A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Wortley, Lady Emmeline Stuart
WORTLEY, LADY EMMELINE STUART,
Is a well-known English poetess, daughter of the Duke of Rutland, and wife of the Hon. Stuart Wortley. She has written a great deal, and with remarkable rapidity—principally poetry, although she has published one or two novels, which have not been very successful. Her poems would fill more than a dozen volumes; they are "The Knight and the Enchantress," published in 1832; "London at Night, and other poems," in 1834; "The Village Churchyard," in 1835; "The Visionary," in 1837; "Lays of Leisure," in 1838; accounts of her travels, and many occasional poems. She certainly evinces unusual facility in versification, but more care and finish would be an improvement to her style. Some of her shorter poems display brilliancy of imagination, and when her theme is new and inspiring) she becomes impassioned and pathetic. Her poems on America attest the power of her genius as well as the kindness of her heart Lady Stuart Wortley made the tour of the United States in 1849-50. She contributed a number of poems on the subject of her travels to different periodicals, and early in 1851, her "Travels in the United States" appeared. The work evinces a very different spirit from the recorded opinions of Mrs. Trollope and Miss Martineau. Lady Stuart Wortley is a woman of refined manners and highly cultivated intellect; there is genuine goodness of heart shown in her writings; her records of what she sees and hears always bring out expressions of feelings and hopes that do honour to human nature. These give value to her works.