A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hastings, Lady Flora
HASTINGS, LADY FLORA,
Was the eldest daughter of Francis, Marquis of Hastings, who made himself notorious as Lord Rawdon for the severity with which he treated the Americans who fell into his power during the revolutionary war. Lady Flora was born in 1806; and from her childhood manifested a fondness for study and literary pursuits. Beautiful and accomplished, distinguished also for genius and piety, she was selected by that eminent pattern of the virtues in courtly life, the Duchess of Kent, to be one of her ladies of the bed-chamber. While in this station Lady Flora was attacked with a disease which caused an enlargement of her liver, and gave rise to suspicions injurious to her reputation. These cruel surmises, although proved utterly unfounded, no doubt aggravated her illness, and hastened her death, which took place at Buckingham Palace, July 5th., 1839. Her fame was now unspotted, and her premature death was deeply mourned by the court and nation. She had collected her poems, which were published after her decease, by her sister. These effusions evince the purity of her sentiments; and the gentle melancholy they breathe make a deeper impression on the heart of the reader, because it seems to shadow forth her own sad fate