The Learned Lady in England, 1650-1760Reynolds, Myra
History
The Learned Lady in England, 1650-1760
Reynolds, Myra
Women -- Education -- Great Britain; Women -- Great Britain; Women authors, English
Lady Warwick's writings exhibit none of the joyous or fervent aspects
of religion. In the midst of domestic trials, surrounded by an alien
life, she was steadily tutoring her own heart, subduing her sins,
following a high ideal. Dr. Walker in his sermon gives an example
of seventeenth-century pulpit oratory in his effort adequately to
praise this great lady, as conspicuous for goodness as for her rank
and wealth: "An hundred mouths, and a thousand tongues though they
all flowed with nectar, would be too few to praise her." "Oh," he
exclaims, "for a Chrysostom's mouth, for an angel's tongue, to
describe this terrestrial seraphine; or a ray of light condensed into
a pencil, and made tactile, to give you this glorious child of light
in _viva effigie_."
[Sidenote: Lucy Apsley, Mrs. Hutchinson (1620-?)]
That Lucy Hutchinson had written a life of her husband was known
by many people and there were frequent requests in the eighteenth
century that so valuable a historical document should be made
accessible to the public. Mrs. Catherine Macaulay was one of those
urgent in this matter, but without avail.[125] It was not till the
manuscript came into the possession of the Reverend Julius Hutchinson
that it was published. After the first edition in 1806 three editions
appeared in four years. Some other writings besides the _Memoirs_
were found among the papers of Mrs. Hutchinson. Of these the precious
_Autobiography_ was but a fragment. It not only closed abruptly, but
leaves had been torn out. But from what remains we get one of the
few accounts of the home education of girls in the first half of the
seventeenth century. Her father and mother, extremely glad to welcome
a girl after three sons, "applied all their cares and spared no cost"
in her education. She describes this education as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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