SOURCE: "Caroline Norton," in English Poetesses: A Series of Critical Biographies, Cassell & Company, Limited, 1883, pp. 240-46.

In the excerpt that follows, Robertson faults Norton's poetry for its repeated references to her own life and sufferings.

Those who have read Fanny Kemble's recollections will remember that her pages give us several vivid glimpses of Caroline Norton. At one time she records that she was present at an evening gathering where a host of distinguished public and literary men were crowded into a small drawing-room, which was literally resplendent with the light of Sheridan beauty, male and female:—

Mrs. Sheridan (Miss Callandar), the mother of the Graces, more beautiful than anybody but her daughters; Lady Graham, their beautiful aunt; Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Blackwood (Lady Dufferin), Georgiana Sheridan (Duchess of Somerset and Queen of Beauty by universal consent); and Charles Sheridan, their younger brother, a sort of younger brother of the...