The Mary Hamilton Papers : Letter from Charlotte Margaret Gunning to Mary Hamilton

Digby (née Gunning), Charlotte Margaret

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter from Charlotte Gunning to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to visits made to friends, including Lady Carlisle, and contains news of her family. She expresses delight in receiving a letter from Hamilton which was full of the happiness of her newly married life with John Dickenson: 'you are so certainly among the very rare instances where so many advantages are united that I cannot help wondering when I think of you, & thanking God most sincerely for having thus fixed your happiness where it is so well deserved & will be so gratefully enjoyed'.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Gunning provides a detailed account of her activities since she and Hamilton were parted. In September she stayed at Richmond Park with Lady Carlisle [Margaret Caroline Howard, née Leveson-Gower (1753-1824), Countess of Carlisle]; 'we had Company in the House [...] during which we made several very pleasant parties both by Water & Land – went to Staines, Cliveden, Park Place near Henley Gen[e]r[a]l Conway's'. She also discusses her sister Bell's [Barbara Evelyn Isabella Gunning] health, and expresses her anxiety over the prospect of being parted from her 'beloved Sister and best Friend' for six months (see HAM/1/15/1/9).</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dated at Horton.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Original reference No. 7.</p>