THE DIARY OF A GIRL INFRANCE IN 1821
THE DIARY OF A GIRLIN FRANCE IN1821
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HERSELF AND
AN INTRODUCTION
BY EUPHEMIA STEWART BROWNE
EDITED BY
COMMANDER, THE HON. H. N. SHORE, R. N.
NEW EDITION, 1918
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE
INTRODUCTION
The child who wrote this quaintly-illustrateddiary, eighty-three years ago, was the seconddaughter of William Browne, Esq., of TallentireHall, in the County of Cumberland.She was born there, February 15, 1807.
Descended, on her father's side, from arace of sturdy Cumberland yeomen, and onher mother's from the Royal Stuarts andPlantagenets, she grew up, as might be expectedfrom this childish production, anoriginal and uncommon woman.
A keen naturalist and observer of nature,at a time when such pursuits were unusual,she delighted in long solitary country ramblesround her beautiful home: an old borderwatch-tower, dating from 1280 a. d., in fullview of the Solway to the north, and of[Pg vi]Skiddaw and the Cumbrian mountains tothe south.
An exquisite collection of butterflies andmoths is still in existence, painted by herclever fingers from specimens reared byherself. Each one is depicted upon itsfavourite flower, and accompanied by itscaterpillar and chrysalis on the food plant.This was, alas! left unfinished at her death,on May 30, 1833, at the early age of twenty-six.
A picture poem, painted on the page of oneof the albums of the period, in drawings sominute and so finely finished that, like thebutterflies, they can only be adequately seenthrough a magnifying-glass, still shows heraccuracy of observation, and the dainty andpatient care of her work.
She loved flowers, and the garden maystill be seen where, in the very earlymornings, she planted and tended with herown loving care such fragrant, and old-world[Pg vii]flowers as rose de meaux, clove pinks, andgillyflowers.
But these were only the pastimes of a busylife of unselfish devotion to others. Shy,retiring, and strangely indifferent to appearanceand to worldly advantages, she waslittle understood by the merry young circlearound her. She was, as a child, even consideredstupid and slow, her governessdeclaring that 'friend Mary does as well asshe can.' But children loved her, and ifthere was sickness or sorrow in the villageit was always 'Miss Mary' who was wanted,and who was never appealed to in vain.
At a time when rural education was viewedwith suspicion, and Mrs. Hannah More wascontending for the right of the poor to winknowledge, she and her clever elder sisteropened the first Sunday-school in the neighbourhood.They also devoted several hoursof every morning to teaching in the villagedame school.
[Pg viii]The visit to France recorded in this diaryextended from April 25th to August 12th,1821. Mary Browne went abroad when shewas fourteen, with he