C. J. Hamilton

“ She was extremely small in stature, with black curls, cut in a crop, while Olivia was fair, with lovely golden hair, but then Sydney had a jaunty little air of her own, as she remarks with satisfaction, peculiarly Irish. She could sing, dance, speak French, play the Irish harp, and already she had shown signs of literary ability, for her poems^ written between the age of twelve and fourteen, had been printed at her father's expense. One of her ballads is likely to live longer than her novels, the well-known "Kate Kearney." ”

“ Here Lady Morgan wrote her best-known novels—"O'Donnel" and "Florence MacCarthy"—both stories of Irish life. Her Irish servants are always good, and her fine ladies of fashion—taken from her aristocratic friends and patronesses—are most amusing. Her "snug little nut-shell" of a house was the rallying place for all that was best and brightest in Dublin Society. ”

“ The hero, a penniless young man, is persuaded by his father to give up Glorvina, and the father,who goes to see the dangerous young lady, falls into her snares himself. After some bargaining Phillips paid £300 for "The Wild Irish Girl," and during a visit to London, the little authoress was fêted and flattered to her heart's content. At Lady Cook's reception, Sydney allows that she was so overcome with nervousness as to be hardly able to ascend the marble staircase, with its gilt balustrades. ”