Diplomatic Text
2.
Dear Madam Oct 28th 1788
I had been murmuring at my cold, ever
since you left Sandleford, for having deprived me of an hour or
two of yours & Mr Dickensons company till this morning brought
me the best amends for my loʃs, the favour of your obliging letter.
My churlish cold kept me in bed the day you departed, by
which I also lost the pleasure of seeing the Bishop of Salisbury &
Mrs Barrington, who had the goodneʃs to call for an hour in
their way to Mongewell. After three or four days confinement
I am now well enough to take the air in my chaise, & in
some shelterd place to get a walk. These little excursions are
very delightfull at all seasons of the year, but particularly
at this. The Seasons have all performd their labours, & all things
seem subsiding into gentle peace, & sweet tranquillity, & the
Robin red breast chaunts the Vespers of the year. My time
of life, now falling into the sere & yellow leaf,[1] perhaps makes me
sympathise more with the tranquillity of Autumn, than the
gayity of Spring, & the gaudy pomp, & splender of summer,
& its bustling labours.
I hope my dear Madam your & Mr Dickensons next visit to
Sandleford will not be so short, & my Grandson Edward will in
another year pay due homage to the rosy cheeks & dimpled smile
of pretty Miʃs Dickenson. His Parents beg you to accept to present
their best respects, & present them to Mr Dickenson, to whom
I hope you will offer mine, & so give ye little Ladys rosy
cheek a kiʃs for me.
My cold has left such a weakneʃs in my eyes, as fortunately
for you, prevents my troubling you with a longer letter.
With sincere esteem
I am Dear Madam
your most affectionate
& Obliged Humble Servant
Eliz Montagu
May I take the liberty
to desire my best compts to Lady Wake?[2]
[3]
Newbury. October the twenty eighth
1788
Mrs. Dickenson[4]
at Lady Wake's
Courteen Hall
near Northampton
M free Montagu.
[5]
Mrs Montagu
Octer. 28 -- 1788[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. An allusion to, or misquotation of, Macbeth V.iii.
2. These two lines appear at the bottom left of p.2 to the left of the salutation.
3. The address is in the hand of Matthew Montagu, MP, provider of the frank.
4. Bishop mark ‘OC 29 88’ above address panel and frank ‘FREE 5’ over address.
5. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
6. This annotation appears on the left side of p.3 when unfolded, written vertically.
Normalised Text
Dear Madam October 28th
I had been murmuring at my cold, ever
since you left Sandleford, for having deprived me of an hour or
two of yours & Mr Dickensons company till this morning brought
me the best amends for my loss, the favour of your obliging letter.
My churlish cold kept me in bed the day you departed, by
which I also lost the pleasure of seeing the Bishop of Salisbury &
Mrs Barrington, who had the goodness to call for an hour in
their way to Mongewell. After three or four days confinement
I am now well enough to take the air in my chaise, & in
some sheltered place to get a walk. These little excursions are
very delightful at all seasons of the year, but particularly
at this. The Seasons have all performed their labours, & all things
seem subsiding into gentle peace, & sweet tranquillity, & the
Robin red breast chants the Vespers of the year. My time
of life, now falling into the sere & yellow leaf, perhaps makes me
sympathise more with the tranquillity of Autumn, than the
gaiety of Spring, & the gaudy pomp, & splendour of summer,
& its bustling labours.
I hope my dear Madam your & Mr Dickensons next visit to
Sandleford will not be so short, & my Grandson Edward will in
another year pay due homage to the rosy cheeks & dimpled smile
of pretty Miss Dickenson. His Parents beg you to accept
their best respects, & present them to Mr Dickenson, to whom
I hope you will offer mine, & give the little Ladys rosy
cheek a kiss for me.
My cold has left such a weakness in my eyes, as fortunately
for you, prevents my troubling you with a longer letter.
With sincere esteem
I am Dear Madam
your most affectionate
& Obliged Humble Servant
Elizabeth Montagu
May I take the liberty
to desire my best compliments to Lady Wake?
Newbury. October the twenty eighth
1788
Mrs. Dickenson
at Lady Wake's
Courteen Hall
near Northampton
M free Montagu.
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 Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/4/3
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson)
Place sent: Sandleford, near Newbury
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Courteenhall, near Northampton
Date sent: 28 October 1788
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to Mary Hamilton. Montagu's cold had 'deprived me of an hour or two of yours & Mr Dickensons company', and the day they left Sandleford she had also missed seeing the Bishop of Salisbury and Mrs Barrington when they came to call. She reports that she is now able to take the air in her chaise and at times by walking, and she expresses her love of nature.
Dated at Newbury.
Original reference No. 2.
Length: 1 sheet, 343 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 2016/17 provided by The John Rylands Research Institute.
Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester
Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo
Transliterator: Andrew Gott, dissertation student, University of Manchester (submitted June 2012)
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