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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Listings for Reader:  

Elizabeth Hamilton

 

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John Aikin : Evenings at Home

'It would be well if both tales and books werwe always calculated to ... In the "Evenings at Home", or "Juvenile Budget", all this appears to be effected in it's utmost extent...' [more praise follows].

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

William Hamilton : Blind Harry's Wallace

'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

William Shakespeare : [History Plays]

'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [A history of England]

'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Homer : Iliad

'[editor's words] Previous to her arrival in Stirlingshire she had learnt to read with distinctness and propriety; and, under the tuition of Mrs Marshall, became an adept in this rare accomplishment. In books she soon discovered a substitute even for a playmate: her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Harry's Lays. Two or three of Shakespeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [scholastic divinity essays]

'[editor's words] In the evening Elizabeth had often to repeat a long elaborate task extracted from the now obsolete page of scholastic divinity, which must have been better calculated to exercise the memory than to call forth the devotional affections'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

'[editor's words. A family friend having tried to shake EH's religious faith,] To terminate this state of doubt, which to her ardent temper was insupportable, she took the prompt resolution of reading the scriptures by stealth, and deciding the question from her own unbiassed judgment. The result of this examination was, a conviction of their truth; and she observed that the moral precepts connected with the doctrine of Christianity, were too pure to have been promulgated by an impostor'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [books chosen by Mrs Marshall]

'[editor's words] without literary pretensions, Mrs Marshall had a genuine love of reading, and when no other engagement intervened, it was one of her domestic regulations, that a book should be read aloud in the evening for general amusement; the office of reader commonly devolved on Miss Hamilton, who was thus led to remark that the best prose style was always that which could be longest read without exhausting the breath. These social studies were far from satisfying her avidity for information; and she constantly perused many books by stealth. Mrs Marshall, on discovering what had been her private occupation, expressed neither praise nor blame, but quietly advised her to avoid any display of superior knowledge by which she might be subjected to the imputation of pedantry. This admonition produced the desired effect, since, as she herself informs us, she once hid a volume of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism under the cushion of a chair lest she should be detected in a study which prejudice and ignorance might pronounce unfeminine'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'[editor's words] without literary pretensions, Mrs Marshall had a genuine love of reading, and when no other engagement intervened, it was one of her domestic regulations, that a book should be read aloud in the evening for general amusement; the office of reader commonly devolved on Miss Hamilton, who was thus led to remark that the best prose style was always that which could be longest read without exhausting the breath. These social studies were far from satisfying her avidity for information; and she constantly perused many books by stealth. Mrs Marshall, on discovering what had been her private occupation, expressed neither praise nor blame, but quietly advised her to avoid any display of superior knowledge by which she might be subjected to the imputation of pedantry. This admonition produced the desired effect, since, as she herself informs us, she once hid a volume of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism under the cushion of a chair lest she should be detected in a study which prejudice and ignorance might pronounce unfeminine'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

'[editor's words] without literary pretensions, Mrs Marshall had a genuine love of reading, and when no other engagement intervened, it was one of her domestic regulations, that a book should be read aloud in the evening for general amusement; the office of reader commonly devolved on Miss Hamilton, who was thus led to remark that the best prose style was always that which could be longest read without exhausting the breath. These social studies were far from satisfying her avidity for information; and she constantly perused many books by stealth. Mrs Marshall, on discovering what had been her private occupation, expressed neither praise nor blame, but quietly advised her to avoid any display of superior knowledge by which she might be subjected to the imputation of pedantry. This admonition produced the desired effect, since, as she herself informs us, she once hid a volume of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism under the cushion of a chair lest she should be detected in a study which prejudice and ignorance might pronounce unfeminine'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [Scottish history]

'[editor's words] In reading the annals of her own country, she had been touched with the hard fate of Lady Arabella Stuart; and, either to extend her knowledge, or amuse her fancy, collected much miscellaneous information respecting her, which she afterwards cast into the form of a historical novel'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : [newspaper]

'[EH having been expecting her brother back from India] Think, then, what I felt on reading in the newspaper of that ship being seen off the Cape in great distress; at length its arrival was announced, and, on Saturday last, among the list of passengers, I saw your name; but still I was not, could not be, convinced that it was really you'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Newspaper

  

[unknown] : [oriental literature]

'[EDITOR's WORDS] His [her brother, Charles's ] conversation inspired her with a taste for oriental literature; and without affecting to become a Persian scholar, she spontaneously caught the idioms, as she insensibly became familiar with the customs and manners of the East'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Elizabeth Hamilton : Letters on Education

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] In composing this work [her "Letters on Education"], she accustomed herself to read a few letters to some sensible female, who had an interest in the subject; - a practice repugnant to the self-importance of literary egotism, but from which she learnt to measure the capacities of those it was her object to enlighten, and her ambition to instruct'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Manuscript: Unknown

  

Elizabeth Hamilton : Letters on Education

'When the first proof came home, I did not like its look in print; so stopped the press, and wrote another first chapter'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: proof

  

[n/a] : [Classical latin works in translation]

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] The author, directed by her learned friends, was indefatigable in collecting documents and procuring materials for an authentic work. Through the medium of translation, she had been conversant with the best historians, annalists, poets, and orators of ancient Rome; and she was guided by the most esteemed modern writers on the subject of antiquities, laws, and usages'. [in writing her "Memoirs of Agrippina"]

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : [modern works on Classical subjects]

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] The author, directed by her learned friends, was indefatigable in collecting documents and procuring materials for an authentic work. Through the medium of translation, she had been conversant with the best historians, annalists, poets, and orators of ancient Rome; and she was guided by the most esteemed modern writers on the subject of antiquities, laws, and usages'. [in writing her "Memoirs of Agrippina"]

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Elizabeth Hamilton : Cottagers of Glenburnie, The

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] 'On reading the first sheets [of her "Cottagers of Glenburnie"] at her own fire-side, she was encouraged by observing, that it excited mirth. This induced her to extend the plan'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Manuscript: Unknown

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] 'If no engagement intervened, the interval from seven till ten was occupied with some interesting book, which, according to her good aunt Marshall's rule, was read aloud for the benefit of the whole party'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Elizabeth Hamilton : [poem - 'Is that Auld Age']

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] She had, however, dwelt long enough on the idea [of aging] to make it the subject of a sportive poem, which she one evening read with a smiling countenance to her little family circle' [the poem is reproduced].'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Manuscript: Unknown

  

Dugald Stewart : [unknown]

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] Although Mrs Hamilton never lost her relish for works of humour and imagination, she had, during the last six years of her life, a decided preference for compositions of a higher order. Dugald Stewart, Paley, and Allison, had long been the chosen companions of her private hours'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Archibald Allison : [unknown]

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] Although Mrs Hamilton never lost her relish for works of humour and imagination, she had, during the last six years of her life, a decided preference for compositions of a higher order. Dugald Stewart, Paley, and Allison, had long been the chosen companions of her private hours'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

William Paley : [unknown]

'[EDITOR'S WORDS] Although Mrs Hamilton never lost her relish for works of humour and imagination, she had, during the last six years of her life, a decided preference for compositions of a higher order. Dugald Stewart, Paley, and Allison, had long been the chosen companions of her private hours'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible [ Paul to the Ephesians, Ch 4]

'It now only remains for me to walk worthy of that vocation to which I am called. Let me do so in the very manner in which the Apostle, whose words I have now been reading, mentions, "With all lowliness and meekness, and with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace".'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

'The superiority of the Scriptures to every composition of human genius, must appear incontestible to those who persevere in making those Scriptures their daily study. By such strict and repeated examination of any other work, how many errors and incongruities should we discover?'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

'In studying the prophets, with a view of particularly examining the witness they bear to the Messiah, many things have occurred to me which it would have been useful to preserve' [but she says her memory is 'unfaithful']

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

 : [books on the prophecies]

'Let me remember, that though I now see, in all the prophets, the most valuable testimony to the truth of the Christian faith, a few years only have elapsed since I considered that evidence to be so dark and unintelligible as to be of little avail to the defence of the Christian cause. The few works upon the prophecies which had fallen into my hands contributed to this opinion, as the writers of them appeared to me in the light of pious visionaries, all labouring to establish some favourite point; or by twisting and turning the obscure meaning of dark passages to suit their purpose to penetrate into the events of futurity'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

 : [New testament]

'The parable of the talents was one of the first passages in the New Testament that attracted my serious attention'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

William Paley : Natural Theology

'The evidences of the infinite wisdom, power, and goodness of the great Creator, given by Paley in his Natural Theology, have attracted my attention to objects that might otherwise have escaped my notice'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

James Currie : Life of Robert Burns

'[letter to Mrs --] 'books, for a certain length of time, are a charming substitute for common conversation. I do not know that I ever read one from which my mind received a higher degree of pleasure than "Currie's life of Burns". To me, its charm was enhanced by a thousand pleasing recollections - a thousand associations, that gave a strong additional interest to every word. The strength of Burns's feelings, the character of his mind, had excited an enthusiastic admiration, at a period when my own enthusiastic feelings were in perfect unison with those of the poet; and in him alone did I meet with the expression of a sensibility with which I could perfectly sympathise: in his emotions there was a strength, an energy, that came home to my heart; while the tender sorrows of other poets had to me appeared mawkish and insipid. Even the strong light in which he saw the ridiculous, was, I fear, too agreeable to me. The idea I then formed of his mind has been confirmed by Dr Currie's delineation of it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Robert Burns : 

'[letter to Mrs --] 'books, for a certain length of time, are a charming substitute for common conversation. I do not know that I ever read one from which my mind received a higher degree of pleasure than "Currie's life of Burns". To me, its charm was enhanced by a thousand pleasing recollections - a thousand associations, that gave a strong additional interest to every word. The strength of Burns's feelings, the character of his mind, had excited an enthusiastic admiration, at a period when my own enthusiastic feelings were in perfect unison with those of the poet; and in him alone did I meet with the expression of a sensibility with which I could perfectly sympathise: in his emotions there was a strength, an energy, that came home to my heart; while the tender sorrows of other poets had to me appeared mawkish and insipid. Even the strong light in which he saw the ridiculous, was, I fear, too agreeable to me. The idea I then formed of his mind has been confirmed by Dr Currie's delineation of it'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Robert Burns : [poems]

'[Letter to H.M. Esq.] I have purchased your friend "Currie's Life of Burns"; which, I confess, has operated like a charm on my benumbed imagination. Never have I been more highly gratified than by the perusal of his inestimable work, which is a [italics] chef-d'oeuvre [end italics] of cultivated and discriminating taste. On reading the poems that are added to the collection, I once more tasted of all that delicious enthusiasm with which the first productions of this child of nature and genius had feasted my soul'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

James Currie : Life of Burns

'[Letter to H.M. Esq.] I have purchased your friend "Currie's Life of Burns"; which, I confess, has operated like a charm on my benumbed imagination. Never have I been more highly gratified than by the perusal of his inestimable work, which is a [italics] chef-d'oeuvre [end italics] of cultivated and discriminating taste. On reading the poems that are added to the collection, I once more tasted of all that delicious enthusiasm with which the first productions of this child of nature and genius had feasted my soul'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

 : [books on metaphysics]

'[letter to H.M. esq] my poor brains have been of late so completely fused in the furnace of metaphysic, that they have become a complete [italics] calx [end italics]. I have been obliged, in pursuit of [italics] hints [end italics], to wade through volumes: keeping neither commonplace book nor memorandum, have been forced to stupify myself in search of passages which remained in my memory, while every trace of the place in which I had found them was lost'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Hector Macneil : [poems]

'[letter to Hector MacNeil - H.M.] 'it appears to me, that even in your slighter pieces, this illusion [hiding judgment under imagination] is kept up; while, in your more finished producions, it is preserved in an uncommon degree. This, my feelings tell me; and to them, in this instance, judgment delegates her authority. Had I, previously to publication, known of your intention of paying a compliment to Lord N., I should certainly have remonstrated. I confess I was revolted by the idea of your virtuous muse binding her laurels round the brow of one of the most profligate and worthless of the human race; but that single passage excepted, I found so much pleasure in the perusal of the whole, that I would not have taken a thousand pounds to have gone critically over every if and and, purposely to pick out some faults'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Hector Macneil : Harp, The

'[letter to Hector MacNeil - H.M.] [EH says she has received a note from 'Miss H.] along with your volume, of which she had begged the perusal. She is (as I am) pleased with the whole; but with the "Harp", and the "Waes o' War" , she is particularly charmed.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Henry Home, Lord Kames : Elements of Criticism

'[letter to Hector MacNeil - H.M.] Do I not well remember hiding "Kaims's Elements of Criticism", under the cover of an easy chair, whenever I heard the approach of a footstep, well knowing the ridicule to which I should have been exposed, had I been detected in the act of looking into such a book?'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

Tacitus : Annals

'[letter to Dr S.] It was the perusal of Tacitus, in Murphy's translation, which first excited the idea in my mind [of writing a book of moral education based on the behaviour of eminent historical figures]'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

 : 

'[letter to Dr S.] My reading [on classical subjects relevant to a projected book] has not been, by any means, extensive; for the last ten years the weakness in my eyes has been a perptually occuring hindrance to study'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

 : [Edinburgh] Quarterly Review

'[letter to Dr S.] If you have not yet seen the Edinburgh Quarterly Review, I beg leave to recommend it your perusal, as a striking specimen of the abilities of a party of young gentlemen, who promise to do much credit to the literary character of Scotland'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Thomas Clarkson : History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade

'[letter to Dr S.] I have just finished the perusal of a publication which plainly shows what may be accomplished by the persevering exertions of a righteous zeal. I allude to Clarkson's "History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade", which I think one of the most interesting books I have ever read'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

  

R.H. Cromek : Reliques of Robert Burns

'[letter to Miss J-B-] I have just been looking over the fifth volume of poor Burns. it contains much that he would have been sorry to imagine before the public eye; but his letter to Mr Erskine, and some others, are invaluable'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Hamilton      Print: Book

 

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