Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/11/12

Letter from Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


11

26th- Sepbr. 1781

                                                         Chelsea
      Wedy: Morng

      I cannot omit sending an answer
my D: Miʃs Hamilton to your Letter, which was full
of such gracious Meʃsages from the Queen & Princeʃses,
pray present my humble & affectionate Duty, &
take an opportunity of informing Her Majesty
that the little Book is at length arrived from Bristol
& now in the Hands of the Bookbinder -- it is by no means
I think equal -- some Sections are much inferior to others
all written by a pious Person, but not equally, (I think
to be approved. pray present my Duty to Princeʃs Royal
& Princeʃs Augusta; & aʃsure their Royal Highneʃses
how sensible I am of their gracious Meʃsage, & how happy
I shall be to have the Honor of seeing Them again --
& I beg you to tell Princeʃs Elizabeth, that I am very


grateful to Her Royal Highneʃs for so kindly remember
=ing Me, & aʃsure her, The Work Bag shall be carefully
kept in my Lavendar Drawer -- where I keep every
thing I put a high Value on. & I shall only take it out,
on High Days & Holidays.
      My Son is this Moment come in, &
tells me He has rode to Kew; I am quite vext I did
not know where he was to ride, as I could have made
him my Meʃsenger to have carried you this Letter;
he begs hard to carry it tomorrow, but I think you will
receive it sooner by my sending it to London to Day;
upon recollection I shall send it directly to Kew.
      My poor Mrs: Quin & I are half worn out
with having seen Sights -- there is one, which I cannot


bear to think She should not see, & that is Their Majesty
& the Royal Family; I mean those, who are to be
seen in Publick -- now as her State of health makes
it impoʃsible for her to Dreʃs & go to Court, as She
could not stand so long; I am tempted to take
her to the Play, whenever their Majesty's go --
I wish her to see the Queen, who has so highly
honoured her Friend, by such gracious Marks
of Favour -- & if you could poʃsibly let me
know when I may have this Opportunity, I
shall be vastly obliged to you.
      pray tell Princeʃs Elizabeth I went to
Wirgman's[1] for such a Pencil with a magnifying
Glaʃs as the other Princeʃses had, but he had not one;
I hope soon to get one -- I will send it the first opportunity



Adieu my D: Miʃs Hamilton
      believe me
                             Yrs: very Affectly
                                                         PDartrey
I am glad Miʃs Goldsworthy
is recovered. many thanks for yr:
account of our Lisbon Friends. I have
not heard from them of an Age. Mr: Feilding
had been ill, when I heard last from Mrs: Feilding Ly.- C.
& Lord W. vastly recovered. --
Lord D is returned & begs his best Comps: we go to Mrs: Baker's
little Girls Christening at Bayford next Monday -- charming, easy
Mrs: Quin insists upon my leaving her, because
Lord D. seemed to wish me to go with Him.

I saw a Glimpe of Mrs.- Carter in her way to Deal. She was pretty
well. I am charmed with Les Adieux -- & I have just got Lord
Kames, upon the Culture of the Heart[2] -- dedicated to the Queen.

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


Notes


 1. Wirgman's was a well-known jeweller's on St James Street, a fashionable shopping area in the late 18th century. Samuel Johnson bought a pair of silver shoe buckles there in 1778.
 2. Henry Home, Lord Kames (1781) Loose Hints on Education, Chiefly Concerning the Culture of the Heart.

Normalised Text




                                                         Chelsea
      Wednesday Morning


      I cannot omit sending an answer
my Dear Miss Hamilton to your Letter, which was full
of such gracious Messages from the Queen & Princesses,
pray present my humble & affectionate Duty, &
take an opportunity of informing Her Majesty
that the little Book is at length arrived from Bristol
& now in the Hands of the Bookbinder -- it is by no means
I think equal -- some Sections are much inferior to others
all written by a pious Person, but not equally, (I think
to be approved. pray present my Duty to Princess Royal
& Princess Augusta; & assure their Royal Highnesses
how sensible I am of their gracious Message, & how happy
I shall be to have the Honour of seeing Them again --
& I beg you to tell Princess Elizabeth, that I am very


grateful to Her Royal Highness for so kindly remembering
 Me, & assure her, The Work Bag shall be carefully
kept in my Lavender Drawer -- where I keep every
thing I put a high Value on. & I shall only take it out,
on High Days & Holidays.
      My Son is this Moment come in, &
tells me He has ridden to Kew; I am quite vexed I did
not know where he was to ride, as I could have made
him my Messenger to have carried you this Letter;
he begs hard to carry it tomorrow, but I think you will
receive it sooner by my sending it to London to Day;
upon recollection I shall send it directly to Kew.
      My poor Mrs: Quin & I are half worn out
with having seen Sights -- there is one, which I cannot


bear to think She should not see, & that is Their Majesty
& the Royal Family; I mean those, who are to be
seen in Public -- now as her State of health makes
it impossible for her to Dress & go to Court, as She
could not stand so long; I am tempted to take
her to the Play, whenever their Majesty's go --
I wish her to see the Queen, who has so highly
honoured her Friend, by such gracious Marks
of Favour -- & if you could possibly let me
know when I may have this Opportunity, I
shall be vastly obliged to you.
      pray tell Princess Elizabeth I went to
Wirgman's for such a Pencil with a magnifying
Glass as the other Princesses had, but he had not one;
I hope soon to get one -- I will send it the first opportunity



Adieu my Dear Miss Hamilton
      believe me
                             Yours very Affectionately
                                                         Philadelphia Dartrey
I am glad Miss Goldsworthy
is recovered. many thanks for your
account of our Lisbon Friends. I have
not heard from them of an Age. Mr: Feilding
had been ill, when I heard last from Mrs: Feilding Lady C.
& Lord W. vastly recovered. --
Lord Dartrey is returned & begs his best Compliments we go to Mrs: Baker's
little Girls Christening at Bayford next Monday -- charming, easy
Mrs: Quin insists upon my leaving her, because
Lord Dartrey seemed to wish me to go with Him.

I saw a Glimpse of Mrs.- Carter in her way to Deal. She was pretty
well. I am charmed with Les Adieux -- & I have just got Lord
Kames, upon the Culture of the Heart -- dedicated to the Queen.

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



 1. Wirgman's was a well-known jeweller's on St James Street, a fashionable shopping area in the late 18th century. Samuel Johnson bought a pair of silver shoe buckles there in 1778.
 2. Henry Home, Lord Kames (1781) Loose Hints on Education, Chiefly Concerning the Culture of the Heart.

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/1/11/12

Correspondence Details

Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)

Place sent: Chelsea

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Kew

Date sent: 26 September 1781

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Lady Dartrey to Mary Hamilton. Hamilton's last letter was full of messages from the Queen and princesses and she assures her that the book did arrive from Bristol and is now at the bookbinder. Although all sections of it have been written by a 'pious' person, Dartrey does not think all are equal. She writes of the princesses and asks Hamilton to pass on her thanks to Princess Elizabeth for her gift of a work box and let her know that she 'will carefully keep it in her Lavender Drawer'. The place where she keeps everything she 'puts a high value on & I shall only take it out, on High Days & Holidays'.
    The letter continues on the subject of the Queen and princesses and on her friends at Court.
    Dated at Chelsea.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 559 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

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