An important contribution to the evolution of a more age-appropriate, critical curriculum in English charity schools.

Margaret Gatty (1809 1873) was an English writer best known for her researches on sundials and British seaweeds. After marrying the Rev. Alfred Gatty in 1839, she moved to Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, where she pursued her literary and scientific studies. This volume, first published in 1872, contains detailed descriptions of various styles of sundials, many taken from Gatty's own collection. Over 350 sundials from across Britain and Europe are described, and each sundial's location is noted in this work, which was one of the first popular books on the subject. Examples included range from...

Josephine Elizabeth Butler (1828 1906) was a prominent English feminist who was best known for her controversial campaigns concerning the welfare and civil rights of prostitutes. In 1869 she became the leader of the campaign to limit the extension of the Contagious Diseases Acts. These Acts aimed to control the spread of venereal diseases in the armed forces through mandatory internal examinations and imprisonment for women accused of prostitution. Butler's campaign was instrumental in having the Acts repealed in 1886. In this volume of 1871, Butler denounces the Acts for denying accused...

In the preface to this 1859 book Harriet Martineau (1802 1876) tells the reader that this 'is not a work of invention' or a 'fancy-piece' and thereby sets the tone for a study that is partly historical and partly sociological. In the writing of the book, Martineau collaborated with another prominent nineteenth-century figure, Florence Nightingale. They wished to gain political support for improvements in military hygiene and health care. Martineau draws on Nightingale's experiences when nursing wounded soldiers during the Crimean War and builds it into a strong narrative that describes the...

Eden's candid letters represent thousands of nineteenth-century women who dutifully accompanied their men to outposts of the British Empire.

Eden's candid letters represent thousands of nineteenth-century women who dutifully accompanied their men to outposts of the British Empire.

First published in 1868, this volume contains a collection of twenty-four traditional stories from the southern Indian state of Maharashtra. Mary Eliza Isabella Frere (1845 1911) travelled to India in 1863 to stay with her father, Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of Bombay. She became fascinated with Indian culture and transcribed these stories from her ayah (nanny and chaperone) Anna Liberata da Souza who had been told them by her grandmother. Expressive and detailed, these stories formed part of southern India's traditional oral culture, at risk of being lost. This volume includes an...

Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829 1925) was an English poet, writer and prominent early feminist best known for her campaigns for women's right to work and receive professional training. After meeting fellow feminist activist Barbara Bodichon (1827 1891) they founded the first English feminist journal, The English Woman's Review in 1858. Parkes served as its principal editor between 1858 1864. This volume, first published in 1865 and containing several essays from The English Woman's Review, advocates for young middle-class women to be given the opportunity to work and earn a living in safe...

In great and colourful detail the Welsh writer Jane Williams (1806 1885) tells the history of Wales from the settlement of the Cymry in pre-Christian Britain until the Tudor period. The work, first published in 1869, remained a standard work until the beginning of the twentieth century. The most remarkable feature of the book's methodology is that its narrative is based on the use of an impressive range of source material, ranging from Pliny and Bede to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Jane Williams is a passionate chronicler of Welsh history and does not seek to be objective in...

Through England on a Side Saddle was written around 1700, and first published in full in 1888. Celia Fiennes (1662 1741) was the granddaughter of the 1st Viscount Saye and Sele. She was an enthusiastic traveller through England, both for pleasure and 'to regain my health by variety and change of aire and exercise'. The diary which she kept was intended for her family to read, and, while it lacks Defoe's more systematic approach some two decades later, sheds valuable insights into English social and economic history at the turn of the century. She was uninterested in antiquities, getting most...