This study examines the works of Mrs. Sarah Trimmer, late 18thC educationist and philanthropist. It is structured around her published works, which were mostly textbooks and teaching manuals written for use in the educational establishments and domestic schoolrooms of the "higher" ranks of society, and in the charity schools and institutions of the lower. It surveys the history of the Brentford schools and schools of industry, and of the SPCK-subsidized textbooks that formed the basis of her 1792 Plan of Appropriate Instruction for the Children of the Poor. It is argued that the retention...