Author: Smith, Elizabeth
Biography:
SMITH, Elizabeth (fl 1829-34)
Elizabeth Smith published only one book, Poems on Malvern. It was published by subscription in Worcester, Worcestershire, in 1829 with a second edition in 1834 that added at least four new poems and had its own separate list of subscribers. The poems celebrate the fashionable spa town of Malvern from the point of view of a native (or at least permanent resident) and record not only the landmarks of the place, such as the spring and the church, but also the comings and goings of tourists and visitors. One of the new poems in the second edition is “On the Arrival of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and the Princess Victoria at Malvern.” The occasional poems that make up the contents are less interesting than the subscribers’ lists, made up of titled persons, military officers, and local gentry. The second edition outdoes the first with Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg subscribing for 20 copies and the Duchess of Kent for eight. A dedicatory poem and two or three others in the collection are addressed to Lady Lyttelton—Sarah (Spencer) Lyttelton (1787-1870)—who was a local grandee, patron of charity balls and subscriptions in good causes. There are few clues to the personal life of Elizabeth Smith herself but internal evidence suggests that she was well to do but not married. She might be the Elizabeth Smith who was buried at the church of St. Mary and St. Michael, Great Malvern, on 12 Feb. 1836, aged 49; if so, she was perhaps the daughter of Lidia and Thomas Smith baptised at the nearby village of Upton on Severn on 29 Jul. 1787 (and thus contemporary with Sarah Lyttelton). Lady Lyttelton’s husband William died in 1837 and she became first a lady in waiting to the young Queen Victoria and later governess to her children. (“Sarah, Lady Lyttelton,” ODNB 2 Nov. 2024; ancestry.com 2 Nov. 2024; findmypast.com 2 Nov. 2024)