Letter from Maria Tunno, Inverness, to Charlotte Susannah Raikes, 1819 September 25 : autograph manuscript signed.

Postscript at head of page reads, "The weather is delightful - and my companion Augusta, a most amiable associate". Describing the effects that traveling has on one's perception of time; recounting her time in the Scottish Highlands; thanking Charlotte Susannah for the letter she received in Glasgow; expressing gratitude for, but declining, an invitation to meet a friend of hers as they travel, as they are traveling without the "paraphernalia necessary for society" and have been avoiding socializing; struggling to describe the sublimity, magnificence, awfulness, and grandeur of the surrounding landscape without turning to overused words; aiming to tell Charlotte what she has seen without attempting "to level either the wonders of nature or my own feelings by aiming at description"; continuing to grieve her father's death but seeking relief in traveling, and in concentrating on scenes such as those they have passed through during the last few weeks; describing that for her, it helps "to have one's thoughts sufficiently engaged by a succession of objects so new and striking, and which also promise a harvest for memory"; describing her positive experience staying at the Cants Hotel; describing their efforts to be fastidious about dirt and flexible with accomodations; noting that they have rarely gone without bread and have not been in want of suitable sleeping arrangements; stating that the houses are very small, and that an English cottage or farm house would be more capacious; describing their excellent servant who went out of the way to help them, running eleven miles on foot to procure rooms for them to stay in; describing their visit to Mr. Owen, who she thinks both visionary and benevolent; sending love to Charlotte; describing the scenery and following a route that parallels Sir Walter Scott's writing, including The Lady of the Lake, and The Vision of Don Roderick: A Poem; describing the ferns, the hills, and the magnificent cascades; the guides were drinking whisky and almost forgot themselves and the path they were on; describing a moment when Augusta's horse stopped at the edge of a precipice for about two or three minutes during which they could not tell if it would be able to recover itself; a Scottish man with whom they were intimate in London insisted on accompanying them on the tour around the Lakes; recounting how her horse was accompanied by an intelligent man and a Scot who read from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake; noting that they spent some time in Roderick's Cave and enjoyed tracing the poet's descriptions; taking joy in observing the ferns, the hills, and the vivid green that is not present in England; commenting on the lack of turnpikes; remarking on the poverty, and children suffering from the smoke of peat fire without chimneys; hoping to hear from Charlotte Susannah when she reaches Aberdeen, where she expects to be in about a fortnight; expressing excitement about leaving on Monday for John O'Groats; sending love from her party to Charlotte's.