Such Constant Affectionate Care

Jill Shefrin - teetotum.ca

‘Such Constant Affectionate Care’: Lady Charlotte Finch, Royal Governess to the Children of George III

Such Constant Affectionate Care
Cotsen Occasional Press, 2003. Available for purchase at brill.com

Nominated for the F.J. Harvey Darton Award; included in the juried “Western Books exhibition,” of the Rounce & Coffin Club, Los Angeles, 2005. Research for this project funded by the Cotsen Family Foundation.

“…an enjoyable & unusual book of cultural history. It deals with broad trends in family life (pedagogy, the education of women, & the workings of hierarchy & patronage) & illuminates them through domestic detail, through unpublished texts, letters by & about children, & through surviving toys & educational games.”
—Isobel Grundy, University of Alberta, University of Toronto Quarterly 74.1 (Winter 2004/2005)

“This is an engaging book with much to say to those interested in eighteenth-century progressive education & the material culture of childhood. It is carefully researched, & beautifully produced & illustrated, with detailed annotations & fascinating appendices. In making thorough research so easy to read, the book is following the educational methods of its subject.” —Ruth Watts, University of Birmingham, Paedagogica Historica 4 (June 2005)

“Shefrin… reveals a great deal about the web of connections between the authors, publishers, theorists, practitioners & readers who did so much to make children’s books & games respectable & profitable, & an enduring fixture of the nursery.”
—M.O. Grenby, Professor of Eighteenth- Century Studies, Newcastle University, Children’s Books History Society Newsletter 79 (2004)

“…an important contribution to the origins of dissected maps in England, & a useful supplement to the author’s earlier work on [John] Spilsbury.”
Map Forum (Spring 2004)

A NOTE TO READERS: This book was written when the Finch cabinet of dissected maps was the property of the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University. However, in 2004 the library was denied a UK export license. The puzzles are now jointly owned by the V&A Museum of Childhood & the Historic Royal Palaces & are on permanent display at Kew Palace.

The dedication at the front of the book is that of the publisher, not the author.