Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/37

 19 BEAUTY THE TWO BEAUTIFUL MISSES GUNNING npHERE may have been women as lovely, ^ there may have been women more lovely ; but never in the whole history of the British nation have two sisters been accorded so prominent a position in the ranks of the beautiful as have been the two famous daughters of Mrs. Gunning. The beauty of the younger united the houses of Douglas- Hamilton and Campbell, and the elder sister, who became Countess of Coventry, Walpole expected one day to see as Queen of Prussia. In the reign of James I. Richard Gunning, a representative of the senior line of the Gunning, or Gonning, family, of Tregonning, in Cornwall, which had died out in 1587, migrated to Ireland. Here he settled on an estate called Castle Coote, in Roscommon. In 1731 John Gunning, a descendant of his, a student of law and the heir to a heavily- burdened property, after the manner of impecunious people, rendered a precarious position still more pre- carious by falling in love with a penniless young girl. This lady, the Ho n. Bridget Bourke, a daughter of Viscount Bourke, con- sented to throw in her lot with him, with the result that they were duly married. At first the young couple lived in Eng- land, and there were born the two eldest children, both lovely girls. After a few years, when death removed his father, and John •,^ J, J " 1, Miss Elizabeth Cunning, afterwards Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll all that remamed of Castle Coote, he and his family crossed to Ireland. The wildness of Connaught, how- ever, did not appeal to Mrs. Gunning, and soon she decided to escape with her children to Dublin or to London, if funds permitted. Dublin Taken by Storm Early in the summer of 1748, therefore, the Gunnings' exodus from Connaught took place. The scantiness of their resources may be estimated from the fact that, on October 30. when a birthnight ball had been arranged to take place at Dublin Castle, the two Misses Gunning feared they would be unable to avail themselves of this opportunity to join the Court circle, because ti ey possessed no suitable dresses. Fortunately, however, an application to Mr. Sheridan, manager at the Dublin theatre, proved successful, and the difficulty as to costume was removed by his placing the establishment's wardrobe at the service of the young ladies. From that evening on- wards the two girls made a triumphal progress through society. But their financial position grew steadily worse and worse. Indeed, Miss Bellamy, who was acting then in Dublin, records that on her way back from rehearsal one day she heard a wail of distress, and on entering the house from which the cries came, she discovered " a lady of most elegant figure," with four beautiful girls and a boy about three years old around her. The lady was Mrs. Gunning, who at once explained the cause of their woe. Expenses during their residence in Dublin had far exceeded their income and the bailiffs were " in," on behalf of some of the creditors Miss Bellamy took pity on the miserable famih', and hurried them off to her own quarters, where she gave them food and lodging, while her servant hoodwinked the bailiffs, and con- trived to rescue all the portable property of the Gunnings from the clutches of the law. According to the same authority, while living with her in Dubhn, the two girls consulted a seer of some repute, to dis- cover what the future had in store for them. They were told that they would become peeresses, and Maria was informed that she would die comparatively early. During the two years of their residence in Dubhn the two girls were the toast of all the beaux, the divinity of all the poets, and the admiration of all beholders, but it was a mystery at the time, and it remains a mystery to this day, how they managed to pay their way for the ordinary necessaries of existence, and how they obtained the means to lead a Ufe of continual gaiety among the rich in the capital of Ireland. Lord Harrington was Viceroy at this time, and he followed closely the gorgeous example of entertainment set by his pre- decessor, the notable Earl of Chesterfield. Money, therefore, and money in consider- able quantities, must have been paid into