Diplomatic Text
To Charles
& To Mrs H[1]
My Dear Brother,
Yours of the 14th. of Jany. came safe to hand about a fortnight
ago & found me at Florence where I return'd some time before. I found
great benefit as to my health by the mild air of Pisa, but as for any
other advantage, society entertainment or even tolerable accom=
modation it is not to be found in that poor deserted & miserable
country. However as my principal end of going there has been answerd
- I do not regret the may solitary days I paʃs'd. there As my health is
now almost reestablish'd I have but little inducement to think of
prolonging my stay abroad, for to say the truth, things appear to me
quite differently from what they did eight years ago, & I am now most
thoroughly convinced that an English woman cannot bear being trans=
planted into France or Italy unleʃs she is determin'd to accommodate
herself to their respective customs, in which case she must first di=
vest herself of decency & of every idea of right & propriety; in short
unleʃs it is on account of health a woman can have no other proper
inducement to continue in this country; & a man en Famille must
frequently find himself in ridiculous situations, these reflexions were not
new to me before I came abroad, tho' I did not think them of consequence
enough to make me lay aside a plan which I thought my health and
the state of mind I was then in absolutely requir'd. Mrs. H. is now ex=
tremely happy as the material point is answerd, that I have considerd
this matter in its proper light, in consequence of which I have fixed
my departure from this place for the first of May next & hope to be
in London by the middle of June. It will I know immediately occur
to you what is your plan? as I can never have any reserve with you
I have no difficulty, but on the contrary a satisfaction in acquainting
you with all my views, if they shou'd appear to you improper, I know
your affection for me will not permit you to conceal your sentiments.
Not having any desire or even reason to expect further Preferment in Ireland
I have many strong objections against fixing my residence in that Country
it must then be somewhere in England, as that is the case, some place
where I am at present totally unknown & where I shall not be per=
petually reminded of former disagreeable situations or stumbled upon
by Friends I do not want to see, is what is at present to be desir'd
& I think Norwich will answer my purpose in most of these par=
ticulars, as I remember to have heard formerly that it is a Town
where there is good society the whole year; it is you know in
a very good Country & as it is a place of immense trade I conclude
the markets must be good & reasonable, indeed I have heard that
they are particularly so. If I shou'd be further induced by your opinion
upon this matter to make trial of that place, I mean to procure a
letter of recommendation to some Person there, who will aʃsist me
in getting lodgings &c for to go there without having any one to
whom I was known wou'd be a very auckward situation. Do me the
favor of acquainting Mrs. Pasham that Mrs. H. will take her Daughter
under her own tuition in the beginning of July next, we cannot suf=
ficiently expreʃs our obligations to you & Mrs. H. for your kind atten=
tion to her, I confeʃs, my Affection for her increases daily & that I
cou'd not have thought that my happineʃs cou'd depend so much upon
so young a personage -- Mrs. H. desires to be particularly rememberd
to you & Mrs. H. She has been confined to her bed for near this fortnight
past with the scarlet Fever a very dangerous disorder in this country
the Fever & the irruption havre now over but the Physiscian will
insist upon her keeping the house for a month to come as relapses
sometimes happen & are commonly fatal. I have wrote to
my Banker in Dublin & hope he will observe my instructions
that I may not be look'd upon as a runaway Tenant; it will now
be unneceʃsary for you to give Fetherston any instructions about our
affair. A letter from you wrote ten days or a fortnight after the receipt
of this, wou'd be in time before I leave this place. Adieu Dr. Brother
believe me ever
Yours most faithfully &
Affectionately
Frederick Hamilton
Florence Feby. 18th. 1765.
A Monsr &c
H. chez Carlo Hadfield
a
Florence
Italie[2]
P.S. Our Child here[3] is extremely well & has already had the small
pox in a most favourable way, he is to be sent to London by sea from
Leghorn in the Autumn.[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. These lines appear written slightly slanted.
2. These lines appear to the left of the closing salutation and signature.
3. This cannot be Robert Hamilton, born around 1771, and is perhaps an earlier son who did not survive infancy.
4. These lines appear at the bottom of p.3, written upside down.
Normalised Text
My Dear Brother,
Yours of the 14th. of January came safe to hand about a fortnight
ago & found me at Florence where I returned some time before. I found
great benefit as to my health by the mild air of Pisa, but as for any
other advantage, society entertainment or even tolerable accommodation
it is not to be found in that poor deserted & miserable
country. However as my principal end of going there has been answered
I do not regret the many solitary days I passed. As my health is
now almost reestablished I have but little inducement to think of
prolonging my stay abroad, for to say the truth, things appear to me
quite differently from what they did eight years ago, & I am now most
thoroughly convinced that an English woman cannot bear being transplanted
into France or Italy unless she is determined to accommodate
herself to their respective customs, in which case she must first divest
herself of decency & of every idea of right & propriety; in short
unless it is on account of health a woman can have no other proper
inducement to continue in this country; & a man en Famille must
frequently find himself in ridiculous situations, these reflexions were not
new to me before I came abroad, though I did not think them of consequence
enough to make me lay aside a plan which I thought my health and
the state of mind I was then in absolutely required. Mrs. Hamilton is now extremely
happy as the material point is answered, that I have considered
this matter in its proper light, in consequence of which I have fixed
my departure from this place for the first of May next & hope to be
in London by the middle of June. It will I know immediately occur
to you what is your plan? as I can never have any reserve with you
I have no difficulty, but on the contrary a satisfaction in acquainting
you with all my views, if they should appear to you improper, I know
your affection for me will not permit you to conceal your sentiments.
Not having any desire or even reason to expect further Preferment in Ireland
I have many strong objections against fixing my residence in that Country
it must then be somewhere in England, as that is the case, some place
where I am at present totally unknown & where I shall not be perpetually
reminded of former disagreeable situations or stumbled upon
by Friends I do not want to see, is what is at present to be desired
& I think Norwich will answer my purpose in most of these particulars
, as I remember to have heard formerly that it is a Town
where there is good society the whole year; it is you know in
a very good Country & as it is a place of immense trade I conclude
the markets must be good & reasonable, indeed I have heard that
they are particularly so. If I should be further induced by your opinion
upon this matter to make trial of that place, I mean to procure a
letter of recommendation to some Person there, who will assist me
in getting lodgings &c for to go there without having any one to
whom I was known would be a very awkward situation. Do me the
favour of acquainting Mrs. Pasham that Mrs. Hamilton will take her Daughter
under her own tuition in the beginning of July next, we cannot sufficiently
express our obligations to you & Mrs. Hamilton for your kind attention
to her, I confess, my Affection for her increases daily & that I
could not have thought that my happiness could depend so much upon
so young a personage -- Mrs. Hamilton desires to be particularly remembered
to you & Mrs. Hamilton She has been confined to her bed for near this fortnight
past with the scarlet Fever a very dangerous disorder in this country
the Fever & the irruption are now over but the Physician will
insist upon her keeping the house for a month to come as relapses
sometimes happen & are commonly fatal. I have written to
my Banker in Dublin & hope he will observe my instructions
that I may not be looked upon as a runaway Tenant; it will now
be unnecessary for you to give Fetherston any instructions about our
affair. A letter from you wrote ten days or a fortnight after the receipt
of this, would be in time before I leave this place. Adieu Dear Brother
believe me ever
Yours most faithfully &
Affectionately
Frederick Hamilton
Florence February 18th. 1765.
A Monsieur &c
Hamilton chez Carlo Hadfield
a
Florence
Italie
P.S. Our Child here is extremely well & has already had the small
pox in a most favourable way, he is to be sent to London by sea from
Leghorn in the Autumn.
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 Frederick Hamilton to Charles Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/7/22
Correspondence Details
Sender: Frederick Hamilton
Place sent: Florence
Addressee: Charles Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 18 February 1765
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Frederick Hamilton to his brother Charles Hamilton. He writes of his visit to Italy and of his health, which is improving. He writes that there does not seem much inducement to continue his stay abroad, 'for to say the truth, things appear to me quite differently from what they did eight years ago, & I am now most thoroughly convinced that an English woman cannot bear being transplanted into France or Italy unless she is determin[e]d to accommodate herself to their respective customs'. He will return to London and hopes to be there in the middle of June, and notes that his wife is happy that they will be returning.
The letter continues with his plans for the future and his 'strong objections' to taking up residence in Ireland. He would prefer to stay in England, somewhere where he is not known, 'where I shall not be perpetually reminded of former disagreeable situations or stumbled upon by Friends'. Norwich sounds to him a possible place to live, as he has heard that there is good society there throughout the year. He asks for his brother's opinion of the place and for a letter of recommendation from him for some person there who will aid his finding lodgings.
Frederick Hamilton ends his letter with news of his family. His wife is suffering from scarlet fever, which he notes is a dangerous illness in Italy, and his son has recovered from smallpox. Dated at Florence [Italy].
Length: 1 sheet, 823 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: George Lee, 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: 11 February 2022