HAM/1/11/17
Letter from Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
1782
Thursday
Morng:
9th May 1782
I wish you could see me my dr:
Miʃs H. I look exactly like one of my Poland Hens.
& I will tell you why presently. I must first tell you
that I had once a Friend (he is now I trust an Angel
in Heaven.) who in the simplicity of his heart began
a Letter once to me -- “I have it in my power by the
“goodneʃs of my merciful God, to give you the very
“great comfort & pleasure of hearing I am well: I know
“continued he, how happy this News will make you &c
now I am a little like my good Friend in thinking
that you will be very sorry to hear I am not well; that
I have got a Cold, & the worst of it is, that it is such
a Cold as makes it impoʃsible for me to dreʃs -- now
I should not have minded another sort of Cold, but this
has vexed me, for it hinders me from paying my
Duty to One to day, to whom I would wish to shew every
Respect -- this Respect, as Madme: de Genlis says, of outward
form, as well as that Respect of the Heart -- which those
must feel, who honor & respectrevere Virtue & goodneʃs: this
I can say better to you, than I could to the Queen herself
for the reasons Madme: de Genlis gives, wh: I am sure
you must remember. -- it is impoʃsible for me, who
have had the Honor of seeing those Virtues, as I have done
without being impreʃsed & I hope profiting as I ought by them --
My cold lies in my throat, & I am now
dreʃsed up in a black feather Tippet, (the warmest
of all warm things, wh: I have been aʃsured will
cure me,) & that make my Resemblance to
my prety poland Hen -- tho' I must say
She becomes her bustling feathers more
than I do. I shall certainly be at home all
the Evg: & only Mrs.- Carter, & some very intimate
Friends, so if you can look in upon me, I sd: be
happy to see You -- believe me
Yrs.. sincerely PDartrey
[1]
Miʃs Hamilton
S: James's --
[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Thursday
Morning
I wish you could see me my dear
Miss Hamilton I look exactly like one of my Poland Hens.
& I will tell you why presently. I must first tell you
that I had once a Friend (he is now I trust an Angel
in Heaven.) who in the simplicity of his heart began
a Letter once to me -- “I have it in my power by the
“goodness of my merciful God, to give you the very
“great comfort & pleasure of hearing I am well: I know
“continued he, how happy this News will make you &c
now I am a little like my good Friend in thinking
that you will be very sorry to hear I am not well; that
I have got a Cold, & the worst of it is, that it is such
a Cold as makes it impossible for me to dress -- now
I should not have minded another sort of Cold, but this
has vexed me, for it hinders me from paying my
Duty to One to day, to whom I would wish to show every
Respect -- this Respect, as Madame de Genlis says, of outward
form, as well as that Respect of the Heart -- which those
must feel, who honour & revere Virtue & goodness: this
I can say better to you, than I could to the Queen herself
for the reason Madame de Genlis gives, which I am sure
you must remember. -- it is impossible for me, who
have had the Honour of seeing those Virtues, as I have done
without being impressed & I hope profiting as I ought by them --
My cold lies in my throat, & I am now
dressed up in a black feather Tippet, (the warmest
of all warm things, which I have been assured will
cure me,) & that make my Resemblance to
my pretty poland Hen -- though I must say
She becomes her bustling feathers more
than I do. I shall certainly be at home all
the Evening & only Mrs.- Carter, & some very intimate
Friends, so if you can look in upon me, I should be
happy to see You -- believe me
Yours sincerely Philadelphia Dartrey
Miss Hamilton
Saint James's --
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/1/11/17
Correspondence Details
Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 9 May 1782
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Dartrey to Mary Hamilton. She says that she looks exactly like one of her Poland Hens as she is dressed in a black feather tippet on account of her suffering from a bad cold. She has been assured that as this is such a warm garment it will help to cure her.
Length: 1 sheet, 369 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 30 March 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