at the same time recommends her theme, by

pointing out that Anglo-Saxon was the language in which the Pious

Progenitors of Queen Anne had received the Orthodox Faith of which

the Queen was the undoubted Defender. The Preface, sixty pages

long, is a learned account of the introduction of Christianity into

England. In the text the Saxon and English are in parallel columns,

and there is a brave apparatus of notes and comments. Following the

English-Saxon Homily is a Latin version by William Elstob which he

presents to his sister with the following Latin letter:

_Gulielmus Elistobius

ELIZABETHÆ

Sorori suæ carissimæ

S. D._

_Dum tu, soror mea dilectissima, Homiliæ Saxonicæ, de gentis nostræ

Conversione paras versionem Anglicam fæminis liberalibus: nonnulli

forte ex amicis nostris, tum Academicis tum aliis, Latinam postulant

hominibus eruditis. Id te velle accomodare venis ad me dicens, bene

autem posse negâsti. Verecundius sane id quam verius. Sed favendum

omnino verecundiæ, præsertim muliebri: maximè autem tuæ, cum in te

virtus illa sit notissima. Quare, quod poscis, dulcis & indefessa

studiorum meorum comes, do tibi Latinè. Non Ciceronianè, ut tu velis,

id est ornatè, at non ineptè tamen: iisdem ferè verbis repositis

quæ in Saxonica olim tansfusa, vel ex Turonensi Gregorio, vel tuo,

vel ex Beda nostrate, vel utroque Diacono, & Johanne & Paulo. Eadem

plane ratione, qua jam pridem Orosium à nobis elucubratum scis, & qua

Gregorii tui Curam Pastoralem, Deo favente, & adjutrice te, Eruditis

perlibenter darem. Vale._

_Kal. Jun._ MDCCIX.

The book was published by subscription and the list of subscribers

is an interesting one. We, of course, find the Anglo-Saxon scholars,

such as Mr. Thwaites[242] and Dr. Hickes, various Oxonians, the

Elstobs of Canterbury and Durham, and others who were in the same

religious or learned circles. Various letters to Ralph Thoresby[243]

show his interest. In March, 1708-09, she sent him the frontispiece

to the _Homily_ saying there would be other ornaments in the way of

borders and letters "which will make the book somewhat dear, but I

would willingly have it as beautiful as possible." In May, 1709,

she thanks him for procuring "so noble a number of encouragers"

to her work. Nearly half of the two hundred and sixty subscribers

are women. Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Lady Catharine Jones, Mary

Astell's friends, are there; and Lady Winchilsea's friends, the

Thynnes, the Worseleys, and the Thanets, but not Mary Astell or Lady

Winchilsea. The literary set--Pope, Swift, Gay, Addison, Steele--is

not represented. Women of title, clergymen, and scholars make up the

list.[244]

The Preface is of personal as well as learned interest. Miss Elstob

did not enter upon the career of authorship without an uneasy

recognition of the opprobrium she might bring upon herself by

aspirations so unfeminine. She was, in her own mind, fortified by

the elegant Latin treatise in which "Mrs. Anna Maria à Schurman,

that Glory of her Sex," had answered, with due scholastic form and

dignity, the usual objections made by Gentlemen to Women's Learning,

but in deference to the readers of her _Homily_ she felt the

necessity of a few words of self justification:

For first, I know it will be said, What has a Woman to do with

Learning? This I have known urged by some Men, with an Envy

unbecoming that greatness of Soul, which is said to dignify their

Sex.... Where is the Fault in Womens seeking after Learning? why

are they not to be valu'd for acquiring to themselves the noblest

Ornaments? what hurt can this be to themselves? what Disadvantage

to others? But there are two things usually opposed against

Womens Learning. That it makes them impertinent, and neglect

their household Affairs. Where this happens it is a Fault. But

it is not the Fault of Learning, which rather polishes and

refines our Nature, and teaches us that Method and Regularity,

which disposes us to greater Readiness and Dexterity in all

kinds of Business. I do not observe it so frequently objected

against Womens Diversions, that They take them off from Household

Affairs. Why therefore should those few among us, who are Lovers

of Learning, altho' no better account cou'd be given of it than

its being a Diversion, be deny'd the Benefit and Pleasure of it,

which is both so innocent and improving.... I shall not enter

into any more of the Reasons why some Gentlemen are so eager to

deny us this privilege: I am more surprised, and even ashamed, to

find any of the Ladies were more violent than they, in carrying

on the same charge. Who despairing to arrive at any eminent or

laudable degree of knowledge, seem totally to abandon themselves

to Ignorance, contenting themselves to sit down in Darkness, as

if they either had not Reason, or it were not capable by being

rightly cultivated, of bringing them into the Light.... Admit

a Woman may have Learning, is there no other kind of Learning

to employ her time? What is this Saxon? What has she to do with

this barbarous antiquated Stuff? so useless, so altogether

out of the way?... I fear, if things were rightly consider'd,

that the charge of Barbarity would rather fall upon those who,

while they fancy themselves adorn'd with the Embellishments

of foreign Learning, are ignorant, even to barbarity, of the

Faith, Religion, the Laws and Customs, and Language of their

Ancestors.[245]

It was inevitable that the learning in Miss Elstob's work should

be thought of by many as in reality the work of her brother. On

this point, towards the close of the Preface, she comments rather

ambiguously as follows:

I have been askt the Question, more than once, whether this

Performance was all my own? How properly such a Question may be

ask'd by those who know with whom I live, I shall not dispute:

But since some there are who may have a Curiosity to know the

same thing, who yet suspect the Decency of such a Question: that

they may be under no Uneasiness on this account, they may be

pleas'd to understand that I have a kind Brother, who is always

ready to assist and encourage me in my Studies. I might say much

of my Obligations on this account: wou'd he permit me to express

my self at large on that Subject. But as I think it no shame to

me to take any Advice where it may be so easily obtain'd: so I

should think it unpardonable to be guilty of such a Silence, as

might make me seem averse to all Acknowledgement.

After the publication of the _Homily on the Birthday of St.

Gregory_ Miss Elstob made a visit to Canterbury where her uncle

was prebendary. The number of Canterbury names in her list of

subscribers shows that her fame for learning had preceded her. She

was very favorably received, especially by some ladies of rank,

one of whom expressed a desire to study Anglo-Saxon under her

direction. In pursuance of this project Miss Elstob began at once

on the preparation of an _Anglo-Saxon Grammar_.[246] In 1715, when

the _Grammar_ finally appeared, Miss Elstob wrote thus in a Preface

addressed to Dr. Hickes:

I was more particularly gratified with the new Friendship and

Conversation, of a young Lady, whose Ingenuity and Love of

Learning is well known and esteem'd, not only in that Place,

but by yourself: and which so far indear'd itself to me, by her

promise that she wou'd learn the _Saxon Tongue_, and do me the

Honour to be my _Scholar_, as to make me think of composing an

_English Grammar_ of that Language for her use. That Ladies

Fortune hath so disposed of her since that time, and hath placed

her at so great distance, as that we have had no Opportunity,

of treating farther on this Matter, either by Discourse or

Correspondence. However, though a Work of a larger Extent, and

which hath amply experienced your Encouragement, did for some

time make me lay aside this Design, yet I did not wholly reject

it.... But considering the Pleasure I my self had reaped from

the Knowledge I have gained from this Original of our Mother

Tongue, and that others of my own Sex might be capable of the

same Satisfaction: I resolv'd to give them the Rudiments of that

Language in an English Dress.

The long Preface to the _Grammar_ is chiefly taken up with an

attack on John Brightland, author of the _Whole System of English

Education_, and other wise grammarians who had spoken lightly of

Anglo-Saxon and especially of the _Thesaurus_ of Dr. Hickes. One of

the aspersions cast by the gentlemen on their mother tongue was that

the Northern Languages "consist of nothing but _Monosyllables_,"

and Miss Elstob plunges into a lengthy defense of monosyllables

with so many quotations from English verse as to show that being

"mistress of eight foreign languages" did not prevent her from being

exceedingly well read in the poetical literature of her own tongue.

This portion of the Preface is followed by a diatribe against those

who consider the study of antiquities and of the Saxon tongue as

belonging to a lower order of mind, and not contributing to a "just

stile" as do the classics.[247] This topic, also, is illustrated by

literary characterizations so numerous and apt as to show wide and

discriminating reading in English prose.[248]

Miss Elstob was a redoubtable champion in the cause of Anglo-Saxon

learning. At the beginning of her career, in 1709, just as her

_Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory_ was coming from the press,

Swift had spoken of her as one of the Professors in the College of

Madonella, ascribing to her the publication of "two of the choicest

Saxon novels, which are said to have been in as much repute at Queen

Emma's Court, as the 'Memoires from the New Atalantis' are with those

of ours."[249] This disparaging allusion may have predisposed Miss

Elstob to answer Swift with exceptional energy when he ranged himself

with the scorners of Anglo-Saxon learning. In 1737 Mr. Ballard, in

expressing surprise at the appearance of some new opponent of Saxon,

wrote: "Indeed I thought that the bad success Dean Swift had met

with in this affair from the incomparably learned and ingenious Mrs.

Elstob, would have deterred all others from once opening their mouths

on this head."[250]

The _Homily_ and the _Grammar_ gave Miss Elstob, at thirty-two,

a distinguished place in the world of scholarship. She had also

shown unusual skill with her pencil. Not only were her transcripts

of manuscripts noted for their beauty, but she also drew admirable

portraits. In 1737 Mr. Ballard wrote Mr. Joseph Ames:

I design, if possible, to make a tour to London this Winter, just

to peep upon a few choice friends, and will bring Miss Elstob's

Life of her Brother along with me, to pleasure you with. But you

must be silent in the affair, for some particular reasons not

proper here to be mentioned. Besides the above mentioned _Life_,

I have a dozen pieces of this fine accomplished gentlewoman's

drawings, amongst which are pictures of herself, Dr. Hickes, Mr.

Dryden, and Johannes Ogilvius, etc. very masterly done, and, as I

am told, very extraordinary true likenesses.[251]

We get no further completed work from Miss Elstob after the _Grammar_

of 1715, but the six years between the _Homily_ and the _Grammar_

were rich in study and plans. In February, 1708-09, Mr. Thoresby

wrote to Dr. Richardson:

Amongst the Authors, I might have mentioned some of the female

sex; as the Bishop of Sarum's lady, and Miss Elstob; the former

has writ a Method of Devotion, the latter translated a piece of

Mons. Scudery from the French, and added some of her own: and is

for giving us a more correct Edition of Sir John Spelman's Saxon

Psalms, in which tongue she is a great proficient, and has writ

that in my Album, etc.[252]

The "work of larger extent" for which Miss Elstob temporarily

set aside her _Grammar_ was the proposed publication of a Saxon

Homilarium with English translations and notes. That this Homilarium,

which was to have been her great work, was well under way by 1712 is

indicated by the following letter, December 23, 1712, from Dr. Hickes

to Dr. Charlett:

I suppose you may have seen Miss Elstob, sister to Mr. Elstob,

formerly fellow of your Coll. and the MSS. she hath brought

to be printed at your press. The University hath acquired

much reputation and honour at home and abroad, by the Saxon

books printed there, as well as by those printed in Latin and

Greek, and the publication of the MSS. she hath brought (the

most correct I ever saw or read) will be of great advantage to

the Church of England against the Papists; for the honour of

our Predecessors the English Saxon Clergy, especially of the

Episcopal Order, and the credit of our country to which Miss

Elstob will be counted abroad as great an ornament in her way,

as Madam Dacier is to France. I do not desire you to give her

all encouragement, because I believe you will do it of your own

accord from your natural temper to promote good and great works.

But I desire you to recommend her, and her great undertaking to

others, for she and it are both very worthy to be encouraged, and

were I at Oxford, I should be a great solicitor for her. And had

I acquaintance enough with Mr. Vice-Chancellor I had troubled him

with a letter in her behalf. I will add no more but to tell you

that the news of Miss Elstob's encouragement at the University

will be very acceptable to me, because it will give her work

credit here, where it shall be promoted to the utmost power

by your Philo-Sax. and Philo-Goth. and most faithful, humble

Servt.[253]

In February, 1713, Bedford wrote to Mr. Hearne: "I am to desire y^o

from him to give all y^e assistance & encouragement y^o can to Mrs.

Elstob's work, who is now going down to y^e University again ab^t

it."[254] Mr. Hearne responded in March: "I wish Mrs. Elstob good

success. Tho' if she meet with no better Encouragement here than I

have done as yet 't will not be great."[255]

In the same year Mr. Bowyer printed "Some Testimonies of Learned Men

in favour of the intended edition of the _Saxon_ Homilies, concerning

the learning of the author of those Homilies, and the advantages to

be hoped from an edition of them."[256] And three letters from Miss

Elstob to the Lord Treasurer show that he solicited and obtained the

Queen's Bounty towards printing the _Homilies_.[257]

In spite of all this encouragement the publication of the

_Homilies_ hung fire for many months. It is possible that the

death of Mr. Elstob and of Dr. Hickes in 1715 delayed matters by

depriving Miss Elstob of able advocates and counselors. In July,

1716, Sir P. Sydenham indicates his concern that the book had not

yet appeared.[258] In November of that year Mr. T. Baker writes

apologetically to Mr. Hearne that he is "deep in M^{rs}. Elstob and

Mr. Strype," and that the work does not admit of haste.[259] Later in

the same month Mr. Hearne gives the cheering news that "Mrs. Elstob's

book is going on at last."[260] But only five of the _Homilies_ were

actually printed off at Oxford.[261] The great scheme failed for want

of money. Miss Elstob's own fortune was apparently involved, for in

1718 Mr. T. Baker wrote to Hearne that Miss Elstob was "lately gone

off for debt."[262]

Except these few facts concerning the _Homilies_ very few details are

known concerning Miss Elstob's life after 1715. Bishop Smalridge[263]

aided her for a time, but she could not endure the thought of

being a burden on her friends, and she finally went to Evesham,

Worcestershire, where she started a little school. Mr. Tindale,

in his _History of Evesham_, says that he was credibly informed

that her weekly stipend in this school was at first but a groat a

week. She was in this very contracted and difficult way of life for

nearly twenty years. When relief came it was as the result of the

efforts of an obscure young Anglo-Saxon scholar, Mr. George Ballard,

a lady's-stay-maker, who became acquainted with Miss Elstob and

described her situation so effectively to one of his customers, a

Mrs. Chapone, that this lady wrote a circular letter representing

Miss Elstob's extensive learning, her service to literature, her

multiplied distresses, her meekness and patience, and sent it to

the neighboring gentry. An annuity of twenty guineas was raised,

and Miss Elstob was enabled to keep an assistant so that she could

again "taste of that food of the mind from which she had been so long

oblig'd to fast."

Another result of Mrs. Chapone's letter was a possible appointment

for Miss Elstob as mistress of a charity school kept up by Lady

Elizabeth Hastings. With regard to this plan Miss Elstob wrote the

following very interesting letter to Mr. George Ballard:

Since you desire to know if I have accepted Mrs. Capon's

proposal, I do, though I am very sensible it is not commendable

to expose a private correspondence, venture to communicate to

so good a friend, a copy of the worthy gentleman's letter, sent

her in answer to her vastly kind recommendation of me, and the

charming letter she sent to me. In answer to hers, after I had

received your answer, I assured her of my readiness to serve that

excellent lady, as far as lyes in my power. But there are some

things to be taught in such a school, which I cannot pretend to:

I mean, the two accomplishments of a good housewife, spinning

and knitting. Not that I would be thought to be above doing any

commendable work proper for my sex; for I have continually in my

thoughts the glorious character of a virtuous woman, Proverbs

XXXI, 13; "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with

her hands." And as an instance of the truth of this, the gown

I had on when you gave me the favour of a visit was part of it

my own spinning, and I wear no other stockings but what I knit

myself: yet I do not think myself proficient enough in these arts

to become a teacher of them. As to your objection on the meanness

of the scholars, I assure you, Sir, I should think it as glorious

an employment to instruct those poor children, as to teach the

children of the greatest. But I must tell you that mine may be

termed a life of disappointments from my cradle till now, nor

do I expect any other while I live. This, and hearing no more

of that affair, makes me think her ladyship is provided with a

mistress before now, there being many more deserving than myself,

that are in want of such an employment. Nor do I repine; for I am

so inured to disappointments, that I expect nothing else, and I

receive them with as much easiness as others do their greatest

prosperity.... I often compare myself to poor John Tucker, whose

Life I read when a girl in Winstanley's Lives of the Poets, which

affected me so much that I cannot forget it yet. He is there

described to have been an honest, industrious, poor man, but,

notwithstanding his indefatigable industry, as the author writes,

"no butter would stick on his bread."[264]

The Mrs. Chapone who wrote the circular letter concerning Miss Elstob

was Sarah Kirkham, an intimate girlhood friend of Mary Granville,

afterward Mrs. Pendarves, but better known as Mrs. Delany. Sally

Kirkham is described by Mrs. Delany as a girl of "extraordinary

understanding, lively imagination, and humane disposition," of

"uncommon genius and intrepid spirit." In 1725, at the age of

twenty-four she married the Reverend John Chapone, and they went to

live in Stanton, Gloucestershire, and little more is heard of her

until the writing of this letter before 1734. Mrs. Chapone meant the

letter for the neighboring gentry, but it finally reached a more

distinguished audience. Mrs. Pendarves writes:

I told you in my last I had left Sally's letter with Mrs. Pointz.

She gave it to her husband, who desired the Duke to read it to

the Queen. The Queen was so touched with the letter that she

immediately sent for Mrs. Pointz, to inquire into some more

particulars about the person mentioned in it, _and the person

who wrote it_. Mrs. Pointz said she knew no more than what the

letter told, but that Mrs. Chapone was a friend of ours. The

Queen said she never in her life read a better letter, that it

had touched her heart, and ordered immediately an hundred pounds

for Mrs. Elstob, and said she "need never fear a necessitous

old age whilst she lived, and that when she wanted more to ask

for it, and she should have it." I think this was acting like a

queen, and ought to be known.... I hope this may be the means of

serving our friend Sally, the letter was the whole discourse of

the drawing-room. The Queen asked the Duke "When he should be

able to write such a letter." He answered, honestly, "Never."

Mrs. Pointz has asked many particulars about Mr. Chapone, and I

did him justice.[265]

Queen Caroline's interest was so genuinely aroused that she not only

ordered the £100 to be at once sent to Miss Elstob, but promised to

repeat the same every five years. This was evidently with the idea

that she should be taken from the little school at Evesham and put

into her proper station as "mistress of a boarding-school for young

ladies of a higher rank." Such might have been the outcome had not

the money lapsed with the death of the Queen in 1737.

All plans for Miss Elstob seemed to end in failure till "Sally's

historical epistle," as Mrs. Pendarves called it, was sent to the

Duchess of Portland at Bulstrode.[266] The result in this case was

of permanent value, for Miss Elstob was invited by the Duchess to

make her home at Bulstrode as instructor of the children. Of this

appointment Mrs. Pendarves wrote, December 12, 1738, to her mother:

The Duchess has now a thousand fears, lest my Lord and Lady

Oxford should have any objections against taking her, but I

hope they will all prove false.... Mrs. Elstob seems, out of

modesty and diffidence of herself, to decline coming, but it

would be most imprudent of her to decline such an offer, when no

fatigue will be imposed upon her, but all imaginable care will

be taken of her. I own I long to have _you see her_, that I may

really know what sort of woman she is. My Lord Oxford objects

to her not speaking French, but the Duchess answers she shall

have a master for that, or a maid to talk, and all she requires

and hopes of Mrs. Elstob is to instruct her children in the

principles of religion and virtue, to teach them to speak, read,

and understand English well, to cultivate their minds as far as

their capacity will allow, and to keep them company in the house

and when her health and strength will permit to take the air with

them. All this she is surely well qualified to do, and it would

be a sincere joy to me to have our worthy Duchess possest of so

valuable a person.[267]

Ten days later Mrs. Pendarves wrote again from Bulstrode:

The Elstobian matter is _quite fixed_, and she expressed the

utmost satisfaction at having secured such a worthy woman to

educate her children; I wrote last post to Mrs. Elstob to tell

her that the Duchess looked on her as engaged to her, and that

her salary should begin on Xmas Day next, though she could not

conveniently take her into her family till Midsummer. I hope

she will write to the Duchess, and suppose she will of course;

I gave her a little hint but would not have it mentioned that

I did.... I think your advice to Mrs. Elstob quite right about

_paying debts_; a person of such principles as hers cannot enjoy

any advantages without doing that justice when it is in her power

to do it.[268]

In August, 1739, Miss Elstob was in Evesham and several times met her

benefactor, Mrs. Chapone, of whom she gives a lively picture showing

that letter-writing was not Mrs. Chapone's only title to fame. Miss

Elstob writes:

The last time she was here, I had an exceeding pleasure,

though not without some concern, at hearing a long and _warm_

dispute between that charming woman, and Mr. Ben Seward, on

some methodistical notions, in which it was by better judges

than myself agreed that the _female_ antagonist had _much the

advantage over him_.[269]

Miss Elstob spent the remaining seventeen years of her life with

the Duchess of Portland. They were comfortable, leisurely, studious

years, a delightful haven after her twenty years of hardship, penury,

and intellectual starvation. But she was fifty-six when she went to

Bulstrode, and the ease and security of her life there came too late

to rouse into life the mental activity so long dormant. Miss Elstob's

real life was the twenty years with her brother, years of plain

living and high aspirations while they worked together in the realms

of pure scholarship. It would be difficult to find a more satisfying

example of literary comradeship than that offered by the learned

young curate and the learned young sister, the "_dulcis & indefessa

comes_" of his studies.[270]

[Sidenote: Elizabeth Blackwell (fl. 1739)]

In 1739 Mrs. Elizabeth Blackwell published in two folio volumes _A

Curious Herbal, containing Five Hundred Cuts, of the most useful

Plants, which are now used in the Practice of Physick, engraved

on folio Copper Plates, after Drawings taken from the Life, by

Elizabeth Blackwell. To which is added, a short Description of the

Plants and their common Uses in Physick. Printed for John Nourse at

the Lamb without Temple Bar._ The first of these magnificent volumes

is dedicated to the famous Dr. Richard Mead, "Physician to Kings," as

the one who first advised the publication of the work. The dedication

of the second volume is to Isaac Rand, an apothecary and Fellow of

the Royal Society, and Curator of the Botanical Garden at Chelsea, as

the one to whom she went for assistance in all difficult botanical

questions. The short descriptions of the plants were taken mainly

from Mr. Joseph Miller's _Botanicum Officinale_ with his consent. She

lived near the Botanical Garden and made all her drawings from life.

She also etched them on copper, and colored them herself. The book

received high recognition. Much of the work must have been done by

1735, for on October 1 of that year the following testimonial, now

one of the title-pages, was written:

We whose names are underwritten, having seen a considerable

Number of the Drawings from which the Plates are to be engraved,

and likewise some of the Coloured Plants, think it a Justice done

the Publick to declare our Satisfaction with them, and our good

Opinion of the Capacity of the Undertaker.

R. Mead, M.D.

G. L. Tessier, M.D.

Alexander Stuart, M.D.

Ia. Douglas, M.D.

James Sherard, M.D.

W. Cheseldon

Joseph Miller

Isaac Rand

Rob. Nicholls

This statement was repeated in French and the names again signed.

A further endorsement on the completion of the book was dated July 1,

1737. It is as follows:

_Imagines hasce Plantarum Officinalium per Dominam Elizabetham

Blackwell delineatas ceri incisas & depictas, iis qui Medicinæ

Operam dant, perutiles fore judicamus._

Thomas Pellet, Præs.

Henricus Plumptre }

Richardus Tyson } _Censores_.

Peircuis Dod }

Gulienius Wasey }

In 1757-73 there was a fine republication of the work in Nuremberg

with an addition of a hundred plants, and a highly laudatory Preface.

The work was recognized at once as of great practical value because

of the accuracy of the drawings and the large number of plants

represented. The charm of the plates is beyond question so far as

delicacy of outline and beauty of coloring are concerned. They are

superior to the plates in Darwin's _Botanic Garden_, nearly half a

century later. The Blackwellia race of plants was named after Mrs.

Blackwell in recognition of her admirable work.[271]

Mrs. Blackwell is herself an enigma. She emerges into public

notice for three years, but her life before and after sinks into

obscurity. She was said to be "a virtuous gentlewoman, daughter of

a worthy merchant," who gave her a handsome portion. Her husband

was Alexander Blackwell, a printer. He was a well-educated and able

man, but generally counted an adventurer. He at one time entered

upon a project of conducting a printing establishment of his own.

His failure in this landed him in a debtor's prison where he was

confined several years. Mrs. Blackwell's _Herbal_ was made by her for

the purpose of securing his release. He is said to have aided her in

the foreign terminology and in the abridgments from Miller. When he

was free her object was accomplished and we hear of no further work.

It would be interesting to know how she came to have so much skill.

It would be more interesting to know the psychology of her prompt

abandonment of work by which she won both fame and money, and in

which she took such evident delight.[272]

[Sidenote: Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper (fl. 1735-40)]

It is to be regretted that so few facts are accessible concerning

Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper. Her works seem to offer interesting points

of departure for investigation into her life and education, but

we know little about her except that her literary ventures belong

between 1735 and 1740. She was the wife of Thomas Cooper,[273] who

was either an auctioneer or a book-seller, or possibly both, and she

was married before 1735. Beyond these meager facts our knowledge of

her must be gleaned from her books. Apparently her first literary

venture was a comedy. It was entitled _The Rival Widows; or, the Fair

Libertine_, and was brought out at the Covent Garden Theater in 1735.

It had a successful run of nine nights. Baker says that "allowing for

the too common freedom of female dramatists, this is far from a bad

comedy."[274] Genest, after briefly outlining the play and commenting

on various passages that seem to him borrowed from preceding

dramatists, says: "It is on the whole a tolerable play, but it wants

incident sadly." But he does not agree with Baker as to the moral

tone of the play, for he says of Lady Bellair, the heroine, "Lady

Bellair is gay and extravagant, but of good principles at bottom ...

it is with much impropriety that she is called a Fair Libertine--she

is only above vulgar prejudices."[275] In her preface to the play

Mrs. Cooper says that it was designed "an Offering to the Sex" in

that the chief character is a woman "capable of thinking for herself,

and acting on the principles of Nature and Truth." Some indications

of the characteristics of Lady Bellair may be found in the fact that

Mrs. Horton was chosen to create the part. Millamant in Congreve's

_Way of the World_, Lady Dainty in Burnaby's _The Reform'd Wife_,

Lady Betty Modish in Cibber's _Careless Husband_, and Lady Townly in

his _Provoked Husband_, were the parts in which Mrs. Horton's beauty

and her elegance of dress and manner found their fitting opportunity.

Lady Bellair belongs evidently to this class of fine lady coquettes,

and a further point of interest concerning Mrs. Cooper is that on her

benefit night she herself played the part of Lady Bellair. Either

Mrs. Cooper had already shown enough ability as an amateur actress to

warrant her appearance on the stage of one of the leading theaters,

or she was well enough known as a writer or as a personality to make

her presence in the cast a drawing card. That she could venture

on the inevitable comparison with Mrs. Horton may indicate some

possibilities in the way of her own attractive qualities. And it is

to be further noted that she "unexpectedly and surprizingly" eclipsed

Mrs. Horton. The _Prompter_ endeavors to explain Mrs. Cooper's

success by saying that she "looked" the character and represented

with great "naturalnes," the somewhat bold and libertine heroine.[276]

Mrs. Cooper's second dramatic attempt was a tragedy which was not

successful. It was acted but one night and was never printed.

This theatrical work was, however, only on the fringe of Mrs.

Cooper's real interest. In 1737 she published a book entitled _The

Muses Library; Or, a Series of English Poetry, from the Saxons, to

the Reign of King Charles II containing, The Lives and Characters of

all the known Writers in that Interval, the names of their Patrons;

Complete Episodes, by way of Specimen of the larger Pieces, very

near the intire works of some, and large Quotations from others.

Being a General Collection of almost all the old valuable Poetry

extant, now so industriously enquir'd after, tho' rarely to be found,

but in the Studies of the Curious, and affording Entertainment

on all Subjects, Philosophical, Historical, Moral, Satyrical,

Allegorical, Critical, Heroick, Pastoral, Gallant, Amorous, Courtly

and Sublime._ But one volume of this projected work was published.

The early Georgian public was not trained to an interest in the

past. Mrs. Cooper suffered the not infrequent fate of pioneers.

There was even difficulty in working off one edition of the first

volume, as is evident from its appearance in 1738 and 1741 with

changed title-pages.[277] That Mrs. Cooper expected to publish the

second volume, including the poets from Samuel Daniel to the time of

Charles II, is shown not only by the statement in her Preface, but

by interesting notes in the _Diary of William Oldys_ (1696-1761),

the famous antiquary. In 1736 he was in London employed in seeing

through the press a new edition of Raleigh's _History of the World_.

His Chambers were in Gray's Inn and he was frequently consulted

there "on obscure and obsolete writers by eminent men of letters."

Two of the people in whom he was particularly interested were Thomas

Hayward, who was compiling his _British Muse_, and Mrs. Cooper. In

his _Diary_ are the following records:

1737, June 22. Mrs. Cooper came to my chambers: said she would

return Puttenham's _Art of Poesy_, Browne's _Pastorals_, and Sir

Henry Wotton, when she had finished her extracts for the second

volume of her _Muses' Library_ to be published by Christmas.

July 4, Monday. Returned Sir T. More's works: some of his English

poetry therein might be for Mrs. Cooper's work, or Mr. Haywards,

on Fortune, etc.

Aug. 13. Rec'd letter from Mrs. Cooper to borrow old Marlowe's

poem of _Hero and Leander_ for the continuation of her _Muses'

Library_; sent by the servant a very scarce collection of old

poetry, called _The Paradise of Dainty Devices_, in which are

several pieces by the old Lord Vaux in King Henry the Eighth's

time, the Earl of Oxford, Sir W. Raleigh, Mr. Edwards, Jasper

Haywood, Hunis, Churchyard, Kinwelmarsh, Lloyd, Whetstone, etc.,

printed 4^o. 1578. To borrow one of Caxton's books of Sir Hans

Sloane and remember to apply the story of Absyrtus in the preface

for Mr. Hayward's Collection of select thoughts from our old

poets.[278]

Mrs. Cooper frequently comments on the difficulty and expense of

gathering material for her enterprise and gratefully acknowledges

"the generous Assistance of the Candid Mr. Oldys." Biographical data

were also obtained only through most patient effort. The only _Lives

of the Poets_ to which she could have access were Wood's _Athenæ

Oxoniensis_ and the works of Phillips, Winstanley, and Jacob. Edward

Phillips's _Theatrum Poetarum_ appeared in 1675. Its first volume

gave brief biographical and critical notes on sixty-four authors from

Robert of Gloucester to George Chapman, thus covering about the same

ground as Mrs. Cooper's first volume which closes with Samuel Daniel.

William Winstanley's _Lives of the English Poets_ was published

in 1687. It includes notes on poets from William the Conqueror to

James II with occasional brief illustrative extracts. _The Poetical

Register_ of Giles Jacob (1724) is, in the first volume, confined to

dramatists and is based on Langbain. The second volume, _The Lives

and Characters of the English Poets_, extends about a century and a

quarter later than Mrs. Cooper's volume. In the period before 1600

about half the names in her volume are included and briefly commented

on. Jacob also gives an occasional extract.

Mrs. Cooper was not, then, without predecessors in her undertaking.

The novelty in her book was her assumption that people would not

only like to know about the old poets, but that there would be

many lovers of literature who would rejoice in reading the old

poems, and very nearly in their original antiquated form. She gives

ten pages from Langland, eleven from Barclay, twenty-eight from

Sackville, twenty-four from Churchyard, thirty-five from Fulke

Greville, thirty-one from Fairfax, and so on. Chaucer, Spenser, and

Shakespeare are less fully represented, as being already well known.

The selections are the result of wide reading and are made because

they pleased Mrs. Cooper's own taste. "What has given me Pleasure in

my Closet," she says, "I have undertaken to recommend to the Publick;

not presuming to inform the Judgment, but only awaken the Attention."

That she failed to "awaken Attention" was the fault of the age. Her

selections were representative and interesting.

Mrs. Cooper's book shows not only wide research and a full knowledge

of extant criticism, but it also manifests a personal zest in reading

and an unusual independence of literary judgment. This independence

is shown in her choice of authors. Phillips, Winstanley, and Jacob

had omitted Langland, but she says, "In my Judgment, no Writer,

except _Chaucer_, and _Spenser_, for many Ages, had more of real

Inspiration." Or take the case of Lydgate. Phillips mentions him, but

not, apparently, from any personal knowledge of his work. Winstanley

and Jacob praise him highly. Mrs. Cooper says of him: "Many Authors

are so profuse in his Praise as to rank him very little below his

Master, and, often, quote them together; which rais'd my Curiosity so

high, that I gave a considerable Price for his Works, and waded thro'

a large Folio, hoping still to have my Expectation gratified....

But I must, either confess my own want of Penetration, or beg leave

to dissent from his Admirers." She gives a long quotation from

Lord Brook's _A Treatise of Humane Learning_, because his name has

"never yet received the Honours it deserved." She is indignant at

the general indifference to the work and fame of Edward Fairfax and

writes a eulogy of several pages. Her comments on Chaucer, Spenser,

and Shakespeare are brief, since all agree on their preëminence.

Mr. Lounsbury, after noting one or two errors in the book, says of

it: "I know of no similar work produced at that period in which the

knowledge displayed is so accurate and comprehensive, or the critical

estimates so uniformly good and just. There was exhibited in it

not merely freshness of judgment but the independence that springs

from the study of writers at first hand."[279] Mrs. Cooper had in

her the making of a scholar. She allowed herself no generalities.

Whatever she said was based on a thorough study of the material under

discussion. Furthermore, she acquainted herself with all extant

critical opinion without thereby losing the power to form an opinion

of her own.

Mrs. Cooper's Preface is an excellent, even an eloquent, piece

of writing, in justification of poets as a nation's glory. She

recognizes that "Merit is not its own Preservative" and wishes in

her book to set up if possible "a Bulwark which shall preserve Merit

from the attacks of Time." She considers her "SERIES OF POETRY (which

has never been aim'd at anywhere else) ... one of the most valuable

collections that ever was made publick." She has no apologies to

make. In introducing to the moderns this august company of ancient

poets she is saved from any possible self-consciousness by the

dignity of her enterprise. The same tone pervades her Dedication. No

single name is glorious enough to appear at the head of her list.

She chooses rather a dedication to "the truly Honourable Society for

the Encouragement of Learning."[280] That Society was then in the

hey-day of its brief glory. Mrs. Cooper had, apparently, no thought

of personally benefiting by her Dedications. On the contrary she

counted this an opportunity to express what all authors and lovers

of literature must feel towards a design "so great, seasonable, and

humane" as that of this new organization, a design applauded by "all

who have Generosity, Benevolence or Politeness."

As dramatist and actress Mrs. Cooper would deserve at least passing

mention, but as a scholar, as an ardent advocate of early English

poetry, she must take high rank, not only among the learned women,

but also among the learned men of her day.

[Sidenote: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762)]

No woman of the first half of the eighteenth century had a more

active mind or facile pen than Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Although

almost none of her work appeared in print in her lifetime, her

personality made its own way, and she was early recognized as of note

for genius and learned acquirements. It is, therefore, of especial

interest to inquire into the particulars of her education, and to

find out her status as a woman of letters.

The materials for such an inquiry are fairly abundant, and are

mainly: her miscellaneous letters, first published in 1803; a

fragmentary autobiographical romance, of which she says "not a

sillable" except the names is feigned; and the _Introductory

Anecdotes_ by her granddaughter, Lady Louisa Stuart,[281] included

in Lady Mary's _Letters and Works_ brought out by Lord Wharncliffe,

her great-grandson, in 1887. The important groups of letters

containing personal details are those written to Mr. Montagu from

about 1709 till their marriage in 1712, and the very large group to

her family and friends, chiefly to Lady Bute, her daughter, during

Lady Mary's stay in Italy from 1739 to 1761.

Lady Mary's mother died when she was eight, and her father, too much

a man of pleasure to trouble himself with the education of girls,

gave his three young daughters into the care of "an old governess,

who, though perfectly good and pious, wanted a capacity for so great

a trust."[282] In commenting on the evil effects of an ignorant

education, Lady Mary said: "My own was the worst in the world, being

exactly the same as Clarissa Harlowe's; her pious Mrs. Norton so

perfectly resembling my governess, who had been nurse to my mother.

I could almost fancy the author was acquainted with her. She took so

much pains from my infancy, to fill my head with superstitious tales

and false notions, it was none of her fault I am not at this day

afraid of witches and hobgoblins, or turned methodist."[283] But at

least there were no hindering home influences, and Lady Mary had what

Charles Lamb would call the luck to be "tumbled early into a closet

of good old English books." Forsaking the dolls of her sisters she

took refuge in her father's fine library and there she read with the

absorption of a youthful Coleridge. She "got by heart all the poetry

that came in her way," and she "read every romance as yet invented."

Lady Louisa says she "possessed and left after her, the whole library

of Mrs. Lenox's Female Quixote--Cleopatra, Cassandra, Clelia, Cyrus,

Pharamond, Ibrahim, etc., etc.--all, like the lady Arabella's

collection, '_Englished_,' mostly, '_by persons of honour_.' The

chief favourite appeared to have been a translation of Monsieur

Honoré d'Urfé's Astrea, once the delight of Henri Quatre and his

court, and still admired and quoted by the _savans_ who flourished

under Louis XIV. In a blank page of this massive volume (which might

have counterbalanced a pig of lead of the same size) Lady Mary had

written in her fairest youthful hand the names and characteristic

qualities of the chief personages thus:--the beautiful Diana, the

volatile Climene, the melancholy Doris, Celedon the faithful, Adamas

the wise, and so on; forming two long columns."[284] Among Lady

Mary's earliest attempts at authorship were romantic stories in

imitation of these her favorite authors.

But along with her romances, and soon superseding them, were sterner

studies. She early began to teach herself Latin. In her account of

herself under the name Lætitia, she said:

Her appetite for knowledge increasing with her years, without

considering the toilsome task she undertook, she began to learn

herself the Latin grammar, and with the help of an uncommon

memory and indefatigable labour, made herself so far mistress

of that language as to be able to understand almost any author.

This extraordinary attachment to study became the theme of public

discourse. Her Father, though no scholar himself, was flattered

with a pleasure in the progress she made, and this reputation

which she did not seek (having no end in view but her own

amusement) gave her enviers and consequently enemies among the

girls of her own age.

Lady Mary was but fourteen when her "just and knowing" criticism of

a play, her knowledge of Latin, and her relish for the classics,

excited the wonder and admiration of Mr. Wortley Montagu. He was as

amazed "as if he had heard a piece of wax work talk."[285] But the

envy of her girl companions and the liberal praise of Mr. Wortley

are not the only proofs that Lady Mary's shining talents and learned

tastes met early recognition. Her uncle, Mr. William Fielding,

"perceived her capacity, corresponded with her, and encouraged her

pursuit of information." Bishop Burnet showed himself most friendly,

and condescended to direct her studies. Mr. Wortley also kept up a

kind of scholarly guidance. Lady Mary said to Spence in Rome in 1741:

"When I was young I was a great admirer of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and

that was one of the chief reasons that set me upon the thoughts of

stealing the Latin language. Mr. Wortley was the only person to whom

I communicated my design, and he encouraged me in it. I used to study

five or six hours a day for two years in my father's library; and

so got that language, whilst everybody else thought I was reading

nothing but novels and romances."[286] By the time she was twenty

Italian had been added to her accomplishments. In an early undated

letter to Mrs. Hewet she wrote: "I have begun to learn Italian, and

am much mortified I cannot do it of a signor of Monsieur Resingade's

recommendation; but 'tis always the fate of women to obey, and my

papa has promised me to a Mr. Cassotti. I am afraid I shall never

understand it as well as you do." By 1710 she was quoting Italian

verse, and in the following year she corresponded with Mr. Resingade

in Italian. That she was still working under Mr. Cassotti in 1712

is apparent from her request that Mr. Wortley should send one of

his letters to her under the care of Mr. Cassotti, her "Italian

master." At this period, or a little later, she also learned French,

so that she wrote letters and essays in that language. Her continued

devotion to study is shown by a letter from Thoresby to Anne Wortley

in 1709: "I am now so much alone, I have leisure to pass whole days

in reading.... My study is nothing but dictionaries and grammars. I

am trying whether it be possible to learn without a master; I am not

certain (and dare hardly hope) I shall make any great progress; but I

find the study so diverting. I am not only easy, but pleased with the

solitude that indulges it."[287]

Lady Mary's diligence resulted in 1710 in a translation of the Latin

version of the _Enchiridion_ of Epictetus which she sent to Bishop

Burnet with a notable letter. Of the translation she says: "Here is

the work of one week of my solitude--by the many faults in it your

lordship will easily believe I spent no more time upon it; it was

hardly finished when I was obliged to begin my journey, and I had

not leisure to write it over again. You have it here without any

corrections with all its blots and errors." Bishop Burnet returned

the document with emendations which in the present printed form are

given in italics.[288] In spite of the numerous changes suggested

as closer to the original, the translation remains as a remarkable

production for a self-educated girl of twenty. Even more remarkable

as evidencing maturity of thought and command of an admirable

English style is the letter, which is of particular significance in

connection with the contemporary attitude towards the learned woman:

My sex is usually forbid studies of this nature, and folly

reckoned so much our proper sphere, we are sooner pardoned any

excesses of that, than the least pretensions to reading or

good sense. We are permitted no books but such as tend to the

weakening and effeminating of the mind. Our natural defects are

every way indulged, and it is looked upon as in a degree criminal

to improve our reason, or fancy we have any. We are taught to

place all our art in adorning our outward forms, and permitted,

without reproach, to carry that custom even to extravagancy,

while our minds are entirely neglected, and, by disuse of

reflections, filled with nothing but the trifling objects our

eyes are daily entertained with. This custom, so long established

and industriously upheld, makes it even ridiculous to go out

of the common road, and forces one to find as many excuses as

if it was a thing altogether criminal not to play the fool in

concert with other women of quality, whose birth and leisure only

serve to render them the most useless and most worthless part

of the creation. There is hardly a character in the world more

despicable, or more liable to universal ridicule, than that of

a learned woman: those words imply, according to the received

sense, a tattling, impertinent, vain, and conceited creature. I

believe nobody will deny that learning may have this effect, but

it must be a very superficial degree of it. Erasmus was certainly

a man of great learning and good sense, and he seems to have my

opinion of it when he says, _Fæmina qui_ (sic) _vere sapit, non

videtur sibi sapere; contra, quæ cum nihil sapiat sibi videtur

sapere ea demum bis stulta est._ The Abbé Bellegarde gives a

right reason for women's talking overmuch: they know nothing, and

every outward object strikes their imagination, and produces a

multitude of thoughts, which, if they knew more, they would know

not worth their thinking of. I am not now arguing for an equality

of the two sexes. I do not doubt God and nature have thrown us

into an inferior rank; we are a lower part of the creation, we

owe obedience and submission to the superior sex, and any woman

who suffers her vanity and folly to deny this, rebels against

the law of the Creator, and indisputable order of nature: but

there is a worse effect than this, which follows the careless

education given to women of quality, its being so easy for any

man of sense, that finds it either his interest or his pleasure,

to corrupt them.[289]

In 1712 Lady Mary married Mr. Wortley Montagu, in 1713 her son was

born, and in 1715 she started with her husband on their journey

to Turkey. The six years between the _Enchiridion_ and the Embassy

present Lady Mary to us in an enviable position. The reputation

of her youth was augmented. "The wittiest as well as one of the

most beautiful women of her day, she numbered among her admirers

the most powerful of the statesmen, and the most brilliant of the

_littérateurs_; while, for a time at least she was a favourite at

the rival Courts of the King and the Prince of Wales."[290] The

only literary output of this period is a long, rather stilted and

perfunctory criticism of Addison's _Cato_ which she undertook at her

husband's request,[291] and some _Court Poems_ which she wrote with

great zest, in conjunction with Pope and Gay, in pursuance of Gay's

plan to ridicule the pastoral by keeping the form, but making it the

vehicle of corrupt court and town life. Of the seven poems so written

four were by Lady Mary. In them we come for the first time on her

power of combining picturesque detail and caustic comment. Not Gay

himself was richer in local color; and Pope and Swift were almost

equaled in contemptuous social portraiture.

During the six years before the Embassy Lady Mary's activities

were essentially those of a social leader and the mistress of a

household. But all her interests were focused to one point when she

found that she could go to Turkey with Mr. Montagu. Travel "is the

thing on earth I most wish," she had written in 1710, and now that

her husband was sent as Ambassador to the Porte, her dreams could be

realized. She must have been a perfect traveling companion. She had

great courage, great endurance; no hardships or dangers daunted her.

During the fifteen months of their absence she had her three-year-old

son to care for, and her daughter was born while they were in

Constantinople, but nothing interfered with her zest for experiences.

Each day was a new adventure. Each day her insatiable desire to learn

and to know some new thing received some new satisfaction. During

the journey she kept a full diary which, though not published till

after her death, became known in manuscript soon after her return.

Certainly by 1725 she had prepared a copy with an eye to publication.

To this manuscript Mary Astell wrote a Preface, signed "M. A.," and

dated 1725. Mary Astell was twenty-two years older than Lady Mary for

whom she had a strong personal affection, as well as a very sincere

pride in her reputation as a learned woman. The Preface would seem to

indicate that Lady Mary's "enviers" and "enemies" had not decreased

since her girlhood days:

In short [says Mary Astell] let her own sex, at least, do her

justice; lay aside diabolical Envy, and its brother Malice, with

all their accursed company, sly whispering, cruel backbiting,

spiteful detraction, and the rest of that hideous crew, which,

I hope, are very falsely said to attend the _Tea-Table_, being

more apt to think they attend those public places where virtuous

women never come. Let the men malign one another, if they think

fit, and strive to pull down merit, when they cannot equal it.

Let us be better-natured, than to give way to any unkind or

disrespectful thought of so bright an ornament of our sex merely

because she has better sense; for I doubt not but our hearts

will tell us, that this is the real and unpardonable offense,

whatever may be pretended. Let us be better Christians, than to

look upon her with an evil eye, only because the Giver of all

good gifts has entrusted and adorned her with the most excellent

talents. Rather let us freely own the superiority of this sublime

genius, as I do in the sincerity of my soul, pleased that a woman

triumphs, and proud to follow in her train. Let us offer her

the palm which is so justly her due; and if we pretend to any

laurels, lay them willingly at her feet.

After Lady Mary's return to England in 1718 we come upon a long

period of quiescence. Domestic affairs, events of social and

political life, her friendships and hatreds, her economies and stock

speculations, completely occupied her. During the first part of this

period she was extravagantly praised. Steele said of her in his essay

on Inoculation:

This ornament of her Sex and Country, who ennobles her own

Nobility by her Learning, Wit and Virtues, accompanying her

consort into Turkey, observed the Benefit of this Practice, with

its frequency, even among these obstinate Predestinarians, and

brought it over for the service and safety of her native England,

where she consecrated its first effects on the persons of her own

fine children.

In 1720 Pope wrote

In beauty and wit

No Mortal as yet

To question your empire has dared:

But men of discerning

Have thought that in learning

To yield to a lady was hard.

Impertinent schools,

With musty dull rules,

Have reading to females denied;

So Papists refuse

The Bible to use,

Lest flocks should be wise as their guide.

* * * * *

But if the first Eve

Hard doom did receive

When only one apple had she,

What a punishment new

Shall be found out for you,

Who, tasting, have robbed the whole tree.

And in 1727 he wrote in _Sandys' Ghost_:

Ye ladies, too, draw forth your pen,

I pray where can the hurt lie?

Since you have brains as well as men,

As witness Lady Wortley.

Before 1724 Dr. Young had sent her his tragedy _The Brothers_,

requesting her criticism. In 1725 Richard Savage dedicated his

_Miscellanies_ to her as one through whose elevated and immortal wit

England had been honored, and who had firmly established the fact

that women have "strength of mind in proportion to their sweetness."

And Henry Fielding, her second cousin, sent her his comedies,

"exceedingly anxious" for her opinion of them.

But after 1724 or 1725 the years seem to slip on in an aimless

fashion, the only breaks in the monotony coming from the

intermittently virulent quarrels with Pope, the religious and medical

animosities roused by the inoculation process, family sorrows and

family discords, with no literary output to mark any personal

achievements. From thirty to fifty should have been harvest years

after so brilliant a beginning. But the early promise faded into a

middle age disillusioned, unambitious, and rather commonplace. The

only writing of any importance was in the correspondence kept up in a

desultory fashion with various friends. Such of the letters of this

period as have been preserved are so vivid and picturesque, so witty,

and so pleasantly caustic in their comment, that we can only regret

their small number. Take for instance the following description of a

feminine riot in the House of Commons:

At the last warm debate in the House of Lords, it was unanimously

resolved there should be no crowd of unnecessary auditors;

consequently the fair sex were excluded, and the gallery destined

to the sole use of the House of Commons. Notwithstanding which

determination, a tribe of dames resolved to show on this occasion

that neither men nor laws could resist them. These heroines were

Lady Huntington, the Duchess of Queensberry, the Duchess of

Ancaster, Lady Westmoreland, Lady Cobham, Lady Charlotte Edwin,

Lady Archibald Hamilton, and her daughter, Mrs. Scott, and Mrs.

Pendarves, and Lady Frances Saunderson. I am thus particular

in their names, since I look upon them to be the boldest

asserters, and most resigned sufferers for liberty, I ever read

of. They presented themselves at the door at nine o'clock in

the morning, where Sir William Saunderson respectfully informed

them the Chancellor had made an order against their admittance.

The Duchess of Queensberry, as head of the squadron, pished at

the ill-breeding of a mere lawyer, and desired him to let them

upstairs privately. After some modest refusals, he swore by

G---- he would not let them in. Her grace, with a noble warmth,

answered, by G---- they would come in in spite of the Chancellor

and the whole House. This being reported, the Peers resolved to

starve them out; an order was made that the doors should not be

opened till they had raised their siege. These Amazons now showed

themselves qualified for the duty even of foot soldiers; they

stood there till five in the afternoon, without either sustenance

or evacuation, every now and then playing volleys of thumps,

kicks, and raps against the door, with so much violence that the

speakers in the House were scarce heard. When the Lords were not

to be conquered by this, the two duchesses (very well apprised of

the use of stratagems in war) commanded a dead silence of half

an hour; and the Chancellor, who thought this a certain proof of

their absence (the Commons also being very impatient to enter),

gave order for the opening of the door; upon which they all

rushed in, pushed aside their competitors, and placed themselves

in the front rows of the gallery. They stayed there till after

eleven, when the House rose; and during the debate gave applause

and showed marks of dislike, not only by smiles and winks (which

have always been allowed in these cases), but by noisy laughs and

apparent contempts; which is supposed the true reason why poor

Lord Hervey spoke miserably.[292]

In 1739 Lady Mary drifted, without settled plan, to Italy, and there

her self-elected exile lengthened itself insensibly into a habit of

absence, so that she did not return to England till 1761, the year

before her death. During this period she kept a full journal, and

projected other work, but brought nothing to fruition.[293] Her chief

occupation was reading. Her voracious appetite for fiction passed

over from her girlhood absorption in French romances to the novels

crowding the presses of the mid-eighteenth century. The events of her

placid life were boxes of books from England, and the novels she read

would make an adequate list even for Polly Honeycomb. Lady Orford

said she wondered how any one could find pleasure in the books Lady

Mary chose. But Lady Mary confessed herself "a rake in reading," and

said, in 1750: "I thank God my taste still continues for the gay

part of reading. Wiser people may think it trifling but it serves to

sweeten life to me."[294] In 1752 her daughter sent her _Peregrine

Pickle_ (1751), Lady Vane's _Memoirs_ (1750), _The Fortunate Parish

Girl_ (1750), _Pompey the Little_ (1751), _Eleanora's Adventures_

(1751) and the _Life of Mrs. Constantia Philips_, as among the

interesting new books. In a letter to Lady Bute Lady Mary wrote:

I see in the newspapers the names of the following books:

Fortunate Mistress, Accomplished Rake, Mrs. Charke's Memoirs,

Modern Lovers, History of Two Orphans, Memoirs of David Ranger,

Miss [Mos]tyn, Dick Hazard, History of a Lady Platonist, Sophia

Shakespear, Jasper Banks, Frank Hammond, Sir Andrew Thompson,

Van a Clergyman's Son, Cleanthes and Celimena. I do not doubt

at least the greatest part of these are trash, lumber, etc.;

however, they will serve to pass away the idle time, if you will

be so kind to send them to your most affectionate mother.[295]

And she read English drama from _Gammer Gurton's Needle_ to Lillo's

_George Barnwell_, her prime favorite.[296]

During the twenty-two years in Italy Lady Mary was practically alone,

but she says time never hung heavy on her hands. She wrote letters

constantly, and her interest never flagged in the affairs of England

in general and of Lady Bute's family in particular. As the daughters

grew up, Lady Mary wrote often about their education, and we see that

the ideas of the letter to Bishop Burnet persist. In 1753 she wrote

concerning Lady Mary, the eldest granddaughter, who had shown herself

excellent in arithmetic: