Diplomatic Text
My Dear Miʃs Goldsworthy,
From July 21st. to Septr. 10th, no Packet arrived
at Lisbon, but at last it is come, & has made us amends
for our long Expectations by the many kind Letters it has
brought & good Accounts of our friends, except of yourself
my dear, whose Letter dated the 13th. of August, makes me
very anxious about your health, you had already been con-
-fined a fortnight, & your Complaint continued obstinate
after two bleedings, I hope you will have wrote soon again,
or I aʃsure you I shall be quite unhappy about you. I
sincerely feel for the sad Disappointment it must have
been to you not to partake of the Festivities on the Prince
of Wales's birth-day, their Majesties goodneʃs shews itself
upon every occasion & I am sure their bringing the dear
little Princes (from Kew) to see you must have been quite
a Cordial to you. I shall enclose in this a Letter for my dear
Princeʃs Augusta whose kind Attentions in writing to me &
the prettiest most entertaining Letter imaginable, I am very
sensible of. pray present the enclosed with my Grateful Duty
to H R H. I hope all the Letters I did myself the honr. of
writing to them3 Princeʃses have long before this been received. I am
now in the busiest of my Preparations for leaving this Place,
but my Dear Miʃs Goldsworthy, think what an Undertaking
I am going upon, if we make the Journey by Land wch.
I rather think we must, as no Neutral Veʃsels but Por-
-tuguese offer at this time to carry us, & later in ye
Year we could not venture a Sea Voyage. Mrs Feilding
by no means approves of a Portuguese Veʃsel so that
nothing remains but a good Resolution, to encounter the
difficulties & tediousneʃs we must expect in a Land Journey.
Lord Winchilsea thank God continues well, & is so anxious
to ʃee us safe in our Journey as far as France, that he
means to accompany us to Bordeaux at least, as probably
that will be our Route, I hope it will agree with him &
then as to Climate I shall think him as well off in the
South of France for the Winter, as if he had staid at Lisbon
I am much obliged by her Majestys gracious Meʃsage
about my Absence, but my Mind once satisfied about
Ld Winchilsea's Safety, I have no wish so strong as to return
to my Duty, & he is equally anxious that I shd, being grate-
fully Sensible to both
their Majesties for
their kind Indulgence
to me on his Account,
& it is not without putting a great restraint upon himself
that he does not come personally to expreʃs it, but the Injunc-
-tions from all the Physical People are so strong for his not
attempting to go to England till the Winter is over that he
has yeilded to it, & promises only to go till he sees us in some
safe & comfortable Train of proceeding in our Journey. Poor
Mrs Feilding's Accident, will neceʃsarily occasion her a longer
[1]Absence from her Duty about the Queen (which she wish'd to perform) as well
as a longer Anxiety about her little family, which has been encreas'd by this
last packet bringing her the Account of the Severe Illneʃs poor little Matilda
has gone thrō, which thō at the same time she heard she had quite recover'd
yet it has awaked in her Mind a thouʃd. Apprehensions of what may happen
in so long an Absence. Her Majesty is very good to have consider'd me so much in
wishing Mrs F. to have remain'd on with me, but as the Case stood when she set out,
I could not well let her miʃs such an Opportunity of returning as she had in joining
[2]Mr & Mrs. Graham, for I own to you I then thought Ld W. so far from being compleatly
recover'd, that I had thrō her petition'd the Queen for a longer Stay with him, in
which Case Mrs F: might have been kept too long away, as we did not know
of Mr Feildings coming. She & Harriet both send their Love & wishes to hear of
your recovery. I will only add how sincerely I wish it, & remain ever my Dear Miʃs G
most affecte. & Faithful CFinch
Remember me kindly to every body
▼
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Goldsworthy,
From July 21st. to September 10th, no Packet arrived
at Lisbon, but at last it is come, & has made us amends
for our long Expectations by the many kind Letters it has
brought & good Accounts of our friends, except of yourself
my dear, whose Letter dated the 13th. of August, makes me
very anxious about your health, you had already been confined
a fortnight, & your Complaint continued obstinate
after two bleedings, I hope you will have written soon again,
or I assure you I shall be quite unhappy about you. I
sincerely feel for the sad Disappointment it must have
been to you not to partake of the Festivities on the Prince
of Wales's birthday, their Majesties goodness shows itself
upon every occasion & I am sure their bringing the dear
little Princes (from Kew) to see you must have been quite
a Cordial to you. I shall enclose in this a Letter for my dear
Princess Augusta whose kind Attentions in writing to me &
the prettiest most entertaining Letter imaginable, I am very
sensible of. pray present the enclosed with my Grateful Duty
to Her Royal Highness. I hope all the Letters I did myself the honour of
writing to the3 Princesses have long before this been received. I am
now in the busiest of my Preparations for leaving this Place,
but my Dear Miss Goldsworthy, think what an Undertaking
I am going upon, if we make the Journey by Land which
I rather think we must, as no Neutral Vessels but Portuguese
offer at this time to carry us, & later in the
Year we could not venture a Sea Voyage. Mrs Feilding
by no means approves of a Portuguese Vessel so that
nothing remains but a good Resolution, to encounter the
difficulties & tediousness we must expect in a Land Journey.
Lord Winchilsea thank God continues well, & is so anxious
to see us safe in our Journey as far as France, that he
means to accompany us to Bordeaux at least, as probably
that will be our Route, I hope it will agree with him &
then as to Climate I shall think him as well off in the
South of France for the Winter, as if he had stayed at Lisbon
I am much obliged by her Majestys gracious Message
about my Absence, but my Mind once satisfied about
Lord Winchilsea's Safety, I have no wish so strong as to return
to my Duty, & he is equally anxious that I should, being gratefully
Sensible to both
their Majesties for
their kind Indulgence
to me on his Account,
& it is not without putting a great restraint upon himself
that he does not come personally to express it, but the Injunctions
from all the Physical People are so strong for his not
attempting to go to England till the Winter is over that he
has yielded to it, & promises only to go till he sees us in some
safe & comfortable Train of proceeding in our Journey. Poor
Mrs Feilding's Accident, will necessarily occasion her a longer
Absence from her Duty about the Queen (which she wished to perform) as well
as a longer Anxiety about her little family, which has been increased by this
last packet bringing her the Account of the Severe Illness poor little Matilda
has gone through, which though at the same time she heard she had quite recovered
yet it has awakened in her Mind a thousand Apprehensions of what may happen
in so long an Absence. Her Majesty is very good to have considered me so much in
wishing Mrs Fielding to have remained on with me, but as the Case stood when she set out,
I could not well let her miss such an Opportunity of returning as she had in joining
Mr & Mrs. Graham, for I own to you I then thought Lord Winchilsea so far from being completely
recovered, that I had through her petitioned the Queen for a longer Stay with him, in
which Case Mrs Fielding might have been kept too long away, as we did not know
of Mr Feildings coming. She & Harriet both send their Love & wishes to hear of
your recovery. I will only add how sincerely I wish it, & remain ever my Dear Miss Goldsworthy
most affectionate & Faithful Charlotte Finch
Remember me kindly to every body
Miss Goldsworthy
▼
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 Martha Carolina Goldsworthy
Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/97
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)
Place sent: Caldas da Rainha
Addressee: Martha Carolina Goldsworthy
Place received: London
Date sent: 15 September 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Miss Goldsworthy. She notes that she has just received a letter from Goldsworthy dated 13 August, which made Finch worry about Goldsworthy’s health. She has endured two bleedings and has been ‘confined’ for two weeks. She asks for another letter soon to put her mind at ease she notes that it must have been a disappointment not to be able to partake in the festivities held for the Prince of Wales' birthday. The letter continues on the subject of the princes and princesses. Finch is now in the preparation for leaving Caldas and acknowledges that a land journey will be difficult and uncomfortable. Lord Winchilsea is to travel as far as Bordeaux with them. Finch writes about the King and Queen's goodness for their understanding of her absence and writes that Mrs Fielding's accident [her ship was captured by an American ship on her way home] has also prevented her return to her duties at Court.
Dated at Caldas.
Length: 1 sheet, 747 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 4 June 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