Yes, another 18th century English woman-of-letters. A "Romantic poet",
in fact (Wiki).

Known as the "Swan of Lichfield", where her clergyman father encouraged
her literary ambitions and provided well for her after his death.

Lichfield? I looked it up. It's in Staffordshire, and happens also to
have been the birthplace of Samuel Johnson. Anna Seward knew him, of
course; Boswell consulted her when working on his _Life_ of Johnson. She
was unhappy with the way he treated the material she had provided,
feeling there was too much uncritical adulation of Johnson.

Some detail here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150402153200/https://www2.shu.ac.uk/corvey/CW3journal/Issue%20one/barnard.html

On 2024-03-26 10:18:39 +0000, Ross Clark said:

> Yes, another 18th century English woman-of-letters. A "Romantic poet",
> in fact (Wiki).
>
> Known as the "Swan of Lichfield", where her clergyman father encouraged
> her literary ambitions and provided well for her after his death.
>
> Lichfield? I looked it up. It's in Staffordshire,

with a major cathedral. One of the reasons sometimes offered for the
weird location of Birmingham (no mountain, no lake, no coast, no
significant river, no coalmines) is that the non-conformists who
developed it wanted to put it as far as possible from the the influence
of the Church, hence as far as possible from Lichfield, Coventry and
Worcester.

> and happens also to have been the birthplace of Samuel Johnson. Anna
> Seward knew him, of course; Boswell consulted her when working on his
> _Life_ of Johnson. She was unhappy with the way he treated the material
> she had provided, feeling there was too much uncritical adulation of
> Johnson.
>
> Some detail here:
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20150402153200/https://www2.shu.ac.uk/corvey/CW3journal/Issue%20one/barnard.html
>

--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly
in England until 1987.