daughter’s desire.  This early introduction to the classics paved the way to a diligent study of Latin in later years and of the best Latin models, which greatly helped in the formation of her literary style.  She also gained a little knowledge of mathematics; but Euclid had to retire in favour of the less intricate study of French.  The proficiency which she afterwards acquired in this language she owed to the assiduous tuition of her eldest sister, Mary.

Before the age of twelve she began to scribble short essays and poems.  Her systematic education commenced on her becoming a pupil of her sisters’ boarding-school at Bristol.  Here she made rapid progress, often giving convincing proof of intellectual gifts, and before long becoming qualified to assist in tuition.

In her sixteenth year she was one of Sheridan’s most delighted auditors during his delivery of a course of lectures on Eloquence.  She expressed her admiration in a chaplet of verses which, finding their way into the orator’s hands, so impressed him with the fair promise they contained, that he secured an introduction to the author.  Thus originated one of Hannah’s numerous warm friendships of after life.

Ferguson, the astronomer, was another of Hannah’s early acquaintances.  From him she gained a knowledge of science; whilst he, prompted by his high estimate of her abilities, took counsel with her respecting the style of his literary productions.

Her intellectual tastes were encouraged and directed, to a large extent, by a somewhat notable Bristol man, of the name of Peach.  Although a draper by trade, his cultivated mind and excellent literary judgment were of distinct service to his young friend.  He was entrusted by Hume with the revision of the proof-sheets of the famous History of England.

A humorous story is related of the interest which Hannah’s conversation created in the minds of her elders.  When laid aside by illness she was attended by a noted physician, Dr. Woodward, who one day became so absorbed in his patient’s intellectual discourse that he forgot to make the usual inquiries about her health.  “Bless me!” he exclaimed, as he went downstairs, “I forgot to ask the girl how she was!” He returned to the bedside, and rather awkwardly put the formal question to the amused invalid, “How are you to-day, my poor child?”

Hannah’s training in the highest principles of morality and in religion, begun by her devoted parents, received the careful attention of her eldest sister as long as she remained under her care; when out of her teens, she commenced the study of theology under the guidance of Dr. Stonhouse, a clergyman of Bristol.

At the age of seventeen, finding that the young people in her circle were in the habit of learning passages from plays which frequently savoured of unhealthy sentiment, she conceived the idea of providing a harmless substitute, and thereupon wrote a pastoral drama, The Search after Happiness.  A little later she produced another drama, The Inflexible Captive, founded on Metastasio’s opera of Regulus.