by Wendy Moore
15 Arriving in Oxford in his black silk gown: University of Oxford, Alumni Ox-onienses, 1715–1886 (London; Oxford, 1887–88), vol. 1, p. 357. The college architecture is largely unchanged today.
16 Day liked to “descant at large”: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 248 and 341; vol. 2, p. 86. The second comment is from Maria Edgeworth.
16 Alone in his rooms, he poured: Letters, TD to JB, Essex RO, D/DBa C10. Three letters sent by Day to Bicknell from Oxford have survived. All are undated, but events mentioned suggest they were written in 1765 and 1766. The succeeding quotes are all from these letters. No replies from Bicknell survive.
17 Instead he made friends with other misfits: Kippis; Cannon, pp. 21–22.
18 Engaged on a path of solo research: Keir, p. 6.
18 Briefly considering a career in law: Students’ Ledger, Middle Temple archives. Day was admitted on February 12, 1765.
18 Virtue was a noble ideal: Morse, pp. 155–57 re Day and passim.
20 Day dedicated himself to “the unremitting practice”: Keir, p. 8.
20 Day’s contempt for “modern refinements”: Keir, p. 34; and “Want of Elegance: TD to JB, n.d. (c. 1765–66), Essex RO, D/DBa C10.
21 Although Day loved to declaim: Keir, pp. 88–89.
21 “With his customary frankness”: Keir, p. 41.
22 At one point, as a seventeen-year-old: Keir, pp. 21–22.
23 During the long university holidays: Keir, pp. 32–33.
24 Day judged that by the “manly exercise of walking”: Kippis.
24 Alone on these country expeditions: TD, Commonplace book, Essex RO, D/DBa Z40.
25 Day was “wounded by the caprice”: Seward (1804), pp. 20–23. Seward reproduces the elegy to Laura. Day’s friend at Oxford, William Jones, was also inspired by Petrarch to write an elegy entitled Laura. Cannon, ed., pp. 26–27.
25 “O gentle Lady of the West”: TD, Commonplace book, Essex RO, D/DBa Z40; the poem is reproduced in Keir, pp. 42–44.
26 “the Habits of the Mind”: TD to JB, n.d. [c. September–October 1768] Essex RO, D/DBa C10.
26 As the second eldest son: Baptism register, St. Andrew’s Holborn, July 28, 1746. John Bicknell was not baptized with the middle name Laurens, as is commonly stated; this is a confusion with his son John Laurens Bicknell. General family background is from Bicknell, although this is inaccurate in places.
27 Originally the base for the Knights Templar: Williamson, J. Bruce, The History of the Temple (London, 1925); Middle Temple Hall: Notes Upon Its History (London, 1928); and Notes on the Middle Temple in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1936); Bellot, Hugh H. L., The Inner and Middle Temple: Legal, Literary and Historic Associations (London, 1902); Herber, Mark, Legal London: A Pictorial History (Chichester, 2007); Blackham, Robert James, Wig and Gown, The Story of the Temple (London, 1932).
27 Bicknell duly enjoyed his dinners: Buttery Book, 1759–1772, MT archives, MT7/BUB/2.
27 James Boswell, the lawyer, diarist and notorious libertine: Boswell, James, Boswell’s London Journal, 1762–1763, ed. Pottle, Frederick A. (Edinburgh, 1991), pp. 234 and 49.
27 One female acquaintance would later: AS to George Hardinge, March 5, 1789. Seward (1811), vol. 2, p. 250. The Buttery Book for the time shows Hardinge dined at the same time as JB. Buttery Book, 1759–72, MT archives, MT7/BUB/2.
28 Born in 1744, the second son: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 21–22. Details of Edgeworth’s life are from his memoirs unless otherwise stated. Other sources include Butler, Harriet Jessie and Harold Edgeworth; and Clarke, although the latter is mostly culled from the memoirs.
29 So Edgeworth was packed off: Alumni Oxonienses, 1715–1886, p. 408.
29 She was pregnant: Black Bourton parish records, February 21, 1764. Edgeworth and Anna Maria were married by license with the consent of her parents. She was then 20. The baptism register shows Anna Maria was born on October 20, 1743. In 1761, when Edgeworth arrived in the household, her sisters were aged 16, 15, 7 and 6. Dick was “received” into the parish church on December 25, 1765, having been “previously privately baptised,” according to the baptism register.
30 But although she was “prudent”: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 179.
30 Anna Maria as “always crying”: Butler, Marilyn (1972), p. 37. The description was crossed out of the original manuscript of Edgeworth, Frances Anne, A Memoir of Maria Edgeworth, which was edited by her stepmother and sisters.
30 The tireless inventor bombarded the newly founded Society for the Arts: Letters RLE to the RSA, RSA archives PR.GE/110/14/134; 22/146; 23/7 and 32 and 54; 24/86; 26/75; 30/136 and 137. The society is now the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, known as the RSA. RLE was awarded the silver medal in 1768 and the gold medal in 1769.
31 Having heard that Darwin shared his interest: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 156–58.
31 They took the name the Lunar Society: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 180–81. For more information on the Lunar Society see Uglow; Schofield; Robinson; Herbert L. Ganter, “William Small, Jefferson’s Beloved Teacher,” in The William and Mary Quarterly, 4 (1947), pp. 505–11; King-Hele (2007). Dr. Small taught mathematics to Thomas Jefferson when he was professor of natural philosophy at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. More background on Darwin can be found in King-Hele (1999).
32 Dashing off a letter: ED to Matthew Boulton, n.d. [summer 1766], in King-Hele (2007), p. 74. Darwin meant Edgeworth’s father-in-law’s home at Black Bourton when he referred to Oxfordshire.
32 Into Edgeworth’s exhilarating: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 175–79; vol. 2, p. 102.
32 Edgeworth would later compare: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 175–77.
34 “calculating the vibrations”: TD to RLE, Nov 1769, from Avignon, in RLE, Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 214.
CHAPTER 3 : SOPHIE
35 Enjoying a stroll in the gardens: The story of Darwin’s ruse to meet Rousseau is told by his grandson, the naturalist Charles Darwin, in Darwin, p. 47. The story is also described, slightly differently, in Howitt, p. 513. Background on Rousseau generally and his visit to England specifically is from Edmonds and Eidinow; Damrosch; Broome; and Rousseau (2008). Letters between JJR, Hume and Davenport are in Rousseau (1965–2012), vols. 29–33. Born in Geneva in 1712, Rousseau was brought up by his father, a watchmaker. He enjoyed no formal education until the age of 10, when he was sent to live with a pastor in a nearby village. Although he was apprenticed to an engraver, he ran away at 16, and for the next 14 years he traveled Europe and drifted from one menial job to another with no apparent ambition until settling in Paris at the age of 30. He was 38 when he was suddenly propelled to literary and philosophical acclaim by winning first prize in a provincial writing competition for his essay Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
36 “All the world are eager to see”: Quoted in Edmonds and Eidinow, p. 120. Rousseau was called “John James Rousseau” in London Evening Post, January 31, 1766.
36 Thérèse Lavasseur until she was escorted across the Channel: During the 10-day journey to Dover, Boswell enjoyed intimacies with Thérèse on 13 occasions—or so he would boast in his diary. Edmonds and Eidinow, pp. 144–45.
36 Rousseau rightly suspected: In typically paranoid fashion, Rousseau had decided that Hume’s efforts to negotiate a pension for him from George III was a trick to humiliate him and that Hume and Davenport were both involved in a spoof letter published in London in the St. James’s Chronicle of April 1–3, 1766. The letter, purported to be written by the king of Prussia, was actually concocted by Horace Walpole. Walpole confessed himself the author in a letter to Horace Mann. Rousseau (1965–2012), vol. 30, p. 83.
37 As a father, who gave up all five children: Rousseau (2008), p. 335. The children were born in the late 1740s and early 1750s. Rousseau would later try to justify giving away his offspring, but it was an act that would haunt him all his life.
37 Émile has been described as the most important wor
k: Wokler, p. 2; Darling, p. 17. Darling offers a clear and inspiring exposition of the evolution of educational systems from Rousseau to the present day.
37 at birth children’s minds resemble “white Paper”: Locke, John, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (London, 1693) p. 261.
37 “Everything is good”: Rousseau, (2010), p. 161. I have used the most recent translation of Émile, edited by Bloom and Kelly and published in 2010, for quotations except in a few places where the Boyd translation, which is an abridged version, seemed more expressive.
38 “I hate books”: Rousseau (2010), p. 331.
38 Although Émile was not the first parenting manual: Rousseau’s visionary belief in placing children at the center of education and his advocacy of teaching through demonstration and experiment—essentially “learning by doing”—have remained pillars of educational theory. After his death, early Rousseau disciples set up pioneering schools based on his methods across Europe. Their ideas crossed the Atlantic to America in the twentieth century and were exported from the US to Asia. Then two centuries after his memorable visit to England, during the 1960s Rousseau’s teaching methods were adopted in Britain and remain—despite countercampaigns—the prevailing educational system. The Rousseau vision of children as innocent individuals with distinct characteristics and rights is still the dominant world view. See Darling; Jimack; and Moncrieff.
39 The Prince and Princess of Wurtemberg: Douthwaite, pp. 134–45. Douthwaite also describes the experiments by Edgeworth and Day as well as the story of Madame Manon Roland, who brought up her daughter Eudora, born in 1781, according to the Rousseau system. The letter from Prince Louis-Eugène to JJR, October 4, 1763, is in Rousseau (1965–2012), vol. 18, pp. 13–16.
39 Another enthusiast, a Swiss banker: Rousseau (1965–2012), vol. 46, pp. 235–37. The notes in Rousseau’s Correspondance Complète identify one of the girls, the source of the story, as Marie de Bourdeille (née Roussel) who was born in 1758 and married le comte de Bourdeille in 1781. She related the story to a friend of Rousseau’s, Mme de Gauthier, in 1790.
39 When Émile was published in English: Background information on the changes in children’s education and upbringing can be found in Stone, pp. 254–99; Fletcher; Cunningham; and Jimack. Émile was published in English in two rival translations: Emilius, or an essay on education by John James Rousseau, translated by Thomas Nugent, and Emilius and Sophia, or a new system of education, translated by William Kenrick. Both books give 1763 as their date of publication although one at least was in the shops by late 1762.
39 In one painting, An Experiment on a Bird: Wright, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768. The figure in the foreground with a stopwatch is thought to be Darwin and the two boys his eldest sons, Charles and Erasmus. See Daniels, Stephen, Joseph Wright (London, 1999), pp. 37–39, and King-Hele (1999), p. 83.
40 Richard Davenport, who had placed: Broome, pp. 22–23; Howitt, p. 514. A letter describing the effects on Davies, from his son Edward Davies Davenport to his grandson, Arthur Henry Davenport, July 7, 1838, is given in Rousseau (1965–2012), vol. 33, pp. 272–75.
40 Rather more successfully, Emily Kildare: Emily Kildare’s experimental school is described in Tillyard, Stella, Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1752–1832 (London, 1994), pp. 244–46.
40 Edgeworth devoured Émile: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 172–73.
41 Dick had been pampered and indulged: Edgeworth, FA, p. 37.
42 Having been dressed in petticoats: The experiment on Dick is described in Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 177–180, and the subsequent quotes from RLE are from these pages.
43 “the plague of childhood”: Rousseau (2010), p. 253.
43 Only if Dick himself picked up a book: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 221. Day was echoing Rousseau’s advice. In Émile, he wrote: “I am almost certain that Emile will know how to read and write perfectly before the age of ten, precisely because it makes very little difference to me that he knows how before fifteen.” Rousseau (2010), p. 254.
43 “a Waggon drawn by Fire”: ED to Josiah Wedgwood, June 14, 1768, in King-Hele (2007), pp. 87–88.
43 winning a silver medal: Clarke, p. 52.
44 “I cannot believe that you took the book”: JJR to Philibert Cramer, October 13, 1764, in Rousseau (1965–2012), vol. 21, pp. 248–49.
45 The educational program had been progressing: RLE states that he and Day left for Ireland in “spring 1768.”
45 Anna Maria, who had given birth to a daughter, baptized Maria: Maria’s date of birth has been contentious. It has variously been given as January 1, 1767, and January 1, 1768; the latter is correct. She states categorically in a letter written on January 1, 1819: “This is my 51st birthday.” See Edgeworth, Maria, p. 153. The Black Bourton parish register states that she was baptized Mary on October 31, 1768.
45 Eager to provide some light entertainment: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 188–92. The play, by George Farquhar, was first staged in 1707.
47 Rousseau had recognized as he wrote Émile: Rousseau (2010), pp. 499 and 531.
47 In the quest to find Sophie: Rousseau (2010), p. 529.
47 “Let us give Émile his Sophie”: Rousseau (1960), p. 152. The Bloom version gives this as: “Let us render his Sophie to our Emile. Let us resuscitate this lovable girl.” Rousseau (2010), p. 587.
48 Rousseau has no hesitation in asserting: Rousseau (2010), p. 531.
48 “the time will come when she will be her own doll”: Rousseau (1960), p. 137.
48 “almost all little girls learn to read and write with repugnance”: Rousseau (2010), p. 543.
48 “From this habitual constraint”: Rousseau (2010), p. 546.
48 The poet and socialite Frances Greville praised Émile: Lady Caroline Holland to Emily, Duchess of Leinster, December 7, 1762, in Emily, Duchess of Leinster, Correspondence of Emily, Duchess of Leinster (1731–1814), ed. Fitzgerald, Brian (Dublin, 1949), vol. 1, p. 353.
48 Mary Wollstonecraft would later condemn: Wollstonecraft, pp. 56–57.
49 “I have been disappointed in a Manner”: TD to JB, n.d. (c. September–October 1768), Essex RO, D/DBa C10.
51 Back in London, Day moved into lodgings: Edgeworth states that Day and Bicknell lodged together “in town.” Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 204.
51 Day might well have accompanied Edgeworth: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 202–4.
52 “such a society, as few men have had the good fortune to live with”: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. l, pp. 180–81.
53 a comfortable income of £1,200 a year: Seward (1804), p. 18.
54 Built as a country branch of the Foundling Hospital: Ionides, Julia, Thomas Farnolls Pritchard of Shrewsbury: Architect and “Inventor of Cast Iron Bridges” (Ludlow, 1999); Oldham, J. Basil, A History of Shrewsbury School 1552–1952 (Oxford, 1952), pp. 135–39. The £16,960 cost of the building, given in Ionides, would today equal nearly £3m ($4.8 million). The iron bridge over the Severn at Coalbrookdale, the first iron bridge in the world, was designed by Pritchard in 1775 but not built until 1777–79 after his death. The former orphanage is now part of Shrewsbury School and largely intact. My thanks to Mike Mo-rogh of Shrewsbury School for a guided tour of the building.
55 At its peak, in 1766, the Shrewsbury orphanage: The daily routine at Shrewsbury is described in Regulations for the Government of the Orphan Hospital at Shrewsbury, FHA: A/FH/M01/13. Figures for the number of children in August 1769 are given in State of the Orphan Hospital (Shrewsbury), FHA: A/FH/D2/15/1. There were 58 boys and 299 girls in August. Instructions to send 100 boys to Ackworth were given in Shrewsbury Letter Book 4, 21 June 1768, FHA: A/FH/D/5/4.
55 “girls will be harder to be placed out”: London Letter Book 4, August 31, 1769, FHA: A/FH/A/6/2/2.
55 Earlier in 1769, the governors had prosecuted: Shrewsbury Letter Book 4, 2 Jan 1767, FHA: A/FH/D/5/4. The court case is described in London Letter Book 4, 11 Feb 1769, FHA: A/FH/A/6/2/2. In August 1769, two
girls, aged 13 and 17, ran back to the orphanage from their apprenticeships in a factory making wood saws near Burton upon Trent, because the owner had beaten them if they refused to come to his bed.
56 As he walked up and down the parade: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 209. Seward (1804), p. 36. Edgeworth says Day chose Sabrina “from among a number of orphans.” Seward states that Day and Bicknell chose both girls from “a little train” at Shrewsbury although Lucretia was in fact selected in London. ME states that it was Bicknell who originally chose Sabrina, Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 2, p. 110. The visit must have taken place between June 22, when Day turned 21, and June 30, when the Shrewsbury Committee ratified the apprenticeship.
56 “chestnut tresses” and dark eyes “expressive of sweetness”: Seward, p. 26; Edgeworth, RL and M, vol.1, p. 213.
57 A few days later, on June 30: Shrewsbury Committee Minutes, June 30, 1769, FHA: A/FH/D2/1. Apprenticeship indenture for Ann Kingston, August 17, 1769, FHA: A/FH/A/12/4/60/1.
58 The following day, the London office: Thomas Collingwood to Samuel Magee, October 5, 1769, correspondence, FHA: A/FH/D2/3/16; SM to TC, October 9, 1769, Shrewsbury Letter Book 4, FHA: A/FH/D2/5/4.
CHAPTER 4: ANN AND DORCAS
60 “I had such well merited confidence”: Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 210. RLE stated that Day placed Sabrina in lodgings near Chancery Lane.
60 Then even though he had flouted: Minutes of FH General Committee, 1769–70, FHA: X041/17; lists of governors 1784 and 1786, FHA: A/FH/A/2/1/2 and A/FH/A/2/1/4.
61 Thomas Day was not the first to dream of: Ovid, “Pygmalion,” in Metamorphoses, trans. Melville, A. D., ed. Kenney, E.J. (Oxford, 2008), pp. 232–34. Fascination with the Pygmalion myth and its influence on other works are discussed in Hersey; Stoichita; and Sheriff.
61 With its simple but timeless theme: Works reputed to have been inspired by the Pygmalion myth include Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, the Willy Russell play and later film Educating Rita, Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo,“The Galatea Affair” in the television series The Man from UNCLE and the sci-fi novel by Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2. See Stoichita for a fascinating discussion.