Mary Charlotte Julia Leith,

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Gordon (1840–1926), best known as Mrs Disney Leith, was a British novelist and traveller, as well as a childhood friend and cousin of the poet

Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

. After her husband's death she visited

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

numerous times, writing about the country and translating works from Icelandic.

Life

Leith was born Mary Charlotte Julia Gordon, in 1840, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and was the daughter of Mary Agnes Blanche (born Ashburnham) and Sir Henry Percy Gordon, Bart. Her father had been a leading mathematician when he was at Cambridge. Her grandfathers were General Sir James Willoughby Gordon and George Ashburnham, the Earl of Ashburnham. She was brought up in the family seat of Northcourt House at Shorwell on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, a mansion that stood inside its own park. Her first cousin was the poet

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

, who lived nearby on the Isle of Wight. He was frail but "fired with nervous energy and fearlessness to the point of being reckless." They went riding and wrote Jacobean plays together in the library at Northcourt. She was educated at home, mastering several languages in addition to ancient Greek and Latin. She learned mathematics and was a talented pianist and organist. Leith and Swinburne secretly collaborated on her second book, ''Children of the Chapel'', which is about a ten year old chorister in the 16th century. The co-authorship was not revealed until after Swinburne had died. On 14 July 1865 she married the first commander of the 106th Regiment of Foot of the Bombay Light Infantry, Colonel Robert William Disney Leith. He had lost an arm, and gained a bullet and several sabre cuts during the

Siege of Multan Siege of Multan may refer to, * Siege of Multan, 1296–1297, Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Multan. * Siege of Multan (1398) part of the Timurid invasion of India * Siege of Multan (1528), Babur annexes Langah dynasty * Siege of Multan (1772) ...

in 1849. The coded correspondence between herself and Swinburne ceased until her husband's death. Three visits to iceland by Mrs Disney Leith

Her husband, then a General and a

Companion of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior military officers or senior civil servants, and the monarch awards it on the advice of His ...

, died at their home, Northcourt, on 20th June 1892. His death seems to have allowed change. She decided to visit Iceland which was a country that she long been intrigued by. In 1908 Leith published her book about her many visits to Iceland. The book featured twelve watercolours by herself and M. A. Wemyss. Her last three novels were part of a family saga advocating Christian values and knowing your place. The first was ''Champion Sandy'' in 1910, then ''Black Martinmas'' two years later and the last ''Lachlan’s Widow'' in 1913. They were all anonymous as distinct from her 1917 work which remains well known under her

nom de plume A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of "Mrs. Disney Leith". ''The Boyhood of Algernon Charles Swinburne'', published in America and London, was based on her memories and their surviving letters. She died in 1926. In 2023 the

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

included her, Jean Middlemass, Florence L. Barclay,

Gabrielle Wodnil Ella Lindow aka Gabrielle Wodnil and Ella Wodnil (12 February 1880 – 27 April 1933) was a British novelist and songwriter. Life Lindow was born in 1880 in Islington. She was the only child of Angelina (born Levy in London) and her Russian born h ...

and

Bessie Marchant Bessie Marchant (1862–1941) was a prolific English writer of adventure novels featuring young female heroines. She published most of her work under the name Bessie Marchant, but occasionally published as Bessie Marchant Comfort or Mrs J.A. Comfo ...

in new biographies of eleven Victorian writers who have caught the attention of academics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Mary Charlotte Julia 1840 births 1926 deaths British women novelists People from the Isle of Wight Icelandic–English translators