performed by, the young ladies of the boarding-school. On this
slender basis she visited London, was so fortunate as to attract the
attention of Garrick, and was by him introduced into his brilliant
circle. She must have been at that time both witty and pretty, for Mrs.
Montagu and the Reynoldses were delighted with her, Dr. Johnson gave her
pet names, and Horace Walpole called her Saint Hannah. Her next great
success was her tragedy of _Percy_, in which Garrick sustained the
principal character, and in which Mrs. Siddons afterward appeared. Later
on, Mrs. More published some _Sacred Dramas_, but after the death of
Garrick she abandoned dramatic writing, her views leading her to take up
what was called, in her day, "strict behavior," of which she now became
the apostle. On her literary profits she retired to Cowslip Green, near
Bristol, and later on to Barley Wood, where she was joined by her
sisters, who were enabled to retire on the handsome profits of their
school. But neither "strict behavior" nor anything else could weaken
Hannah's hold on her day and generation: her _Estimate of the Religion
of the Fashionable World_ went off like hot cakes, and her _Thoughts on
the Manners of the Great_ were scrambled for by both great and
small--seven large editions in a few months, the second in a week, the
third in _four hours_! How many people now-a-days have read _Coelebs_,
of which twelve editions were printed in the first year, and in all
thirty thousand copies of disposed of in America alone? _Corinne_
appeared when Lucilla, the heroine of _Coelebs_, was at the height of
her popularity, and much animated comparison was instituted between
Corinne and the rival she has long survived.

[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL]

The first opposition which Hannah More encountered arose from her
efforts to improve the condition of the poor in her neighborhood by
education and the formation of benefit societies. The impulse to this
movement came from Mr. Wilberforce, who, being on a visit at Barley
Wood, was taken on an excursion to Cheddar Cliffs, then, as now, one of
the "sights" of the vicinity. Mr. Wilberforce, while admiring the
scenery, chanced to fall into conversation with one of the inhabitants,
and learned, to his dismay, that the whole beautiful region was sunk in
ignorance and vice. This discovery was discussed in full conclave on
their return to Barley Wood, and Mrs. More undertook to have a school
opened in Cheddar. The schoo