but she turned him down, and remained unmarried. Steele loved the retirement of her Hampshire home. A quiet life suited her best. She said of herself:— "I enjoy a calm evening on the terrace walk, and I wish, though in vain, for numbers sweet as the lovely prospect, and gentle as the vernal breeze, to describe the beauties of charming spring; but the reflection how soon these blooming pleasures will vanish, spreads a melancholy gloom, till the mind rises by a delightful transition to the celestial Eden—the scenes of undecaying pleasure and immutable perfection." She sometimes wrote hymns on creation and providence; and although these lack the powerful originality of those of classical hymnists, they were full of warm, tender, thankful feeling. Always of a delicate constitution, it appears that Steele's habits were very reclusive. For many years, she was confined to her room because of illness, during which period, she was engaged in writing essays, principally of a religious nature, in prose and verse. In 1769, Steele's father died, and it is said that she never recovered from the shock. After the death of her father, she spent the remaining nine years of her life in the house of her brother, William, which he had built very near the old family home. Unlike most authors of her day, Steele was in a financial position which enabled her to devote the profits of her books to religious and charitable uses, and the same course was pursued by her surviving relatives. No portrait of Steele was ever made. She died in her native village, on 11 November 1778, at the age of 62, and was interred in the family vault at Broughton Church cemetery. Style Steele's hymns included class religious terms, which had a charm to those familiar with them, and who belonged to the "favoured" class, but had an unpleasant technical character to the ordinary reader. For example, the words 'dear' and 'dearest' were used till they seemed weak, and wearied the reader. Themes Steele's hymns, which were much used by Baptists, emphasized the less optimistic phases of Christian experience. Among Baptist hymnwriters, Steele stood at the head, if regarded either by the number of her hymns which found a place in the hymnals of the nineteenth century, or the frequency with which they were sung. Although few of them could be placed in the first rank of lyrical compositions,