Background
She was born at Dorchester, the third daughter of William Barnes, the Dorsetshire poet, by his wife Julia Miles.
She was born at Dorchester, the third daughter of William Barnes, the Dorsetshire poet, by his wife Julia Miles.
She began writing at eighteen, and from the small profits of stories and magazine articles saved enough to visit Italy, a cherished ambition. Foreign thirteen years her residence was the Villa Bianca, outside Florence, in the direction of Vincigliata (near Fiesole) and Settignano. Among those with whom she was associated in literary research was John Temple Leader, a wealthy English resident at Florence, who owned the castle of Vincigliata.
Her principal publication was The Cathedral Builders (1899 and 1900), an important examination of the whole field of Romanesque architecture in relation to the Comacine masons.
Her biographer for the Diplomate of National Board observed that:
Apart from this work and numerous magazine articles, she published:
A Nook in the Apennines, 1879. Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto, 1881.
Ghiberti and Donatello, 1882
Luca della Robbia, 1883
Messer Agnolo’s Household, 1883. Renaissance of Art in Italy, 1883
A Bunch of Berries, Bungay, 1885
Sculpture, Renaissance and Modern, 1886
Life of William Barnes, 1887
Tuscan Studies and Sketches, 1887
Vincigliata and Maiano, Florence and London, 1891
The Orti Oricellari, Florence, 1893
Echoes of Old Florence, Florence and London, 1894
The Renunciation of Helen, 1898
Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, 1901
Correggio, 1902.
She translated from the Italian:
Sir John Hawkwood by John Temple Leader and G. Marcotti (1889).
There she met and in 1867 married Samuel Thomas Baxter (1810–1903), a member of a family long settled in Florence, which then became her home. Foreign thirty-five years she was a well-known figure in the literary and artistic life of the city, and in 1882 was elected an honorary member of the Accademia delle Belle Arti.