ABSTRACT
Of Miss Marryat very little is known directly, beyond the facts that she was a sister of Captain Marryat, the novelist, and possessed of considerable means. She was interested in the education of children, an interest started by the adoption, as a wealthy and lonely woman, of one of her nieces in order to bring her up. This chapter looks a little closer at Miss Marryat’s methods, as described by Mrs Besant. She never, it seems, used a spelling-book or an English grammar. Some further details of Miss Marryat’s educational ideas deserve a full quotation from Mrs Besant’s account. Mrs Besant describes how Miss Marryat brought out the faculty of observation in her charges. Miss Marryat, however advanced in her educational methods, was in many respects a Victorian of the Victorians. She became a “centre of beneficence,” started a Sunday School, opened a Bible Class, visited the poor, and was full of good works.
