believer in reading for young folk, unless the choice of volumes was
carefully made by some competent person. This point she emphasised in
one of her letters to her daughter.

"I can't forbear saying something in relation to my granddaughters, who
are very near my heart. If any of them are fond of reading, I would not
advise you to hinder them (chiefly because it is impossible) seeing
poetry, plays, or romances; but accustom them to talk over what they
read, and point out to them, as you are very capable of doing, the
absurdity often concealed under fine expressions, where the sound is apt
to engage the admiration of young people. I was so much charmed, at
fourteen, with the dialogue of Henry and Emma, I can say it by heart to
this day, without reflecting on the monstrous folly of the story in
plain prose, where a young heiress to a fond father is represented
falling in love with a fellow she had only seen as a huntsman, a
falconer, and a beggar, and who confesses, without any circumstances of
excuse, that he is obliged to run his country, having newly committed a
murder. She ought reasonably to have supposed him, at best, a
highwayman; yet the virtuous virgin resolves to run away with him, to
live among the banditti, and wait upon his trollop, if she had no other
way of enjoying his company. This senseless tale is, however, so well
varnished with melody of words and pomp of sentiments, I am convinced it
has hurt more girls than ever were injured by the lewdest poems extant."


Life, Lady Mary was at pains to insist upon, is a much better instructor
for the young than any story-book, however innocuous it may seem to
grown-up people, who for the greater number have not the faculty of
seeing how the tale would have affected them in their childhood.