Robert Burns

DW was proud of her forebears, who included not only the Scottish national hero William Wallace but also Frances Dunlop (friend of Robert Burns and patron of the labouring-class poet Janet Little —though...

Her next elder sister, Jane , is rumoured to have been a wild child, hitching a ride in the street on passing pigs and carts; she lost a finger by getting it trapped in a...

HMW published her Poem on the Bill Lately Passed for Regulating the Slave Trade. (The bill was that of Sir William Dolben .) She sent a copies of her poem to Robert Burns (who...

That year HMW was introduced by Dr John Moore to Burns , with whom she then corresponded. She met Samuel Rogers (in November 1787), Hester Lynch Piozzi , and Sir Joshua Reynolds . The year...

For DW , the scanty education deemed suitable for females in the English provinces at this time was reinforced first by reading poetry, particularly Burns , with her brother William . Later she studied French...

Again one of Yearsley's most perceptive readers was Anna Seward , who wrote to Helen Maria Williams on Christmas Day 1787 that Yearsley and Burns were both miracles . . . . Perhaps she has...