How ever, they were the first to awaken her literary tastes. She has informed us that, at that very early date in her life, she became enamoured with such maxims, as “Don’t ky for trifles;” “Dooty fust, and pleasure afterwards.” She writes:—
“I sometimes got courage to edge up to strangers, and ask them to give me a maxim. Almost before I could join letters, I got some sheets of paper and folded them into a little square book, and wrote in double lines, two or three in a page, my beloved maxims. I believe this was my first effort in book-making.”
Hard times for manufacturers told upon her father, Thomas Martineau’s health; he died in 1826, and his house failed in June 1829. Harriet had been partially deaf in her childhood, and from the age of eighteen her deafness increased. Under this disadvantage she began the battle of life in 1829. She says:—
“At the time I, for one, was left destitute, that is, with precisely one shilling in my purse. Nobody knew that I was left with only one shilling, insomuch that I dreaded the arrival of a thirteenpenny letter in those days of dear postage.”
In 1832 she settled in London, and commenced her prosperous career as an author. She writes at this period:—
“A clergyman told me that he had reason to believe that there was no author or authoress who was free from the habit of taking some pernicious stimulant — either strong green tea, or strong coffee at night, or wine or spirits or laudanum. The amount of opium taken to relieve the wear and tear of authorship was, he said, greater than most people had any conception of, and all literary workers took secretly. ‘Why, I do not (said I); fresh air and cold water are my stimulants.’ ‘I believe you (he replied); but you work in the morning, and there is much in that.’ I then remembered that when, for a short time, I had to work at night, while my regular work occupied the morning, a physician who called on me observed that I must not allow myself to be exhausted at the end of the day: he would not advise any alcoholic wine, but any light wine that I liked might do me good. ‘You have a cupboard at your right hand (said he); keep a bottle of hock and a wineglass there, and help yourself when you want it’ ‘No, thank you (said I); if I took wine it would not be when I was alone, nor would I help myself to a glass. I might take a little more and a little more, till my solitary glass might become a regular tippling habit.’ Physicians should consider well before they give such advice to brain-workers.”
It may be said that she served an apprenticeship in London; for she left in 1839 in search of health, which she did not recover until 1845. During that period, however, she indulged in some authorship, to which she still resolved to dedicate most of her time. Having perfect health, she determined to settle in the country, and she chose “The Lakes.” She bought a field near Ambleside, opposite Fox How, and about a mile from Rydal Mount. She built a beautiful villa, and cultivated a home-farm of two acres. There she spent thirty years, and there she died on 27th June 1876. She left her villa, The Knoll, Ambleside, to her niece, Mrs Higginson of Liverpool. Her personal property was under £10,000. The executors were her nephews, Mr. Thomas Martineau and Mr. Francis Robert Martineau, both of Birmingham. To Thomas she left her plate, which was to pass to his eldest son, and to be possessed by “the eldest son for the time representing our branch of the Martineau family.” These nephews were the sons of her brother Robert. The family had gravitated to Birmingham, and its old cemetery was the family burying-place. A gravestone has the following records:—
Elizabeth Martineau, widow of Mr. Thomas Martineau of Norwich,
born Oct. 8, 1771 , died Aug. 26, 1848.
Robert Martineau, born at Norwich, Aug. 19, 1798,
died at Edgbaston, June 17, 1870.
Jane, his widow, born June 6, 1793, died March 20, 1874.
Maria, their daughter, born Aug. 27, 1827, died Feb. 29, 1864.
Also,
Harriet Martineau, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Martineau,
born at Norwich, June 12, 1802, died at Ambleside, June 27, 1876.
Harriet left an Autobiography, which was printed in three volumes. She manifested during her life an autobiographical mania. The Daily News says, “The following list of Miss Martineau’s writings was drawn up by herself, ‘to the best of her recollection’”:—
