Elizabeth Rose, 19th Baroness of Kilravock (8 March 1747 – 1 November 1815) was an eighteenth-century Scottish literary critic and author.

Life

Elizabeth Rose was born on 8 March 1747 in Kilravock, Scotland. She was the daughter of Hugh Rose, 17th Baron of Kilravock, and Elizabeth Clephane.

She was educated with her brothers, and entirely by men.  She played the violin like her male counterparts with the instrument supported against her shoulder.[1] Her uncle, John Clephane, advised her ‘‘Reading and writing and playing on the spinet is all very well …The two first deserve great application. The spinet, too has its merit ... methinks music is well as an amusement, but not as a study.’[2]

In 1779 she married Dr Hugh Rose of Broadley, who died two years later,[3] and they had two children.  After the death of her brother, the 18th Baron of Kilravock, and a five-year long contest over succession rights,[4] she was granted title to most of the estates, including Kilravock.   In 1788 she became the 19th Baroness of Kilravock and moved into Kilravock Castle.[5]

She was an avid reader and possibly the best-documented eighteenth-century Scottish woman reader.[6] In the years 1775–1780 alone she read 217 books.[7] Reading was intended to influence her own moral improvement and to prepare her for the world into which she had suddenly been thrust due to the premature deaths of her father, her brothers and her husband.[8]

She "was the choice companion, the leader of all cheerful amusements, the humorous story-teller, the clever mimic, the very soul of society."[5] Robert Burns described her as ‘a true chieftain's wife, a daughter of Clephane', with 'sterling sense, warm heart, strong passions, honest pride, all in an uncommon degree…’[3]

She died on 1 November 1815.  As she had requested, she was buried in the old [St. Mary's][9] chapel of Geddes with her coffin resting on birch trees cut from the Kilravock estate.  Her son, Hugh, succeeded her as the 20th Baron of Kilvarock.[10]

Career

She was not the first very literary lady of the North, but her literature was not her greatest recommendation -  Lachlan Shaw[1]

Critic

Rose developed a literary reputation mainly because of her ‘indiscriminate and voracious reading’.   This marked her out ‘in a country where there was little learning in either sex.'[11] She shared her reading with others as she actively sought to cultivate a specific philosophy of reading in the next generation of female readers.  Her great friend was Euphemia Russel, the mother of Cosmo Innes,[12][13] and she moved in extensive circles.

Her reputation was far reaching. By the end of the century, she was well enough known for Anne Grant, who had never met her, to take Helen Dunbar's report of Rose's praise of her manuscript verse as significant encouragement in Grant's decision to publish her work.  Grant described Rose's ‘elegant critisms’ as ‘an excellent cork jacket’ to keep her afloat as she ventured into the swampy world of publication.[11]

Rose composed verses but merely for private consumption within her reading circle.[14]

Her own style of writing…was not natural, and she has scarcely written anything worthy of being preserved for its intrinsic qualities - Hew Rose[15]

She became an author by providence rather than design.  Her commonplace books and correspondence are her well-known works.

Commonplace Books

She kept a journal from 1771 until 1815.  Within these journals she recorded every book she read and collected passages from those books in a series of voluminous commonplace books.[8] They also included other things she valued or needed.  She kept financial records of estate business, alongside her annual reading lists of literature, philosophy, history, and natural science.  

In her commonplace book, Poems, Rose excerpted poetry written by Samuel Johnson, Horace, Henry Mackenzie, and others, editing and revising their poetry to suit her own sense of poetics.[16]  And on her personal copy of Mary Robinson’s A Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination, Rose made significant additions to the ‘List of British Female Literary Characters’.[17] She abridged David Hume's The History of England in its entirety, including Tobias Smollett's Continuation.[18] And in her final commonplace book she transcribed at length a sequence of James Beattie's attack on Hume's scepticism.[18]

At least 10 of her commonplace books are still in existence.[8] Although some argue that only nine of them are attributable to Rose.[16]

Correspondence

She was a prolific letter writer and she is now best known for her correspondence with her cousin Henry Mackenzie.[11]  Mackenzie wrote Rose 127 letters spanning the years 1768 to 1815.[19] These, or extracts from them, were published in Letters to Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock on literature events and people 1768-1815.[20][21] Amongst other things, the letters show that Mackenzie shared excerpts from his books and asked her for her opinion on the novel as he was writing it.[16] Having sent her chapters from A Man of Feeling, Mackenzie commented ‘I am proud of having drawn a female character so much to your liking’. They did not always agree on the position of women, in another letter he wrote ‘You are hard on me for my idea of inferiority in your sex.’[22]

Mackenzie gave Robert Burns a letter of introduction to Rose before Burns’ Highland tour in 1787.[23]  During one of Burns’ visits with Rose he was entertained by Rose's niece, who sang two Highland airs. At Burns request, Rose wrote down and sent these songs to him. In 1796 one of these songs was published in A Collection of Entirely Original Strathspey Reels, Marches, Quick Steps &c. titled as ‘Mrs. Rose of Kilravock's Strathspey’.[24]

References

  1. 1 2 Shaw, Lachlan (1882). The History of the Province of Moray. Hamilton, Adams, and Co., London and Thomas D. Morrison, Glasgow. pp. 28 and 292.
  2. ↑ Ford, Elizabeth (Spring 2018). "Music lessons for girls in eighteenth-century Scotland" (PDF). Women's History.
  3. 1 2 "Rose of Kilravock, Mrs Elizabeth (1747–1815)". The Burns Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "Elizabeth Rose". Shakeosphere. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 Shaw, Lachlan (1848). A genealogical deduction of the family of Rose of Kilravock. The Spalding Club. pp. 469 to 516.
  6. ↑ Brown, Stephen M. (2012). Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 2. Edinburgh University Press. p. 438. ISBN 9780748650958.
  7. ↑ Dunstan, Vivienne Seonaid (2010). "Table 11: Number of different titles Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock read (1775–1780)". Reading Habits in Scotland Circa 1750–1820 (Doctoral thesis). p. 112.
  8. 1 2 3 Towsey, Mark (2011). ""Observe Her Heedfully": Elizabeth Rose on Women Writers". Women's Writing. 18: 15–33. doi:10.1080/09699082.2011.525006. S2CID 161949372.
  9. ↑ "St Mary's Chapel of Geddes". Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  10. ↑ Burns, Robert (2014). The Oxford Edition of the Works of Robert Burns, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 363 and 364. ISBN 9780199603176.
  11. 1 2 3 Norquay, Glenda (2012). Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Women's Writing. Edinburgh University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780748644452.
  12. ↑ "Elizabeth Rose". Susan's Family History Pages. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  13. ↑ Rose, Hugh (1848). Innes, Cosmo (ed.). A Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock. The Spalding Club. p. 490.
  14. ↑ Ingrassia, Catherine (2015). The Cambridge Companion to Women's Writing in Britain, 1660–1779. Cambridge University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9781107013162.
  15. ↑ Rose, Hew (1848). A Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock. The Spalding Club. p. 470.
  16. 1 2 3 Pfuntner, Deborah Lynn (2016). Romantic Women Writers and Their Commonplace Books (Doctoral dissertation). Texas A&M University. pp. 83, 185 and 187.
  17. ↑ "A Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination, Editorial Notes". Romantic Circles. May 1998. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  18. 1 2 Towsey, Mark (2010). Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books and their Readers in Provincial Scotland, 1750 – 1820. Brill. pp. 232 and 285. ISBN 9789004193512.
  19. ↑ Stewart, Keith (1969). "Reviewed work: Letters to Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock: On Literature, Events, and People, 1768–1815, Henry MacKenzie, Horst W. Drescher". Modern Philology. 67 (2): 197–199. doi:10.1086/390163. JSTOR 436015.
  20. ↑ Henry Mackenzie, Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock (1967). Letters to Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock on literature events and people 1768–1815. Aschendorf.
  21. ↑ "Rose of Kilravock, Elizabeth 1747–1815". WorldCat Identities. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  22. ↑ Rendall, Jane (2006). Ewan, Elizabeth L.; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Sian; Pipes, Rose (eds.). Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 306. ISBN 9780748626601.
  23. ↑ Dickson, Campbell (2015). "Following In Father's Footsteps" (PDF). Burns Chronicle, the Lanarkshire Association of Burns Clubs: 20.
  24. ↑ "Mrs. Rose of Kilravock's Strathspey". Traditional Tune Archive. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
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