J />.<. SOMF.RVILLR. 7 



world. Indeed, her memory was so good that her 

 " Personal Recollections " make a good-sized volume 

 one of the most interesting volumes of biography 

 surely that ever was written. 



Into the details of that biography it is impossible 

 to enter here ; but a brief summary may be given, 

 and it will be found full of encouragement for other 

 workers. 



Mrs. Somerville was born on the 26th of Decem- 

 ber, 1780, at Jedburgh, about forty miles south-east 

 of Edinburgh. She came of a good family ; her 

 father ultimately became Admiral Sir William Fair- 

 fax ; he was a descendant of a well-known Yorkshire 

 family, to which belonged the great Lord Fairfax, 

 commander-in-chief of the armies of the Parliament 

 during the civil wars under Charles I. ; and her mother 

 was a Scottish lady, also well connected. Neither of 

 her parents appears to have been very intellectual, 

 though they were both possessed of sterling common 

 sense and great strength of character. 



Little Mary Fairfax was an observant child, with 

 an intense love of natural objects. She cared nothing 

 for dolls and toys, like other children, but she loved 

 the birds and the flowers ; she was always eager to watch 

 the swallows building their nests in the spring, or 

 preparing for their flight in the autumn. When snow 

 was on the ground, she used to feed her feathered 

 favourites, and open the windows to let the robins 

 hop in and pick crumbs on the breakfast-table. When 



