Elizabeth Gaskell 
My Lady Ludlow 

Young Margaret Dawson has been taken in by her distant cousin Lady Ludlow, the Mistress of Hanbury Court. Though charitable and kind to Margaret, Lady Ludlow holds strict views about the lower classes – insistent that they have no rights and fearful that their education will be her downfall. In a changing world though, Lady Ludlow faces opposition to her rigid beliefs from a rich cast of characters. 'My Lady Ludlow’ was one of the Elizabeth Gaskell novels upon which the popular BBC TV adaptation of 'Cranford’ was based.-