Diplomatic Text
Mrs. Fielding
after Mother illness
My dear Miʃs Hamilton
My sincere concern for your distreʃs prevented
my writing at the time that some doubt & so much anxiety
& fatigue accompanied it, as I know how painful an
addition to so trying a state the having to answer or
even excuse to answer the officious kindneʃses of ones
friends often proves -- but now that I find you are so
rightly though I'm sure so painfully exerting yourself
so far as to see some of those who love & feel for you
I cannot forbear as I must not be of that number
to expreʃs by Letter how much I have grieved for
you -- every comfort that your excellent principles
can afford you this melancholy case will I trust
admit of, you have every reason to think the change
a bleʃsed one for her you mourn for, & the more
entirely & resignedly you can submit to so painful
a trial for yourself the greater must be ye. future
reward and consolation. -- I hope you have Miʃs Clark
as much as poʃsible with you -- my str. was quite
charmed with her sweet & friendly behaviour --
adieu my dr. Miʃs H. & believe me
ever most truly Yrs.
S. Feilding
Burley Decr. 7th. 1778
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My dear Miss Hamilton
My sincere concern for your distress prevented
my writing at the time that some doubt & so much anxiety
& fatigue accompanied it, as I know how painful an
addition to so trying a state the having to answer or
even excuse to answer the officious kindnesses of ones
friends often proves -- but now that I find you are so
rightly though I'm sure so painfully exerting yourself
so far as to see some of those who love & feel for you
I cannot forbear as I must not be of that number
to express by Letter how much I have grieved for
you -- every comfort that your excellent principles
can afford you this melancholy case will I trust
admit of, you have every reason to think the change
a blessed one for her you mourn for, & the more
entirely & resignedly you can submit to so painful
a trial for yourself the greater must be the future
reward and consolation. -- I hope you have Miss Clark
as much as possible with you -- my sister was quite
charmed with her sweet & friendly behaviour --
adieu my dear Miss Hamilton & believe me
ever most truly Yours
Sophia Feilding
Burley December 7th. 1778
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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/1/7/5/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sophia Fielding (née Finch)
Place sent: Burley, Rutland
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 7 December 1778
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Sophia Fielding to Mary Hamilton, relating to her concern for Hamilton.
Length: 1 sheet, 207 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: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 27 October 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