Julia Clara Pitt Byrne née Busk (1819-1894).
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Mrs William Pitt Byrne) was a friend of Charles Waterton, about whom she writes in Gossip of the Century and Social Hours With Celebrities.

Mrs William Pitt Byrne wrote several books, usually in the form of anecdotal memoirs - which recount her times with the famous celebrities of her day - literary, political and religious figures of England and Europe. A noted work is Flemish Interiors.

In some of her works, in place of her name, she is referred to as "The Author of Flemish Interiors".

She also wrote some serious social commentary, such as her Undercurrents Overlooked, which dealt with the abuses of workhouses. Her contacts with Charles Waterton are described in Gossip of the Century and Social Hours With Celebrities. Gossip is the first of two instalments of memoirs; the second, Social Hours with Celebrities, was published just after her death and edited by her sister, Rachel H. Busk. Gossip is sometimes available as a two volume set or, when Social Hours is included, as a four volume set.

Social Hours has an interesting section dealing with Charles Waterton the Wanderer. She obviously had a great deal of respect for the Squire and the things he represented. After his death, when she visited Walton Hall for the last time, she was less than impressed with the manner in which she was treated and, worse, the evident lack of respect paid by the then incumbents, the Soap Yard Simpsons, to the memory of the Squire and Walton Park itself - which their soap house in Walton had so nearly destroyed years before.

Brief Lives
Julia Clara BUSK - Christened: 6 Jul 1819 St. Mary-le-Bone, St. Marylebone Road, St. Marylebone, London, England. Died 1894.
Julia was the second daughter of Sir Hans Busk of Glenalder, and the wife of the proprietor of The Morning Post (founded 1792, merged with The Daily Telegraph in 1937).
Her mother was Maria.
Husband - William Pitt BYRNE - Christened: 8 Jun 1811 St.Paul's, Covent Garden, Westminster, London, England. Died 1861. Husband's parents: Father: Nicholas BYRNE Mother: Charlotte

Other works of Julia Pitt Byrne include:

A Glance Behind the Grilles
Flemish Interiors; 1854, Longman.
Realities of Paris Life; 1859, Hurst & Blackett.
Pictures of Hungarian Life; 1859, William Ridgway, London.
Cosas De Espana, Illustrative of Spain and the Spaniards as they are; 1866, Alexander Strahan, London & New York, 2 volumes.
Curiosities of the Search-Room. A collection of serious, and whimsical wills; 1880, Chapman & Hall, London.
De Omnibus Rebus : An Old Man's Discursive Ramblings on the Road of Everyday Life; 1888, John C Nimmo, London.

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Rachel H. Busk edited Social Hours With Celebrities and wrote several books including:

Patrañas
Folklore of Rome; 1874, Longman, Green & Co.
Sagas from the Far East; or Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales. With historical preface and explanatory notes. First edition, 1873, Griffith & Farran.
Contemporary Annals of Rome: Notes Political, Archaeological, and Social by the Roman Corespondent of the "Westminster Gazette." ... Series I. March 1867 to March 1868. London: Thomas Richardson and Son, 1870