Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661–1720), née Kingsmill, was a maid of honour to Mary of Modena and married Heneage Finch in 1684. After the Revolution of 1688 the couple retired to the country, where she wrote most of her poems. She published Miscellany Poems, on Several Occasions in 1713 and often called herself Ardelia in her verse.

Her ‘Nocturnal Reverie’ was singled out by Wordsworth as a rare piece of fresh nature description in its century, and her ode ‘The Spleen’ is among the earliest English poems on melancholy as a condition. She also wrote fables, satires, songs and religious poems.