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Page 49
The ordinary work of editorship was heavily increased by her kindness to
tyro authors, and to children in want of everything, from advice on a
life-vocation to old foreign postage stamps. No consideration of the
value of her own time could induce her to deal summarily with what one
may call her magazine children, and her correspondents were of all ages
and acquirements, from nursery aspirants barely beyond pothooks to such
writers as the author of _A Family Man for Six Days_, and other charming
Australian reminiscences, who still calls her his "literary godmother."
The peculiar relation in which she stood to so many of the readers of
_Aunt Judy_ has been urged upon me as a reason for telling them
something more about her than that she is dead and gone, especially as
by her peremptory wish no larger record of her life will ever be made
public. I need hardly disclaim any thought of expressing an opinion on
her natural powers, or the value of those labours from which she rests;
but whatever of good there was in them she devoted with real
affectionate interest to the service of a much larger circle of children
than of those who now stand desolate before her empty chair. And those
whom she has so long taught have, perhaps, some claim upon the lessons
of her good example.
Most well-loved pursuits, perhaps most good habits of our lives, owe
their origin to our being stirred at one time or another to the
imitation of some one better, or better gifted than ourselves. We can
remember dates at which we began to copy what our present friends may
fancy to be innate peculiarities of our own character. The conviction of
this truth, and of the strong influence which little details of lives
we admire have in forming our characters in childhood, persuade me to
the hard task of writing at all of my dear mother, and guide me in
choosing those of the things that we remember about her which may help
her magazine children on matters about which they have oftenest asked
her counsel.
Many of her own innumerable hobbies had such origins, I know. The
influence of German literature on some of her writings is very obvious,
and this most favourite study sprang chiefly from a very early fit of
hero-worship for Elizabeth Smith, whose precocious and unusual
acquirements she was stirred to emulate, and whose enthusiasm for
Klopstock she caught. The fly-leaf of her copy of the Smith _Remains_
bears (in her handwriting) the date 1820, with her name as Meta Scott; a
form of her own Christian name which she probably adopted in honour of
Margaretta--or Meta--Klopstock, and by which she was well known to
friends of her youth.
She often told us, too, of the origin of another of her accomplishments.
She was an exquisite caligraphist. Not only did she write the most
beautiful and legible of handwritings, but, long before illuminating was
"fashionable," she illuminated on vellum; not by filling up printed
texts or copying ornamental letters from handbooks of the art, but in
valiant emulation of ancient MSS.; designing her own initial letters,
with all varieties of characters, with "strawberry" borders, and gold
raised and burnished as in the old models. I do not know when she first
saw specimens of the old illuminations, for which she had always the
deepest admiration, but it was in a Dante fever that she had resolved to
write beautifully, because fine penmanship had been among the
accomplishments of the great Italian poet. How well she succeeded her
friends and her printers knew to their comfort! To Dante she dedicated
some of her best efforts in this art. In 1826, when she was seventeen,
she began to translate the _Inferno_ into English verse. She made fair
copies of each canto in exquisite writing, and dedicated them to various
friends on covers which she illuminated. The most highly-finished was
that dedicated to an old friend, Lord Tyrconnel, and the only plain one
was the one dedicated to another friend, Sir Thomas Lawrence. The
dedication was written in fine long characters, but there was no
painting on the cover of the canto dedicated to the painter.
I do not know at what date my mother began to etch on copper. It was a
very favourite pursuit through many years of her life, both before and
after her marriage. She never sketched much in colour, but her
pencil-drawings are amongst the most valuable legacies she has left us.
Trees were her favourite subjects. One of her most beautiful drawings in
my possession is of a tree, marked to fall, beneath which she wrote:
"Das ist das Loos des Sch�nen auf der Erde."[2]
Of another talent nothing now remains to us but her old music-books and
memories of long evenings when she played Weber and Mozart.
But to a large circle of friends, most of whom have gone before her, she
was best known as a naturalist in the special department of phycology.
She has left a fine collection of British and foreign sea-weeds and
zoophytes. Never permitted the privilege of foreign travel--for which
she so often longed--her sea-spoils have been gathered from all shores
by those who loved her; and there are sea-weeds yet in press sent by
_Aunt Judy_ friends from Tasmania, which gave pleasure to the last days
of her life. She did so keenly enjoy everything at which she worked that
it is difficult to say in which of her hobbies she found most happiness;
but I am disposed to give her natural history pursuits the palm.
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