Letter from Maria Tunno, Edinburgh, to Charlotte Susannah Raikes, 1819 December 30 : autograph manuscript signed.

Remarking upon the season and the vivid and painful recollection it brings; writing that when around friends, she can feel her heart yielding to gratitude for the health, harmony, and presence of loved ones, though melancholy accompanies any attempt to be happy; describing Christmas in Scotland and how the shops are open as usual, and the Scots kill geese instead of turkeys, and they tried a Scotch Bun and disliked it; noting that the weather has been severe, but has not kept some of their party from their "pedestrian feats"; remarking that they have all suffered from colds, but that the Edinburgh atmosphere is clearer and lighter than that of London; commenting on the appreciation of intelligence in Edinburgh, and remaking that she has encountered excellent masters and academics who inspire their pupils; commenting on the promenade dresses and feathered/flowered bonnets worn by the ladies in town, which would both astonish and amuse Charlotte Susannah; relaying that she and her sister Augusta noticed that the women fasten their Scotch bonnets differently; sharing that they have declined to see any former acquaintances due to low spirits, though she knows Charlotte Susannah will disapprove of this; sharing her new interest in botany and her hiring of a tutor for herself, Augusta, and Rosa who visits three times per week; she has a "strong inclination to claim acquaintances with this vegetable world"; she is learning about mosses, lichen, and fungi, which are suited to the season; sharing her feeling that any study that lends to the contemplation of the wisdom of their Creator "rightly attunes the heart"; describes their upcoming arrangement to leave in February and spend a month on the road, and then they intend to embark for the continent and remain there for twelve months; commenting on the manufacturing towns that seem "ready for plunder"; remarking on Sir Walter Scott's just-released Ivanhoe, remarking on her appreciation of the character Rebecca, and advising Charlotte Susannah to read his article about chivalry.