Winchilsea

Winchilsea, ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF, poetess, was daughter of Sir W. Kingsmill of Sidmont near Southampton, and wife of Heneage Finch, who succeeded as fourth earl in 1712. She was a friend of Pope, Rowe, and other poets, and herself wrote fair poetry—her longest poem, on 'Spleen,' in Cowley's manner, was printed in Gildon's Miscellany in 1701. Her 'Miscellany Poems, written by a Lady,' appeared in 1713, and she herself died in 1720. Wordsworth (preface to 1815 volume) commends her delightful pictures of external nature, and Mr Gosse (Gossip in a Library, 1891) discovers her to have had a genuine vein of poetry.