Page:Our Hymns.djvu/254

 234

��OUR HYMNS

��admirable in their Christian excellence, fell short of the high poetic standard he had desired to reach.

ANNA L^TITIA BAKBAULD. 17431825.

THIS accomplished poetess, horn June 20th, 1743, was the daughter of Dr. John Aikin, who kept a school at Kib worth, Leicestershire ; and afterwards, when his daughter Anna was fifteen years of age, removed to Warrington, Lancashire, to superintend the public academy there. The future poetess early became distinguished for her talents, and her acquirements in cluded a knowledge of Latin and Greek, and she enjoyed the mental stimulus arising from associating with Dr. Doddridge and men of the same calibre. At the age of thirty-one, she married the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, a Unitarian minister, who opened a school at Palgrave, near Diss, in Suffolk, where he also exercised his ministry. He had studied under Dr. Doddridge, and was ordained at Palgrave in 1775. They carried on the scholastic establishment for eleven years, Mrs. Barbauld as sisting in the work of tuition. During this period, Lord Denman and some other persons afterwards eminent, were among their pupils.

In 1773, with the assistance of her brother, Mrs. Barbauld (who was then Miss Aikin) published some poems, of which four editions were sold in one year ; and in the same year they sent forth &quot; Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose,&quot; by J. and A. L. Aikin. Mrs. Barbauld s &quot; Hymns in Prose,&quot; and her &quot; Early Lessons,&quot; published in 1775, were written for her pupils. In the same year appeared her &quot; Devotional Pieces compiled from the Psalms of David, -Ac.&quot;

When eleven years had been passed by the successful edu cators in their useful but arduous work, they found a change necessary, and went to travel on the Continent. On their re turn, in 1787, they resided at Hampstead ; and in 1802, they went

�� �