Miss Catherine J. Hamilton
“For purity of tone, earnestness of spirit, depth of pathos, and lightness of touch, Mrs. Gaskell has not left her superior in fiction.
“One who knew her said: ‘She was what her books show her to have been, a wise, good woman.’
“She was even more than wise or good, she had that true poetic feeling which exalts whatever it touches, and makes nothing common or unclean. She had that clear insight which sees all and believes in the best.” (Women Writers, Second Series.)