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A considerable time has elapsed between the death of Agnes Strickland, and the publication of this record of her life and literary labours.

Severe illness and important business often caused unavoidable delays to the editor, and prevented the completion of her task. Aware that the chronology was defective, from the fact that Agnes never dated her letters or fragmentary journals, the editor has endeavoured as best she could to arrange events in their proper order. She therefore hopes the reader will pardon errors for which she is not accountable. The dates respecting the sister authors’ stay in France may, however, be relied upon without any fear of mistake.

Both sisters had gained some popularity as writers in the annuals and other periodicals before they planned the series of Royal Biographies so widely known as ‘The Lives of the Queens of England.’ Their work was very popular, though in the later portion of the series they had to contend with the religious and political prejudices of some of their readers, who believed Agnes Strickland to be a Roman Catholic—an idea that probably originated from her baptismal and ancestral names, and from the fact that the head of her family, Walter Strickland of Sizergh Castle, Westmoreland, was Catholic still. As her sister would not allow her name to be associated with hers on the title-page, Agnes had to endure all the attacks made on her on account of the creed imputed to her by illiberal reviewers. Agnes was, however, a true daughter of the Church of England; in conjunction with her sisters, she founded the Reydon Sunday School, and when at home taught a class herself every Sabbath.

Her enthusiastic interest in the house of Stuart was more open to attack; but she only shared the feelings, and perhaps prejudices, of her ancestors, who had fought for their chivalric sovereign Charles I., and gone into exile with his bigoted son. Yet in spite of adherence to these gone-by politics, Agnes Strickland, like her father, was truly loyal to King George III., of whom she used to say, “his few faults originated from his malady, but his many virtues were his own.” The loyalty to his granddaughter, our own Queen, is seen in her description of the coronation, of which she was a delighted spectator. Opinions are divided respecting the sisters’ voluminous works, ‘The Lives of the Queens of England’ and ‘The Lives of the Queens of Scotland.’ The editor and many other readers consider the latter to be in a purer style, and more ably written.

It is as documentary historians that the sister authors’ derive their chief value. They state nothing but what they have authority for. Their admission to the State Paper Office enabled them to graft into their works facts which excited in the ignorant and prejudiced as much indignation as if the truths they cited had been pure inventions.

One very interesting fact was discovered by Agnes Strickland in the Cottonian Library, which, from an original letter she found there, exonerates our great Queen Elizabeth from the guilt of having signed the death-warrant of Mary Queen of Scots; for her signature was forged by one Harrison, a tool of Davidson, who employed his pen for that purpose.

If Agnes Strickland had done nothing more than by her researches to clear the memory of Elizabeth, she would have deserved the gratitude of posterity.