During a remarkably severe winter, when a prodigious fall of snow confined everybody to their habitations, who were happy enough to have one to shelter them from the inclemency of the season, and were hot obliged by business to expose themselves to its rigour, I was on a visit to Meadow Hall; where had assembled likewise a large party of young folk, who all seemed, by their harmony and good humour, to strive who should the most contribute to render pleasant that confinement which we were all equally obliged to share. Nor were those further advanced in life less anxious to contribute to the...

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - During a remarkably severe winter, when a prodigious fall of snow confined everybody to their habitations, who were happy enough to have one to shelter them from the inclemency of the season, and were hot obliged by business to expose themselves to its rigour, I was on a visit to Meadow Hall; where had assembled likewise a large party of young folk, who all seemed, by their harmony and good humour, to strive who should the most...

At the end of the eighteenth century a new kind of women music teachers had begun to appear, rivalling the old-style music master, to serve the more affluent classes. Miss Dorothy Kilner was a well-established author of children's books but also a musician. At this period, drawing-room pianists could find themselves called upon to accompany singers from an outline score with a figured bass. Subtitled 'Conversations of a Fortnight' Kilner's book is addressed to 'A Mother and her Daughter' and claims to be the first English treatise on the subject addressed to children, in this case precocious...

Dorothy Kilner published anonymously at first and then under the successive pseudonyms of M. P. and Mary Pelham, in line with general practice for female authors in that period. "M. P." may have referred to her home town of Maryland Point. Both she and her sister-in-law were published by the London firm of John Marshall. Dorothy's most famous book was The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse (1784). This has been praised by a present-day critic as a book that "draws least attention to gaps and contradictions.... The story is episodic, as we follow the mouse Nimble through various households and...