Diplomatic Text
15
12 August -- 1789 Bath --
I have time only to acknowledge the Receipt
of yours of the 5th- and 7th- with the gentle jobation[1]
I concluded that Mr. D. had wrote to Mr. Cooper to
give me credit for what I might draw upon
him -- which I could not ascertain till I wound
up -- I wrote to Mr. C. on monday for 15£ which
is more than I shall want -- but I did not chuse
to be short -- & when I think of the money that
has been thrown away upon my poor body -- I
blush -- Yours of the 9th- which is just arrived
with a Bank Note inclosed for 20£ I like the
least of any letter I ever received from you
because it is the shortest how happens
it I wonder that yr- Letters come so quick --
before this week, they have always been 5 days
upon the road which was the reason that I
did not write to Mr. D. as I concluded that 12
days at least must elapse before I cd. receive
a remittance -- Mr. D—— likes to find fault
with me -- I am in too good an humour and too
high spirits at the thought of seeing you again
soon, to pout or let that or thing else vex me wh.
is not a good thing for my stomack --
I will not journalize upon this Scrap -- if I can
not write tomorrow -- I will or, like the Scotsman, bring
this Letter myself, by way of security --
We have had a very unpleasant report of a discovery
of an intended Conspiracy against the Life of
our King -- I hope there is no foundation for it
whatever -- by a private Letter -- the Swedes have
beat the Ruʃsians at Sea -- The bells are ringing
Colors flying from every Steeple & cannons
roaring, -- on Acct. of the Princes Birthday --
I believe the same will be done in honor of a certain
personage with a cloven foot -- ------------------
------------------------------------------------------------ -- [2]
I am to say ten thousand things the most
affce. & the most kind from Mrs. Garrick, of whom
I shall write in my journal --
Pray send me a fourfooted Creature iof some
sort[3] to Buxton on Wednesday -- I have taken
a place[4] for monday & shall not grumble at
any sort of a Conveyance that will carry
me to the arms of my dearly beloved Mary
Adieu God bleʃs you & Your clever
J. D——
E[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. A colloquial or English regional word: ‘A rebuke, a reprimand, esp. a lengthy and tedious one; a lecture, a harangue’ (OED s.v. jobation n. Accessed 13-07-2020).
2. It is perhaps surprising that Dickenson's apparent comparison of the Prince of Wales with the Devil has not been included in the vigorous censorship of his (more explicit?) follow-up.
3. In his previous letter, Dickenson had requested the horse ‘Mira’ by name (see HAM/1/2/27 p.3).
4. That is, in the coach.
5. The letter ‘E’ is written vertically in the lower-left margin. It may perhaps represent Elizabeth Anson – cf. also HAM/1/2/25 p.3 n.11 and ‘F’ [?]for Florence Anson in HAM/1/2/34 – though the form of the letter is quite different from the initials ‘E.G.A.’ (Elizabeth Georgiana Anson) in HAM/1/7/5/1.
6. The address is crossed to indicate postage paid, as well as postmarked ‘BATH'.
7. This instruction appears to the left of ‘Derbyshire’.
8. A seal in red wax remains at the bottom of the page.
Normalised Text
12 August -- 1789 Bath --
I have time only to acknowledge the Receipt
of yours of the 5th- and 7th- with the gentle jobation
I concluded that Mr. Dickenson had written to Mr. Cooper to
give me credit for what I might draw upon
him -- which I could not ascertain till I wound
up -- I wrote to Mr. Cooper on monday for 15£ which
is more than I shall want -- but I did not choose
to be short -- & when I think of the money that
has been thrown away upon my poor body -- I
blush -- Yours of the 9th- which is just arrived
with a Bank Note enclosed for 20£ I like the
least of any letter I ever received from you
because it is the shortest how happens
it I wonder that your Letters come so quick --
before this week, they have always been 5 days
upon the road which was the reason that I
did not write to Mr. Dickenson as I concluded that 12
days at least must elapse before I could receive
a remittance -- Mr. Dickenson likes to find fault
with me -- I am in too good an humour and too
high spirits at the thought of seeing you again
soon, to pout or let that or thing else vex me which
is not a good thing for my stomach --
I will not journalize upon this Scrap -- if I can
not write tomorrow -- I will or, like the Scotsman, bring
this Letter myself, by way of security --
We have had a very unpleasant report of a discovery
of an intended Conspiracy against the Life of
our King -- I hope there is no foundation for it
whatever -- by a private Letter -- the Swedes have
beaten the Russians at Sea -- The bells are ringing
Colours flying from every Steeple & cannons
roaring, -- on Account of the Princes Birthday --
I believe the same will be done in honour of a certain
personage with a cloven foot -- ------------------
------------------------------------------------------------ --
I am to say ten thousand things the most
affectionate & the most kind from Mrs. Garrick, of whom
I shall write in my journal --
Pray send me a fourfooted Creature of some
sort to Buxton on Wednesday -- I have taken
a place for monday & shall not grumble at
any sort of a Conveyance that will carry
me to the arms of my dearly beloved Mary
Adieu God bless you & Your clever
John Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le frith
Derbyshire
X post
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from John Dickenson to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/2/28
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Dickenson
Place sent: Bath
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 12 August 1789
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Dickenson to his wife Mary née Hamilton. He writes on general news and on his soon returning home to Hamilton. He has written to a Mr C for £5 and writes that 'when I think of the money that has been thrown away upon my poor body I blush'.
Dated at Bath.
Original reference No. 15.
Length: 1 sheet, 412 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 13 July 2020)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021