HANNAH MORE, success, although under terribly disadvantageous circumstances. She still mixed in society, but the death of Garrick broke the spell which bound her to the great world ; and during the succeeding five years she gradually loosened the ties which held her to the gaieties of a town life. Most of her time was passed with Mrs. Garrick at Hampton, which was, to use her own words, " very clean, very green, very beautiful, and very melancholy; " reading and meditation occupied her attention. " We dress like a couple of scaramouches," she says, laughingly congratulating herself on her liberty, " dispute like a couple of jesuits, eat like a couple of aldermen, walk like a couple of porters, and read as much as any two doctors of either university." Sometimes she would visit Bishop Porteus' parsonage at Hunton in Kent, or Mrs. Montagu at Sandleford in Oxfordshire. She cultivated her acquaintance with several divines, and assiduously devoted herself to a diligent study of the Bible. Religiously educated, she had ever led a pure and blameless life ; but hitherto she had not conse- crated her heart to an entire and saving faith, nor dedicated her wonderful talents to the service of the Great Giver who had bestowed them on her. So much did her feelings of piety deepen during these five years that Mrs. Garrick was in the habit of calling her "our domestic chaplain." But her thoughts had ever been serious and devout ; even her dramatic pieces were composed with a high moral purpose, for she viewed the stage not only as an entertainment but 25
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