A sentimental frontispiece features five putti disporting themselves in the clouds. Since the poem later refers to these as the youthful Muses who inspire,
Downing, Harriet. Mary; or, Female Friendship. James Harper, 1816.
6
it seems that they represent HD
's children. Downing dedicated...
Family and Intimate relationships
Harriet Downing
Another clergyman, the Rev. Charles Toogood
of Sherborne in Dorset, married Frances's sister Susanna and thus became an uncle by marriage to HD
.