not think one tear per month is shed in this house, not the voice of reproof heard, nor the hand of restraint felt."
In the summer of 1791, Maria Edgeworth was left in sole charge of this houseful of children, while her father and stepmother were at Clifton. The stories that she then wrote for her brothers and sisters were written on a slate, and read out in the evening, to be questioned on. Their merits were judged by the interest they excited.
She had to personally conduct the large family over to England, the sea-passage from Dublin to Holyhead taking no less than thirty- three hours, and only one passenger besides themselves!
Maria Edgeworth' s first published work was "Letters to Literary Ladies," which has long passed into the region of forgetfulness. It came out in 1795, and the year afterwards the first volume of her Tales appeared, those Tales which were soon to become the delight of every schoolroom and nursery throughout the kingdom. The title given to the volume by Mr. Johnson was the unpromising one of "The Parents' Assistant," but children soon forgot the title in the delights of the "Purple Jar" and "Lazy Lawrence."
Mr. Edgeworth's third wife died in 1797. He said of her that "he had never seen her out of temper, and never received from her an unkind
