The beautiful Gunning sisters (later Countess of Coventry
, and successively Duchess of Hamilton and of Argyll
) were EG
's aunts. Lady Coventry, however, had died before Elizabeth was born.
Literary Setting
Georgette Heyer
With this first novel Heyer established the elements that were to be the staple of her oeuvre: a swashbuckling hero, here an earl playing at being a highwayman (Jack Carstares, otherwise Earl of Wyncham); a...
Timeline
: The Gunning sisters arrived in London from...
Building item
Summer1751
The Gunning sisters arrived in London from Ireland, and created a sensation with their beauty: Maria
was aged around seventeen and Elizabeth
was a year younger.
30 September 1760: Lady Coventry (formerly the beautiful Maria...
Building item
30 September 1760
Lady Coventry
(formerly the beautiful Maria Gunning) died, allegedly of the effects of white lead cosmetics.
10 March 1768: Lord Bolingbroke divorced his wife, the former...