ABSTRACT
Newson Garrett settled his family at Aldeburgh in a square white Georgian house opposite the church at the top of the town. The poet George Crabbe had served his apprenticeship as an apothecary in its panelled rooms and had known the medlar, quince and mulberry trees of the walled garden. Elizabeth Garrett grew up in an atmosphere of triumphant economic pioneering. In a sense she was a by-product of the industrial revolution and her precise social class was a factor in her success. Learning lessons came more easily to Elizabeth than learning deportment. The small boarding school of ten to twenty pupils was an extended family and Elizabeth, at home with the Aldeburgh sailors and fisherfolk, had now to mix with the daughters of professional men and gentlefolk. Elizabeth learnt to ride from her father, who mounted his children on Shetland ponies as soon as they were old enough to sit in the saddle.
