HAM/1/11/18
Letter from Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
May 19th:
1782
My Dr: Miʃs H.
I must not say Hamilton for fear of
being formal -- how little you yet know me, to think
I can use formality with those I love.
I cannot paʃs over this Day, witho[ut]
wishing you Joy of it; & I believe no one can more
sincerely join with me than yourself, in wishing
many & many happy returns of it, to your kind and gracious
Mistreʃs. -- how very much one's mind is affected (at
least mine is,) by different Situations, I am
come here to fix my Children, & arrange my
House against my Husband's return -- & to go quickly
------ to Church on this Sunday -- all this puts my thoughts
into a different train, to what I know they would
have been in, had I been still in theLondon -- at an
earlier hour I rose; I had more quiet time before
breakfast to my self; & I felt a degree of gratitude with
the sight of the burst of Spring -- (wh: tho backward) is
now surrounding me to you I may say that my
Prayers were offered up for One -- who tho' seated on
a costly Throne, has I doubt not made her Supplications
this Day to the Throne of Heaven -- may She
be aʃsisted to keep steadily in the path of every Virtue
& at length service &an unfading Crown which
will last for ever. -- & may we my Dr: Friend profit
by her Example, & so go through our Pilgrimage
on Earth, that we may by the Mercy of our
pardoning God -- be everlastingly blest hereafter.
Lord D is not yet come, & I am a
little uneasy at not having heard from
him since the 8th: I hope & trust he will
come either tonight or tomorrow -- tho'
my Drawing Room is not yet ready. the
poor Fringe not yet finished -- notwith
=standing this -- I wish he was safely at home
again -- Adieu Yrs: sincerely
PD
My cold is better -- but I am not quite well --
my Children are -- wh: is much more for
my happineʃs -- I write in great haste
pray wish the Princeʃses Joy for
me of this Day -- I must not
presume to wish the Queen -- all
my my heart dictates.
what delightful great news from the W.I.[1]
I am so sorry Lord D is not here to fire
off our little Cannon.
[2]
Miʃs Hamilton
St: James's
Palace
[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This may refer to the Battle of the Saintes 9-12 April 1782, an important naval victory for the British against the French in the American Revolutionary War, which took place off Dominica.
2. This side of the page is blank.
3. Remains of a seal in black wax in the top-right and bottom-right corners. The address appears in the centre of the right-hand side of the page.
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton
I must not say Hamilton for fear of
being formal -- how little you yet know me, to think
I can use formality with those I love.
I cannot pass over this Day, without
wishing you Joy of it; & I believe no one can more
sincerely join with me than yourself, in wishing
many & many happy returns of it, to your kind and gracious
Mistress. -- how very much one's mind is affected (at
least mine is,) by different Situations, I am
come here to fix my Children, & arrange my
House against my Husband's return -- & to go quickly
to Church on this Sunday -- all this puts my thoughts
into a different train, to what I know they would
have been in, had I been still in London -- at an
earlier hour I rose; I had more quiet time before
breakfast to my self; & I felt a degree of gratitude with
the sight of the burst of Spring -- (which though backward) is
now surrounding me to you I may say that my
Prayers were offered up for One -- who though seated on
a Throne, has I doubt not made her Supplications
this Day to the Throne of Heaven -- may She
be assisted to keep steadily in the path of every Virtue
& at length service an unfading Crown which
will last for ever. -- & may we my Dear Friend profit
by her Example, & so go through our Pilgrimage
on Earth, that we may by the Mercy of our
pardoning God -- be everlastingly blessed hereafter.
Lord Dartrey is not yet come, & I am a
little uneasy at not having heard from
him since the 8th: I hope & trust he will
come either tonight or tomorrow -- though
my Drawing Room is not yet ready. the
poor Fringe not yet finished -- notwithstanding
this -- I wish he was safely at home
again -- Adieu Yours sincerely
Philadelphia Dartrey
My cold is better -- but I am not quite well --
my Children are -- which is much more for
my happiness -- I write in great haste
pray wish the Princesses Joy for
me of this Day -- I must not
presume to wish the Queen -- all
my heart dictates.
what delightful great news from the West Indies
I am so sorry Lord Dartrey is not here to fire
off our little Cannon.
Miss Hamilton
St: James's
Palace
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/1/11/18
Correspondence Details
Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 19 May 1782
Letter Description
Summary: Lady Dartrey wishes Hamilton joy on the Princess's birthday.
She writes that she is preparing the house for her husband's return home, but has had no news of him since the 8th.
In the postscript, she celebrates the good news from 'the W.I.' and regrets Lord Dartrey is not there to fire their little cannon.
Length: 1 sheet, 397 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