'[Pennington] emphasises... that she "highly disapproved" the novels of Charlotte Smith, believing their morality "very defective" if not "positively bad" (Memoirs, p. 299). Carter's letters however show enthusiasm at least for "Emmeline", and deep sympathy for Smith's domestic situation: she tries hard to be fair even to the "democratic" Desmond, suggesting its critics are "perhaps prejudiced against it", while she has found the included poems "very beautiful" (Letters... to Mrs Montagu, vol III, 295-333)'