Charlotte Smith, who was tolerably expert in verse as well as prose; who anticipated, and perhaps taught, Scott in the double use of the name "Waverley"; and whose _Old Manor House_ (1793) is a solid but not heavy work of its kind--is something of a person in herself, but less of a figure in history, because she neither innovates nor does old things consummately.
Harriet and Sophia Lee claimed innovation for the latter's _Recess_ (1783-1786), as Miss Porter did for _Thaddeus of Warsaw_, but the claim can be even less allowed.

There is nothing of real historical spirit, and very little goodness of any kind, in _The Recess.

The Canterbury Tales_ (1797-1805) (so named merely because they are supposed to be told by different persons) were praised by Byron, as he praised the _Percy Anecdotes_ and other things--either irresponsibly or impishly.

They are not exactly bad: but also as far as possible from consummateness.
On the other hand, _The Convent of Grey Penitents_, one of the crops which rewarded Miss Wilkinson for tilling the lands of her imagination with the spade of her style, _is_ very nearly consummate--in badness.

It is a fair example of the worst imitations of Mrs.Radcliffe and Mat Lewis conjointly, though without the latter's looseness.