[Illustration: C. M. Tucker from a Photograph taken at Toronto in 1875. W. Notman Photo. Walker & Boutall, Ph.Sc.] A LADY OF ENGLAND _THE LIFE AND LETTERS_ OF CHARLOTTE MARIA TUCKER BY AGNES GIBERNE AUTHOR OF ‘SUN, MOON, AND STARS,’ ‘RADIANT SUNS,’ ETC. ‘_Nil desperandum_’ Motto of the Tucker Family NEW YORK A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON 51 EAST TENTH STREET 1895 Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty AUTHOR’S PREFACE The principal mass of materials for this Biography was placed in my hands last summer by the Rev. W. F. Tucker Hamilton, nephew of Charlotte Maria Tucker (A. L. O. E.), and since then many other relatives or friends, both in England and in India, have contributed their share of help, either in the way of written recollections or of correspondence. A paucity of materials exists as to the early part of the life; but in later years the difficulty is of a precisely opposite description, arising from a superabundance of details. Hundreds of letters, more or less interesting in themselves, have had to be put ruthlessly aside, to make room for others of greater interest. From first to last the long series between Charlotte Tucker and her own especial sister-friend, Mrs. Hamilton, takes precedence of all other letters in point of freedom, naturalness, and simplicity. The perfect trust and unshadowed devotion which subsisted between these two form a rare and beautiful picture.