HAM/1/6/8/2
Letter from John Hope to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Diplomatic Text
Madam,
Tho' I received the amount of the
Inclosed by the hands of Miʃs Hamilton,
I cannot but ʃuppose I was equally indebted
to your kindneʃs for the Loan of it. But
having ʃince loʃt the good opinion, which
[then procu]red then procured[1] me that mark of your com=
=paʃsion for my misfortunes, I muʃt beg
leave to take the firʃt opportunity, that
has been in my power, of returning your
money; yet I ʃhall notnever think the obli=
=gation entirely discharged while I live
to render you ʃervice. --
As I ʃhall poʃsibly be called from
Northampton ʃoon,[2] I could have wish'd, my
dear Madam, to have taken leave of you
& Miʃs Hamilton in these Lines of Mr: Pope. --
“Absent or dead, ʃtill let a Friend be dear;
“A Sigh the Abʃent claim[s,] [the] [D]ead a Tear.”
but indeed I have had a ʃevere Leʃson,
that however disgusting Flattery may be
to Women of Underʃtanding, Sincerity is
not the Virtue to retain their Friendʃhip --
Be aʃsured, however, that whatever I have
done to forfeit your friendʃhip, was not
intentionally done to offend you. I am
with gratitude & respect
Madam -- Your much obliged
& moʃt hum: Servt:
J[ohn Hope]
27th Feby: 1774
[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The paper has been cut to censor the writer's signature on p.2, and thus the missing words have been supplied above, most probably by Mary Hamilton or by her mother, Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton.
2. However, according to William Napier (HAM/1/19/62), Hope was still putting off his departure in early April 1774.
3. Page cut on the right-hand side, where the text was censored on p.1.
Normalised Text
Madam,
Though I received the amount of the
Enclosed by the hands of Miss Hamilton,
I cannot but suppose I was equally indebted
to your kindness for the Loan of it. But
having since lost the good opinion, which
then procured me that mark of your compassion
for my misfortunes, I must beg
leave to take the first opportunity, that
has been in my power, of returning your
money; yet I shall never think the obligation
entirely discharged while I live
to render you service. --
As I shall possibly be called from
Northampton soon, I could have wished, my
dear Madam, to have taken leave of you
& Miss Hamilton in these Lines of Mr: Pope. --
“Absent or dead, still let a Friend be dear;
“A Sigh the Absent claims, the Dead a Tear.”
but indeed I have had a severe Lesson,
that however disgusting Flattery may be
to Women of Understanding, Sincerity is
not the Virtue to retain their Friendship --
Be assured, however, that whatever I have
done to forfeit your friendship, was not
intentionally done to offend you. I am
with gratitude & respect
Madam -- Your much obliged
& most humble Servant
27th February 1774
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 Hope to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/2
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Hope
Place sent: Northampton (certainty: low)
Addressee: Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 27 February 1774
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton's mother. He returns money that
Mary Hamilton had enclosed to him, writing 'I can not but suppose I was
equally indebted to your kindness for the Loan of it'. He writes that he
would wish to have taken leave of 'you & Miss Hamilton in these lines
of Mr. Pope. – "Absent or dead, still let a Friend be dear;" | "A Sigh
the absent claims, the Dead a Tear"'. However, he has instead had a
'severe Lesson, that however disgusting Flattery may be to Women of
Understanding, Sincerity is not the Virtue to retain their Friendship'.
He writes that 'whatever I have done to forfeit your friendship, was not
intentionally done to offend you'.
Length: 1 sheet, 197 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 27 August 2020)
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: 24 November 2021