Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661–1720), a perceptive and skilled poet, circulated much of her work in manuscript form before finally publishing a book in 1713. Her reluctance to make her literary talents widely known was due to the often hostile treatment of women writers in her day. Finch came from a family of staunch supporters of the Stuart king James II. Anne was wealthy and well educated, and in 1683 she went to court to serve as a Maid of Honor to Mary Modena, Duchess of York. In 1684 she married Heneage Finch, another member of the court. When King James was exiled in the late 1680s, Anne, Heneage, and her family were themselves in political exile for a time. Then Heneage's distant cousin, the Earl of Winchilsea, died, leaving him an elegant estate. He and Anne were able to assume a life of luxury. Gradually becoming more open about her poetry, Anne wrote pieces that celebrated the beauty and pleasures of rural life. The countryside around Eastwell where the Finches lived represented to her a retreat from a world that she as a talented woman found quite limiting. Today, much of her work is difficult to find, as no complete collection exists. However, the works that have survived have been admired by many subsequent writers and critics, including William Wordsworth and Virginia Woolf.