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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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ELIZABETH ELSTOB (1683 - 1756) 'The Saxon Nymph' was born and brought up in the Quayside area of Newcastle and, like Mary Astell (q.v.) is nowadays honoured as one of the first English feminists. Like her mother Jane, she was a keen admirer of feminine learning and kept lists of famous women. She was proficient in eight languages and became a pioneer in Anglo-Saxon studies, an unprecedented thing for a woman. In London, she translated Madeleine de Scudery's Essay upon Glory in 1708 and the English-Saxon Homily on the Nativity of St Gregory in 1709. Both works are dedicated to Queen Anne, who is praised in feminist prefaces. From 1702 onwards, Elizabeth was part of the circle of intelligent women around Mary Astell, who helped to find subscribers for her Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon... with an Apology for the Study of Northern Antiquities the first such work by a woman. In it, Elizabeth took issue with and probably influenced the formidable Jonathan Swift. Her brother William Elstob (1673-1715) was sent to Eton and Cambridge. He became a scholar like his sister and edited Roger Ascham's Letters in 1703. Elizabeth may have lived with him at Oxford from 1696 and certainly did so in London from 1702. After his death, she was forced by poverty to open a school at Evesham, but it failed because she was inadequate at spinning and knitting. She was also employed as governess by the Duchess of Portland. She eventually secured an apartment, where she lived 'surrounded by the congenial elements of dirt and books'.
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