Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/185

Rh hundred drank tea. "Tables were laid in the garden, prodigal of flowers; the collation was a cold one, but took two days to cook. We had, besides our neighbouring gentry, many persons from Clifton, and forty clergymen of the Establishment, and the white-robed nymphs with the groups under the trees made the prettiest show imaginable. You will judge that my health is improved, by my being able to go through such a serious fatigue. The success of these Societies I have much at heart. Sometimes we hear Christian Knowledge Societies opposed to Bible Societies; but I belong to both parties. I wish there was no such thing as party." This is to Mr. Wilberforce; and in the same letter Hannah tells him, "I have been guilty of the weakness, at my age, of doing that imprudent thing, writing a book."

"A fresh crop of errors" seemed to her to have sprung up among professedly religious people, in a mania for a French education, which had set in with the Peace. As a protest against children being taken abroad to acquire a Parisian accent, she wrote Moral Sketches of Prevailing Opinions and Manners.

As usual, the book prospered. Princess Sophia Matilda, the Bishop of Bristol, Sir William Pepys, and many others wrote warmly; and the Bishop (Monsell) pronounced that Mrs. More had indeed well used the ten talents entrusted to her.