Conclusion

Abstract

On Wednesday in the past week, a modest grave in the Cemetery of St Martin, Boulogne-sur-Mer, closed over the remains of Louisa Stuart Costello. This lady’s books, highly prized in their day, are not out of date with the present generation of readers. Her best works, chiefly describing those parts of France least known in England at the time they appeared, combine graphic description with that kind of anecdotical archaeology which varies the narrative of travel and adventure. Miss Costello made accurate and picturesque use of accessible public documents (when no Record Office existed here, and few official archives could be consulted abroad) in her “Summer Amidst The Bocages And The Vines,” [A Summer amongst the Bocages and the Vines] “Pilgrimage To The Auvergne,” [A Pilgrimage to Auvergne] and “Béarn And The Pyrenees: A Legendary Tour In The Country Of Henri Quatre” [Béarn And The Pyrenees: A Legendary Tour of the Country of Henri Quatre]. Louis Philippe marked his approval of these and other works by presenting the authoress with a very valuable jewelled ornament. Her style, always bright and facile, gave much currency also to her histories. Memoirs of Anne of Brittany [Memoirs of Anne, Duchess of Brittany], of Mary Duchess of Burgundy [Memoirs of Mary, the Young Duchess of Burgundy], of eminent Englishwoman [Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen], and of other French and English celebrities are in as much circulating-library vogue even now as her poems and romances are; amongst these may be enumerated “Specimens Of The Early Poetry Of France,” “Clara Fane,” “Catherine de’ Medici” [Catherine de Medicis], “The Queen’s Poisoner” and “Gabrielle.”