Sarah Murray, ''née'' MazeVariant spellings: Mays, Maize, Mayes, Mease, Maese. (1744 – 5 November 1811) was an English travel writer, best known for her ''Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland'' (1799). She published under the name The Hon. Mrs. Murray, of Kensington, though after her second marriage she was also known as Sarah Aust.

Life

Sarah Maze was born in 1744, and baptised in

Batheaston Batheaston is a village and civil parish east of the English city of Bath, on the north bank of the River Avon. The parish had a population of 2,735 in 2011. The northern area of the parish, on the road to St Catherine, is an area known as ...

. During the 1760s she seems to have run a school in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, but by 1782 she had moved to

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

. In 1783 she married her first husband, the Hon. William Murray, brother of the

Earl of Dunmore Earl of Dunmore is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. The title Earl of Dunmore was created in 1686 for Charles Murray, 1st Earl of Dunmore, Lord Charles Murray, son of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. The title passed down through genera ...

, though he died in 1786. In 1802 she married George Aust (1740-1829), a retired Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Murray published her ''Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland'' in 1799. The book was written in a lively style, giving a graphic picture of the modes of travel of the time, and describing the living conditions of Scottish peasants. Following further trips to Scotland, she published a second volume: ''A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and in the Hebrides'' in 1803. This second volume paid greater attention to the Hebrides and the islands round Scotland. A second edition of both volumes was published in 1805, and a third edition in 1810. The third edition contained an appendix dealing with "the new roads in Scotland, and ..a beautiful cavern lately discovered in the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of ...

." She died at the age of 67, at Noel House,

, on 5 November 1811.

Works

* (as Sarah Maese) ''The School: Being a Series of Letters, Between a Young Lady and Her Mother'', 1766 * (as The Hon. Mrs. Murray, of Kensington) ''A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland, to the Lakes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire, and to the Curiosities in the District of Craven, in the West Riding of Yorkshire; to which is added a more particular Description of Scotland, especially that part of it called the Highlands'', 1799 *''A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and in the Hebrides; to which is added, a Description of Part of the Main Land, of Scotland, and of the Isles of Mull, Ulva, Staffa, I-Columbkil, Tirii, Coll, Eigg, Skye, Raza, and Scalpa'', 1803

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Sarah 1744 births 1811 deaths English topographers English travel writers English women travel writers Writers about Scotland People from Somerset