Transcribed from the 1909 Deighton and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Picture of Anna Seward] Anna Seward AND CLASSIC LICHFIELD, BY STAPLETON MARTIN, M.A. AUTHOR OF “_Izaak Walton and his Friends_,” _etc._ “As long as the names of Garrick, of Johnson, and of Seward shall endure, Lichfield will live renowned.”—_Clarke_. “Biography, the most interesting perhaps of every species of composition, loses all its interest with me when the shades and lights of the principal characters are not accurately and faithfully detailed.” _Extract from a letter of Sir Walter Scott to Anna Seward_. Worcester: PRINTED BY DEIGHTON AND CO., HIGH STREET. 1909. PREFACE. Literature and music and science have been found this year amazingly prolific in centenary commemorations of their great exemplars, as a leading article in the “Times,” for April, 1909, has lately reminded us. Yet the death in 1809 of Anna Seward, who “for many years held a high rank in the annals of British literature,” to quote the words of Sir Walter Scott, has generally passed unnoticed. It is the aim of this book to resuscitate interest in the poetess, and in the literary circle over which she reigned supreme. ANNA SEWARD Anna Seward, a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Seward, destined to become, by universal assent, the first poetess of her day in England, was born 12th December, 1747. Her mother was Elizabeth, one of the three daughters of the Rev. John Hunter (who was in 1704 appointed Head Master of Lichfield Grammar School), by his first wife, Miss Norton, a daughter of Edward Norton, of Warwick, and sister of the Rev. Thomas Norton, of Warwick. Anna Seward’s parents were married at Newton Regis Church, Warwickshire, in October, 1741. The poetess was born at Eyam in Derbyshire, where her father was then the Rector. She was baptized Anne, but she generally wrote her name Anna. Her pet name in her own family was “Nancy,” and also often “Julia.” Mr. Seward attained some literary fame, and was co-adjutor to an edition of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher. When Anna Seward was seven years old, the family removed to Lichfield, and when she was thirteen they moved into the Bishop’s Palace, “our pleasant home” as she called it, where she continued to live after her father’s death, and for the remainder of her days.