Our Little Lady

Leaving a service at Lincoln Cathedral, ten-year-old Avice makes her way through the muddy streets with her mother and grandmother. Emily Sarah Holt places their modest household beside the splendid world of the Countess of Lincoln, using clothes, wages, food and furniture to make medieval differences in rank visible. Set during the reign of Henry III, this historical story for younger readers combines domestic scenes with an openly Christian view of conduct and belief.

Conversation carries much of the history. Uncle Dan brings sharp family gossip, while an older Avice tells Bertha about the queen's voyage to Gascony in 1254. Everyday customs receive the same attention as royal affairs: evening sewing, household meals and herbs believed to influence dreams all enter the narrative. Readers interested in how earlier children's fiction taught history will find a narrator who pauses to explain unfamiliar words and habits, and repeatedly connects the past with moral judgments.