I am ashamed My Dear Miss
Hamilton of my own indolence, but I do assure
you, though my pen has not been employed in
telling you so, you take up much of my thoughts
& I hope I need not tell you how large a Share
you possess in my Affections. -- but I must now
reproach you, & call you to account it is by
mere chance that I have just learnt that you
have been very ill of the Putrid Sore throat
but are perfectly recovered, if I had heard the
first part without the latter let your own
heart tell you how much I should have Suffered
I hope this hint will be sufficient, & that all
my future intelligence about you will be from
yourself. -- We are at present at our Villa upon
the foot of Mount Vesuvius, (the Court being at
Portici) & I wish I could convey to your imagination
the beautiful prospect I have from the
place where I am writing looking over the Kings Bosquet
& the Bay bounded by the Mountains of Sorrento,
I love this Villa, but my principal attachment
to it is the quiet I enjoy (although so near the gayest
Court in Europe) the fact is I never go near it

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but when it is absolutely necessary I should pay
my Court, or that the Queen sends for me, Her
Majesty has always treated me with the greatest kindness
, & says she wishes to see me more, & last Thursday
sent me word her Apartment was open for me a toutes
heures de jour et nuit, that was her expression
but I shall continue my old Plan of keeping the
greatest & most respectful distance, I am able, I am
a bad Courtier, & I know her Majesty's disposition too
well to place any confidence in any encouragement
she may please to give me -- I should not venture to
say all this to you if my letter was to go by the Post
but I send it by Mr Carnegie brother to Sir David
Carnegie who is ordered to join his Regiment & as
there are some Characters you may be curious to
know I may now speak freely to you -- & to proceed
with that of the Queen -- She is quick, clever, insinuating
when she pleases, hates & loves violently, but her Passions
of both kind pass like the Wind, she is too proud, &
too humble, there is no dependence upon what she says,
as she seldom is of the same opinion two days, her
Strongest & most durable Passions are Ambition & Vanity
the latter of which gives her a strong disposition to
Coquetry, but the former which I think is her principal
Object makes her use every Art to please the King
in order to get the Reins of Government into her
hands, in as great a measure as is possible -- with
all this she is an excellent Mother, & is very generous
& charitable -- did you ever know such a compound!

---

The King is in many things a direct contrast to the
Queen, he has neither education or Art, it is a thousand
pities he has not the former, for he deserves it, his heart
is excellent & his head by no means deficient, on the
contrary he has an uncommon deal of quickness,
he is sincere constant in his friendships, benevolent,
a natural disposition to justice, & his love to please
is so genuine that I know numberless instances where
he has done good natured actions, so entirely for his
own satisfaction that he has not wished it to be
known from whence their Source came he can
not bear a lie, nor does he ever forget the Man
whom he has caught in one he has a great
regard for the Queen, & She has some weight
with him, but he sees a good deal into her
Character & will have his own way the Queen
Shows some favour at times to the French
but The King detests them, & indeed is often
Scarcely civil to them  -  the next person whom
I shall mention to you is the Count de Clermont
the French Ambassador who is the weakest poor Man
Alive, so weak, that I wish he was first Minister
at Versailles, at the Age of fifty he has fallen
a Prey to the most Gallant Woman here (the
Marquise de Santo Marco) who laughs at him
& ruins him, the Portuguese Minister is a good
sort of Man, The Sardinian, clever, but a true
Piedmontese -- The Count de Lambert who is coming

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from Vienna a very agreeable Man -- The Danish
Minister just arrived (who is the only married one except the
Venetian Resident) I shall have little comfort
in as they cannot live without gaming -- as to
the rest they are not worth speaking of -- in the
Winter we have a fatiguing time, as we have
scarcely an hour to ourselves, the past one I
think would have killed me had it not been
for the friendship & kindness of that charming
Man & Woman, Lady Betty and Mr Mackenzie whose
goodness to me I shall never forget, particularly
upon a foolish Affair where their assistance
was very essential to one of so anxious a temper
as you know mine to be -- the Affair I speak
of was concerning Lady Maynard whose Lord first
wanted to force me to receive her visit, & then
to present her to The Queen of Naples, neither
of which I chose to do, as I could not venture
to ask an Audience & answer (as is the Etiquette
of this Court) for a person I had reason to believe
My own Sovereign would not receive, (I suppose
you know who Lady Maynard was?) in consequence
of my refusal I underwent a real
persecution & by the end of the Winter I
was quite worn out with it -- if ever you
see Lady Betty she can give you an account
of the whole for I really am sick of the
thought, & still more as I hear they intend

---

returning here next Winter & they have already
declared they will do every thing to torment us --
but enough of this very unpleasant Subject &
I must now return to the Subject of our present
pleasant situation in the Country, where
we live as English a life as we can make
it -- in the Morning we go out in an Open
Chaise, I work, & draw -- & in the Evening we
have music -- & afterwards I work & Sir William
reads to me, & you cannot think with what
pleasure I heard him tell an Italian the
other day who wondered at our not going
to the Conversaziones a mile off, that our
Evenings passed so pleasantly that he could
not have the heart to try a change -- as to
me, in almost thirteen Years (which it is since
we first came from England) I have never made
a friendship or I should rather say intimacy, with
any Woman here though I have been upon a perfect
good footing with them all, their education &
way of thinking is so totally different from
ours that there is no temptation to it, & I am
convinced they like me much better for not
choosing to enter into their private Coteries, & by
that means I am now & then at liberty to

---

take that rest I am now enjoying at our
Sweet Villa -- we have a charming Room for
Music, & my Piano forte is placed just Vis a
vis to the Vesuvius which now & then heats
me with an explosion while I am playing, the
other Night there was the finest Girandole of
red hot Stones you can imagine, it made an
amazing report but we played on as you would
if you had heard a pop gun in the Street -- See
what custom does! -- I cannot help however longing
from time to time to be in England, & was my
Mind at ease when I am there, I dare say
the Climate would agree very well with me
but till our Circumstances are a little better &
our Estate clear I could not feel comfortable, not
that we are saving here, but we are not augmenting
the debt though we spend our own -- & we could not
avoid increasing it in England unless I could persuade
Hamilton to retire into Wales, which he
is not inclined to do, but he always tells me that
he dedicated his Services to his Sovereign when their
family was first formed, & that he hopes to go
on in his Career & dedicate the rest of his life
to his Service -- You may imagine this is sufficient
to Silence me -- & I must comfort my self with the

---

thoughts of Visiting Dear England now & then,
What a now & then My Dear Miss Hamilton! upon
reflection I dare not look so forward -- I should grow
melancholy if I dwelt any longer upon this Subject --
pray let me know if you have seen much of
Lady Stormont, & how you like her? -- & write me
word every thing about yourself, you know how
much I have your happiness at heart -- I am
comforted when I think of your situation, know
how to prize your own happiness My Dear Miss
Hamilton -- I know you love and admire The Queen, but
did you know other Sovereigns -- I think you would
doubly bless the kind providence who had placed
you where you are -- I am ready to Say of our Queen
as Prince Poniatowski did of The King of Poland
I was asking him some questions relating to him
& he said “il a tant de Vertus, tant de qualités
aimables aussi bien qu'essentiel, qu'il merite d'être
un Particulier” -- I think this Speech was strongly
expressive of the loss private Society had, by the
Kings being so much above it -- if ever you have
a proper opportunity I wish you would present
my Duty in the most respectful manner to her Majesty --
& pray let me know in your next how their
Highnesses do -- ? & whether The Prince Adolphus is as

---

beautiful as ever? -- likewise let us know
circumstantially how Their Majesties do? we
may depend upon what you tell us, but not
upon the Newspapers or other intelligence, &
when we read of the indisposition of either it
makes us very uneasy as you may readily
imagine -- Hamilton joins with me in very
kind love & I am ever My Dear Miss Hamilton
                             Your Most Affectionate Aunt
                             & Sincere friend    Catherine Hamilton

Our United love to Mrs Hamilton
Sir William has been laughing at my Ardour as he
calls it, I have been longing that Old Admiral Knowles's
Scheme should be put in execution, he said it
could be easy for three or four Ships to run into
Brest with a fair Wind & burn all their Shipping
& he would willingly be the first Ship -- only
think of my being grown a Politician, but I am
out of patience with french Deceit --

in the corner of this letter you will find a
Maltese Ring