Diplomatic Text
it gave me very Sincere pleasure to hear befor I left London
that you was got perfectly well, I hope you have continued so all
this very fine summer we have had, I have often thought of makeing
my inquiries after you, and should certainly have done it befor now,
but tho this is a very Charming Place, and Lady Elizabeth Archer
and I amuses our selves very agreeably with work reading and
most delightfull airrings yet it affords very few incidents to
make a letter amuseing or what I would wish to intertain
my friends, makes me often deny my self what is one of the greatest
pleasures I have, writing them or hearing from them,
but I cannot help now my Dear Madam giveing you the trouble
of this seing in the news papers, Prince Alfrede has been dangerously
ill, tho I hope in god by this time his Royall Highneʃs is better
and I hope will soon get well, but I cannot help being anxious to hear
our most exelent and Ami[a]ble Queen has not suffered from
her Concern, her Majesty has a great dell of fortitude but her
Exelent heart would feel the danger of so charmine a Child,
pray be so good to writ me a few lines, as there cannot be
a greater enthusiast than I am in every thing that Concerns
the happineʃs of my King and Queen, I hope all the Royall
family are in perfect health, I shall rejoice to hear it,
and pray writ me a little of your self, is Lady Charlote Finch
returned or is her son like to recover poor woman She is much to
be pittyed, Lady Stormont writs me Mr and Mrs Graham and Miʃs
Cathcart are to stay all winter in the South of france, Mrs Fielding
was gone back to Lisbon, Lady Stormont seems very happy with nursing
her son Charles, she is a very good exemple if any of the fine Ladys
would take it, I am sure there is very few so handsom, I own there is
[1]
[2]
[3]
very few things would hurt me so much, as if any of Lady Cathcarts
Children was not behave well, as I had the very highest attachment
for there Mother, but I have the pleasure to see them all realy exemplary
and I hope thy will ever Continue so,
we have not seen Lady Mary Hume very lately, she has been much taken
up with the musick at Salisbury, and since that with the very
superb intertainment at Fonthill, upon your Cousins Mr
Beckfords birth day upon his Comming of age, I have cut
out the paragraph out of the Salisbury to inclose you, that
you may have the very superb account of it, and I dar say all
the fine young Ladys that wear there, wear in full expectation of
carrying the Prise, now my Dear Miʃs Hamilton I hope you will
doe me the favour to writ me soon and beleive me with very sincere
regard and esteem,
My Dear Madam
your most affectionat and
much obliged Cath: Walkinshaw
Hale by Downton Wilts[4]
Octr 1st 1781
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This column shows the back of the newspaper cutting, which is displayed on p.4. The text and transcription are displayed below on p.3 col.2.
2. This image is the same as on p.2 above.
3. This section appears underneath a newspaper cutting glued to the top of p.2 above. The cutting concerns Hamilton's distant relative William Beckford, for which see HAM/1/4/5/15, HAM/1/18/96 and perhaps HAM/2/2.
4. Hale is just over the Hampshire border from Downton.
5. Newspaper cutting attached to p.2.
Normalised Text
it gave me very Sincere pleasure to hear before I left London
that you were got perfectly well, I hope you have continued so all
this very fine summer we have had, I have often thought of making
my inquiries after you, and should certainly have done it before now,
but though this is a very Charming Place, and Lady Elizabeth Archer
and I amuses our selves very agreeably with work reading and
most delightful airings yet it affords very few incidents to
make a letter amusing or what I would wish to entertain
my friends, makes me often deny my self what is one of the greatest
pleasures I have, writing them or hearing from them,
but I cannot help now my Dear Madam giving you the trouble
of this seeing in the news papers, Prince Alfred has been dangerously
ill, though I hope in god by this time his Royal Highness is better
and I hope will soon get well, but I cannot help being anxious to hear
our most excellent and Amiable Queen has not suffered from
her Concern, her Majesty has a great deal of fortitude but her
Excellent heart would feel the danger of so charming a Child,
pray be so good to write me a few lines, as there cannot be
a greater enthusiast than I am in every thing that Concerns
the happiness of my King and Queen, I hope all the Royal
family are in perfect health, I shall rejoice to hear it,
and pray write me a little of your self, is Lady Charlotte Finch
returned or is her son like to recover poor woman She is much to
be pitied, Lady Stormont writes me Mr and Mrs Graham and Miss
Cathcart are to stay all winter in the South of france, Mrs Fielding
was gone back to Lisbon, Lady Stormont seems very happy with nursing
her son Charles, she is a very good example if any of the fine Ladies
would take it, I am sure there is very few so handsome, I own there is
very few things would hurt me so much, as if any of Lady Cathcarts
Children was not behaved well, as I had the very highest attachment
for their Mother, but I have the pleasure to see them all really exemplary
and I hope they will ever Continue so,
we have not seen Lady Mary Hume very lately, she has been much taken
up with the music at Salisbury, and since that with the very
superb entertainment at Fonthill, upon your Cousins Mr
Beckfords birth day upon his Coming of age, I have cut
out the paragraph out of the Salisbury to enclose you, that
you may have the very superb account of it, and I dare say all
the fine young Ladies that were there, were in full expectation of
carrying the Praise, now my Dear Miss Hamilton I hope you will
do me the favour to write me soon and believe me with very sincere
regard and esteem,
My Dear Madam
your most affectionate and
much obliged Catherine Walkinshaw
Hale by Downton Wiltshire
October 1st 1781
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 Mrs Catherine Walkinshaw to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/12/10
Correspondence Details
Sender: Catherine Walkinshaw
Place sent: Hale
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 1 October 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Catherine Walkinshaw to Mary Hamilton. The letter is concerned with the health of Prince Alfred, who Walkinshaw has read in the newspapers is dangerously ill.
The newspaper cutting is dated October 1 and is concerned with William Beckford [William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844), writer and art collector, a distant relation of Hamilton's], and a ball he gave after coming of age.
Original reference No. 10.
Length: 2 sheets, 527 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 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Luke Sharma, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2016)
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