admiration, if not for finish and fashion--the Gunnings,
afterwards Lady Coventry and the Duchess of Hamilton. They were the
daughters of an Irish country gentleman, John Gunning, of Castle Coote in
Ireland. On their first appearance at court in England, the elder was in
her nineteenth, and the second in her eighteenth year. They appear to have
excited a most unprecedented sensation in London. Walpole thus writes to
Sir Horace Mann--

"You, who knew England in other times, will find it difficult to conceive
what indifference reigns with regard to ministers and their squabbles. The
two Miss Gunnings are twenty times more the subject of conversation than
the two brothers (the Pelhams) and Lord Granville. They are two Irish
girls of no fortune, who are declared the handsomest women alive. I think
there being two so handsome, and both such perfect figures, is their chief
excellence, for, singly, I have seen much handsomer women than either.
However, they can't walk in the Park, or go to Vauxhall, but such crowds
follow them, that they are generally driven away." And this effect lasted;
for, two months after, Walpole writes--"I shall tell you a new story of
the Gunnings, who make more noise than any of their predecessors since the
days of Helen. They went the other day to see Hampton Court. As they were
going into the Beauty room, another company arrived, and the housekeeper
said--'This way, ladies, here are the beauties,' the Gunnings flew into a
passion, and asked her what she meant; they came to see the palace, not to
be shown as sights themselves."

To the astonishment, and perhaps to the envy, of the fashionable world,
those two unportioned young women made the most splendid matches of the
season. The Duke of Hamilton fell in love with the younger at a masquerade,
and made proposals to her. The marriage was to take place within some
months; but his passion was so vehement, that in two nights after he
insisted on marrying her at the moment. Walpole tells us that he sent for
a clergyman, who however refused to marry them without license or ring. At
this period marriages were frequently performed in a very unceremonious
and unbecoming manner. From the laxity of the law, they were performed at
all hours, frequently in private houses, and sometimes even in jails, by
pretended clergymen. The law, however, was subsequently and properly
reformed. The duke and duchess are said to have been married with a
curtain-ring, at half-p