Scott [née Robinson], Sarah (1720-1795)

A Description of Millenium Hall, and the Country Adjacent

London

Printed for J. Newbery

1762

"He therefore had been little used to any woman but his sober and sensible grand-mother's two cousins who were pretty enough, but had no great charms of understanding; a sister rather silly, and the incomparable Harriot, whose wit was as sound as her judgment solid and sterling, free from affectation, and all little effeminate arts and airs."

This young lady was almost a new character to Mr. Alworth. He had lived constantly, at his grand-mother's till he went abroad, and as soon as he returned into the kingdom he went thither; from which, as it was the middle of summer, and consequently London had no temptations, he had never stirred. He therefore had been little used to any woman but his sober and sensible grand-mother's two cousins who were pretty enough, but had no great charms of understanding; a sister rather silly, and the incomparable Harriot, whose wit was as sound as her judgment solid and sterling, free from affectation, and all little effeminate arts and airs. Reason governed her thoughts and actions, nor could the greatest flow of spirits make her for a moment forget propriety. Every thing in her was natural grace, she was always consistent and uniform, and a stranger to caprice.

Mineral::Sterling

Searching "reason" and "sterling" in HDIS (Prose)

Five entries in ESTC (1762, 1763, 1764, 1767). Second edition, corrected in 1764; third edition in 1767.

Reading Sarah Scott, A Description of Millenium Hall, ed. Gary Kelly (Ontario: Broadview Literary Texts, 2001).

See also A Description of Millenium Hall, and the Country Adjacent: Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants, And such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections, as May excite in the Reader proper Sentiments of Humanity, and lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue. By A Gentleman on his Travels (London: Printed for J. Newbery, 1762). <Link to archive.org>

Wit and Judgment

06/02/2005