Letter from Maria Tunno, Runnymede, to Charlotte Sarah Raikes, 1822 January 4 : autograph manuscript signed.

Postscript at head of page asking if tomorrow fortnight will suit her to receive them, or if there is a more agreeable time. Body of letter thanking Charlotte for her letter and reflecting on "this season of reminicinece"; expressing relief at the holidays being over, but remarking on how this time of year might help people find faith and renewed comfort in the Redeemer; rejoicing to hear that everyone is so well, and asking if she can visit with her Mother; despite not wanting to leave home, she misses Charlotte and the family, and they have escaped the illnesses of the season so far; describing the fading health of a young girl she has seen in the neighborhood, Miss Simson, an only daughter who will likely pass away soon; remaking on the girl's predisposition for consumption and her father's grief; expressing regret at hearing about Lady Ousley's health has also been tenuous; reading Sir Walter Scott's novel, The Pirate, and though there are no heroes or heroines whom she particularly likes, she thinks the story is beautifully wound up; appreciating the "combined imaginative and philosophical spirit," and the "Great Unknown" which with Scott treats the enthusiasm and superstitions derived from locality; remarking that he "avails himself of his imagination to describe all the possibilities arising from wildness of fancy and explains the causes and effects connected with this frame of mind, as a philosopher and a Moralist"; commenting on Lord Byron, referencing a Martin Luther quote in which Luther compares the human mind to a drunken peasant on horseback; remarking that she thinks Byron has "floundered upon his Pegasus until he has fallen altogether", though she cannot speak of his Dramas; feeling that there are some moments in which his genius flickers through the gloom of his sentiments, as the rays of the sun in the dark forest, they are far from redeeming the evil tendency of such a work"; ultimately seeming to pity him, a victim of a dark hour.