Diplomatic Text
20
St James's Saturday 10th Feb --
1787
My dear Friend! Bell who arrived last night from
Bath made me nicely & sincerely happy by giving
me the most comfortable account poʃsible of your situati[on]
health and spirits -- I wanted this I aʃsure you, & the
aʃsurance of her having seen you three times since you
lay in, for as I had heard of it only by chance, from
Ly Stormont whom I accidentally met, I was very
uneasy about you -- My Father had forgot to mention
it, & when he did, it was without any circumstances
or particulars, to make me feel comfortable. Mr Dickn
was I conclude too much engaged in communicating
the information to all your Friends, I had I own, hoped
that he would have given me one line -- & now my
dear Friend, let me tell you, how I rejoice with you &
Mr Dickenson in this event, so happily got over, & in
your happineʃs which I suppose is not to be expreʃsed
in having a dear little child to love and to cherish &
educate, what a delightful task! what a continual
source of happineʃs! an object of love & anxiety & attentio[n]
& a continued return of all the sentiments it inspires
you with -- I need not ask whether you nurse it yoursel[f]
I think I know your sentiments upon that subject --
well you are at this minute by far the happiest being
I am acquainted with, & it does me good to think of you
God bleʃs you!
I thank you my dear for your letter, which I ought to
have answerd ere now -- I answered & thanked you for it
mentally, & in my heart -- did you feel that?
I continue very well thank God, & am in good spirits
for I am occupied constantly -- I am deeply engaged
in Euclid at present, & have been induced [to] take up this
long neglected study by a present that Sir G. Elliott[1]
has made me of a new edition of that Book, & by his
coming to read it with me -- he once accidentally
discovered (in an aʃsembly) that I understood something
of it, & that one word which betrayed me to him & to him
alone, interested him about me, & made him desirin[g]
of my acquaintance -- I cultivated it a little last
summer, & he is just come to Town for the meeting
of P. I have seen him twice here, & we have read of
that & other things a great deal, & certainly with mor[e]
pleasure to me, & advantage too, than I should alone.
I do not know whether you are acquainted with him
my dear, but he is a most sensible well informed
good man, with a gentleneʃs & elegance of manners
that particularly please me --
I am reading too by way of recreation, thro' the set of
french Memoirs, now publishing, from the 13th century
to this day, I find the stile, language & manners of
that early age extremely pleasing from their great
simplicity, and I am more interested in this
lecture than I could have expected -- I am just now
attending Mr Walker's lectures, my view was merely
that of accompanying Ly Carlisle's Daughter who goes for
the first time, but I find great pleasure in recollecting
what I formerly new, & fixing that knowledge in my
mind by fresh experiments -- if you ask how a
fine London Lady finds time for all this (besides musick
masters 4 times per week) I will tell you my dear th[at]
I am not a fine Lady, & that I get up before 8 in the
morning, that is the secret -- my Evenings it is
true are all engaged, but very little in the world --
the Queen twice a week & the others sitting with my
Friend's, oftenest with Ly Carlisle, sometimes the
opera -- that is my life -- ------------------
I thank you my dear Friend for all your infor[mation]
about my Sister -- Nothing can be more ------
than your inquiries & observations -- when ------
has been some time in Town I shall write you
word what I think of her -- adieu my dear
Friend -- God in heaven bleʃs you -- I am interrupt[ed]
& stopped, so I must leave you -- adieu -- adieu!
[3]
Honble- Miʃs Gunning
Feby. 10th. 1787[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Possibly Sir Gilbert Eliot, later Gilbert Eliot Murray Kynynmound, first earl of Minto (1751-1814) (ODNB).
2. Postmark '10 FE' above address when unfolded, indicating that the letter went through the post on 10 February 1787.
3. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
4. This annotation is written vertically on the left-hand side of the page.
Normalised Text
St James's Saturday 10th February --
My dear Friend! Bell who arrived last night from
Bath made me nicely & sincerely happy by giving
me the most comfortable account possible of your situation
health and spirits -- I wanted this I assure you, & the
assurance of her having seen you three times since you
lay in, for as I had heard of it only by chance, from
Lady Stormont whom I accidentally met, I was very
uneasy about you -- My Father had forgotten to mention
it, & when he did, it was without any circumstances
or particulars, to make me feel comfortable. Mr Dickenson
was I conclude too much engaged in communicating
the information to all your Friends, I had I own, hoped
that he would have given me one line -- & now my
dear Friend, let me tell you, how I rejoice with you &
Mr Dickenson in this event, so happily got over, & in
your happiness which I suppose is not to be expressed
in having a dear little child to love and to cherish &
educate, what a delightful task! what a continual
source of happiness! an object of love & anxiety & attention
& a continued return of all the sentiments it inspires
you with -- I need not ask whether you nurse it yourself
I think I know your sentiments upon that subject --
well you are at this minute by far the happiest being
I am acquainted with, & it does me good to think of you
God bless you!
I thank you my dear for your letter, which I ought to
have answered ere now -- I answered & thanked you for it
mentally, & in my heart -- did you feel that?
I continue very well thank God, & am in good spirits
for I am occupied constantly -- I am deeply engaged
in Euclid at present, & have been induced to take up this
long neglected study by a present that Sir G. Elliott
has made me of a new edition of that Book, & by his
coming to read it with me -- he once accidentally
discovered (in an assembly) that I understood something
of it, & that one word which betrayed me to him & to him
alone, interested him about me, & made him desiring
of my acquaintance -- I cultivated it a little last
summer, & he is just come to Town for the meeting
of P. I have seen him twice here, & we have read of
that & other things a great deal, & certainly with more
pleasure to me, & advantage too, than I should alone.
I do not know whether you are acquainted with him
my dear, but he is a most sensible well informed
good man, with a gentleness & elegance of manners
that particularly please me --
I am reading too by way of recreation, through the set of
french Memoirs, now publishing, from the 13th century
to this day, I find the style, language & manners of
that early age extremely pleasing from their great
simplicity, and I am more interested in this
lecture than I could have expected -- I am just now
attending Mr Walker's lectures, my view was merely
that of accompanying Lady Carlisle's Daughter who goes for
the first time, but I find great pleasure in recollecting
what I formerly knew, & fixing that knowledge in my
mind by fresh experiments -- if you ask how a
fine London Lady finds time for all this (besides music
masters 4 times per week) I will tell you my dear that
I am not a fine Lady, & that I get up before 8 in the
morning, that is the secret -- my Evenings it is
true are all engaged, but very little in the world --
the Queen twice a week & the others sitting with my
Friend's, oftenest with Lady Carlisle, sometimes the
opera -- that is my life -- ------------------
I thank you my dear Friend for all your information
about my Sister -- Nothing can be more ------
than your inquiries & observations -- when ------
has been some time in Town I shall write you
word what I think of her -- adieu my dear
Friend -- God in heaven bless you -- I am interrupted
& stopped, so I must leave you -- adieu -- adieu!
No 2 Abbey Street
Bath
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 Margaret Gunning to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/15/1/19
Correspondence Details
Sender: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Bath
Date sent: 10 February 1787
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Gunning to Mary Hamilton, containing general news. Her sister has returned from Bath with good news of Hamilton's health and the birth of Hamilton's daughter. She also writes of books and of attending a lecture given by Mr Walker. She intended to go to accompany Lady Carlisle's daughter, who had not attended before, but she found 'great pleasure in recollecting what I formerly new [sic], and fixing that knowledge in my mind'. The letter continues on Gunning's daily routine. She is constantly engaged in the evenings 'but very little in the world'. She sees the Queen twice a week, and sometimes attends the Opera.
Dated at St James's [London].
Original reference No. 20.
Length: 1 sheet, 718 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Daniel Grogan, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2016)
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