1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Betham-Edwards, Matilda

BETHAM-EDWARDS, MATILDA (1836-1919), British author, was born at Westerfield, Ipswich, March 4 1836. She studied French and German abroad and after some school-teaching in London, she settled down with her sister in Suffolk to manage the farm which had belonged to her father. Not content, however, with purely rural occupations, she contributed from time to time to Household Words, having the advantage at this time of the friendship of Charles Dickens and an early association with Charles and Mary Lamb, friends of her mother. On her sister's death she moved to London and wrote a number of novels of French life based on her frequent visits to France and her intimate knowledge of provincial French homes. In this way she did much to promote a better understanding between the two peoples. Her chief books are: The White House by the Sea (1857); Anglo-French Reminiscences (1898); East of Paris (1902); Home Life in France (1905); Literary Rambles in France (1907) and the posthumously published Mid-Victorian Memories (1919), which contains a personal sketch of its author by Sarah Grand. She died at Hastings Jan. 4 1919.