| Disgrifiad | Forty eight letters, all except three written from abroad during her grand tour of the Continent with her husband and children. Possessed of a facile pen and rich powers of observation, Margaret Stanley rarely fails to divert her mother with detailed and polished descriptions of the various town and cities which she visited, and with spicy comments on the manners and customs of the society with which she came into contact. Little indeed escapes her attention, from the state of the French roads and inns - and table linen, the fashion of Paris and Lyons; fetes and Saints' days; the opera and carnival at Naples where she was also present at the "Plugain", which is a good deal better worth seeing than at Holyhead"; the notable sights of Rome; the scenery along the banks of the Rhone and the gathering of the vine harvest in the Lisbon countryside, down to the galley slaves in Marseille harbour.
[Margaret Stanley was the daughter and sole heiress of Hugh Owen of Penrhos; marries in 1763 Sir John Thomas Stanley of Alderley Park, Cheshire] |