Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hasell, Elizabeth Julia
HASELL, ELIZABETH JULIA (1830–1887), miscellaneous writer, was the second daughter of Edward Williams Hasell of Dalemain, near Penrith. She was born on 17 Jan. 1830, and was carefully educated at home. At the same time she taught herself, with little or no assistance, Latin, Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese. About 1858 she began to contribute to ‘Blackwood's Magazine’ and also to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ reviewing in the latter Lord Derby's translation of the ‘Iliad.’ At this time her attention was largely concentrated on Greek literature. Subsequently she devoted herself chiefly to the literatures of Southern Europe, of which she acquired a knowledge at once accurate and extensive; and after writing sundry magazine articles on Spanish and Portuguese authors, she compiled two of the most scholarly volumes in the series of ‘Foreign Classics for English Readers,’ those on Calderon and Tasso, both published in 1877. She also reviewed occasionally in the ‘Athenæum.’ But besides pursuing her studies she gave a large portion of her time to promoting education and the general welfare of the district in which she lived, walking long distances across the hills to teach in village schools or deliver extempore addresses, in which she showed a quite unusual facility. Her philanthropic exertions probably hastened her death, as in her desire to do good to a scattered population she made light of fatigue and exposure to rain and cold. A deeply religious woman, she was well read in theology, and published:
- ‘The Rock: and other short lectures on passages of Holy Scripture,’ 1867.
- ‘Short Family Prayers,’ 1879, 1884.
- ‘Bible Partings,’ 1883.
A devotional work, ‘Via Crucis et Lucis,’ was the last book she wrote. She died on 16 Nov. 1887.
[Private information; Brit. Mus. Cat.]