Elizabeth Mapes wrote several elegies and poems in praise of the monarchy, and a first anonymous novel, "Hortensia, or, The Distressed Wife" in 1769. She is said to have been a royalist "perfectly satisfied with our laws and constitution". In the year of her marriage she had her second novel published, "The Rambles of Mr Frankly, Published by his Sister" in 1772. This is a moralistic work thought to have been influenced in its form by Laurence Sterne's "A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy" (1768). Frankly learns from observing people during his walks in Hyde Park. The book became highly popular and was translated into German.