5/9/2023 0 Comments Bird bell hatJohn Murray, "as well as being Isabella's lifelong publisher. Bird's "bright descriptive letters" written home to her relations formed the basis for her first book, An Englishwoman in America (1856), published by Murray. Her father "gave her 100 and leave to stay away as long as it lasted". The family spent six summers in Scotland in an effort to improve her health.ĭoctors urged a sea voyage and in 1854, Bird's life of travelling began when the opportunity arose for her to sail to the United States, accompanying her second cousins to their family home. Bird continued to suffer from unspecified ailments resulting in lassitude and insomnia. In 1850, a "fibrous tumour was removed from the neighbourhood of the spine". Isabella's first publication at the age of 16 was a pamphlet addressing free trade versus protectionism, after which she continued writing articles for various periodicals. However, her "bright intelligence, an extreme curiosity as to the world outside, made it impossible for her brain and her nature generally to be narrowed and stiffened by the strictly evangelical atmosphere of her childhood". Her only education came from her parents: her father was a keen botanist who instructed Bird in flora, and her mother taught her daughters an eclectic mix of subjects. The doctor recommended an open-air life, and consequently, Bird learned to ride in infancy, and later to row. In 1848, the family moved again and, after spending some time in Eastbourne, took up residence in Wyton in Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire.) įrom early childhood, Bird was frail, suffering from a spinal complaint, nervous headaches, and insomnia. Here again, objections were raised, which culminated in the minister being pelted "with stones, mud, and insults". When six years old, she confronted the local MP for South Cheshire, Sir Malpas de Grey Tatton Egerton, while he was campaigning, asking him "did you tell my father my sister was so pretty because you wanted his vote?" Įdward Bird's controversial views against Sunday labour caused his congregation to dwindle, and in 1842 he requested a transfer to St. Because of her father's ill health, Bird's family moved again in 1834 to Tattenhall in Cheshire, a living presented to him by his cousin Dr John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester, where in the same year Bird's sister, Henrietta, was born.īird was outspoken from an early age. In 1832, Reverend Bird was appointed curate in Maidenhead. īird moved several times during her childhood. Her parents were Rev Edward Bird and his second wife, Dora Lawson (1803–1866). Isabella Bird was born on 15 October 1831 in Boroughbridge Hall, Yorkshire, the home of her grandmother and her father's first curacy after taking orders in 1821.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |