THE VILLAGE: IN AND ABOUT IT 131 



labour. She corresponded with Hannah More, 

 and such kindred spirits. It exalted her as an 

 extraordinary honour and privilege when the 

 books of a mere female writer like herself were 

 admitted on the list of the S.P.C.K., which has 

 since found plenty of work for women's pens. 

 She edited The Family Magazine, forerunner of 

 many such, " each number consisting of a sermon, 

 generally abridged from the works of some 

 learned divine of the Church of England, and of 

 descriptions of foreign countries, in which care 

 was taken to make the lower orders see the com- 

 forts and advantages belonging to this favoured 

 land, and also to render them contented with 

 its laws and government." How many readers 

 would be won now for a magazine conducted on 

 such lines, even if spiced by the "Instructive 

 Tales " of its editor ? The good lady died in 

 1810, and was buried at Baling, the parish church 

 of Brentford, which, though the county town of 

 Middlesex, ranked ecclesiastically as a mere 

 dependent of its neighbour. 



About Kew, in her time, there were spirits 

 less loyal and orthodox. Across the river in her 

 youth she may have heard the roars of the mob 

 greeting Wilkes' repeated hustings triumphs at 



