Single Letter

HAM/1/2/30

Letter from John Dickenson to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


11

11

Buxton 9th. Decbr
1790

My ever Dear Mary --
      I have no doubt but I shall
find relief from Bathing -- I am certainly
better this morning, the pains are moved
& I feel myself quite comfortable except from
a few twinges in my Ancles which frighten
me -- the pain is mounted from the lowest
part of the Back into my Shoulders and
most probably will vanish in a few days --
      Our Louisa behaves like an Angel. She is
a charming Creature -- As I wished to perspire
after Bathing, She slept with Grandpapa; as
soon as it was light I was vastly amused
by a whispering Conversation between
the two great friends -- We hope
that you will come tomorrow -- & pray come
soon. I thought of havg Louisas Hair
cut but I will defer it till you come, & I
think you had better undergo that Operation
at the same time -- I am sorry to tell



you a piece of bad news, which I know will
distreʃs you very much -- The newspaper came
about 5 Minutes ago, which gives an Acct-
of the sudden death of the Dʃs of Athol --
She was taken ill on the road from Scotland
and died at 4 oClock on Sunday afternoon at
the Dukes House in Hanover Square --
      Pray bring tomorrow another flannel
Waistcoat for me -- Mr. D. talkg of E:
this morning said nobody knew her so well as he
did -- he adverted to her lying in the bed which he
laught at & said she had contracted a habit like
her late Aunt M of appearing to be ill to attract
peoples attention, but that he saw thrō it all -- he
hinted at something which I could not get him to
explain, as if she had marked out somebody that
would do -- He always speaks differently of Sarah
& thinks she has made a resolution never to marry --
Louisa says “tell Chevr.[1] I am here and he must come
& see me when Mamma & Aunts come & he must
see the fine Houses thats all & if he pleases must give
me Talian leʃsion when he comes” --



      My Father is riding out -- Pray give
my Compts. a mio fratello e a mia sorella
& credere che io sono
                             Molto Affettuosamente
                             Vostro felici e
                             Vostro fedele Marito
                                                         JD——

13,14
kiʃses from
Louisa[2]



                             Dickenson

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. Chevalier Palombi, future husband of Dickenson's sister, Elizabeth.
 2. The kisses are represented as dashes in a quadrant around the top and right-hand side of the postscript.

Normalised Text





My ever Dear Mary --
      I have no doubt but I shall
find relief from Bathing -- I am certainly
better this morning, the pains are moved
& I feel myself quite comfortable except from
a few twinges in my Ankles which frighten
me -- the pain is mounted from the lowest
part of the Back into my Shoulders and
most probably will vanish in a few days --
      Our Louisa behaves like an Angel. She is
a charming Creature -- As I wished to perspire
after Bathing, She slept with Grandpapa; as
soon as it was light I was vastly amused
by a whispering Conversation between
the two great friends -- We hope
that you will come tomorrow -- & pray come
soon. I thought of having Louisas Hair
cut but I will defer it till you come, & I
think you had better undergo that Operation
at the same time -- I am sorry to tell



you a piece of bad news, which I know will
distress you very much -- The newspaper came
about 5 Minutes ago, which gives an Account
of the sudden death of the Duchess of Atholl --
She was taken ill on the road from Scotland
and died at 4 o'Clock on Sunday afternoon at
the Dukes House in Hanover Square --
      Pray bring tomorrow another flannel
Waistcoat for me -- Mr. Dickenson talking of Elizabeth
this morning said nobody knew her so well as he
did -- he adverted to her lying in the bed which he
laughed at & said she had contracted a habit like
her late Aunt Mary of appearing to be ill to attract
peoples attention, but that he saw through it all -- he
hinted at something which I could not get him to
explain, as if she had marked out somebody that
would do -- He always speaks differently of Sarah
& thinks she has made a resolution never to marry --
Louisa says “tell Chevalier I am here and he must come
& see me when Mamma & Aunts come & he must
see the fine Houses that's all & if he pleases must give
me Italian lesson when he comes” --



      My Father is riding out -- Pray give
my Compliments a mio fratello e a mia sorella
& credere che io sono
                             Molto Affettuosamente
                             Vostro felici e
                             Vostro fedele Marito
                                                         John Dickenson

13,14
kisses from
Louisa



                             Dickenson

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. Chevalier Palombi, future husband of Dickenson's sister, Elizabeth.
 2. The kisses are represented as dashes in a quadrant around the top and right-hand side of the postscript.

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/1/2/30

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Dickenson

Place sent: Buxton

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 9 December 1790

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Dickenson to his wife Mary née Hamilton. He writes from Buxton where he is visiting for his health and he comments on the death of the Duchess of Atholl. Dickenson believes that bathing will benefit his health. He already feels somewhat better and his pain has eased. Louisa Dickenson and John Dickenson Senior, her grandfather, are also visiting Buxton. Dickenson reports to Hamilton that Louisa 'behaves like an angel'. After bathing, she and her grandfather slept and, as it got light, Dickenson was amused by the two of them whispering together. He hopes that Hamilton will join them the following day. Dickenson writes that he has just read in a newspaper a few minutes earlier of the death of Hamilton's relation the Duchess of Atholl, who was taken ill on the road from Scotland. He knows that this news will give Hamilton some pain.
    Original reference No. 11.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 386 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Taslima Kohinur, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)

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

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