th some alteration in its place with the
others.

Putting together this little book has been a great pleasure and interest
to the compiler, and she wishes once more to thank those who have so
kindly sheltered her during her work, and lent her books and papers
and letters concerning the four writers whose works and manner of being
she has attempted to describe; and she wishes specially to express
her thanks to the Baron and Baroness VON HUeGEL, to the ladies of Miss
Edgeworth's family, to Mr. HARRISON, of the London Library, to the Miss
REIDS, of Hampstead, to Mrs. FIELD and her daughters, of Squire's Mount,
Hampstead, to Lady BUXTON, Mrs. BROOKFIELD, Miss ALDERSON, and Miss
SHIRREFF.

CONTENTS.
PAGE

MRS. BARBAULD [1743-1825] 1
MARIA EDGEWORTH [1767-1849] 51
MRS. OPIE [1769-1853] 149
JANE AUSTEN [1775-1817] 197

A BOOK OF SIBYLS.

_MRS. BARBAULD._

1743-1825.

'I've heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.'
_Measure for Measure._

I.

'The first poetess I can recollect is Mrs. Barbauld, with whose works I
became acquainted--before those of any other author, male or female--when
I was learning to spell words of one syllable in her story-books for
children.' So says Hazlitt in his lectures on living poets. He goes on
to call her a very pretty poetess, strewing flowers of poesy as she
goes.

The writer must needs, from the same point of view as Hazlitt, look upon
Mrs. Barbauld with a special interest, having also first learnt to read
out of her little yellow books, of which the syllables rise up one by
one again with a remembrance of the hand patiently pointing to each in
turn; all this recalled and revived after a lifetime by the sight of a
rusty iron gateway, behind which Mrs. Barbauld once lived, of some old
letters closely covered with a wavery writing, of a wide prospect that
she once delighted to look upon. Mrs. Barbauld, who loved to share her
pleasures, used to bring her friends to see the great view from the
Hampstead hill-top, and thus records their impressions:--

'I dragged Mrs. A. up as I did you, my dear, to our Prospect Walk, from
whence we have so extensive a view.

'Yes,' said she, 'it is a very fine view indeed for a flat country