A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Lambert, Miss
LAMBERT, MISS.
"The Handbook of Needlework" has made this lady's name familiar to the learned and the unlearned; with many it is the only book they peruse, and to it they return again and again with ever-new interest. Garrick was said by Dr. Johnson to contribute to the gaiety of nations; Miss Lambert may be truly eulogised as adding to the pleasure of nations, and filling up the blanks in many a droning existence, animating the stupid to interest, and rousing the indolent to exertion. Pedantry may strive to undervalue her labours, but her readers are more numerous, from the palace to the cottage, than those of the most admired poetess or novelist. Her book has penetrated into regions where Mrs. Norton is unknown, and even time-honoured Miss Edgeworth ignored; not only in the drawing-rooms of London and Washington, but in the wild settlements of Oregon (we speak it advisedly) and in the burning cities of Hindoostan, "The Handbook of Needlework" is a favourite volume.