the same vein of religious and moral reflections (see list below), which were among the most widely read books of the day. A poem upon 'Slavery,' published in the same year, was also well received. At the end of 1789 her sisters retired from their school in 'affluent circumstances' (ib. iv. 116). They built a house in Great Pulteney Street, Bath, and proposed to divide their time between Bath and Cowslip Green. In the summer of 1789 Martha (or Patty) More spent a long time with her sister at Cowslip Green, and made various excursions. They visited Cheddar with Wilberforce in August (Life of Wilberforce, i. 237-8), when he was shocked by the general ignorance and distress, and suggested that they should do something for the place. Thirteen adjoining parishes in the neighbourhood had not a single resident curate (Roberts, ii. 213). The incumbent of one was generally drunk six times a week, and often prevented from preaching by a couple of black eyes 'honestly earned' by fighting (ib. ii. 209, 216). The squire in one place was a shrewd atheist, the chief farmer preferred workmen to saints, and the farmer's wife held that the labourers were predestined to be 'poor, ignorant, and wicked.' In one parish there was only one bible, which served to prop a flower-pot (ib. p. 296). Hannah More and her sisters therefore met with considerable opposition when they resolved to set up Sunday schools in the districts. They made some impression by arguing that schools would teach children not to rob orchards. The plan is generally said to have been started by Robert Raikes [q. v.] of Gloucester in 1781. Mrs. Trimmer [q. v.] had started Sunday schools at Brentford in 1786. There was already one in their own parish (Blagdon) and in a neighbouring village. The Mores, in spite of many jealousies, went to work energetically, took a small house at Cheddar for six and a half guineas a year, hired a schoolmistress for 30l. a year, and by the end of the year had five hundred children in training in Cheddar and the neighbouring parish. They held evening readings of sermons, prayers, and hymns for the parents. They also promoted friendly societies among the women, had weekly schools in which the girls learnt reading and sewing, distributed prizes for good behaviour, and held annual school-feasts, which were largely attended. On Sundays the sisters drove round to the various villages to superintend the schools and other institutions.
Hannah More's views of education were not quite of the modern type. She taught the Bible and the catechism, and the pupils learnt on week-days ' such coarse works as may fit them for servants. I allow of no writing for the poor' (see letters to Wilberforce, Roberts, ii. 295-301, and to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, ib. iii. 122-39, for her own account). In 1823 she was rather scandalised by the advance of the scheme which she had done much to encourage, and protested against the doctrine that the poor were to be made ' scholars and philosophers' (ib. iv. 215). In 1800 she became involved in the 'Blagdon controversy.' The curate of Blagdon, Thomas Bere, had asked her to set up a school there in 1795. He afterwards complained that Young, the master, was holding a kind of conventicle, when Miss More at once stopped Young's irregularities. In March 1800 Bere again complained, and after an investigation, in which the chancellor of the diocese and the rector of Blagdon took part, Miss More dissolved the school in November 1800. Soon afterwards, however, the rector, thinking that Bere had behaved badly, gave him notice to resign the curacy, and the school was again started in January 1801. Bere refused to resign, and finally maintained his position, when Miss More again dissolved the school in September 1801. Upon the appointment of Richard Beadon [q. v.] to the bishopric of Bath and Wells in 1802, Miss More appealed to him for directions. He assured her of his support and approval, and this appears to have been regarded by her friends as a final triumph. The dispute involved all manner of minor issues and a general raking up of village scandals. Pamphlets were written (see a list in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 168) ; the ' Anti- Jacobin Review,' the l British Critic,' and the 'Christian Observer' wrote articles ; and the characters of Miss More, Bere, and other clergymen more or less attacked. The real cause apparently was the suspicion that the schools had a methodist tendency, although Hannah More says that the methodists were opposed to her. She said in 1808 (Roberts, iii. 259) that 'two Jacobin and infidel curates' had tried to make themselves known by a virulent attack upon her. She was accused of being a 'hireling of Pitt,' and also of being a Jacobin. In 1802 she complains that she has been ' battered, hacked, scalped, tomahawked for three years ' (ib. iii. 160). In fact her bad health and the contrast between the rough handling of pamphlets and the unctuous eulogies to which she was accustomed sufficiently explain her irritation. The whole disturbance was absurd to outsiders. After 1802 she met no further trouble of the kind. Only four of her schools, those at Cheddar, Nailsea, Shipham, and Wedmore, continued
