March 25, 1855

"We here are busy about 'The Plurality of Worlds.' Mrs. B____ has lent me Sir David Brewster's Answer, which I like far better, but object to his making the dwellers in the heavenly orbs men, or very nearly so. I believe every orb has its own peculiar race, though I am inclined to believe all have a general resemblance to the human nature, now in union with the Divine . . . ."

In 1855 intelligent men and women debated the existence of life on the other planets of our solar system. Some even believed the sun had inhabitants shielded from its heat by a protective layer of some sort.

Sir David Brewster was asked by the editor of the North British Review to review the essay Of the Plurality of Worlds by William Whewell (1794-1866). Expecting to find sentiments similar to his own, Brewster was surprised to find that "under a title calculated to mislead the public, the author had made an elaborate attack upon opinions consecrated, as I had thought, by Reason and Revelation." Brewster's review expanded into a 278-page rebuttal, More Worlds than One, the Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian.

Scientific and religious beliefs were closely intertwined, and men of science were almost as likely to support their views by the Bible as by scientific instruments. FR's interests included all areas of science, particularly astronomy, and so she followed the news of all astronomical discoveries and theories.

Both the books mentioned above are available to read online free.

Watnall 1836

Near the schoolhouse runs a brook with the pastoral name of Sheep-wash. A little footbridge crosses it, a long, broad slab of stone. Behind the schoolhouse lie green meadows on the slope of a hill where sit the remains of a castle; a rookery crowns the hill. The shallow brook presents a challenge to teachers and mothers, for the children love to walk in it, especially in warm weather, but fail to remove their shoes.

This afternoon, students emerge from the schoolhouse, and Miss Rolleston follows the last stragglers out. She overtakes the children by the brook. Some are gathering early violets. One group occupies the bridge to dispute the teacher’s passage, clinging affectionately to her. She has the “Violet Lesson” in her hand and three or four children begin at once to read the lines they already know, tracing them with their fingers. One little blue-eyed one repeats

The lily loves the pleasant sound
By running waters made.

As she reads, she glances expressively at the rippling water, turning her ear toward its sound. The teacher is struck by the tiny child’s obvious understanding of the words the pleasant sound, and decides then and there to retain that wording in her little poem, which runs in full as

The violet loves the sunny bank
The primrose loves the shade
The lily loves the pleasant sound
By running waters made.

She had for a while changed the wording of the third line to “The lily of the vale, the sound,” hoping to make it more easily understood. But the little girl obviously felt and understood the original version. Four or five of the little ones now go over the song something in the style of ancient catches and glees, some singing out of the glee in their hearts and catching each other up.

Miss Rolleston observes her little charges closely, and uses their natural learning methods to build her teaching techniques.

In the spring of 1835 FR left the London area to live among her relatives in Nottinghamshire. News of the day was that at nearby Newstead Abbey, a ghost  known as the "black monk" had badly frightened a man-servant. (FR claimed later to have put that ghost to rest, but that's another story.) One other piece of news concerned some antiques.

Newstead Abbey, estate of the poet Lord Byron, at that time in the possession of Colonel Wildman, was founded originally not as an abbey but as a priory of Austin or Black Canons. For the uninitiated, whether an abbey or a priory is a matter of rank. Priories were subsidiaries of abbeys. The head of the priory—the prior or the prioress—was answerable to the abbot or abbess, whereas the head of an abbey—the abbot or abbess—was answerable to the Pope. That is, until Henry the Eighth broke with Rome.

Newstead dated from the 12th century, and so FR found it humorous when Colonel Wildman persuaded Mrs. Rolleston (FR's aunt) to let him have the old grates from Watnall Hall. Watnall Hall was less than 200 years old. How amusing that the old grates were "now among the precious 'antiques' of Newstead."