1791 (Age 19) Poet, naturalist, close friend of Robert Burns
Note: She met Burns in Dumfries in 1791.
Occupation
1792 (Age 20) Publishes Voyages to the Madeira and Leeward Caribbean Isles: with sketches of the natural history of these islands
Event
1793 (Age 21) "Rape of the Sabines" episode with Burns
Note: A "drunken Burns may have overstepped the bounds of propriety towards his hostess, and notwithstanding the lampoons with which he requited his subsequent exile from her house, the intimate friendship that Burns formed with this 'really first-rate woman' survived its year-long breach." -- ODNB
Event
1797 (Age 25) Left Scotland for London
Event
1802 (Age 30) Published The Metrical Miscellany, her only other volume
Note: "The Metrical Miscellany (1802; 2nd edn, 1803), an anthology of fugitive verse by contemporary celebrities, in which she also published twenty of her own poems (among them the prefatory verses of 1802 by 'The Editor')." -- ODNB
Event
1803 (Age 31) Granted rooms in Hampton Court Palace
Note: "Intelligent, beautiful, and widely read in four languages, she cultivated men of ‘unquestionable genius’ such as Sir Thomas Lawrence and Henry Fuseli, whom she compared to Burns: his 'Lament for Maria' (1809?) was probably written in response to her death. Other literati who frequented her soirées included Sir James Mackintosh, Samuel Rogers, and 'Conversation' Richard Sharp." -- ODNB
"'Inscription on an hermitage', written during a stay in the Caribbean in 1788, displays real poetical maturity." -- ODNB
ABT
Woodley Park "became the scene of many fashionable and literary gatherings." -- ODNB
Occupation
She met Burns in Dumfries in 1791.
CHRISTMAS
A "drunken Burns may have overstepped the bounds of propriety towards his hostess, and notwithstanding the lampoons with which he requited his subsequent exile from her house, the intimate friendship that Burns formed with this 'really first-rate woman' survived its year-long breach." -- ODNB
1802
"The Metrical Miscellany (1802; 2nd edn, 1803), an anthology of fugitive verse by contemporary celebrities, in which she also published twenty of her own poems (among them the prefatory verses of 1802 by 'The Editor')." -- ODNB
1803
"Intelligent, beautiful, and widely read in four languages, she cultivated men of ‘unquestionable genius’ such as Sir Thomas Lawrence and Henry Fuseli, whom she compared to Burns: his 'Lament for Maria' (1809?) was probably written in response to her death. Other literati who frequented her soirées included Sir James Mackintosh, Samuel Rogers, and 'Conversation' Richard Sharp." -- ODNB
View Notes for ...
Media
Multimedia Object
Maria Banks Woodley Riddell, by Sir Thomas Lawrence (M101) Type: Photo
44
(Birth)
4 months