DOI article:
Ramsden, Hermione Charlotte: A forgotten novelist
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25498#0296
292
A Forgotten Novelist
infidelity,” and all the traces that remained of his former religious
persuasion were a sincere esteem for the Quakers and an uncon-
querable dislike for the clergy. The characters of Miss Carlill in
Man as He Is, and of Arnold in Barham Downs, are delineated
with a touch of sympathy which is quite unmistakable, while
Mr. Holford and the Rev. Dr. Blick, who differ so little as to be
virtually the same man, are both of them the beau-ideal of the
sporting parson of the period, and are described as the toadies of
a rich lord, for ever holding up the example of the patriarchs as an
excuse for the behaviour of their wealthy patrons. Mr. Holford
“was a sound divine, orthodox in preaching and eating, could
bear a little infidelity and free-thinking, provided they were ac-
companied with good wine and good venison.”
But to return to Bage’s own life. Shortly after the death of
his mother, his father removed to Derby, and Robert was sent to
school, where it seems that he soon proved himself a distinguished
scholar, for at the age of seven he was already proficient in Latin.
In 1765 he entered into partnership in an iron manufactory
with three persons, one of whom was the then celebrated Dr.
Darwin ; but the business failed, and Bage lost a considerable
portion of his fortune. It was partly as a distraction from these
pecuniary troubles that he wrote his novels. Of these, Mount
Henneth was the first, and it was written, as he informs his readers
in the preface, in order that he might be able to present each of
his daughters with a new silk gown. The fashions appear to
have been as tyrannical in those days as they are now, for our
author declares that it was with feelings approaching to dismay
that he observed that his daughters’ head-dresses were suffering
“ an amazing expansion.”
This novel was written in the form of letters, and was pub-
lished in 1781, when the copyright was sold for the sum of .£30.
It
A Forgotten Novelist
infidelity,” and all the traces that remained of his former religious
persuasion were a sincere esteem for the Quakers and an uncon-
querable dislike for the clergy. The characters of Miss Carlill in
Man as He Is, and of Arnold in Barham Downs, are delineated
with a touch of sympathy which is quite unmistakable, while
Mr. Holford and the Rev. Dr. Blick, who differ so little as to be
virtually the same man, are both of them the beau-ideal of the
sporting parson of the period, and are described as the toadies of
a rich lord, for ever holding up the example of the patriarchs as an
excuse for the behaviour of their wealthy patrons. Mr. Holford
“was a sound divine, orthodox in preaching and eating, could
bear a little infidelity and free-thinking, provided they were ac-
companied with good wine and good venison.”
But to return to Bage’s own life. Shortly after the death of
his mother, his father removed to Derby, and Robert was sent to
school, where it seems that he soon proved himself a distinguished
scholar, for at the age of seven he was already proficient in Latin.
In 1765 he entered into partnership in an iron manufactory
with three persons, one of whom was the then celebrated Dr.
Darwin ; but the business failed, and Bage lost a considerable
portion of his fortune. It was partly as a distraction from these
pecuniary troubles that he wrote his novels. Of these, Mount
Henneth was the first, and it was written, as he informs his readers
in the preface, in order that he might be able to present each of
his daughters with a new silk gown. The fashions appear to
have been as tyrannical in those days as they are now, for our
author declares that it was with feelings approaching to dismay
that he observed that his daughters’ head-dresses were suffering
“ an amazing expansion.”
This novel was written in the form of letters, and was pub-
lished in 1781, when the copyright was sold for the sum of .£30.
It