Elizabeth Rose, Lady of Kilravock

Rose developed a literary reputation mainly because of her ‘indiscriminate and voracious reading’.   This marked her out ‘in a country where there was little learning in either sex.'[11] She shared her reading with others as she actively sought to cultivate a specific philosophy of reading in the next generation of female readers.  Her great friend was Euphemia Russel, the mother of Cosmo Innes,[12][13] and she moved in extensive circles.

Her reputation was far reaching. By the end of the century, she was well enough known for Anne Grant, who had never met her, to take Helen Dunbar's report of Rose's praise of her manuscript verse as significant encouragement in Grant's decision to publish her work.  Grant described Rose's ‘elegant critisms’ as ‘an excellent cork jacket’ to keep her afloat as she ventured into the swampy world of publication.[11]

Rose composed verses but merely for private consumption within her reading circle.[14]

Her own style of writing…was not natural, and she has scarcely written anything worthy of being preserved for its intrinsic qualities - Hew Rose[15]

She became an author by providence rather than design.  Her commonplace books and correspondence are her well-known works.

She kept a journal from 1771 until 1815.  Within these journals she recorded every book she read and collected passages from those books in a series of voluminous commonplace books.[8] They also included other things she valued or needed.  She kept financial records of estate business, alongside her annual reading lists of literature, philosophy, history, and natural science.  

In her commonplace book, Poems, Rose excerpted poetry written by Samuel Johnson, Horace, Henry Mackenzie, and others, editing and revising their poetry to suit her own sense of poetics.[16]  And on her personal copy of Mary Robinson’s A Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination, Rose made significant additions to the ‘List of British Female Literary Characters’.[17] She abridged David Hume's The History of England in its entirety, including Tobias Smollett's Continuation.[18] And in her final commonplace book she transcribed at length a sequence of James Beattie's attack on Hume's scepticism.[18]

At least 10 of her commonplace books are still in existence.[8] Although some argue that only nine of them are attributable to Rose.[16]

She was a prolific letter writer and she is now best known for her correspondence with her cousin Henry Mackenzie.[11]  Mackenzie wrote Rose 127 letters spanning the years 1768 to 1815.[19] These, or extracts from them, were published in Letters to Elizabeth Rose of Kilravock on literature events and people 1768-1815.[20][21] Amongst other things, the letters show that Mackenzie shared excerpts from his books and asked her for her opinion on the novel as he was writing it.[16] Having sent her chapters from A Man of Feeling, Mackenzie commented ‘I am proud of having drawn a female character so much to your liking’. They did not always agree on the position of women, in another letter he wrote ‘You are hard on me for my idea of inferiority in your sex.’[22]

Mackenzie gave Robert Burns a letter of introduction to Rose before Burns’ Highland tour in 1787.[23]  During one of Burns’ visits with Rose he was entertained by Rose's niece, who sang two Highland airs. At Burns request, Rose wrote down and sent these songs to him. In 1796 one of these songs was published in A Collection of Entirely Original Strathspey Reels, Marches, Quick Steps &c. titled as ‘Mrs. Rose of Kilravock's Strathspey’.[24]