The Mitford girls grew up with the “Grace Darling Song”, about the heroic Deed in which Grace and her father rescued nine survivors of a steamship wreck by rowing from their lighthouse home. She became a Victorian celebrity as an emblematically virtuous and dutiful girl, whose image eventually appeared on pottery, candy boxes, in girls’ magazines, and so on. Mitford traces her history and why her story resonated so deeply with the Victorians. Like all her writings, it’s delightfully witty and droll. ( )