A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bury, Lady Charlotte
BURY, LADY CHARLOTTE,
Was in her youth esteemed "The beauty of the Argyle family." As Lady Charlotte Campbell, she was one of the earliest Mends of Sir Walter Scott; the notice of a beautiful young woman of the highest rank whose taste for literature enables her to appreciate genius, could not be otherwise than flattering to a young poet whose fame was yet to be established. Lady Charlotte after she became a widow, was left in moderate circumstances with a family to advance: this state of things recommended her to an office in the household of the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, where she was admitted to the close intimacy of her mistress, from whom she received every sort of kindness, including large presents in money. She seems to have but indifferently requited these benefits, by a very scandalous publication, entitled, "Diary illustrative of the times of George the Fourth," in which, all the foibles of the unfortunate Caroline of Brunswick are held up to ridicule. This book appeared anonymously, but as it underwent a most scathing review from Lord Brougham, in which he proclaimed the author, and as Lady Charlotte never offered any denial, there can be no doubt that she is the delinquent. She has written a great number of what are termed "Fashionable novels," which have not survived their little hour. Some of them, if that may be considered an honour, have been drawn from the oblivion into which they had sunk to be republished in America, in the twenty-five cent form, to augment the immense supply of steamboat and rail-car literature. We will add the names of some thus distinguished. "A Marriage in High Life;" "The Divorce;" "Love;" "The Separation;" "Flirtation;" &c.