OLIPHANT, MRS. MARGARET

   (née Wilson), authoress, born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, a lady of varied abilities and accomplishments, and distinguished in various departments of literature, began her literary career as a novelist and a contributor to Blackwood, with which she kept up a lifelong connection; her first work which attracted attention was "Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland," and her first success as a novelist was the "Chronicles of Carlingford"; she wrote on history, biography, and criticism, the "Makers of Florence, of Venice, of Modern Rome," "Lives of Dante, Cervantes, and Edward Irving," among other works, and was engaged on a narrative of the publishing-house of Blackwood when she died; she might have distinguished herself more had she kept within a more limited range; her last days were days of sorrow under heavy bereavement (1828-1897).