© National Portrait Gallery, London
Romantic Female Friendships
There has been much debate regarding the nature of Georgiana’s emotional and sexual life. Although she was married and took male lovers, it seems she also subscribed to the fashion for ‘romantic female friendships’.
Georgiana’s romantic infatuations could sometimes be disconcerting to their female recipients. They went beyond the conventional terms of endearment used between women of the period.
In 1776, having received a romantically emotional note from Gee, her friend the Countess of Jersey replied: ‘some part of your letter frightened me’. However, on two occasions the female subjects of Georgiana’s infatuation were more willing parties.
Gee’s first great crush was on the much admired Mary Graham, known as ‘The beautiful Mrs Graham’. They met towards the end of 1777 – Gee’s letters to Mary that year reveal her depth of feeling:
You must know how tenderly I love you … I am falling asleep and must leave you now, but I want to say to you above all that I love you, my dear friend, and kiss you tenderly.
