according to Horace Walpole, they were married with the ring of a bed-curtain.
Just a fortnight afterwards, Maria Gunning became a Countess by her marriage with the Earl of Coventry, who had been dangling about her for many months. Her sister's marriage, no doubt, had precipitated events. These "amazing marriages " were the talk of the town. In the same year, 1752, two murderesses, Mrs. Jefferies and Mrs. Blandy, were hanged at Newgate, and Sir Joshua Reynolds caustically remarked, "The general attention is divided between the two young ladies who were married, and the two young ladies who were hanged."
When the Duchess of Hamilton was presented at court after her marriage, "the noble mob at the Drawing-room clambered upon tables and chairs to look at her." A more beautiful or dignified duchess could not be found. She had two sons and a daughter (afterwards Countess of Derby), and was left a widow in 1759, but her widowhood was of short duration. She was soon engaged to the Duke of Bridgewater, an engagement which was broken off because she would not give up her sister, whose conduct was rather reprehensible. Finally she married Colonel John Campbell, heir to the Duke of Argyll. She still kept her first title, till her husband succeeded to the Dukedom. Horace Walpole says "it was a marriage worthy of
