Day 13 – Visiting Green Knowe

It was my friend Kathy Baxter who told me she had visited the house upon which The Children of Green Knowe is based and if I had fully grasped how close it is to Cambridge, my mother and I could have gone there four years ago. After rereading the book in August, I was determined to make the Manor at Hemingford Grey part of this trip. I felt shy about writing to Diana Boston, who is the daughter-in-law of author L.M. Boston (1892-1990) and has lived in the house since she moved in to help Lucy after a stroke, but she responded to my email quickly and invited me to come on Saturday, June 18th when she had two tours already scheduled.

Frederica by Georgette Heyer - and the Gunning Sisters

The Gunning sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, are mentioned prominently in Frederica, and their brilliant marriages from an impoverished background were an inspiration to various heroines and their mothers – and certainly to many Regency authors.   Frederica tells Lord Alverstoke:

“You see, at Graynard she had as well be buried alive! There isn’t even a watering-place within our reach, so how can she form an eligible connection?  She – she is quite wasted, Lord Alverstoke!  You will understand when you see her, why I felt it to be my duty to bring her out in London!  She is the loveliest girl! She has the sweetest disposition imaginable, too, never cross or crochety, and she deserves to make a splendid marriage!”  

“I have it on the authority of my secretary that she is a diamond of the first water,” said his lordship dryly. “But splendid marriages, Miss Merriville, in general depend on splendid dowries.”  

“Not always,” she countered swiftly.   “Only think of the Gunning sisters!  Why, one of them married two Dukes, and I know she wasn’t a great heiress because Papa told me about them, saying Charis beat them both to flinders!”