Diplomatic Text
Dear Miranda
My own recovery since my arrival at this
place hath not produc'd a satiʃfaction without
alloy[1] to myʃelf; who, growing well, had the
mortification of seeing at the same time the
character of invalid tranʃferr'd from me to my
two companions, poor wife and[2] poor dove. Confin'd
for a whole week by severe colds, one hung her
head, the other dropp'd her wing; the moʃt brilliant
sunʃhine would often entice them to the windows,
which command the whole extent of our
delightful situation in the Circus; there they
saw a large circumference all alive & crouded with
hats, cloaks, capuchins, petticoats, ribbons and shoe-
ʃtrings of all colours in sprightly motion to the
morning diverʃions; in the evening they heard
the repeated cry of chair, chair, all in a hurry
to balls, concerts, theatre, cards &ca: they saw, &
each sat like a Patience on a monument, though
not always smiling on grief;[3] they heard, till they
were tir'd, & then were very glad to hear me read to
them, while they plied the needle. A propos;
what book think you, my dear Miranda, was
read to them by your most devoted though
utterly forgotten slave? The life & adventures of
Robinʃon Cruʃoe -- The wolves are in the firʃt
volume; Miranda hath loʃt her wager; she hath
not paid it; and what is worʃe, my taking up
the pen firʃt irretrievably diʃables her from ever
diʃcharging an obligation of juʃtice; and of conʃcience.
Sweet saint! have no recourʃe to juʃtification
Truʃt to penitence alone, whoʃe healing dews can
remove the only speck upon your purity in this
firʃt inʃtance of tranʃgreʃsion! To my rightful
claim the governeʃs of this houʃe, and Lieutenant
governeʃs Dove join their fervent petition, that
you will let us hear from you soon, as an
attonement to me, & a gratification to their
affectionate solicitude.
All unite in compliments to Mrs. Hamilton
& you. Believe me
Dr. Miranda
Your moʃt faithful & cordial
friend & servt.
R Glover
P.S. If lovely Catherine
be return'd, embrace her in
behalf of all here, I mean my
own houʃe, not all Bath; we are
too much diʃpos'd to keep her to ourʃelves[4]
Author of
Leonidas
&c.
Decbr. 1777[5]
St. James's Palace
London
[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. A variation to the Proverb ‘no joy without alloy’ (sometimes also ‘annoy’) (OED s.v. joy n. C3. Accessed 19-06-2020).
2. This word has been marked by a circle around it drawn in pencil.
3. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night: 'She sat like patience on a monument/smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?' Act 2 sc. iv, ll. 111-112.
4. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.
5. This annotation is written vertically on the right-hand side of the page.
6. This annotation is written vertically in the bottom-right corner of the page.
7. Seal fragment, in black wax.
Normalised Text
Dear Miranda
My own recovery since my arrival at this
place hath not produced a satisfaction without
alloy to myself; who, growing well, had the
mortification of seeing at the same time the
character of invalid transferred from me to my
two companions, poor wife and poor dove. Confined
for a whole week by severe colds, one hung her
head, the other dropped her wing; the most brilliant
sunshine would often entice them to the windows,
which command the whole extent of our
delightful situation in the Circus; there they
saw a large circumference all alive & crowded with
hats, cloaks, capuchins, petticoats, ribbons and shoestrings
of all colours in sprightly motion to the
morning diversions; in the evening they heard
the repeated cry of chair, chair, all in a hurry
to balls, concerts, theatre, cards &ca: they saw, &
each sat like a Patience on a monument, though
not always smiling on grief; they heard, till they
were tired, & then were very glad to hear me read to
them, while they plied the needle. A propos;
what book think you, my dear Miranda, was
read to them by your most devoted though
utterly forgotten slave? The life & adventures of
Robinson Crusoe -- The wolves are in the first
volume; Miranda hath lost her wager; she hath
not paid it; and what is worse, my taking up
the pen first irretrievably disables her from ever
discharging an obligation of justice; and of conscience.
Sweet saint! have no recourse to justification
Trust to penitence alone, whose healing dews can
remove the only speck upon your purity in this
first instance of transgression! To my rightful
claim the governess of this house, and Lieutenant
governess Dove join their fervent petition, that
you will let us hear from you soon, as an
atonement to me, & a gratification to their
affectionate solicitude.
All unite in compliments to Mrs. Hamilton
& you. Believe me
Dear Miranda
Your most faithful & cordial
friend & servant
Richard Glover
P.S. If lovely Catherine
be returned, embrace her in
behalf of all here, I mean my
own house, not all Bath; we are
too much disposed to keep her to ourselves
St. James's Palace
London
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 Richard Glover to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/13/2
Correspondence Details
Sender: Richard Glover
Place sent: Bath
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 14 December 1777
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Richard Glover to Mary Hamilton. He writes that since he has been in Bath for his health he has been mortified by seeing 'the character of invalid transferred from me to my two companions'. His wife and daughter have been confined for a week with colds. The sunshine would draw them both to the window where they had a view of 'a large circumference all alive & crowded with strings of all colours in sprightly motion to the morning diversions'. In the evening all they could hear were cries of 'chair, chair' as people hurried to balls, concerts and theatres. He notes that they saw all but that each 'sat like Patience on a monument' whilst he read to them.
Dated at Bath.
Length: 1 sheet, 375 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 19 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: 20 October 2023