.L.C. ΜΕ ΜΟΙRS OF THE LIFE OF ANNE BOLEYN, QUEEN OF HENRY VIII. BY MISS BENGER, AUTHOR OF "MEMOIRS OF MRS. ELIZABETH HAMILTON." SECOND AMERICAN, FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION. WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, PHILADELPHIA: PARRY & MCMILLAN, SUCCESSORS TO A. HART, LATE CAREY & HART. MEMOIR OF MISS BENGER. ELIZABETH OGILVY BENGER, whose life affords an inte resting example of female genius, struggling into day, through obstacles which might well have daunted even the bolder energies of manly enterprise, was born in the city of Wells, in February, 1778. She was an only child; a circumstance which her affectionate heart always led her to regard as a misfortune. Her father, somewhat late in life, was impelled by an adventurous disposition to give up commerce and enter the navy, and ultimately became a purser. In consequence of this change he removed his family to Chatham, when his daughter was four years of age; and,—with the exception of about two years' residence at Portsmouth,-Chatham or Rochester was her abode till the year 1797. An ardour for knowledge, a passion for literary distinction, disclosed itself with the first dawnings of reason, and never left her. Her connections were not literary; and her sex, no less than her situation, debarred her from the most effective means of mental cultivation. She has been heard to relate, that in the tormenting want of books which she suffered during WOR 20JUN 34 her childhood, it was one of her resources to plant herself at the window of the only bookseller's shop in the place, to read the open pages of the new publications there displayed, and to return again, day after day, to examine whether, by good fortune, a leaf of any of them might have been turned over. But the bent of her mind was so decided, that a judicious friend prevailed upon her mother at length to indulge it; and at twelve years of age she received instruction in the Latin language. At thirteen she wrote a poem of considerable length, called "The Female Geniad," in which, imperfect as it necessarily was, strong traces of opening genius were discerned. With the sanction of her father it appeared in print, dedicated to the late Lady de Crespigny, to whom she was introduced by her uncle, Sir David Ogilvy, and from whom she afterwards received much kind and flattering attention. Her father contemplated her literary progress with delight and with pride; and on his appointment to the lucrative situation of purser on board Admiral Lord Keith's own ship, it was his first care to direct that no expense should be spared in procuring instruction for his daughter, in every branch of knowledge which it might be her wish to acquire: but the death of this indulgent parent in the East Indies, within a year afterwards, blighted the fair prospect now opening upon her. Cares and difficulties succeeded; the widow and the orphan, destitute of effectual protection in the prosecution of their just claims, became the victims of fraud and rapacity, and a very |