Bridges was born in
Victoria Park, Manchester, in 1863 and brought up in the grand house of
Foxhill House near Reading which her parents lived in until 1881. Her mother, Elizabeth (born Hodgkin), taught her arts and crafts and she became a pianist and a composer. Her father,
Alfred Waterhouse, was a prolific and very successful architect. She was a skilled calligrapher and this book is credited with making
italic handwriting fashionable in British schools. ==Deaths and legacy==