Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/386

 work was highly embellished by British artists, and extended to three large volumes. In tasteful description of natural objects, and pictures of every-day life, Mrs. Hall has few superiors. Her humour is not so broad or racy as that of Lady Morgan, nor her observation so pointed and select as ]'s. Her writings are also unequal, but, in general, they constitute easy, delightful reading, and possess a simple truth and purity of sentiment that is ultimately more fascinating than the darker shades and colourings of imaginative composition." Since this was written, our authoress has added to her works of fiction a novel called [["The Whilebog."

Mrs. Hairs residence was for some years at The Rosery, Old Brompton, near London, where her home was distinguished for its simple elegance, and the refined taste and hospitality of the gifted pair who presided in this pleasant literary retreat. At present they reside in Surrey, about eighteen miles from London; Mr. Hall is editor of the "Art-Union," and Mrs. Hall a constant subscriber to its pages. There her latest and one of her most interesting works, "Midsummer Eve; a Fairy Tale of Love," first appeared, with superb illustrations. The most distinguished artists in Great Britain furnished the pictorial semblances of the author's pure and beautiful ideas; we hardly know which deserves most praise. The volume was issued in 1848, and well sustains the intention of the authoress: "I have endeavoured," she says, "to trace the progress of a young girl's mind from infancy to womanhood; the good and evil influences to which it is subjected; and the trials inseparable from a contest with the world." Since this work there have appeared in the "Art Journal," as it is now called, a series of illustrated sketches of the homes and haunts of genius and virtue in our land, under the title of "Pilgrimages to English Shrines." Mrs. S. C. Hall, as she always gives her name to her works, seemingly desirous of associating her husband's fame with her own, never loses an opportunity of inculcating those virtues as well as graces which make the happiness and enlarge the best influence of her own sex. Another beautiful trait of her character, is her active benevolence; she engages in those associated efforts to benefit society by taking Care for woman's education and comfort, now beginning to be made in England. We find her name on the Committee for the Asylum of the "Governesses' Benevolent Institution;" and in the establishment of "The Queen's College" for the better promotion of female education, Mrs. S. C. Hall is warmly interested.

HALL, LOUISA JANE, the daughter of Dr. James Park, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, where she was born in 1802. Dr. Park removed to Boston, and in 1811, opened a school for ladies, (one of the first institutions of this kind under the care of a man, a mode of female education since become popular in Boston,) where his daughter was carefully educated. She began to write very early, but did not publish until 1832.

In 1840, she married the Rev. Edward B. Hall, a Unitarian clergyman of Providence, Rhode Island, where she has since resided. Her principal works are, "Miriam, a Drama;" "Joanna of Naples, an Historical Tale;" and "A Biography of Elizabeth Carter;" besides several poems published in periodicals. Of her most remarkable work, R. W. Griswold, in his "Female Poets of