Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/368

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principally; and in 1848, became editress of a magazine, "The Young People's Journal," in the hope of "combining the gems of science with the flowers of literature." Mrs. Green is an original and often a powerful writer. Her poetry is marked in its character, "The Dwarf's Story" is passionate and thrilling; some of her descriptive poems are exceedingly beautiful, and all are imbued with the warm earnest spirit of the seeker after good.

GREVILLE, MRS.,

Wife of Fulke Greville, was a celebrated wit and beauty in English society during the last century. She wrote, about 1763, a "Prayer for Indifference," which was long very popular. The beautiful Mrs. Crewe was the daughter of Mrs. Greville. Her maiden name was Fanny M'Cartney. Mrs. Greville was the author of "Maxims and Characters," published in 1756, and some other works; but none are now of much account.

GREY, LADY JANE,

Was an illustrious personage of the blood-royal of England by both parents; her grandmother on her father's side, Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, being queen-consort to Edward the Fourth; and her grandmother on her mother's. Lady Frances Brandon, being daughter to Henry the Seventh, and queen-dowager of France. Lady Jane was born in 1537, at Bradgate, her father's seat in Leicestershire, and very early gave astonishing proofs of her talents. She was considered superior to Edward the Sixth, who was about the same age, and was thought a prodigy. She embroidered and wrote beautifully, played admirably on various instruments, and accompanied them with a voice exquisitely sweet and well cultivated. These, however, were only inferior ornaments in her character; and, far from priding herself upon them, from her parents' severity in exacting them, they became a source of grief rather than pleasure.

Her father had himself an inclination to letters, and was a great patron of the learned. He had two chaplains, Harding and Aylmer, both men of distinguished learning, whom he employed as tutors to his daughter; and under whose instructions she made such proficiency as amazed them both. Her own language she spoke and wrote with the utmost accuracy; and she not only understood the French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, but spoke and wrote them with the greatest freedom. She was also versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic; and all this while a mere child. She had a sedateness of temper, a quickness of apprehension, and a solidity of judgment, that enabled her to understand the sciences; so that she thought, spoke, and reasoned, upon subjects of the greatest importance, in a manner that surprised all. To these endowments were added the loveliest graces of woman, mildness, humility, and modesty. Her natural fondness for literature was much increased by the severity of her parents in the feminine part of her education; for, by the gentleness of her tutor, Aylmer, in the fulfilment of his duties, he won her to love what he taught. Her alliance to the crown, and the great esteem in which the Marquis of Dorset, her father, was held by both Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth, unavoidably brought her sometimes to court; and she