[9] Maria Edgeworth, b. 1767; d. 1849. First volume of _Parent's Assistant_ was published, 1796; _Castle Rackrent_, 1800; _Popular Tales_, 1804. [10] Miss Honora Sneyd among them, in 1773. [11] Maria Regina Roche, b. 1766; d. 1845. The _Grand Dict. Universal du XIX. Siècle_ enumerates no less than thirteen other romances by her--in forty odd volumes, all translated, and now utterly forgotten! [12] Mrs. Radcliffe (Ann Ward), b. 1764; d. 1823; _Romance of the Forest_, 1791; _Mysteries of Udolpho_, 1794. Miss Jane Porter, b. 1776; d. 1850; _Thaddeus of Warsaw_, published 1803; _Scottish Chiefs_, 1810; _Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative_ (in concert with her sister Anna Maria Porter), published in 1826. [13] Senior member of the old firm of J. & J. Harper, 82 Cliff Street. [14] William Beckford, b. 1759; d. 1844. _Vathek_, published (in French), 1787; better known by an unauthentic English translation, published 1784. [15] Robert Burns, b. 1759; d. 1796. Poems published 1786. First collected edition, 1800; Cunningham edition, with life, in 1834, 4 vols. {300} CHAPTER VIII We have still in our mind's eye, and very pleasantly, that quaint old clergyman of Hampshire, who wrote about the daws, and the swallows, and the fern-owl, in a way that has kept the name of Gilbert White alive, for a great many years. And who that has read them can ever forget the stories of that winning Hampshire lady, whose fame takes on new greenness with every spring-time? Following upon our talk of this charming authoress, we had a little discursive mention, in our last chapter, of certain books which at the close of the last century, or early in this, were written for boys and girls; chiefest among these we noted those written by that excellent woman, Miss Edgeworth. We spoke of Miss Roche, who gushed over in the loves of Amanda and Mortimer--those fond and sentimental _Children {301} of the Abbey_; and of Miss Porter, with her gorgeous heroics about Poland and Scotland, and of Mrs. Radcliffe's stunning _Mysteries of Udolpho_. We had a glimpse of the strange work and life of William Beckford--son of the rich Lord Mayor Beckford; and we closed our chapter over the grave of that brilliant poet and wrecked man Robert Burns. That grewsome death of the great Scotch singer occurred in a miserable house of a disorderly street in Dumfries, within four years of the close of the last century; his children--without any mastership to control, and the love that should have guided dumb--wandering in and out; no home comforts about them; the very necessities of life uncertain and precarious; all hopes narrowed for them, and all memories of theirs full of wildest alternations of joyousness and fright. _A Banker Poet._ [Sidenote: Samuel Rogers.] You have perhaps read and enjoyed a poem called _The Pleasures of Memory_. It has tender passages in it; it has an easy, melodious swing:-- {302}