The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two.
§ 57. Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland
Among collective works narrating in succession the lives of occupants of particular offices, the precedence belongs to the biographies of royal personages. Considerable popularity was attained by Lives of the Queens of England (1840–8), by Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland, published, by the wish of the latter and elder sister, under the name of Agnes only. She followed it up by Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Royal Succession of Great Britain and Lives of the Bachelor Kings of England, from William Rufus to Edward VI, to which series her sister Elizabeth was, again, a contributor. Other series ensued, including both Tudor and Stewart princesses, and the seven bishops. She was not a powerful writer, but indefatigable in the accumulation of illustrative detail and conscientious in the use of it.