"A Gentleman of Cambridge," as he styles himself on the title of an English adaptation of the Abbé d'Ancourt's _Lady's Preceptor_, 1743, defines the qualifications then thought necessary and adequate for a young gentlewoman. He does not go beyond a thorough knowledge of English, an acquaintance with French and Italian, a familiarity with arithmetic and accounts, and the mastery of a good handwriting; and yet how few probably reached this moderate standard a century and a half ago--nay, how few reach it now! In the time of the early Stuarts, the training of girls in English country towns, if it is to be augured from that of the Shakespears at Stratford, even where the parents were in good circumstances and the father a man of literary tastes and occupations, was still extremely primitive and scanty. The poet's elder daughter, Susanna, seems to have just contrived to write, or rather print, her name; but Judith used a mark, and Mrs. Quiney, whose son became Judith's husband, did the same. Both the Quineys and the Shakespears were persons of substance and of local consideration; and in this case, at any rate, the explanation seems to be that such ignorance was usual, and did not prejudicially affect the position and prospects of a gentlewoman. The institution in England of elementary schools for girls only dates back to the neighbourhood of the Restoration; but the number of establishments long remained, doubtless, very limited, and the scheme of instruction equally narrow. The frontispiece to Anthony Huish's _Key to the Grammar School_, 1670, presents us with an interesting interior in the shape of a girls' school, where the mistress is seated at a desk surrounded by female pupils. Goldsmith's _Poems for Young Ladies_, "Devotional, Moral, and Entertaining," 1767, partly arose out of Dr. Fordyce's _Sermons for Young Women_. The editor assures his fair readers that the Muse in this case is not a syren, but a friend; and there is plenty of the religious element in the volume. But there are, on the other hand, extracts from Pope's _Homer_, stories from Ovid and Virgil, Addison's _Letter from Italy_, and a selection from Collins's _Oriental Eclogues_. The source from which it came was a guarantee that its pages would be agreeably and sensibly leavened with matters not divine; it surpasses the average intellectual nutriment provided for women a century ago. Dr. Goldsmith was a decided improvement on Dr. Watts, and he could scarcely escape from being so, whether he offered them his own poetical compositions, or, as in the present case, merely exercised his judgment in selecting from the works of others. No one can object to Pope's _Messiah_ or his _Universal Prayer_, which constitute the prominent features in the devotional section, when they are in such excellent company as Gay, Swift, and Thomson. But there is nothing in this volume to have prevented the editor offering a copy to either of the vicar's daughters.