Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/708

694 I suppose, imprinted it on my mind." She had soon learned to read, which she used to do in private.

"I was at this time about five years of age; when, my mother being abroad, I had happily laid hold on Alexander's Feast, and found something so charming in it, that I read it aloud: but how like a condemned criminal did I look, when my father, opening his study door, took me in the very fact; I dropped my book, and burst into tears, begging pardon; and promising never to do so again: but my sorrow was soon dispelled, when he bade me not be frightened, but read to him, which, to his great surprize, I did distinctly and without hurting the beauty of the numbers. Instead of the whipping, of which I stood in dread, he took me up in his arms and kissed me, giving me a whole shilling as a reward, and told me, he would give me another, as soon as I had got a poem by heart, which he put into my hand, and proved to be Mr. Pope's sacred eclogue, which task I performed before my mother returned home. They were both astonished at my memory, and from that day forward, I was permitted to read as much as I pleased, only my father furnished me with the best and politest authors, and took delight in explaining to me, whatever, by reason of my tender years, was above my capacity of understanding."

From a reader she quickly became a writer, and her performances were considered as extraordinary for her years. This, with a very engaging sprightliness, drew many admirers; and at length she became the wife of the Rev. Matthew Pilkington, a gentleman known in the poetical world by his volume of miscellanies, revised by Dean Swift. After she had been married some time, Mr. Pilkington grew jealous of her understanding; and her poetry, which when a lover he