To write as Mrs. Ewing wrote is undoubtedly a great gift which not many possess, but a careful study of her works by young and old authors and readers alike cannot be without benefit. She was a perfect mistress of the English language; she was never dull and never frivolous. There is not a slip-shod sentence, or an exaggerated piling up of adjectives to be found in her pages. She knew what she had to say, and she said it in language at once pure, forcible, and graceful.
We must be grateful to her for leaving for us, and for our children's children, so much that is a model of all that tends to make the literature of the young--yes, and of the old also--attractive, healthy, and delightful.
Punctuation has been normalized without note.
page 45: "beween" changed to "between" (discriminate between them)
page 48: "esipodes" changed to "episodes" (of the episodes in her own life)
page 70: "of of" changed to "of" (part of a woman's virtue)
page 97: "Shakespeare" changed to "Shakspere" for consistency (did not Shakspere make Hector)
page 100: "Sorel" chanaged to "Sorrel" (and who Hetty Sorrel) page 185: "mon s" changed to "monks" (to make the old monks)
page 298: "Melchoir's" changed to "Melchior's" ("Melchior's Dream and Other Tales")
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign, by Mrs. [Margaret] Oliphant and Mrs. Lynn Linton and Mrs. Alexander and Mrs. Macquoid and Mrs. Parr