Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/319

Rh Lady, whose tales are ranked with those of Marmontel. whom Homer is supposed by some to have stolen many of the grand beauties of his works.

father, a brewer and alehouse-keeper, was the principal of seven poor inhabitants, but died when she was not above seven years old. Her grandmother's brother, an old man of good understanding, who lived in Poland, had taken her home to his house a few months before this happened, and taught her to read and write. To this uncle she addressed a poem, which is in her printed collection. She continued with him about three years, and then returned to her mother, who, it seems, had married again. The misfortunes which constantly attended her till she was near forty began at this period. Her first employment was the care of her brothers-in-law; but she soon quitted that, in order to attend upon three cows,