“My recollection of Frances begins with the first day of her life; a pretty little babe even then, and by the time she reached two years of age, with her fair complexion, light curling hair, and bright expression, a prettier child was seldom seen.  At that age she spoke with perfect distinctness, and with greater fluency and variety of language than is usual in so young a child.  She comprehended and enjoyed any little stories that were told her.  I remember her animated look of attention when the Rev. J. East told her about a little Mary who loved the Lord Jesus.  We were all taught to read early and to repeat by our dear mother, but as I had now left school I undertook the charming little pupil, teaching her reading, spelling, and a rhyme (generally one of Jane Taylor’s), for half an hour every morning, and in the afternoon twenty or thirty stitches of patchwork, with a very short text to repeat next morning at breakfast.  When three years old she could read easy books, and her brother Frank remembers how often she was found hiding under a table with some engrossing story.  At four years old, Frances could read the Bible and any ordinary book correctly, and had learned to write in round hand; French and music were gradually added; but great care was always taken not to tire her or excite the precocity of her mind, and she never had a regular governess.”

In the year 1859 she began to write an autobiography, commencing with her recollections of herself and her surroundings when she was four years old.  She thus writes:  “Up to the time that I was six years old I have no remembrance of any religious ideas whatever.  Even when taken once to see the corpse of a little boy of my own age (four years) lying in a coffin strewn with flowers, in dear papa’s parish of Astley, I did not think about it as otherwise than a very sad and very curious thing that that little child should lie so still and cold....  But from six to eight I recall a different state of things.  The beginning of it was a sermon preached one Sunday morning at Hallow Church by Mr. (now Archdeacon) Phillpots.  Of this I even now retain a distinct impression.  It was to me a very terrible one, dwelling much on hell and judgment, and what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God.  No one ever knew it, but this sermon haunted me, and day and night it crossed me.  I began to pray a good deal, though only night and morning, with a sort of fidget and impatience, almost angry at feeling so unhappy, and wanting and expecting a new heart and have everything put straight and be made happy, all at once.”

All this time she could not bear being “talked to,” or prayed with, though she kept up a custom of going by herself every Sunday afternoon to a quiet room, and after reading a chapter in the New Testament would kneel down and pray; after that she “usually felt soothed and less naughty.”

She appears even as a child to have appreciated very keenly the beauties of nature, and in the spring of 1845 she was most anxious to be made “a Christian before the summer comes” so that she might enjoy God’s works as she believed a Christian alone could do.