“Had I, like the rest, gone through the trouble of being presented at court, there would have been no plea for enjoying this retirement that I love and require.”

An unusually direct expression of her preference for privacy over fashionable society · Letter to her niece, Mannheim, 27 February 1836

• Simplicity
• Society
• Solitude

“My own opinion has always been that devoting a proportion is the best way. This, in case of anything urgent, may be enlarged.”

Practical advice on making charitable giving a regular habit · Letter to her niece, August 1829

• Care
• Kindness
• Wisdom

“I would rather be remembered as the author of The Land o' the Leal than of any other song.”

Expressing her special attachment to the song that became her enduring legacy · Biographical reminiscence

• Memory
• Mortality
• Music