Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-10-11
misfelIarrenns.
A Little Girls Life In 1852.

One hundred years ago little girl
named Mary Butt was living with her pa
rents at the pretty rectory of Sanford-on-
the-Terne, in England. She was a bright
and beautiful child, and when she grew
up she became Mrs. Sherwood. the writer
ola great MANY charming stories tor young
people.
But nothing that she wrote is so enter
tanning as the story OF her childhood,
which, when she was an old lady. she told
to please her grandchildren. | wonder
how the girls who read this paper would
endure the discipline which little Mary
submitted to so patiently in 1882
From the time she was SIX until she was
thirteen, she wore every day an iron col
lar around her neck, and blackboard
strapped tightly over her shoulders. This
was to make her perfectly straight. Per-
haps you may have seen here and there
very stately old lady who never was known
to lean back in her chair. but who always
held herself as erect as a soldier on duty
If so, she was taught. you NAV be sure, To
carry herself in that way when she was a
little girl.
Poor Mary's iron collar was put on in
the morning. and was not taken off until
dark, and worse than that, she says. Il
generally did all my lessons standing in
stocks, with the collar round nv neck. |
never sat on chair in my mothers pres
ence."
Her brother and herself were great
readers, but you can count on the fingers
OF one hand all the books they had to read.
Robinson Crusoe," two sets of Fairy
Tales" The Little Female Academy"
and "Esop's Fables" formed the entire
juvenile library. They used to take Rob
insOn CrusOe," and seat themselves at the
bottom of the wide staircase. the two heads
bent over together. Whenever they
turned a leaf, they assembled a step. until
they reached the top and then they began
to go down again.
Little Martin was not very persevering
in his Latin, so, although it was not then
the fashion for girls, Mary's mother de-
cided that she should begin the study in
order to encourage him. The sister sovn
distanced the brother, and before she was
II her regular task of morning was 30
lines of Virgil, translated as she stood in
the stocks.
You will ask what sort of dress this lit
tie girl was allowed to wear 100 years
ago. I'm summer she had cambria, and
in winter lnsey-woolsey or stuff gowns,
with a simple white muslin for best. Her
mother always insisted on a pinafore,
which was great loose apron worn over
everything else, and enveloping her from
head to feet
1t is quite refreshing to find that neither
the blackboard nor the Latin took from the
child love OF play and of dolls. Her
special pet was hugh wooden doll. which
she carried to the woods with her, tied by
"a string to her waist, after the grown peo-
pie had decided that she was too bio to
care for dolls. A friend one day present
ed her with fine gauze cap, and this was
the only ornament she ever possessed as a
child.
think the little girls who compare
1888 with 1852 must be thankful they
were not born in the last century. know
that am. Yet little Mary Butt was a
happy child, spending when permitted,
hours of great delight in the woods and
groves, and listening eagerly to the talk
of the learned and travelled visitors who
came to Sanford Rectory