as the Spartan wives and Roman heroines." Using Edgeworth's name, Day applied to the Foundling Hospital to take first one and then another girl, initially aged 12 and 11; he told the Hospital that they were to be apprenticed as maids in Edgeworth's household, which Edgeworth did not know of until several months later. He renamed them from Ann Kingston and Dorcas Car to Sabrina Sidney and Lucretia, respectively. What last name he chose for 'Lucretia' is not known. He made a donation of fifty pounds to the Foundling Hospital and was appointed a member of the governing board. After living in London with Sabrina Sidney for some time, Day took both girls to France in November 1769. His motives are unclear, as Day was a committed Francophobe, but leaving the country put him out of the reach of British law and the lawyers of the Foundling Hospital, who had been known to sue apprentice-masters who mistreated their apprentices. It also let him isolate the girls; he refused to hire English-speaking staff and would not let anyone teach the girls French. At one time he challenged a French military officer to a duel for speaking to one of the girls. In the spring of 1770, Day decided that Lucretia, then aged 12, could not satisfy him intellectually as a wife, and returned to England, placing her in the home of a milliner's family in Ludgate Hill with a payment of £400. With Sabrina, he leased Stowe House in Lichfield, near Edgeworth and the Lunar Society. At this point he still had not informed Sabrina, then aged 13, of his designs, and told her she was apprenticed to him as a servant. According to Rousseau, who had described how children should be taught not to fear pain or physical hardship, Day embarked on a programme of 'lessons,' including dripping hot candle-wax onto Sabrina's arms and forcing her to wade into cold water up to her neck. He also shot at her skirts with a pistol; accounts are divided on whether it was loaded. By 1771, Day had decided to abandon his 'experiment,' and sent Sabrina to stay at a boarding school for the rest of her childhood. Still living in Lichfield, he proposed marriage to Honora Sneyd, who would later marry his friend Edgeworth, and then proposed the same to her sister Elizabeth, who was briefly engaged to him but broke