BARBAULD, Mrs Anna Letitia, was born at Kibworth-Harcourt, in Leicestershire, on the 20th June 1743. Her father, the Rev. John Aikin, was a Presbyterian clergyman, who conducted a private school at that place. He instructed his daughter very carefully, and besides the usual female accomplishments she acquired a good knowledge of Latin and a fair knowledge of Greek. In 1758 Mr Aikin removed his family to Warrington, to act as theological tutor in a dissenting academy there. In 1773 Miss Aikin, at the earnest request of her brother, Dr John Aikin, known as the author of the Evenings at Home, consented to publish some of her poems. The volume was very successful, four editions being called for in the course of the year. In 1774 she married the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, a Presbyterian minister, descended from a French Protestant family who had settled in England. He had been educated in the academy at Warrington, and had recently been appointed to a church at Palgrave, in Suffolk. There he began a private boarding-school, in the work of which he was most ably assisted by Mrs Barbauld, who superintended the younger pupils. Among those who passed through her hands, and who looked back with pleasure to the instruction given by her, were Sir William Gell, Lord Denman, and William Taylor of Norwich. The Hymns in Prose and the Early Lessons were written by her about this time for the use of her young charges, and proved admirably adapted for the purpose of instructing children. They have been frequently reprinted. In 1785 she left England for the Continent with her husband, whose health had been seriously impaired. On their return after a residence of about two years, Mr Barbauld was appointed to a church at Hampstead, where they resided till 1802. In 1792 Mrs Barbauld assisted ...