Diplomatic Text
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton,
Besides thanking you for the kind Letter
I receiv'd from you Yesterday, I am impatient to tell you,
how happy I was made in ye Morning by the unexpected
Honour of a Visit from their Majesties, together with all the
Princes & Princeʃses. They were so gracious & so good to
me, that I do aʃsure you they charm'd away all my Com
-plaints, (almost my Deafneʃs,) & I felt nothing for a time
but that I was quite happy & delighted to ʃee them; P. William
I think looks charmingly, & much improved. I beg you will
acquaint my dear Pʃs Elizabeth with all this, & tell her I had
the pleasure of hearing their Majesties talk with much
tenderneʃs & affection of her, & her patient pretty beha-
-viour during her illneʃs, which I was shockt to find had
been so much severer & longer than I imagin'd. I really
hope I mend as to my deafneʃs, thō 'tis but slowly, Yesterday
havinghappen'd fortunately to be the best day I have yet had as to my
hearing, for I cannot get rid of the inceʃsant noise in my
▼
Head, thō it does not deafen me quite so much as it did.
The Queen told me of the pretty Supper you had had on little
Mr Murrays, birth-day,[2]Lord Stormonts Son -- Ldy. S is my first Cousin &c. & I was vastly pleas'd you had the
use of that End Room, without which you must have been
distreʃs'd. Just after their Majesties were gone, a Gentleman
that dined here, receiv'd a Letter out of Norfolk, mentioning
the Death of poor Mr Humphreys, which I heard of wth.
great concern, as he was so well spoke of, & so much liked &
approv'd in his places. Pray let me know what is become
of the Smelts, I have heard nothing of them since I came
out of Town, & alas how Mrs Schwellemberg is, & give my
kind Com̄ps to them when you ʃee them. I am satisfied my
dear Miʃs Hamilton you will do every thing you ought, & I
could wish, about the dear Children during my Absence,
& dare say they will want for no Amusement no more
than Care that you can procure for them. pray remember
me kindly to Madelle. Moula & Mrs Chevely, I find Miʃs Planta
is at Windsor, the K. told me she had been ill, which I had
not heard. poor P. Edward I find was very Serious, but
he is recovering, & the Spring coming on, I hope will set
him up, as well as the rest of us Invalids. Adieu my
Dear, I will not detain you longer than to beg my Love &
Duty to the Princes & Princeʃses, & to aʃsure you that I am
with the Sincerest Affection
Most faithfully Yrs.
Charlotte Finch
Lady Louisa's best Com̄ps attend you.
pray tell me to what amount Lord Dartreys Loʃs is computed
Miʃs Hamilton from Lady
C. Finch Governeʃs to ye. Pʃs's
St James's
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
1780 --
My Dear Miss Hamilton,
Besides thanking you for the kind Letter
I received from you Yesterday, I am impatient to tell you,
how happy I was made in the Morning by the unexpected
Honour of a Visit from their Majesties, together with all the
Princes & Princesses. They were so gracious & so good to
me, that I do assure you they charmed away all my Complaints
, (almost my Deafness,) & I felt nothing for a time
but that I was quite happy & delighted to see them; Prince William
I think looks charmingly, & much improved. I beg you will
acquaint my dear Princess Elizabeth with all this, & tell her I had
the pleasure of hearing their Majesties talk with much
tenderness & affection of her, & her patient pretty behaviour
during her illness, which I was shocked to find had
been so much severer & longer than I imagined. I really
hope I mend as to my deafness, though 'tis but slowly, Yesterday
happened fortunately to be the best day I have yet had as to my
hearing, for I cannot get rid of the incessant noise in my
▼
Head, though it does not deafen me quite so much as it did.
The Queen told me of the pretty Supper you had had on little
Mr Murrays, birthday, & I was vastly pleased you had the
use of that End Room, without which you must have been
distressed. Just after their Majesties were gone, a Gentleman
that dined here, received a Letter out of Norfolk, mentioning
the Death of poor Mr Humphreys, which I heard of with
great concern, as he was so well spoken of, & so much liked &
approved in his places. Pray let me know what is become
of the Smelts, I have heard nothing of them since I came
out of Town, & alas how Mrs Schwellenberg is, & give my
kind Compliments to them when you see them. I am satisfied my
dear Miss Hamilton you will do every thing you ought, & I
could wish, about the dear Children during my Absence,
& dare say they will want for no Amusement no more
than Care that you can procure for them. pray remember
me kindly to Mademoiselle Moula & Mrs Chevely, I find Miss Planta
is at Windsor, the King told me she had been ill, which I had
not heard. poor Prince Edward I find was very Serious, but
he is recovering, & the Spring coming on, I hope will set
him up, as well as the rest of us Invalids. Adieu my
Dear, I will not detain you longer than to beg my Love &
Duty to the Princes & Princesses, & to assure you that I am
with the Sincerest Affection
Most faithfully Yours
Charlotte Finch
Lady Louisa's best Compliments attend you.
pray tell me to what amount Lord Dartreys Loss is computed
Miss Hamilton
St 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 Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/17
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)
Place sent: Harleyford, near Marlow
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 29 March 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton. She writes of her pleasure after an unexpected visit from the King and Queen with all the princes and princesses. They were so 'gracious' that they 'charm[e]d away all my complaints'. She asks Hamilton to inform Princess Elizabeth that she believes that Prince William is much improved and looks charming and that the King and Queen spoke of their affection for her and on her good behaviour during her illness. Finch asks about court acquaintances and writes that she is confident that Hamilton will look after the royal children well during her absence. Miss Planta has been ill as had Prince Edward who she hears has now recovered.
Dated at Harleyford [Buckinghamshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 496 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 15 April 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