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    12 MARIA EDGEWORTH*

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    Amokgst The Changes Which Have Taken Pla...

    much insisted on by her governess , and the tasks "which were exacted of the pupils were particularly distressing to Maria , whose health

    was delicate , and who was subject to weakness of sight ; but she soon devised a happy expedient , one in which her inventive powers

    were early called into play . Soine good natured schoolfellow was generally prevailed on to execute the needlework for her , whom she

    repaid hy reciting stories , sometimes humourous , sometimes sad , which were invented as she proceeded , and prolongedaccording to

    , the task-work required . Many of her vacations were passed with Mr . and Mrs . Day , very much to the advantage of her reasoning powers ,

    with as well Mr as . Day to her author real of information the well-known , as she work read — Sandford and conversed and Merton much _?

    Mr . Edgeworth , remained in Ireland three years , when he once more took a place in Berkshire , where he lost his wife , the beautiful

    Honora . In 1780 , he married Mrs . Elizabeth Edgeworth , and about two years afterwards , resolved on leaving England , and devoting the

    remainder of his life to the improvement of his estate and the education of his family . Accordingly , removing Maria from school ,

    accompanied by his wife and seven children , in 1782 , he fixed his residence at Edgeworthstown . An entertaining account of his

    daughter's first impression of Ireland , is given by the animated pen to which Ireland was afterwards to owe so much .

    v " Before "been in this tha time t country I had t not herefore , except during thing a fe was w mont new hs to of me my childhood though ,

    elapsed I was er then , I have hut retained fifteen years a clear , old and , and strong every thoug recollection h such a leng of our th of arrival time , . has Things since ved in Irelandof latter tt

    and persons are so much impro , days , haonly those cei who ve can the rememher variety of how domestic they grievances were some which thirty or in forty those years times ago assailed , can con the

    h mas e t ter urned of a famil eye y , , immediatel in or out y on the his house arrival , damp at his , dilap Irish home tion . , waste Wherever , apall

    listen peared Alterna to . tel perpetual Painting y as landlord , comp glazing lain and t , mag , roofing pe istra tty , wranglings te fencing , the proprietor , finishing and equivocations of , an were estate , in wanting had which to . discover truthaward ! with

    fa no ther human cont sagacity inually , a could nd I was amused and , or interested justice in seeing I was how he made my w patch M i s t v w erse him a . y He t , hrough thoug , all tigation t he comp he time of lain t en in l t pless s ' good , petitions ted humour them and roundl w t grievances i ina th y t t ' he when n peop de , with tected t he , y * decision stood in they cunning before delig and h des ted or - ,

    convicted p of falsehood , . They saw procras into his charac , ter almost as soon as , t u nderstood people , theirs with . congratulating The first remark looks which at _^ each I heard other , whispered was , * His aside honor among , anyway is good pay ! _' "

    The old house at Edgeworthstown , with its gloomy rooms , narrow windowsand corner chimnies , looked as uninviting as could well

    , be imagined ; but the activity and good taste of its new master soon produced a happy change , and , modernised and enlarged under his

    directions , it became not only a comfortable residence for a large family , but capable of accommodating many guests .

    Thrown into a distant country neighbourhood , —Pakenham Hall

    12 Maria Edgeworth*

    12 MARIA EDGEWORTH *

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091858/page/12/