to her, including those she wrote in partnership with her father. She had a great dislike to having her life written, and used to say that "the only remains she wished to leave behind would be in the churchyard at Edgeworthstown." Yet within the last ten years, a biography written, for private circulation, by her step-mother, with many of Maria's letters, was edited by Mr. Augustus Hare, and published by Mr. Edward Arnold. From this interesting book, some extracts have been taken, principally from Miss Edgeworth's own letters.
Many generations have passed since her Tales were the delight of thousands of readers, but certainly some of them are bound to live, and will live.
A very strong testimony to their merits was given by the late Mr. W. H. Lecky, the historian, who said that he found Miss Edgeworth's novels invaluable in giving a truthful picture of the manners and habits of the eighteenth century.
We, of the present day, may well take a lesson from this practical and business-loving woman. The agency business of the Edgeworth estate, that she took up of her own free will, engrossed her. She herself looked after the repairs, the letting of the village houses, the drains, gutters.
