y one agrees; and her acquaintance with
all the most remarkable men of her time must not be forgotten, nor the
genuine regard with which she inspired all who came across her path.

'In external appearance she is quite the fairy of our nursery tale, the
WHIPPETY STOURIE, if you remember such a sprite, who came flying through
the window to work all sorts of marvels,' writes Sir Walter. 'I will
never believe but what she has a wand in her pocket, and pulls it out
to conjure a little before she begins those very striking pictures of
manners.'

Among others Sir William Hamilton has left a pleasing description of
Miss Edgeworth. 'If you would study and admire her as she deserves,
you must see her at home,' says he, 'and hear her talk. She knows an
infinite number of anecdotes about interesting places and persons, which
she tells extremely well, and never except when they arise naturally
out of the subject. . . . To crown her merits, she seemed to take a
prodigious fancy to me, and promised to be at home, and made me promise
to be at Edgeworthstown for a fortnight some time next vacation.' We owe
to him also an amusing sketch of some other collateral members of the
family; the fine animated old lady, who immediately gets him to explain
the reason why a concave mirror inverts while a convex mirror leaves
them erect; the young ladies, one of whom was particularly anxious to
persuade him that the roundness of the planets was produced by friction,
perhaps by their being shaken together like marbles in a bag.

There is also an interesting letter from Sir W. Hamilton at
Edgeworthstown on 23rd September 1829. Wordsworth is also staying there.
'After some persuasion Francis and I succeed in engaging Mr. Wordsworth
in many very interesting conversations. Miss Edgeworth has had for some
time a very serious illness, but she was able to join us for dinner
the day that I arrived, and she exhibited in her conversations with Mr.
Wordsworth a good deal of her usual brilliancy; she also engaged
Mr. Marshall in some long conversations upon Ireland, and even Mr.
Marshall's son, whose talent for silence seems to be so very profound,
was thawed a little on Monday evening, and discussed after tea the
formation of the solar system. Miss Edgeworth tells me that she is at
last employed in writing for the public after a long interval, but does
not expect to have her work soon ready for publication.' [There is a
curious criticism of Miss Edgeworth by