'At the house party where Anna met the Bishop of Llandaff, guests took it in turns to read to one another. On 1 July 1780, for instance, after hearing her sister Clara read Rollin's "Histoire ancienne"... Anna "spent two hours in the family circle reading and working". While her friends were engaged in different sorts of women's work - embroidering and making cushion covers - she read them a great favourite, the sentimental novel "Marienne" by Pierre Marivaux.'