Although this West Country romance about a heroine with a quaker background, much of it set in the seaside resort of T--- (? Teignmouth), has few gothic elements, there is an intriguing if facetious comparison of a mysterious stranger lurking outside a house to Schedoni: '"He put me in mind of Schedoni, in Mrs Ratcliffe's Italian," said Caroline; "for you remember, if you have read the book, that he generally let down his cowl at the approach of strangers; and this English Schedoni, as the order of cowls is happilly abolished in this country, lets down his hat"' (vol. I, p. 282). An important part of volume II is a relation of the misfortunes of Mr. Sedly who, having gone to live in Paris as a symathiser with the revolution, is betrayed, imprisoned and guillotined. The eccentric Miss Selby, who suffers from the strange peculiarity of pedestrianism -- the enjoyment of long walks, is the most unusual minor character. Miss Selby also has the strange habit of binding male and female authors in the same volume when she believes they like minds.