Felicia Browne to Matthew Nicholson, 17 July 1811: 'I have been reading lately the memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with his discourses to the Royal Academy, & I am so enthusiastic an admirer of the beauties of painting, that I derived both pleasure and instruction from the perusal [...] I have also [underlined]been guilty[end underlined] of reading a [underlined]Romance[end underlined] [...] It is "The Scottish Chiefs," by Miss Porter, & though I am by no means an Advocate for [underlined]Historical[end underlined] Novels as they bewilder our ideas, by confounding truth with fiction, yet this animated Authoress has painted her Hero [...] in such glowing colours, that you cannot avoid catching a spark of her own enthusiasm".