February 17, 1807

Anne Manning (February 17, 1807 - September 14, 1879 ) was a Victorian writer. Some of her novels became well-known, Mary Powell (1849) for example, and The Household of Sir Thomas More (1852). A book of recollections, Family Pictures, (1861) includes some personal recollections but they are less about what we consider biography and more about the cultural influences upon her life. Her recreation of the domestic life of More is actually a remarkable reconstruction of a cultural era which is foreign to us and was no doubt foreign to the author. The objectivity is astounding. An excerpt from  The Household of Sir Thomas More:

[I] was interrupted by shrill cries either of woman or boy, as of one in acute payn, and ran forthe of my chamber to learne ye cause. I met Bess [her stepmother] coming hastilie out of ye garden, looking somewhat pale, and cried, " "What is it ?" She made answer, " Father is having Dick Halliwell beaten for some evill communication with Jack. 'Tis seldom or never he proceedeth to such extremities, soe the offence must needs have beene something pernicious; and, e'en as 'tis, father is standing by to see he is not smitten overmuch ; ne'erthelesse, Giles lays the stripes on with a will."
It turned me sick. I have somewhat of my mother in me, who was a tender and delicate woman, that would...weepe to see a bird killed by a cat. I hate corporall punishments, and yet they've Scripture warrant. Father seldom hath recourse to 'em; and yet we feare as well as love him more than we doe mother, who, when she firste came among us, afore father had softened her down a little, used to hit righte and left. I mind me of her saying one day to her own daughter Daisy, " Your tucker is too low," and giving her a slap, mighte have beene hearde in Chelsea Reach. And there was the stamp of a greate red hand on Daisy's white shoulder all ye forenoon, but the worst of it was, that Daisy tooke it with perfect immoveabilitie, nor lookt. in the leaste ashamed, which Scripture sayth a daughter shoulde doe, if her parent but spit in her face, i. e. sett on her some publick mark of contumely. Soe far from this, I even noted a silent look of scorn, which payned me, for of all the denunciations in Holy Writ, there is none more awfull to my mind than than that which sayth, " The eye that moeketh at father or mother," not alone the tongue, but. e'en the eye,— " the young ravens of the valley shall pick it out."

The passage above has a definite authenticity. The shock is the result of our seeing a different era than our own.