HAM/1/11/3
Letter from Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Octr: 23d: 1780
My Dearest Miʃs Hamilton
We arrived safely here
on Saturday, & found our D: Julia thank God quite
well -- pray don't laugh when I tell you, that to
my infinite distreʃs, when we were upon a
Common, seven miles from Uckfield, or from
any Place where we cd: get a Postilion, we were
stopped by poor miserable Thos: the 1st: Postilion
very nearly falling off his Horse, & being conducted
in thisa state, onof intoxication to the first Cottage
by Lord D, & Monet, the other Postilion being
left to guard us -- what to do we did not know;
but Monet, with his usual accomodating
Spirit, called out to me, n'ayez pas peur
Mi Ladi, N'ayez pas peur, & offered to conduct
us safely &as fist Postilion, & lead the Saddle
Horse into the bargain -- this he not only offered,
but executed, to my amazement, & fright, &
amidst the laughs of the Town of Uckfield, we
arrived at the Inn, with Monet 1st: Postilion, in
his great Coat, his hair in a Queu [1] & into be sure a
most laughable figure. -- now you have laugh'd
I am sure you will cry almost, when I tell
you -- that poor Thos: must at last be turn'd
away. this I desire you will read to Ly: Charlotte,
now I have a Secret for yourself, wh: is if
you can conveniently to send to Mrs: Heatherly
& ask for the Poor Woman whose Daughter
is near lying in, & if you will either send
her money to bye a pr: of Blankets, or get
them baught for her, I shall be much
obliged to you, & will repay you when we
meet. Adieu in haʃte yrs: PD
pray tell Princeʃs Elizabeth
with my duty how often I think of her &
pretty little Pʃs: Sophia[2]
Miʃs Hamilton
at her Royal Highneʃs
Princeʃs Elizabeth's House
By Lewis Bag -- Eastbourne Suʃsex[3]
[La]dy D——[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘A long plait of hair worn hanging down at the back, from the head or from a wig; a pigtail’ (OED s.v. queue).
2. A part of the sheet containing further writing has been cut away.
3. The direction 'By Lewis Bag' appears on two lines to the left and slightly below the last line of the address.
4. This annotation appears at the top right of the last page, at right-angles to the rest of the text.
Normalised Text
October 3d: 1780
My Dearest Miss Hamilton
We arrived safely here
on Saturday, & found our Dear Julia thank God quite
well -- pray don't laugh when I tell you, that to
my infinite distress, when we were upon a
Common, seven miles from Uckfield, or from
any Place where we could get a Postilion, we were
stopped by poor miserable Thomas the 1st: Postilion
very nearly falling off his Horse, & being conducted
in a state, of intoxication to the first Cottage
by Lord Dartrey, & Monet, the other Postilion being
left to guard us -- what to do we did not know;
but Monet, with his usual accommodating
Spirit, called out to me, n'ayez pas peur
Mi Ladi, N'ayez pas peur, & offered to conduct
us safely as first Postilion, & lead the Saddle
Horse into the bargain -- this he not only offered,
but executed, to my amazement, & fright, &
amidst the laughs of the Town of Uckfield, we
arrived at the Inn, with Monet 1st: Postilion, in
his great Coat, his hair in a Queue & to be sure a
most laughable figure. -- now you have laughed
I am sure you will cry almost, when I tell
you -- that poor Thomas must at last be turned
away. this I desire you will read to Lady Charlotte,
now I have a Secret for yourself, which is if
you can conveniently to send to Mrs: Heatherly
& ask for the Poor Woman whose Daughter
is near lying in, & if you will either send
her money to buy a pair of Blankets, or get
them bought for her, I shall be much
obliged to you, & will repay you when we
meet. Adieu in haste yours Philadelphia Dartrey
pray tell Princess Elizabeth
with my duty how often I think of her &
pretty little Princess Sophia
Miss Hamilton
at her Royal Highness
Princess Elizabeth's House
By Lewis Bag -- Eastbourne Sussex
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 Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/11/3
Correspondence Details
Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)
Place sent: Chelsea
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Eastbourne
Date sent: 3 October 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Dartrey to Mary Hamilton. She writes that she arrived safely in Chelsea on Saturday and found her daughter well. She asks Hamilton not to laugh but notes her distress when they were stopped at a common some miles from 'Ukfield' [Uckfield] when 'poor miserable Thoma[s]', the first postillion, almost fell off his horse, drunk. 'Monet', the second postillion, was left to guard them and they did not know what to do until he conducted them to safety into Uckfield, leading the saddle horse as well. They arrived with the second postillion 'to be sure a most laughable figure' [in his French get-up]. Dartrey continues that Thomas 'must at last be turned away'. She ends her letter by asking Hamilton to tell Princess Elizabeth how often she thinks of her and Princess Sophia.
Dated at Chelsea.
Length: 1 sheet, 322 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 January 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