An Adaption of Bible Stories, for Very Young Children

The Footstep to Mrs. Trimmer’s Sacred History, for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Children.
London: Printed and Sold by John Marshall, 1815. (BRB0793)

A previously unrecorded edition of this explication of Bible stories, The Footstep is itself an adaptation for very young readers of Sacred History by Mrs. (Sarah) Trimmer (1741–1810), an extremely popular collection of abridged scripture. First published in 1782, Sacred History was reprinted several times in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Footstep soon followed, with printings in 1785, 1795, and 1797 as well as five additional editions appearing between 1807 and 1830.

In the Advertisement, the anonymous compiler (identified only as “A.C.”) writes, “She has made it her study to bring the language down to the confined understanding of a child, and to contract the stories within the bounds of an easy lesson . . . . The high opinion she entertains of Mrs. Trimmer’s Sacred History made her wish to put it into the hands of her pupils; but finding it above the understanding of very young children, she has, in this, attempted to form a Footstep to lead them to Mrs. Trimmer’s more improved work.”