Lady Florence Dixie - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Florence Dixie) Scottish writer (1855–1905)

Lady Florence Dixie
Illustrated portrait of Dixie, c. 1877
Born	Florence Caroline Douglas (1855-05-24)24 May 1855 Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
Died	7 November 1905(1905-11-07) (aged 50) Glen Stuart, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
Occupation	War correspondent
Known for	Feminist
Spouse	Alexander Dixie (m. 1875)
Children	Sir Douglas Dixie, 12th Baronet Albert Edward Wolstan
Parents	Archibald Douglas (father) Caroline Clayton (mother)
Relatives	John Douglas (brother) Francis Douglas (brother) Archibald Edward Douglas (brother) James Douglas

Lady Florence Caroline Dixie (née Douglas; 24 May 1855 – 7 November 1905) was a Scottish writer, war correspondent, and feminist. Her account of travelling Across Patagonia, her children's books The Young Castaways and Aniwee; or, The Warrior Queen, and her feminist utopia Gloriana; or, The Revolution of 1900 all deal with feminist themes related to girls, women, and their positions in society.

Early life

Born in Cummertrees, Dumfries, Scotland on 24 May 1855, Lady Florence Douglas was the daughter of Caroline Margaret Clayton, daughter of General Sir William Clayton, 5th Baronet, Member of Parliament for Great Marlow, and Archibald Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry.

She had a twin brother, Lord James Edward Sholto Douglas, an older sister, Lady Gertrude Douglas, and three older brothers: John, Viscount Drumlanrig, later 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Lord Francis Douglas, and the Reverend Lord Archibald Edward Douglas.

Lady Florence has been described as a tomboy who tried to match her brothers in physical activities, whether swimming, riding, or hunting. She rode astride, wore her hair short in a boyish crop, and refused to conform to fashion when being presented to Queen Victoria. She and her twin brother James were particularly close during childhood, calling each other "Darling" (Florence) and "Dearest" (James). She was also close to her older brother John, whom she resembled in temperament, both being "fearless, dynamic and opinionated".

Her childhood was marked by a number of dramatic and even tragic events. On 6 August 1858, when she was three, Lady Florence's father died; he was widely believed to have killed himself. In 1862, his widow, Caroline, acted upon a long-formed conviction and converted to Roman Catholicism. She took her youngest children, Archibald, then twelve, and Florence and James, aged seven, to France, where she could educate them as she wished. This led the children's guardians to threaten Lady Queensberry with an action under English law to take her children away from her. The three were too young to choose a guardian under Scottish law. In the event, they remained in France for two years. Falconer Atlee, the British Consul at Nantes, offered them a place of safety when their first location was discovered, and the Emperor Napoleon III eventually extended Lady Queensberry his protection, ensuring that she could keep the custody of the three children. Archibald converted to Rome and took holy orders, becoming a priest. Caroline's older daughter, Gertrude, also became a Roman Catholic. When her Anglican fiancé would not agree to their children being brought up in that faith, Gertrude's engagement was broken off. She entered a convent in Hammersmith and completed her novitiate to become a Sister of the Black Veil in 1867, but later left the order.

Eventually, it was agreed that Caroline would retain custody of her younger children, and they returned to England. Lady Florence was first educated at home by a governess, but is described as "defiant, rebellious and restless". After returning from France at the age of nine, the twins were separated. James was sent to a Roman Catholic boarding school, and Florence to a convent school, which she hated. But she found some consolation in writing poetry: her childhood verses were published much later as The songs of a child, and other poems, under the pseudonym 'Darling'.

Another tragedy struck the family just days before Florence's eldest brother, John Douglas, was to reach his majority as 9th Marquess of Queensberry. As guests gathered for a lavish celebration, word came that on 14 July 1865, the 18-year-old Lord Francis Douglas had fallen to his death with three others, after achieving the first ascent of the Matterhorn. Lord Queensberry travelled post-haste to Zermatt, with the intention of bringing his brother's body home, but nothing had been found of Lord Francis but some tattered shreds of his clothing. Queensberry, alone, without a guide, and starting out by moonlight, attacked the Matterhorn himself and made it as far as "the Hut". It was largely a matter of chance that two guides found and rescued him before he died of cold. He wrote apologetically to Florence, "I thought and thought where he was, and called him, and wondered if I should ever see him again. I was half mad with misery, and I could not help it." "Exceedingly amiable and talented" Francis's death was deeply felt by his family. In 1876, Florence accompanied Queensberry on a return to Zermatt, and he showed her the slopes where Francis had died. Beyond the family, the tragedy was a long-running sensation, reported by newspapers all over the world, often in tones both sensational and denunciatory.

Marriage and children

On 3 April 1875, at the age of nineteen, Douglas married Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie, 11th Baronet (1851–1924), known as "Sir A.B.C.D." or "Beau". Beau, who had succeeded his father as the 11th baronet on 8 January 1872, had an income of £10,000 per year, equivalent to £1,127,786 in 2023, a country house, Bosworth Hall, near Market Bosworth, and a London townhouse in the fashionable district of Mayfair. He served as High Sheriff of Leicestershire for 1876. Though Florence was only five feet tall, while Beau stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m), Florence became the dominant partner in the marriage, reportedly ruling her husband "with a rod of iron".

The young couple had two sons, George Douglas (born 18 January 1876), who later became the 12th baronet, and Albert Edward Wolstan (born 26 September 1878, died 1940), whose godfather was the Prince of Wales.

Both husband and wife shared a love of adventure and the outdoor life, and are generally considered to have had a happy marriage, certainly the happiest of the Douglas siblings. Nonetheless, Beau's habits of drinking and of gambling for high stakes had catastrophic consequences for the family. The couple were reportedly referred to by contemporaries as "Sir Always and Lady Sometimes Tipsy". In 1885 Beau's ancestral home and estate at Bosworth were sold to pay his debts.

"For some time past I have been fighting against the terrible consequences of my husband's immense losses on the Turf and at gambling . . It was a great blow to me to find that the last remnant of a once splendid fortune must at once go to pay this debt. Ruin ... Beau ... has been so accustomed to have heaps of money at his command that he cannot understand that it is all gone .... By selling Bosworth and the property these (debts) could be met." – Lady Florence Dixie

Following loss of the estate, the couple moved to Glen Stuart, Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. One of the houses on Lord Queensberry's Scottish estate of Kinmount, it had previously been the home of Lady Florence's mother, the Dowager Marchioness.

Writing

In 1877, Lady Florence published her first novel, Abel Avenged: a Dramatic Tragedy. A number of Dixie's books, particularly her children's books The Young Castaways, or, The Child Hunters of Patagonia and Aniwee, or, The Warrior Queen, and her adult novels Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900 and Isola, or the Disinherited: A Revolt for Woman and all the Disinherited develop feminist themes related to girls, women, and their positions in society. Her final novel, a semi-autobiographical work entitled The Story of Ijain, or the Evolution of a Mind appeared in 1903.

Although she published fiction for both adults and children, Dixie is best remembered for her travel books, Across Patagonia (1880) and In the Land of Misfortune (1882), both of which are still reprinted. In these books Dixie presents herself as the protagonist of the story. By doing so she defies the male tradition of quoting other travel writers who have visited and written on the area, and creates a unique feminine style of travel writing in the nineteenth century.

Across Patagonia

In December 1878, two months after the birth of their second son, Edward, Dixie and her husband left their aristocratic life and their children behind them in England and traveled to Patagonia. She was the only female in her traveling party. She set out accompanied by her brothers, Lord Queensberry and Lord James Douglas, her husband Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie, and Julius Beerbohm. Beerbohm, a family friend, was hired as the group's guide because of his previous experience in Patagonia. Dixie debated going elsewhere, but chose Patagonia because few Europeans had ever set foot there.

Once in Patagonia, Dixie paints a picture of the landscape using techniques reminiscent of the Romantic tradition of William Wordsworth and others, using emotion and physical sensation to connect to the natural world. While she describes the land as "uninviting and feared territory", Dixie's actions demonstrate that survival in a wild land requires both strength and agency.

During her travels in Patagonia, Dixie is "active, hardy, and resilient", rejecting Victorian gender constructs that depicted women as weak and in need of protection. Furthermore, in writing Across Patagonia (1880), Dixie never mentions her husband by name or title (simply referring to him as "my husband"), and presents herself as the expedition hero rather than the men being the heroes of the story. She recounts times where she outsmarts or outlasts the men or remains their equal.

While social issues such as European women's suffrage can be seen in her narrative, she says little about the natives of Patagonia. She has been criticized by Monica Szurmuk for not addressing the military campaigns of General Julio Argentino Roca against indigenous people of the time. However, Szurmuk also notes that Dixie's writing has a transgressive quality that acknowledges mutuality:

"A remarkable characteristic of Dixie's writing and one that sets her apart from others is that whenever she writes herself as viewer, she herself is also looked at, viewed, defined. Her first encounter with a "real Patagonian Indian" is marked by mutual gazes and by Indians and Europeans being all on horse-back, and thus at the same physical level."

Lady Dixie shared her observations of Patagonia with Charles Darwin. She took issue with Darwin's description of the Tuco-tuco in his Journal of Researches (1839). While Darwin had suggested that the Tuco-tuco were nocturnal creatures that lived almost entirely underground, Lady Dixie had seen the Tuco-tuco out during the daytime. She sent Darwin a copy of Across Patagonia; Darwin's copy of this book is part of the Library of Charles Darwin located in the Rare Books Room of Cambridge University Library.

When she returned from Patagonia, Dixie brought home with her a jaguar, which she called Affums and kept as a pet. Affums killed several deer in Windsor Great Park and had to be sent to a zoo.

A hotel at Puerto Natales in the Chilean part of Patagonia is named the Hotel Lady Florence Dixie in her honor.

Her experiences in Patagonia inspire much of her later work, both her writing for children, and her work with the women's suffrage movement. Her two children's books, The Young Castaways and its sequel Aniwee, are set in Patagonia and depict strong female characters.

"The really amazing thing in the book is the prowess, skill, and prudence of the two girls, Topsie and Aniwee, the child of an Indian chief. ... the figures of Topsie, whose expertness as a stalker might put a veteran Highlander to shame, and of Aniwee, who teaches her tribe that a woman may be just as good a hunter and warrior as a man, and so revolutionises the whole social fabric of Indian life,—these are novelties indeed."

In the Land of Misfortune

In 1881, Dixie was appointed as a field correspondent of the Morning Post of London to cover the First Boer War (1880–1881) and the aftermath of the Anglo-Zulu War. She and her husband traveled to South Africa together. In Cape Town, she stayed with the Governor of the Cape Colony. She visited Zululand, and on her return interviewed the Zulu king Cetshwayo, being held in detention by the British.

Her reports, followed by her A Defence of Zululand and Its King from the Blue Book (1882) and In the Land of Misfortune (1882), were instrumental in Cetshwayo's brief restoration to his throne in 1883. In Dixie's In the Land of Misfortune, there is a struggle between her individualism and her identification with the power of the British Empire, but for all of her sympathy with the Zulu cause and with Cetshwayo, she remained at heart an imperialist.

A Feminist Utopia

Dixie held strong views on the emancipation of women, proposing that the sexes should be equal in marriage and divorce, that the Crown should be inherited by the monarch's oldest child, regardless of sex, and even that men and women should wear the same clothes. She was a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, and her obituary in the Englishwoman's Review emphasized her support for the cause of women's suffrage (i.e. the right to vote): "Lady Florence... threw herself eagerly into the Women's Movement, and spoke on public platforms."

In 1890, Dixie published a utopian novel, Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900, which has been described as a feminist fantasy. It also interweaves elements of romance and detective fiction. In it, women win the right to vote, as the result of the protagonist, Gloriana, posing as a man, Hector D'Estrange, and being elected to the House of Commons. The character of D'Estrange is reflective of Oscar Wilde, but perhaps even more so of Dixie herself. Another of the many active, competent and powerful women characters in the book is Scottish Lady Flora Desmond (who, as The Athenaeum pointed out, has a name very similar to the author). Flora helps to organize a 200,000 member Women's Volunteer force, and herself leads their elite mounted White Regiment. A host of women characters are instrumental to the plot, both in supporting and opposing the hero/heroine: as noted by Walker, the adventures in Gloriana occur to women rather than to men.

The book ends in the year 1999, with a description of a prosperous and peaceful Britain whose government has deeply benefited from the engagement of women. In the preface to the novel, Dixie proposes not only women's suffrage, but that the two sexes should be educated together and that all professions and positions should be open to both. In the novel, she goes farther and says:

"Nature has unmistakably given to woman a greater brain power. This is at once perceivable in childhood... Yet man deliberately sets himself to stunt that early evidence of mental capacity, by laying down the law that woman's education shall be on a lower level than that of man's... I maintain to honourable gentlemen that this procedure is arbitrary and cruel, and false to Nature. I characterise it by the strong word of Infamous. It has been the means of sending to their graves unknown, unknelled, and unnamed, thousands of women whose high intellects have been wasted, and whose powers for good have been paralysed and undeveloped."

Women and sports

Women's football

Dixie played a key role is establishing the game of women's association football, organizing exhibition matches for charity, and in 1895 she became President of the British Ladies' Football Club, stipulating that "the girls should enter into the spirit of the game with heart and soul". She arranged for a women's football team from London to tour Scotland.

Blood sports

During her early life and travels, Dixie was an enthusiastic sportswoman, an intrepid rider and shot. As the following reminiscence shows, part of the appeal of hunting in Leicestershire was the opportunity to compete on an equal footing with active male peers:

'The merry blast of the huntsman's horn resounds, the view-halloa rings out cheerily on the bright crisp air of a fine hunting morning; the fox is "gone away", you have got a good start, and your friend has too. "Come on," he shouts, "let us see this run together!" Side by side you fly the first fence, take your horse in hand, and settle down to ride over the broad grass country. How distinctly you remember that run, how easily you recall each fence you flew together, each timber-rail you topped, and that untempting bottom you both got so luckily and safely over, and above all, the old farm-yard, where the gallant fox yielded up his life.' Lady Florence Dixie, 1880

Dixie's skills on horseback were sufficient to be mentioned in sporting magazines. The following account gives a vivid idea of the risks involved in a fox hunt:

"From scent to view they kill him in the open in one hour and five minutes, after a good twelve miles' run. There were several very bad falls, and a great deal of grief, horses standing still in all directions. Lady Florence Dixie, who had been going admirably, had a nasty fall into the Widmerpool road, her horse quite blown. Every one was delighted to see her ladyship out again soon after. There were few who rode the run as hounds ran, and who saw the fox killed, but we believe Mr. Coupland, Captain Middleton, Lord Douglas, and Tom Firr accomplished it, much to their credit, as in the present state of the country it could not be an easy task."

In Patagonia, survival of the party as a whole depended on the equal participation of all those within it. Dixie shared the responsibility and the dangers of necessary tasks such as hunting for food for the party.

"Unconscious of anything but the exciting chase before me, I am suddenly disagreeably reminded that there is such a thing as caution, and necessity to look where you are going to, for, putting his foot in an unusually deep tuca-tuca hole, my little horse comes with a crash upon his head, and turns completely over on his back, burying me beneath him in a hopeless muddle." Lady Florence Dixie, 1880

However, she was also "haunted by a sad remorse" for the death of a beautiful golden deer of the Cordilleras, which was exceedingly tame and trusting. During the 1890s, Dixie's views on field sports changed dramatically, and in her book The Horrors of Sport (1891) she condemned blood sports as cruel. Dixie later became Vice-President of the London Vegetarian Association.

Politics

Dixie was an enthusiastic writer of letters to newspapers on liberal and progressive issues, including support for Scottish and Irish Home Rule. Her article The Case of Ireland was published in Vanity Fair on 27 May 1882.

Nevertheless, she was critical of the Irish Land League and the Fenians, who reportedly made an unsuccessful attempt to attack her in March 1883. The incident received international attention, but considerable doubt was expressed, then and later, about whether such an attack had actually occurred.

Alleged assassination attempt

Reports were published of an attempt to assassinate Lady Florence Dixie at her residence, the Fishery, situated near the Thames, and about two and a half miles from Windsor. Lady Florence Dixie gave the following account to the newspapers:

"I was out walking near the Fishery last evening, about 4:30, when two very tall women came up and asked me the time. I replied that I had not got my watch with me, and, turning, left them. Opening a small gate which led into the private grounds of Capt Brocklehurst, of the Blues, I made toward a stile, and was just going to get over, when I heard the gate open behind, and the two women followed me in. Somehow or other I felt all was not right, so I stopped and leaned against the rails, and then, as they came on, went to meet them. One on the right came forward and seized me by the neck, when by the strength of the clutch I felt it was no woman's power that pulled me down to the ground. In another second I saw the other would-be woman over me, and remember seeing the steel of the knife come right down upon me, driven by this person's hand. It struck through my clothes and against the whalebone of my stays, which turned the point, merely grazing the skin. The knife was quickly withdrawn and plunged at me again. I seized it with both hands and shouted as loud as I could, when the person who first pulled me down pushed a large handful of earth into my mouth and nearly choked me. Just as the knife was wrenched from my hands, a very big and powerful St. Bernard dog I had with me broke through the wood, and the last thing I remember was seeing the person with the knife pulled backward by him. Then I heard a confused sound of rumbling of wheels, and I remember no more. When I came to myself I was quite alone. From what I saw of the knife I believe it to be a dagger, and the persons were undoubtedly men. They were dressed in long clothes, and were unnaturally tall for women; the one who stabbed me had on a thick veil, reaching below the mouth; the other was unveiled, but his face I did not notice much. This is all the information I can give. My head is very confused and painful, and I expect they must have stunned me. This is a wretched scrawl, but my hands are very much cut, and it pains me so much to write."

Questions were raised in the House of Commons on 19 and 20 March, and again on the 29th, about the investigation, but Lady Dixie's account was not supported by others, and was dismissed.

"MR. O'SHEA: I wish to ask the Home Secretary a Question of which I have given him private Notice. It was, Whether sufficient investigation has now taken place as to the alleged murderous attack upon Lady Florence Dixie; and, whether, as a result of the inquiries at Windsor, and of the professional examination of the cuts on Lady Florence Dixie's clothing, the police have come to any definite conclusion in the matter?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT: The accounts in this case rest mainly on the statements of Lady Florence Dixie. The investigations of the police into this matter have not resulted in discovering any further circumstances in confirmation of it."

Alleged kidnapping

In her obituary, printed 8 November 1905, The New York Times suggested that Dixie had claimed to be kidnapped by Irish agitators.

Death

Lady Florence Dixie died of diphtheria on 7 November 1905. She was buried beside her twin brother in the family burial ground on Gooley Hill on the Kinmount estate.

The New York Times reported that the "Author, Champion of Woman's Rights, and War Correspondent" had died on 7 November at her home in Glen Stuart, Dumfriesshire.

Likenesses

A monochrome lithograph of Dixie by Andrew Maclure was published in 1877. She is seated on horseback and holding a riding crop. A copy is in the National Portrait Gallery.

A more significant lithograph, by Théobald Chartran, printed in colour, appeared in Vanity Fair in 1884 and is one of the long series of caricatures published in the magazine between 1868 and 1914. These were all coloured illustrations featuring notable people of the day, and each was accompanied by a short (usually adulatory) biography. Of more than two thousand people so honoured, only eighteen were women. Featured in the magazine on 5 January 1884, Dixie joined this small band, which included Queen Isabella II of Spain (1869), Sarah Bernhardt (1879), the Princess of Wales (1882) and Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts (1883). Victoria, Princess Royal, and Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, followed later in 1884.

Bibliography

Library resources about
Lady Florence Dixie

By Lady Florence Dixie

The published works of Lady Florence Dixie include:

Books

Abel Avenged: a Dramatic Tragedy (London, Edward Moxon, 1877)
Across Patagonia (Edinburgh, Bentley, 1880)
Waifs and Strays: The Pilgrimage of a Bohemian Abroad (London: Griffith, Farren Okeden and Welsh, 1880, 60 pp)
In the Land of Misfortune (London: Richard Bentley, 1882, 434 pp)
A Defense of Zululand and Its King from the Blue Books (London: Chatto and Windus, 1882, 129 pp)
Redeemed in Blood (London, Henry & Co., 1889)
Gloriana; or, The Revolution of 1900 (London, Henry & Co., 1890)
The Young Castaways; or, The Child Hunters of Patagonia (1890), for children
Aniwee; or, The Warrior Queen (1890), for children
Isola; or, The Disinherited: A Revolt for Woman and all the Disinherited (London, Leadenhall Press, 1902)
The Story of Ijain; or, The Evolution of a Mind (London, 1903)

Shorter works

"The Case of Ireland" in Vanity Fair, issue dated 27 May 1882
"Cetshwayo and Zululand" in Nineteenth Century Volume 12 No. 2 (August 1882) pp. 303–312
"In the Land of Misfortune" (1882)
"On Cetshwayo and his Restoration" in Vanity Fair, 12 July 1884, pp 21–22
"Memoirs of a Great Lone Land" in Westminster Review, Volume 139 (March 1893) pp. 247–256
"The True Science of Living: The New Gospel of Health" in Westminster Review, Volume 150 (1898) pp. 463–470
"The Horrors of Sport" (Humanitarian League publication no. 4, 1891)
The Mercilessness of Sport (1901)
Introduction to Joseph McCabe's Religion of Woman (1905)

Private letters

Unpublished works include:

Florence Dixie to William Gladstone, 11 August 1882 (British Library: Gladstone Papers 391, Add. MS. 44476, f. 127)
Florence Dixie to William Gladstone, 23 October 1883 (British Library: Gladstone Papers 391, Add. MS. 44483, f. 257)
Florence Dixie to William Gladstone, 21 May 1890 (British Library: Gladstone Papers 425, Add. MS. 44510, f. 34)
Florence Dixie to Mr Clodd, 3 July 1903 (University of Leeds: Brotherton Collection)
Correspondence with Lord Kimberley (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
Correspondence with Charles Darwin available via the Darwin Correspondence Project website.

About her

"Woman's Mission" in Vanity Fair, 16 August 1884, pp 114–116
"Woman's Mission" in Vanity Fair, 23 August 1884, pp 134–135

Ancestry

Ancestors of Lady Florence Dixie

Sir John Douglas, 3rd Baronet

Sir William Douglas, 4th Baronet

Christian Cunningham

John Douglas, 7th Marquess of Queensberry

William Johnstone

Dame Grace Johnstone

Archibald Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry

Charles James Sholto Douglas
(son of Sir John & C. Cunningham above)

Maj. James Sholto Douglas

Basilia Dawes
(daughter of James below)

Sarah Douglas

James Dawes

Sarah Dawes

Lady Florence Caroline Dixie

William Clayton
(son of 1st Baronet)

Sir William Clayton, 4th Baronet

Maria Eliza Catherine Lloyd

Sir William Clayton, 5th Baronet

William East, 1st Baronet
(of Hall Place, Maidenhead)

Mary East

_ Jackson

Caroline Margaret Clayton

Neale/Neal O'Donnell/
O'Donel, 1st Baronet

Hugh O'Donnell

Mary Coane

Alice Hugh Massey O'Donnell

Massey Hutchinson
of Mount Massey, Co. Cork

Alice Hutchinson

Descendants

Lady Florence Dixie's eldest son, George Douglas Dixie (18 January 1876 – 25 December 1948) served in the Royal Navy as a midshipman and was commissioned into the King's Own Scottish Borderers in 1895. On 26 November 1914, he was promoted a temporary captain in the 5th Battalion the KOSB. He married Margaret Lindsay, daughter of Sir Alexander Jardine, 8th Baronet, and in 1924 succeeded to his father's title and was known as Sir Douglas Dixie, 12th Baronet.

When he died in 1948, Sir Douglas was succeeded by his son, Sir (Alexander Archibald Douglas) Wolstan Dixie, 13th and last Baronet (8 January 1910 – 28 December 1975). The 13th Bt. married Dorothy Penelope King-Kirkman in 1950, as his second wife. They had two daughters; 1) Eleanor Barbara Lindsay; and 2) Caroline Mary Jane. Both daughters have issue.

References

Adler, Michelle, Skirting the Edges of Civilisation: British Women Travellers and Travel Writers in South Africa, 1797–1899 (PhD dissertation, University of London, 1996)
Adler, Michelle, "Skirting the Edges of Civilsation: Two Victorian Women Travellers and 'Colonial Spaces' in South Africa" (about Lady Florence Dixie and Sarah Heckford) in Darian-Smith, Kate, Gunner, Liz and Nuttall, Sarah (eds.) Text, Theory, Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia (London & New York: Routledge, 1996) pp. 83–98
Anderson, Monica, "Role-Play and Florence Dixie's 'In the Land of Misfortune'" in Women and the Politics of Travel, 1870–1914 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8386-4091-5) pp 119–154
Czech, Kenneth P., With Rifle and Petticoat: Women as Big Game Hunter (New York, Derrydale Press, 2002, 189 pp)
Frawley, Maria H., A Wider Range: Travel Writing by Women in Victorian England (PhD. dissertation, University of Delaware, Newark, 1991, 334 pp)
Frawley, Maria H., A Wider Range: Travel Writing by Women in Victorian England (Rutherford, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press and London: Associated University Presses, 1994, 237 pp)
Qingyun Wu, "The Discourse of Impersonation: The Destiny of the Next Life and Gloriana; or, The Revolution of 1900", paper presented to the Pennsylvania Foreign Language Conference, Duquesne University, 16–18 September 1988
Roberts, Brian, Ladies in the Veld, especially chapter entitled "The Lady and the King: Lady Florence Dixie" (London: John Murray, 1965) pp. 75–181
Stevenson, Catherine B., "The Depiction of the Zulu in the Travel Writing of Florence Dixie", paper presented at the 1980 African Studies Association Conference, 15–18 October 1980, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (New Brunswick, New Jersey: ASA, Rutgers University, 198
Stevenson, Catherine B., Victorian Women Travel Writers in Africa (Boston: Twayne, 1982, 184 pp.)
Stevenson, Catherine B., "Female Anger and African Politics: The Case of Two Victorian Lady Travellers" in Turn of the Century Women Volume 2, 1985, pp 7–17
Tinling, Marion, "Lady Florence Dixie, 1855–1905" in Women Into the Unknown: A Sourcebook on Women Explorers and Travelers (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1989)
Howarth, Osbert John Radcliffe (1912). "Dixie, Florence Caroline" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Middleton, Dorothy (2009). "Dixie, Lady Florence Caroline (1855–1905)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32836. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Notes

^ Middleton, Dorothy, "Dixie , Florence Caroline, Lady Dixie (1855–1905)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
^ DIXIE, Lady Florence, poet, novelist, writer; explorer and a keen champion of Woman's Rights in Who Was Who online at 7345683 at xreferplus.com (subscription required), accessed 11 March 2008
G. E. Cokayne et al., eds., The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new edition, 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; new edition, 2000), volume X, page 694
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1895). Armorial families : a complete peerage, baronetage, and knightage, and a directory of some gentlemen of coat-armour, and being the first attempt to show which arms in use at the moment are borne by legal authority. Edinburgh: T.C. & E.C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works. pp. 307–308. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
Stevenson, Catherine Barnes (1982). Victorian women travel writers in Africa. Boston: Twayne. p. 41. ISBN 9780805768350.
^ Stratmann, Linda (2013). The Marquess of Queensberry : Wilde's nemesis. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. pp. 69–77. ISBN 978-0300173802. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
Walsh, William Shepard (1913). A Handy Book of Curious Information: Comprising Strange Happenings in the Life of Men and Animals, Odd Statistics, Extraordinary Phenomena, and Out of ... Facts Concerning the Wonderlands of the Earth. Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott. p. 739. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
^ McKenzie, Precious (2012). The right sort of woman : victorian travel writers and the fitness of an empire. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-3637-1. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
Crawford, Bryan (2011). Letters my grandfather wrote me : family origins. : Authorhouse. p. 273. ISBN 978-1456788520. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
Ewan, Elizabeth (2006). The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0748617135. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
Douglas, Gertrude (2 July 1870). "Lady Gertrude Douglas on Convent Life". The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld.). p. 4. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
Dixie, Florence (1901). The songs of a child, and other poems, by "Darling". London: Leadenhall Press.
Nelsson, Richard (14 July 2015). "The first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
^ Fleming, Fergus (3 November 2000). "Cliffhanger at the top of the world". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
Mark, Jenkins (14 July 2015). "How the Matterhorn Created Modern Mountaineering 150 Years Ago". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage. London: Dean & Son. 1878. p. 140. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
^ Theakstone, John, Annotated Bibliography of Selected Works by Women Travellers, 1837–1910 (dated Summer 2003) online at victorianresearch.org (accessed 8 March 2008)
"Bosworth Hall". Weddington Castle. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
^ Profile, staleyandco.com; accessed 11 March 2008.
Bisset, Thom Adam (1876). The Upper Ten Thousand, For 1876: A Biographical Handbook Of All The Titled And Official Classes Of The Kingdom, With Their Addresses. Kelly and Company. p. 129.
Cordery, Stacy A. (2013). Juliette Gordon Low : the remarkable founder of the Girl Scouts. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0143122890. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
Foss, Peter J., The History of Market Bosworth (Wymondham, 1983) p. 178
Addison, Henry Robert; Oakes, Charles Henry; Lawson, William John; Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1903). Who's who. Vol. 55. A. & C. Black. pp. 373–374. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
"Lady Florence Douglas". The Douglas Archives. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
^ Anderson, Monica, Women and the Politics of Travel, 1870–1914 page 266 online at books.google.co.uk] (accessed 8 March 2008)
^ Szurmuk, Monica (2001). Women in Argentina (PDF). Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. pp. 67–77. ISBN 978-0813018898.
Martin, Claire Emilie (2012). ""Shall I Ever Cross the Moors Again?": Lady Florence Dixie's Across Patagonia (1880)". Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas. 45: 57–63. doi:10.1080/08905762.2012.670458. S2CID 143638057.
^ Dixie, Florence (1880). Across Patagonia. London: Richard Bentley and Son. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
^ Penaloza, Fernanda (2004). "A Sublime Journey to the Barren Plains: Lady Florence Dixie's Across Patagonia (1880)" (PDF). Limina. 10: 86. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
^ Anderson, Monica (2006). Women and the Politics of Travel, 1870–1914. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 121. ISBN 9781611473261. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
^ Darwin Correspondence Database, accessed Fri 8 March 2013
"Rutherford, H. W., 1908. Catalogue of the library of Charles Darwin now in the Botany School, Cambridge. Compiled by H. W. Rutherford, of the University Library; with an Introduction by Francis Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
Hardman, Philippa. "Lady Florence Dixie: a woman who had it all?". Darwin and Gender: The Blog. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
"Hotel Lady Florence Dixie". Hotel Lady Florence Dixie. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
Shaw, John F. (23 November 1889). "The Young Castaways. By Lady Florence Dixie". The Spectator. p. 23. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
Mangasarian, Mangasar Mugurditch (1905). "Lady Florence Douglas Dixie". Liberal Review. 2 (1): 336–342. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
Lady Florence Caroline Douglas Dixie in the Columbia Encyclopedia (sixth edition) online (accessed 8 March 2008)
^ Anderson, Monica, Women and the Politics of Travel, 1870–1914, p. 119 et seq.
^ "Lady Florence Caroline Dixie". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
Dixie, Florence (21 April 1891). Woman's position, and the objects of the Women's Franchise League [microform]; lecture ... delivered in the Christian Institute, Glasgow on 21st April 1891. Dundee: Leng.
^ Heilmann, Ann, Wilde's New Women: the New Woman on Wilde in Uwe Böker, Richard Corballis, Julie A. Hibbard, The Importance of Reinventing Oscar: Versions of Wilde During the Last 100 Years (Rodopi, 2002) pp. 135–147, in particular p. 139
^ Wu, Qingyun (1995). Female rule in Chinese and English literary utopias (1st ed.). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ. Press. pp. 54–57. ISBN 978-0815626237. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
"Novels of the Week". The Athenaeum. No. 3264. 17 May 1890. pp. 637–638. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
^ Dixie, Florence (1890). Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900. London: Henry and Co. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
Walker, Julia M. (2003). The Elizabeth icon, 1603–2003. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 159–163. ISBN 978-0230288836. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
^ Gates, Barbara T. (ed.), In Nature's Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing and Illustration, 1780–1930 (University of Chicago Press, 2002) pages 61–66 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 9 March 2008)
Dixie, Florence (1890). Gloriana, or the Revolution of 1900. London: Henry and Co. pp. 129–130. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
Richard William Cox, Dave Russell, Wray Vamplew, Encyclopedia of British Football (London, Routledge, 2002) page 325 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 9 March 2008)
Lee, James F. (2008). The lady footballers : struggling to play in Victorian Britain. London: Routledge. pp. 27–30. ISBN 978-0415426091. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
^ Gilbey, Tresham (1878). "Our Van". Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes. Vol. 31. p. 238. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 125. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
"A Dastardly Irish Crime An attempt to assassinate Lady Florence Dixie. She is waylaid by two men disguised in women's clothes – Her life saved by a St. Bernard dog". New York Times. 19 March 1883. p. 1.
"Lady Florence Dixie's own story. From the Pall Mall Gazette of 19 March". New York Times. 30 March 1883.
^ J.H. Richards (1883). "The Week: New York, Thursday, April 3, 1883". The Nation. 36: 287. (A) gardener was at work thirty yards away ... from the scene of the outrage, and says he heard no noise whatever and saw nobody, although Lady Florence says 'she called loudly for help' when first attacked... (A) correspondent of the New York Herald had an interview with her on the following day, within twenty-four hours of the outrage, and found her 'in the road, surrounded by gentlemen ... her dress (cardinal jersey), animated appearance and manner showing no traces of the severe and terrible ordeal through which she had gone.
^ "Occasional Notes". The West Australian (Perth, WA). 15 May 1883. he is certain not only as to the events, but as to the exact time, and he asserts not only was Lady Florence Dixie not assaulted, because there were no persons disguised as women near to attempt such a crime, but that he saw her walk quietly off in the direction of her residence, the Fishery. It may be added in this connection that not only have the police failed to discover the slightest corroboration of Lady Dixie's story, but that at the Home Office and Scotland Yard the officials were unable to find that the cuts in her ladyship's outer garments, particularly the jersey, corresponded with the incisions made in her under clothing... although the gloves were cut in several places there were no marks on her hands.
"Grave English Topics Lady Florence Dixie, the Irish and Mr. Parnell. From the Pall Mall Gazette of 19 March". New York Times. 30 March 1883. London, March 21 – It has been boldly suggested by the St. James's Gazette that Lady Florence Dixie is labouring under a mistake in regard to the dramatic occurrence which has occupied so much attention during the last 48 hours. Possibly when this reaches you its boldness will have been justified. The Tory journal does not believe that her ladyship has been attacked at all. Others share this opinion. In a week's time, the general public may share it.
LAW AND POLICE—REPORTED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE LADY FLORENCE DIXIE HC Deb 19 March 1883 vol 277 c814
LAW AND POLICE—REPORTED ATTACK ON LADY FLORENCE DIXIE HC Deb 20 March 1883 vol 277 cc939-40
^ LAW AND POLICE—REPORTED ATTACK ON LADY FLORENCE DIXIE Hansard, HC Deb 29 March 1883 vol 277 cc993-4
^ "Lady Florence Dixie Dead. Author, Champion of Woman's Rights, and War Correspondent". New York Times. No. 9. 8 November 1905. Lady Florence Dixie was a member of the Queensberry family and inherited the eccentricities as well as the cleverness possessed by so many members of it. Some years ago she startled London by declaring that she had been kidnapped she believed by Irish agitators, and had been held for some days in captivity. Her story was never disproved, but neither was it proved, and there were many people who said that the whole affair was imaginary.
Vanity Fair Ladies, vanity-fair-prints-company.com; accessed 30 March 2008.
^ AfricaBib (accessed 21 May 2013)
"No. 26671". The London Gazette. 15 October 1895. p. 5642.
"No. 29111". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 March 1915. p. 2953.
Dixie, Sir (George) Douglas, 12th Bt., in Who Was Who 1941–1950(London, A. & C. Black, 1980 reprint; ISBN 0-7136-2131-1)
Dixie, Sir (Alexander Archibald Douglas) Wolstan, in Who Was Who 1971–1980 (London, A. & C. Black, 1989 reprint, ISBN 0-7136-3227-5)

External links

Works by Lady Florence Dixie at Project Gutenberg
Works by Lady Florence Dixie at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Works by or about Lady Florence Dixie at the Internet Archive
Gloriana (1890), University of Pennsylvania digital library (full text)

Categories: