MARIA EDGEWORTH

A Collection of Thirty Autograph Letters, signed, by Maria Edgeworth and One Autograph Manuscript Poem. Written on eighty-eight pages, 16mo, quarto, and folio. Various places, December 14, 1811. To February 22, 1818. To Mrs. Miles. Enclosed, in a crimson half morocco slip case, $6.00.

A MAGNIFICENT COLLECTION OF UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH LETTERS BY MARIA EDGEWORTH, TO HER LONDON PURCHASING AGENT, MRS. MILES. The letters are of uncommon interest, for not only were they written by one of the more important writers of the time, but they contain an extraordinary view of a woman's life at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The letters relate almost entirely to purchases made in London by Mrs. Miles for Miss Edgeworth and her friends. The purchases were, in the main, articles of apparel, accessories, cloths for dresses, wraps, and caps. Of particular interest are the specifications Miss Edgeworth listed of colors, weaves, kinds of material, quality, designs for laces, etc. Suggested methods of sending small parcels, apparently to avoid import duties are also amusing. Several of the letters contain bits of materials, silks, ribbons, etc., which were to be matched for weave, pattern, and color.

Accompanying the letters is an autograph manuscript poem, entitled "Enigmas", written on one page, quarto, and apparently unpublished. The first few lines of the poem read as follows:

"The sages say that every thing
Must from mere form and matter spring
Be the materials what they will
From form they take their value still
From form my influence I receive
And what is given to me I give ..."

Maria Edgeworth was one of the nineteen children of the eccentric Irish gentleman, Richard Lovell Edgeworth. She was a daughter of her father's second of five wives and his favorite child. She was born in England in 1767 but did not go to live in Ireland until 1782 when her father, step-mother, and large family removed to the family seat at Edgeworthstown. The family home, which had been Edgeworth property for 160 years, was her home until her death in 1849, although she visited England and the Continent from time to time. Her love and reverence for her father is famous: she is said to have sacrificed her one romance to remain with her father. To their partnership, we owe much of Miss Edgeworth's writing and certainly we owe the famous "Practical Education" to their joint pens. From her earliest days, Miss Edgeworth was a teller of tales and it is natural that during her adult life paper and pen occupied much of