The historian Malcolm Lester describes her as "a strong-minded and strong-willed woman of great erudition and charm [who] was perhaps the pre-eminent hostess in London society". The biographer Amanda Foreman, however, details less attractive traits, describing her as "moody, vindictive, hypocritical" and "neurotically jealous" of her sisters-in-law the Duchess of Devonshire and the Countess of Bessborough and "a calm liar who maintained a veneer of politeness to her in-laws while freely abusing them in conversation elsewhere."
