her extravagant than
striking, its appearance was a tacit admission of the failing of the
author's powers. Much experience of human nature Mrs. Haywood had
undoubtedly salvaged from her sixty years of buffeting about in the
world, but so rapid and complete had been the development of prose
fiction during her literary life that she was unable quite to comprehend
the magnitude of the change. Her early training in romance writing had
left too indelible a stamp upon her mind. She was never able to
apprehend the full possibilities of the newer fiction, and her success
as a novelist was only an evidence of her ability to create the image of
a literary form without mastering its technique. So at the maturity of
her powers she lacked a vessel worthy of holding the stores of her
experience, and first and last she never exceeded the permutations of
sensationalism possible in the short amatory romance.

Long after Mrs. Haywood's death in 1756 came out the last novel
presumably of her composing. "The History of Leonora Meadowson,"
published in two volumes in 1788, is but a recombination of materials
already familiar to the reading public. Leonora rashly yields to the
wishes of her first lover, weds another, and makes yet a second
experiment in matrimony before she finds her true mate in the faithful
Fleetwood, whom she had thought inconstant. Thus she is a near relation
of the thoughtless Betsy, and possibly a descendant of the much married
heroine of "Cleomelia." Another of Mrs. Haywood's earlier fictions, "The
Agreeable Caledonian," had previously been used as the basis of a
revision entitled "Clementina" (1768). The reviewer of "Leonora" in the
"Critical," though aware of the novel's shortcomings, still laments the
passing of "the author of Betsy Thoughtless, our first guide in these
delusive walks of fiction and fancy."[20]

"The spirit which dictated Betsy Thoughtless is evaporated; the fire
of the author scarcely sparkles. Even two meagre volumes could not be
filled, without a little History of Melinda Fairfax;--without the Tale
of Cornaro and the Turk,--a tale told twice, in verse and prose,--a
tale already often published, and as often read. Alas, poor author! we
catch with regret thy parting breath."

FOOTNOTES
[1]
A rival translation called _The Fortunate Countrymaid_ had already been
published in 1740-1, and may be read in the seventh tome of _The
Novelist's Magazine_ (Harrison). Clara Reeve speaks of b