Diplomatic Text
Burley Decr. 6th. 1777
My dear Miʃs Hamilton
Though Ht. has talked of writing this
post, & indeed began her Letter, yet it has so
often happened to her to fail of having it ready
that I am determined not to put off telling
you by this, that my Mother arrived well
& happily on Thursday Morning, & has found
as you will believe a very joyful Houʃe. I
have commiʃsioned Ht. to enclose a Little Drawing
that I have been attempting in Water Colours &
Chalk from some of the Tapestry here. it
is really not worth yr. acceptance, but I
thought the size wd. suit your little book,
however as little valuable as it is, my Mother
thinks it wd. be entirely spoiled in going by the
Post, so I will hope to bring it you myself in a
few Weeks, when I flatter myself we shall have
some comfortable meetings at St. James's -- I have
been long charged with many kind Meʃsages on
this Subject from Mrs. Carter, who promises not
to think you too young if you will not think her
too old -- my time will never allow of making
you proper Compliments of Congratulation, &
now Condolence on Publick & Private Events
but I must employ so much of it as I can in
begging More kindest Compts. to Mrs. Hamilton
& dear Miʃs G, & that you will accept of them from
all at Burley & particularly of from yr. own Child[1] who
has now learnt to say Yes, so I shall certainly
ask her if she loves Miʃs Hamilton.
I am now got on a dangerous subject for
a person in haste so I will really quit it at
once & only aʃsure you that I am
ever most sincerely
& faithfully Yrs.
Sophia Feilding
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Possibly Fielding's youngest daughter Augusta Sophia, whom Hamilton seems to take a particular interest in (see HAM/1/7/5/2).
Normalised Text
Burley December 6th. 1777
My dear Miss Hamilton
Though Harriet has talked of writing this
post, & indeed began her Letter, yet it has so
often happened to her to fail of having it ready
that I am determined not to put off telling
you by this, that my Mother arrived well
& happily on Thursday Morning, & has found
as you will believe a very joyful House. I
have commissioned Harriet to enclose a Little Drawing
that I have been attempting in Water Colours &
Chalk from some of the Tapestry here. it
is really not worth your acceptance, but I
thought the size would suit your little book,
however as little valuable as it is, my Mother
thinks it would be entirely spoiled in going by the
Post, so I will hope to bring it you myself in a
few Weeks, when I flatter myself we shall have
some comfortable meetings at St. James's -- I have
been long charged with many kind Messages on
this Subject from Mrs. Carter, who promises not
to think you too young if you will not think her
too old -- my time will never allow of making
you proper Compliments of Congratulation, &
now Condolence on Public & Private Events
but I must employ so much of it as I can in
begging More kindest Compliments to Mrs. Hamilton
& dear Miss Goldsworthy, & that you will accept of them from
all at Burley & particularly from your own Child who
has now learnt to say Yes, so I shall certainly
ask her if she loves Miss Hamilton.
I am now got on a dangerous subject for
a person in haste so I will really quit it at
once & only assure you that I am
ever most sincerely
& faithfully Yours
Sophia Feilding
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 Sophia Fielding (née Finch) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/5/3
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sophia Fielding (née Finch)
Place sent: Burley, Rutland
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 6 December 1777
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Sophia Fielding to Mary Hamilton. She writes with general
news and of the arrival of her mother, Lady Charlotte Finch (see HAM/1/12).
Dated at Burley.
Length: 1 sheet, 301 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 10 November 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: 2 November 2021