8vo. xii, 276pp. Bound by Bickers & Son (stamp-signed to verso of FFEP) in later half-calf, tooled in gilt and blind, marbled paper boards, contrasting green morocco lettering-piece, marbled edges. Lightly rubbed, spine dulled. Inked gift inscription to front blank fly-leaf: 'Clementine Mitford from her loving mother H. Blanche Airlie. Dec. 1889'.

A monograph by educationalist Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff (1814-1897) developing upon principles regarding female education initially set forth in conjunction with her sister Maria Georgina Grey in their publication, Thoughts on Self-Culture Addressed to Women (London, 1850). Shirreff champions the necessity for women to establish intellectual independence through early introduction to the ideals of Christian humanism and the fundamentals of reasoning; to this end she provides suggestions for the manner of reading material a young women ought to seek out, with recommended titles including Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Hume's History of England, and Southey's Life of Nelson.

Provenance: Clementine Gertrude Helen Mitford [née Ogilvy] (1854-1932), maternal grandmother of the Mitford sisters, daughter of David Graham Drummond Ogilvy, Earl of Airlie, and Henrietta Blanche, Countess of Airlie; sister of Lady Henrietta Blanche Ogilvy (1852-1925), the mother of Winston Churchill's wife, Clementine.