Diplomatic Text
22
Horton August 11th 1787 --
I received your long expected and wished for letter two
Days after I had written mine, so that my dear Friend
tho' I am very grateful for it and that it made me
very happy, you will recollect that you still owe me
a long letter, & will now owe me two. I should have
increased your debt to me sooner, but I have been
from home, & when at home, have been as lazy
and idle as heat can make me. your letter
indeed short as it was, was a great relief to my
mind, I was grown very anxious about you, & the
more so as Lady Wake whom I had seen two or three
times, was in the same ignorance of about you, as
myself -- thank God all your anxieties are over as
well as mine -- Mr D. quite recovered, & your little
Louisa got over inoculation, which indeed there
was little doubt of, but yet it is a comfortable thing[1]
------ to know that she runs no longer any risk of
infection. Pray my dear write to me on the subject
of your plans for the Autumn & of the probabilities
of my seeing you here, for as for any of your being in
London, I suppose there is leʃs chance than ever of it
since your family is increased. Ly Wake tells me that
that she reckons upon your coming to spend sometime
with her -- when will that sometime be? can it not
be managed so as to succeed a little sometime here?
I have told you when I shall be here, & that I will change
my fortnights, if I can by so doing poʃsibly catch you
here -- pray my dear Friend turn over all this in
your mind and do what you can for us.
I am very well indeed notwistanding what I suffer
from the heat -- Bell has been confined to her bed
these two Days with a violent fever, which is howeve[r]
thank God not attended with any alarming symto[ms]
she is just got up & I am writing in her room -- she
desires her kind love to you, & begs you to come
my Brother is at this minute at home, but is
going into Herefordshire in a few Days -- we spent
some very pleasant days last week at Wakefield
with Ld and Ly Euston[2] who are both charming People
so happy, so fond of each other, so contented to live always
in the Country upon a very small fortune -- I hope
it will soon be somewhat increased by their
coming to live entirely at Wakefield, I shall be
delighted to have them so near us -- I had not seen
her since her Marriage, and hardly knew her, or
could discover any traces of her former beauty, so
exceʃsivly is she altered -- but she is altered likewise
and improved in her manner & disposition, & grown
vastly pleasing & interesting.
we dined with Ly Wake last Saturday -- she was then
very well but has since had a bad cold which prevent[ed]
her coming here to day, I think Miʃs Wake improved
in her manner & looks -- she is not in good Health
tho' & eats nothing -- we have a little addittion to our
family, & a great one to our occupations & amuseme[nts]
in Mr Digby's little Girl, whom we all wished to
remove from an infected air & a scene of misery
& confusion, where she could not be attended to & whe[re]
her Health was suffering -- she is a sweet child as to
disposition and very quick -- poor Ly Lucy is dying
& in the m[os]t cruel manner -- Mr D. left her only
for a few hours to deposit his little Charge here I
pray every day for her release, nobody was every better
prepared in every sense of the word, for another world
& I fear much that Mr Digby will suffer eʃsentia[lly]
from his wonderful attentions to her -- he scarce
quits Ly Lucy an hour in the 24 nor has done
it for Months, & that he should not yet have
sunk under the weight of such continued anxiety of mind, is
nota daily subject of astonishment to us -- considering
too the infected air he is confined to, & that he is accust[om]ed
to take a great deal of violent exercise -- I was
interrupted in my letter yesterday by the obligati[on]
of dreʃsing to receive some neighbours who dined
here -- the Mansels amongst others -- She has
always been my aversion -- thank God it is over
this is Sunday & I am concluding my letter
before Church -- Bell is a little better -- the fever is
gone but a headache and languor remain, which
are disagreeable symptoms, but I hope they
will go off -- Have you met with the Lounger
a new Scotch periodical work? it is abused,[3] but
I think there are some charming papers in it
particularly all those signed Z. read it --
▼
adieu my dear Friend, God bleʃs you, remember
me to Mr Dickenson -- & write soon -- adieu
ever affce: &c CMG --
Honble Miʃs Gunning[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The inserted 'a' should have been deleted again when 'thing' was cancelled.
2. Lord Euston (as 'Geo: Fitzroy') seems to have provided the frank for HAM/1/15/1/20.
3. ‘Misguided, mistaken; deceived’ (OED s.v. abused adj. 1).
4. Postmark 'NORT[HAMPTON]' to left of address when unfolded.
5. Moved address panel here from the middle of the page when unfolded, written vertically.
6. This annotation is written upside down at the bottom of the page.
Normalised Text
Horton August 11th 1787 --
I received your long expected and wished for letter two
Days after I had written mine, so that my dear Friend
though I am very grateful for it and that it made me
very happy, you will recollect that you still owe me
a long letter, & will now owe me two. I should have
increased your debt to me sooner, but I have been
from home, & when at home, have been as lazy
and idle as heat can make me. your letter
indeed short as it was, was a great relief to my
mind, I was grown very anxious about you, & the
more so as Lady Wake whom I had seen two or three
times, was in the same ignorance about you, as
myself -- thank God all your anxieties are over as
well as mine -- Mr Dickenson quite recovered, & your little
Louisa got over inoculation, which indeed there
was little doubt of, but yet it is a comfortable
to know that she runs no longer any risk of
infection. Pray my dear write to me on the subject
of your plans for the Autumn & of the probabilities
of my seeing you here, for as for any of your being in
London, I suppose there is less chance than ever of it
since your family is increased. Lady Wake tells me
that she reckons upon your coming to spend some time
with her -- when will that sometime be? can it not
be managed so as to succeed a little sometime here?
I have told you when I shall be here, & that I will change
my fortnights, if I can by so doing possibly catch you
here -- pray my dear Friend turn over all this in
your mind and do what you can for us.
I am very well indeed notwithstanding what I suffer
from the heat -- Bell has been confined to her bed
these two Days with a violent fever, which is however
thank God not attended with any alarming symptoms
she is just got up & I am writing in her room -- she
desires her kind love to you, & begs you to come
my Brother is at this minute at home, but is
going into Herefordshire in a few Days -- we spent
some very pleasant days last week at Wakefield
with Lord and Lady Euston who are both charming People
so happy, so fond of each other, so contented to live always
in the Country upon a very small fortune -- I hope
it will soon be somewhat increased by their
coming to live entirely at Wakefield, I shall be
delighted to have them so near us -- I had not seen
her since her Marriage, and hardly knew her, or
could discover any traces of her former beauty, so
excessively is she altered -- but she is altered likewise
and improved in her manner & disposition, & grown
vastly pleasing & interesting.
we dined with Lady Wake last Saturday -- she was then
very well but has since had a bad cold which prevented
her coming here to day, I think Miss Wake improved
in her manner & looks -- she is not in good Health
though & eats nothing -- we have a little addition to our
family, & a great one to our occupations & amusements
in Mr Digby's little Girl, whom we all wished to
remove from an infected air & a scene of misery
& confusion, where she could not be attended to & where
her Health was suffering -- she is a sweet child as to
disposition and very quick -- poor Lady Lucy is dying
& in the most cruel manner -- Mr Digby left her only
for a few hours to deposit his little Charge here I
pray every day for her release, nobody was ever better
prepared in every sense of the word, for another world
& I fear much that Mr Digby will suffer essentially
from his wonderful attentions to her -- he scarce
quits Lady Lucy an hour in the 24 nor has done
it for Months, & that he should not yet have
sunk under the weight of such continued anxiety of mind, is
a daily subject of astonishment to us -- considering
too the infected air he is confined to, & that he is accustomed
to take a great deal of violent exercise -- I was
interrupted in my letter yesterday by the obligation
of dressing to receive some neighbours who dined
here -- the Mansels amongst others -- She has
always been my aversion -- thank God it is over
this is Sunday & I am concluding my letter
before Church -- Bell is a little better -- the fever is
gone but a headache and languor remain, which
are disagreeable symptoms, but I hope they
will go off -- Have you met with the Lounger
a new Scotch periodical work? it is abused, but
I think there are some charming papers in it
particularly all those signed Z. read it --
▼
adieu my dear Friend, God bless you, remember
me to Mr Dickenson -- & write soon -- adieu
ever affectionate &c Charlotte Margaret Gunning --
Mrs Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derbyshire
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/1/15/1/23
Correspondence Details
Sender: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)
Place sent: Horton, Northamptonshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 11 August 1787
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Gunning to Mary Hamilton, conveying general news. She writes on Louisa Dickenson's smallpox inoculation: Hamilton must be relieved that there is now no risk of infection. She asks that Hamilton write to her of her plans and whether they might meet at Horton, as London seems unlikely. Lady Wake has told Gunning that Hamilton may be spending some time with her. She asks when will this 'sometime be'. She writes of friends, including Mr Digby and his young daughter. She notes that Digby's wife Lucy is dying [Lady Lucy Fox-Strangeways, married Colonel Digby in 1771, and died in August 1787]. She recommends a periodical called The Lounger to Hamilton.
Dated at Horton.
Original reference No. 22.
Length: 1 sheet, 858 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
Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo
Transliterator: Luke Sharma, 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