Queen, and instructress of the Princess Royal. At eight years of age she performed before Her Majesty and Prince Albert; subsequently she became the pupil of Herr Kuhe, and then received her finishing lessons from Thalberg. In 1850, she came out at the Grand National Concerts, and at once established her reputation as a first-rate pianist. Her execution is most rapid and brilliant, her touch remarkable for its delicacy, and her playing altogether is full of grace and vivacity. If she wants anything it is power, and this she is rapidly gaining. She has lately been performing at Her Majesty's Theatre, and studying musical composition under Mr. Macfarren. She has in her the soul of music, and her composition will no doubt, by and bye, equal her execution.
GODEWYCK, MARGARETTA,
Was born at Dort, in 1627, and was instructed in design and drawing by Nicholas Maas, by whose instructions she acquired a fine taste in painting landscapes, which she ingeniously diversified with views of rivers, cascades, villages, groves, and distant hills, that rendered her compositions very pleasing. This lady was not more admired for her paintings in oil, than for her needle-work, executing the same kind of subjects which she expressed with her pencil, and with an equal appearance of nature and truth, in embroidery. She died in 1677.
GODIVA,
The name of a beautiful lady, sister of Therald de Burgenhall, sheriff of Lincolnshire, and wife of Leofric, Earl of Leicester, who was the eldest son of Algar, the great Earl of Mercia. This lady, having an extraordinary affection for Coventry, solicited her husband to release the inhabitants of that city from a grievous tax laid on them. He consented, on condition that she would ride naked through the streets of Coventry in noon-day. This she did, first enjoining every one to keep within their houses, the doors and windows of which were to be closely shut. She then partially veiled herself with her flowing hair, mounted her palfrey, and made the circuit of the city. Leofric kept his promise, and the city of Coventry was relieved from the oppression. This adventure was painted in one of the windows of Trinity-church, in Coventry, with these lines,
"I, Leofric, for the love of thee,
Do make Coventry toll-free."
GODWIN, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT,
The first wife of William Godwin, better known however by her maiden name of Wollstonecraft, was born on the 27th. of April, 1759. At the time of her birth her father owned a small farm in Essex, from which he afterwards, in 1768, removed to another farm near Beverley, Yorkshire. Mary Wollstonecraft's early years were thus spent in the country, and she had no better opportunities of education than were furnished by the day-schools of Beverley, where she resided from her tenth to her sixteenth year. When she had attained this age, her father, having entered into a commercial speculation, removed from Beverley to Hoxton, near London. Willie she resided at Hoxton, Godwin was a student in the Dissenters' College of that place, but they did not then meet.
