 "Magdalen Hepburn" (1854) is set during the Scottish Reformation, and features Mary, Queen of Scots and John Knox as characters.Oliphant wrote more than 120 works, including novels, books of travel and description, histories, and volumes of literary criticism.Oliphant's biographies of Edward Irving (1862) and her cousin Laurence Oliphant (1892), together with her life of Sheridan in the "English Men of Letters" series (1883), show vivacity and a sympathetic touch.