Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/16

4 had been impressed with his fame. Little Hannah used to beg for stories of him, and it would be amusing to know what ideas she thus imbibed of "Glorious John." Her two ambitions were curiously gratified—namely, to live in a cottage too low for a clock, and to go to London to see bishops and booksellers.

There were very few books in the house, for almost all Mr. More's library had been lost on the journey from Norfolk; but he had a memory so well stored that he taught his children history by word of mouth, and sometimes delighted his own ears and theirs by rolling out poems or orations in Latin or Greek. His intelligent little girls must have been no small refreshment to him after his grinding work on his regular pupils; and he gratified Hannah's ardent wishes, backed by her mother, by beginning to teach her Latin and mathematics.

He was soon alarmed at the way in which she outstripped his boys, and, fearing that the reputation of being a learned lady would be a disadvantage to her, he insisted on dropping the mathematical studies, and was with difficulty persuaded to go on with the classical readings.

Mary More, the eldest sister, was meantime sent as a weekly boarder to a French school at Bristol, coming home from Saturday till Monday, and then imparting the results of her studies to the younger ones, and with so much success that Hannah was afterwards