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    ELIZABETH BLACKWELL. 81

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    To The Editors Of The English Woman's Jo...

    Sainuel Blackwell , "was extensively engaged for nearly twenty years as a sugar-refinerand where lie was well known for his active and

    liberal exertions in , the various religious and benevolent enterprises of the day , and for his energetic support of all measures of local and

    general reform . Their parents preferring the system of home-instruction to that

    of schools , the education of the children was conducted principally with the aid of governesses and masters . Their winters were spent

    in town , their summers at the sea-side . Long walks in all weathers formed part of every day ' s avocations ; an amount of romping going

    on between lesson-hours that would have been sufficiently trying to any mother of less healthy , and less genial temper , than theirs .

    Birthdays "were celebrated with an amount of zeal in direct proportion with the frequency of their recurrence ; and Christmas and

    New Year ' s Days with an observance worthy of the olden time . Small , of fair complexion , with clear bluish-gray eyes , light hair

    remarkably soft and fine , beautiful hands , and a very sweet voice , and , in her childhood , so habitually reserved and silent , that her

    father , with whom she was an especial favourite , had given her the name of " Little Shy" nothing in her appearance or manner

    indi-, cated the directness and tenacity of purpose , and the unusual physical strengthwhich distinguished the subject of this notice from

    , her earliest years , and of which many characteristic examples might be cited . For instance : when she was between four and

    five years old , her father having occasion to visit Dublin , the whole family went down to the Hotwells to see him off ; Elizabeth ,

    under the impression that she was rendering him an important service , insisted on holding his valise on her lap all the way , and

    only giving it up on reaching the basin where the steamer was lying . As the vessel moved slowly down the river , the children

    ran on for some time along the bank , waving their handkerchiefs ; but whenquickening her speedshe began to leave the party

    , , behind , it was proposed to turn back and go home . Elizabeth , "who had set her heart on going to Ireland with her father , and had been

    much disappointed on finding that she could not be allowed to do so , took no heed of this proposition , but -walked steadily on ,

    quickening her pace as the steamer quickened hers . No persuasion could induce her to turn back . She said nothing in reply to the chorus of

    remonstrances addressed to her _; and had evidently made up her mindas she could not go with her father in the steamerto

    accompany , him to Ireland on foot . At last it was suggested to , her that her father had only gone in the steamer because , Ireland being an

    island , with water all round it , people could not go thither in any other way ; and thateven if she should walk on to the very end of

    , the land , she could not walk across the water , but would be obliged to _coine back for want of a boat . As this view of the case became

    clear to her , she suddenly stopped , turned round with a countenance

    Elizabeth Blackwell. 81

    ELIZABETH BLACKWELL . 81

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 81, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/9/