Excuse my dust: Elizabeth Hamilton
A respectable Mary Wollstonecraft?
'Two works upon similar subjects [to Waverley], by female authors, whose genius is highly credittable [sic] to their country, have appeared ... I mean Mrs Hamilton's Glenburnie, and the late account of Highland Superstitions. But the first is confined to the rural habits of Scotland, of which it has given a picture with striking and impressive fidelity.'
(Sir Walter Scott, Waverley)
'Let then the critics do their worst; I have found a cure for every wound they can inflict on my vanity. But there are others besides professed critics, concerning whose opinion of the propriety or tendency of this little work I confess myself to be most anxious - and those are the well-wishers to the improvement of their country.'
(Elizabeth Hamilton, Dedication to The Cottagers of Glenburnie)
Who was she?
Born in Belfast to Scottish parents in 1758, Elizabeth Hamilton was raised by relatives in the countryside around Stirling and Bannockburn. She never married, but lived first in London with her brother, a soldier and linguist who had spent years in India, and then mostly with her sister in Edinburgh (like Ferrier residing in George Street), although she also spent time in various parts of England and had a very brief career as a governess.