Diplomatic Text
2
1813
Oakford 1 Sepr. 13
I set out at 9 from Wellington & got here at half past one and am shook
almost to a Jelly -- I have heard of Devonshire
Roads but could have no Conception of them
till I had seen & felt them -- it is impoʃsible
for any thing to be worse & so narrow that
it is sometimes difficult to make an Arrange-
ment to let a single horse paʃs -- the side
[W]indows are obliged to be down to prevent the
Boughs from breaking them & in hot
weather it would be particularly pleasant as
they enter the Carriage on both sides -- just
now it is rather amusing, as you gather
Nuts without any trouble -- On one Occasion
I could not help smiling, I met a Lady on
Horseback with a Gentn. behind her & I could
without remarked the difficulty he had to know
what to do with his hands, as one without a
constant Restrainttraint must naturally fall in the
Fair Dame's Lap -- I merely write to let
you know that I have paʃsed 17 Miles of the
Devonshire X Country Roads in a Chaise and am
alive after it -- I find my hand shakes but that
will be remedied -- Mrs. P. recd. me wh- great Cordi
ality -- James is out -- & Margt. is on her Way from
The Hays -- Adieu I shall write on
Friday, no Saturday -- Friday is no post
Most Affy
Yrs. JD
At Wellington, which is a little neat Town & at the
Squirrel where I sojourned, I observed a Turnspit
They keep up the old Custom -- a very pretty Terrier
is the Officiator -- He seemed very ready to show
me his Abilities & is never out of the Way when his
Services are wanted & the old Lady of the House said
he likes it as well as catching Rats -- This is a
delightful day -- no Sun & very warm -- I have only seen
two bad crops of Wheat all the journey -- Barley is
the finest that has been known for a great length of
time --
[1]
Single
To
Mrs. Dickenson
32 Devonshire Place
London
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Round duty mark in red ink, dated 3 September 1813. Distance mark ‘WELLINGTON 168’ in black ink. Charge mark in black manuscript denoting postage due.
Normalised Text
Oakford 1 September 1813
I set out at 9 from Wellington & got here at half past one and am shaken
almost to a Jelly -- I have heard of Devonshire
Roads but could have no Conception of them
till I had seen & felt them -- it is impossible
for any thing to be worse & so narrow that
it is sometimes difficult to make an Arrangement
to let a single horse pass -- the side
Windows are obliged to be down to prevent the
Boughs from breaking them & in hot
weather it would be particularly pleasant as
they enter the Carriage on both sides -- just
now it is rather amusing, as you gather
Nuts without any trouble -- On one Occasion
I could not help smiling, I met a Lady on
Horseback with a Gentleman behind her & I
remarked the difficulty he had to know
what to do with his hands, as one without a
constant Restraint must naturally fall in the
Fair Dame's Lap -- I merely write to let
you know that I have passed 17 Miles of the
Devonshire cross-country Roads in a Chaise and am
alive after it -- I find my hand shakes but that
will be remedied -- Mrs. Parkin received me with great Cordiality
-- James is out -- & Margaret is on her Way from
The Hays -- Adieu I shall write on
Friday, no Saturday -- Friday is no post
Most Affectionately
Yours John Dickenson
At Wellington, which is a little neat Town & at the
Squirrel where I sojourned, I observed a Turnspit
They keep up the old Custom -- a very pretty Terrier
is the Officiator -- He seemed very ready to show
me his Abilities & is never out of the Way when his
Services are wanted & the old Lady of the House said
he likes it as well as catching Rats -- This is a
delightful day -- no Sun & very warm -- I have only seen
two bad crops of Wheat all the journey -- Barley is
the finest that has been known for a great length of
time --
Single
To
Mrs. Dickenson
32 Devonshire Place
London
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/1/2/44
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Dickenson
Place sent: Oakford
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 1 September 1813
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Dickenson to his wife Mary née Hamilton. He writes of his arrival in Oakford in Devonshire, via Tiverton.
Original reference No. 2.
Length: 1 sheet, 350 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 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Donald Alasdair Morrison, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Rebecca Tiffany, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted November 2014)
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