Does anyone have any information about links between the topographical
writer Sarah Murray and Elizabeth Montagu and/or Sarah Scott? Blain,
Clements & Grundy (The Feminist Companion to Literature in English)
describes Murray as 'patronised by Elizabeth Montagu' but gives no
reference and I have so far been unable to trace the connection.
Murray's maiden name was Sarah Maese. Her second husband was George Aust
and she published under both 'Murray' and 'Aust'.
One of the witnesses to her first marriage in 1783 was a 'Sarah Scott',
possibly but not necessarily the Scott who was the sister of Elizabeth
Montagu and who wrote 'Description of Millenium Hall'.
She may have been the Sarah Maese who ran a school in Bath in the 1760s and
who wrote 'The School' (published 1766-72). Again, I haven't been able
either to prove or disprove this possibility and any leads would be much
appreciated. She would have been in her early twenties if so, and didn't
publish again until the late 1790s.
With thanks,
Betty Hagglund
Department of English
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham 15
[log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|