Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/6/8/25

Note from John Hope to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1] [2]
I ʃhould ʃend you the
Minʃtrel,[3] but I am juʃt finiʃhing
It; -- & it is too good not to
devour it All. -- I wiʃh I could
have read it to you. -- There are
Beautyies in it, that none can
deʃcribe, but thoʃe who eye
Nature with more than vulgar
Eyes. --    Adieu --    Your's
                             ʃincerely


Hamilton[4]
[5]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. This letter is catalogued out of sequence. It belongs chronologically just before HAM/1/6/8/8, where Hope reports having read all of The Minstrel.
 2. The top of the note seems to be missing, as the edge has been torn and traces of writing from the line above are still visible.
 3. The first book of The Minstrel by James Beattie was published in 1771, and the second before mid-March 1774. As external evidence suggests the date 1773 for HAM/1/6/8/8, Hope may be referring only to the first book.
 4. The rest of the address is missing as the left-hand side of the sheet has been torn away.
 5. Remains of a seal, in red wax.

Normalised Text


I should send you the
Minstrel, but I am just finishing
It; -- & it is too good not to
devour it All. -- I wish I could
have read it to you. -- There are
Beauties in it, that none can
describe, but those who eye
Nature with more than vulgar
Eyes. --    Adieu --    Your's
                             sincerely


Hamilton

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. This letter is catalogued out of sequence. It belongs chronologically just before HAM/1/6/8/8, where Hope reports having read all of The Minstrel.
 2. The top of the note seems to be missing, as the edge has been torn and traces of writing from the line above are still visible.
 3. The first book of The Minstrel by James Beattie was published in 1771, and the second before mid-March 1774. As external evidence suggests the date 1773 for HAM/1/6/8/8, Hope may be referring only to the first book.
 4. The rest of the address is missing as the left-hand side of the sheet has been torn away.
 5. Remains of a seal, in red wax.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Note from John Hope to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/25

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Hope

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: c.1773
when 1773 (precision: medium)

Letter Description

Summary: Note from John Hope to Mary Hamilton. He writes that he is just finishing the Minstrel and that he wishes he could read it to her. ‘There are Beauties in it, that none can describe, but those who eye Nature with more than vulgar eyes’.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 54 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: Aileen Loftus, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted 22 April 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: 6 January 2022

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