STRETTON (Hesba, 1832-1911, pen-name of Sarah Smith, Novelist and Writer for Children)

Autograph Letter Signed to 'My dear friends', saying "We are afraid of going out today, as it seems likely to be extremely hot, & on consideration we saw that we must start at 3 o'clock, if not earlier", she and her sister Elizabeth are sorry but she advises them "to go up by Light Spout valley, following the brook, after tea & to come here for an hour after dinner", unless they can make "some longer excursions on your bicycles", 1 side 8vo, 7" x 4½", no place, no date, circa

Sarah, born in Wellington, Shropshire, chose her pen-name from the initials of her siblings and the villiage of All Stretton, where her sister Anna was left some property. She wrote hard-hitting and influential stories from first-hand observation of many social evils of the time, beginning in Dickens' Household Words and All the Year Round.. Her Jessica's First Prayer (1866) sold over 2 million copies in her lifetime and Alexander II ordered a copy of its sequel, Jessica's Mother, to be in every Russian school.
Light Spout Valley with its romantic waterfall lies between Church Stretton and the Long Mynd.

Item Date:  1895

Stock No:  56418      £175

             Add to Wish List     Order/Enquire