who could write nothing."

While still in the bloom of youth, the Earl of Balcarres died, and the
Dowager Countess having taken up her residence in Edinburgh, Lady Anne
experienced increased means of acquainting herself with the world of
letters. At her mother's residence she met many of the literary persons
of consideration in the northern metropolis, including such men as Lord
Monboddo, David Hume, and Henry Mackenzie. To comfort her sister, Lady
Margaret Fordyce, who was now a widow, she subsequently removed to
London, where she formed the acquaintance of the principal personages
then occupying the literary and political arena, such as Burke,
Sheridan, Dundas, and Windham. She also became known to the Prince of
Wales, who continued to entertain for her the highest respect. In 1793,
she married Andrew Barnard, Esq., son of the Bishop of Limerick, and
afterwards secretary, under Lord Macartney, to the colony at the Cape of
Good Hope. She accompanied her husband to the Cape, and had meditated a
voyage to New South Wales, that she might minister, by her benevolent
counsels, towards the reformation of the convicts there exiled. On the
death of her husband in 1807, she again resided with her widowed sister,
the Lady Margaret, till the year 1812, when, on the marriage of her
sister to Sir James Burges, she occupied a house of her own, and
continued to reside in Berkeley Square till the period of her death,
which took place on the 6th of May 1825.

To entire rectitude of principle, amiability of manners, and kindliness
of heart, Anne Barnard added the more substantial, and, in females, the
more uncommon quality of eminent devotedness to intellectual labour.
Literature had been her favourite pursuit from childhood, and even in
advanced life, when her residence was the constant resort of her
numerous relatives, she contrived to find leisure for occasional
literary _reunions_, while her forenoons were universally occupied in
mental improvement. She maintained a correspondence with several of her
brilliant contemporaries, and, in her more advanced years, composed an
interesting narrative of family Memoirs. She was skilled in the use of
the pencil, and sketched scenery with effect. In conversation she was
acknowledged to excel; and her stories[8] and anecdotes were a source of
delight to her friends. She was devotedly pious, and singularly
benevolent: she was liberal in sentiment, charitable to the indigent,
and sparing of the f