Diplomatic Text
Dear Mrs Dickenson
It will gave me the greatest
pleasure to accept of your kind Invitation
& to have the pleasure of waiting on you
the 15th of next month. Mrs Cathcart is
equally obliged to you for your attention
in thinking of her but she finds it eʃsential
situated at no great distance from many
Friends to keep invariably the resolution
of not sleeping from home.
Many thanks for your kind congratulations,
tho I never doubted my Dearest Brother would
do justice to the confidence reposed in him
yet I am in the highest degree elated
that he has terminated the difficult
busineʃs alotted to him with a hand so masterly
that History will perpetuate the recollection
of it. My Sister of course can feel no ailment
at this moment, she has not been quite
well lately however. I have not heard
one word of our good Friend[1] since he
left us but I seldom hear from him
regularly. I am always so glad when I
meet with any one who knows him.
Mrs Cathcart joins me in best regards
to yourself Mr & Miʃs Dickenson & I remain
most Affectly Yrs
AH Cathcart
[2]
Mrs Dickenson[3] [4]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzard
Beds
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Francis Napier had stayed with the Dickensons and then with Archibald Cathcart on his way home from London in August 1807, making plans for his visit in HAM/1/20/217. See HAM/1/20/218 for Napier's narration of his journey home.
2. This side of the sheet is blank.
3. Postmark ‘STONEY STRATFORD 52’ above address panel.
4. A large manuscript character, possibly ‘4’, in black ink is written to the right of the address, denoting postage due.
5. A seal in red wax remains at the bottom of the page.
Normalised Text
Dear Mrs Dickenson
It will give me the greatest
pleasure to accept of your kind Invitation
& to have the pleasure of waiting on you
the 15th of next month. Mrs Cathcart is
equally obliged to you for your attention
in thinking of her but she finds it essential
situated at no great distance from many
Friends to keep invariably the resolution
of not sleeping from home.
Many thanks for your kind congratulations,
though I never doubted my Dearest Brother would
do justice to the confidence reposed in him
yet I am in the highest degree elated
that he has terminated the difficult
business alotted to him with a hand so masterly
that History will perpetuate the recollection
of it. My Sister of course can feel no ailment
at this moment, she has not been quite
well lately however. I have not heard
one word of our good Friend since he
left us but I seldom hear from him
regularly. I am always so glad when I
meet with any one who knows him.
Mrs Cathcart joins me in best regards
to yourself Mr & Miss Dickenson & I remain
most Affectionately Yours
Archibald Hamilton Cathcart
Mrs Dickenson
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
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 Reverend Archibald Hamilton Cathcart to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/5/1/1
Correspondence Details
Sender: Archibald Hamilton Cathcart
Place sent: Wolverton, Buckinghamshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 15 September 1807
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Hon. Archibald Hamilton Cathcart to Mary Hamilton. The letter conveys general family news. Cathcart is to visit Hamilton next month and he reports that his brother has finished 'the difficult business' and 'with a hand so masterly that History will perpetuate the recollection of it'.
[By 1807, Cathcart's brother, William Schaw Cathcart, was Commander-in-Chief of the military forces in Scotland, although much of his tenure was taken up with actions on the Continent. In the latter part of this year there was a fear that the French might attempt to commandeer the Danish Fleet then at Copenhagen, and Cathcart was sent to the area to take over the fleet and gain control of the city. After the Danes refused to surrender, the city was laid siege to and the British took control. Cathcart was awarded a peerage on his return.]
Length: 1 sheet, 207 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: Hollie Barker, 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