Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/15/1/29

Letter from Charlotte Margaret Gunning to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


28[1]

28[2]

My dear Friend!

So you never have been in Town
and I shall leave it without
seeing you -- Ly Binning was
obliged to go to Bath & could not
receive me, so I there miʃsed the
opportunity I should have had
of paying you a visit -- I have
done nothing I liked & have
been diʃsappointed in all my
little plans or hopes of enjoymen[t]
Mrs Stuart whom after above
two months absence & bad Health
at Bath, I should have been
extremely desirous of seeing,
does not return till Saturday
the day after I go -- I have been
kept here till I am perfectly
stupid & enervated & have hardly
strength & spirits left to carry
me away. I have survived all
my Friends & most of my      ▼
acquaintance, & I am tired of


seeing the pale faces of those who
remain -- I ought not to give myself
airs for I am as pale as any of
them tho' it is not with raking
for I have been in bed before 12
for these three weeks past, but
literally with ennui & disgust --
it is with the sincerest pleasure
& with more alacrity than I though[t]
myself capable of, that I arranged
& packed up my books &c --
for Horton, where I am now
going for 5 Weeks exclusive of
my leave which I shall equally
have in November & December --
the King's journey has been, or
rather will be, of great service
to me, for it sets me at liberty
till the next Drawingroom
the 14th of August -- I sincerely
hope it will be as beneficial
to him in his health, & as agreea[ble]
as an excursion --
My dear Friend let me hear
from you, & about you, Mr D——


and your dear little Louisa whom
I hope Richmond air agrees
perfectly with -- tell me your
plans, & whether there is any
chance of your coming into
Northamtonshire before the 14th
of August, I should be glad of
any certainty of seeing you, but
I think you will be able to stay
longer with us if you come
in November -- Come you must
I am determined upon it & you
shall no longer be let off -- I
shall write to you when I am
settled at Horton to tell you how
happy & well I am, & how much
better it will be for you if you
will come to be happy with us
& to make us so -- adieu, God
bleʃs you my dear Friend,
may you always be as happy
& well as I wish you -- God bleʃs
you -- adieu --
      Wednesday night July  - 9th
1788



remember me very kindly
to Mr Dickenson --

Honble. Miʃs
Gunning July
9th. 1788[3]

28[4]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. This number is written vertically.
 2. Moved from right margin at bottom of page, written vertically.
 3. These three lines are written upside down at the bottom of the page.
 4. This number appears upside down at the bottom of the page, as photographed.

Normalised Text




My dear Friend!

So you never have been in Town
and I shall leave it without
seeing you -- Lady Binning was
obliged to go to Bath & could not
receive me, so I there missed the
opportunity I should have had
of paying you a visit -- I have
done nothing I liked & have
been disappointed in all my
little plans or hopes of enjoyment
Mrs Stuart whom after above
two months absence & bad Health
at Bath, I should have been
extremely desirous of seeing,
does not return till Saturday
the day after I go -- I have been
kept here till I am perfectly
stupid & enervated & have hardly
strength & spirits left to carry
me away. I have survived all
my Friends & most of my      ▼
acquaintance, & I am tired of


seeing the pale faces of those who
remain -- I ought not to give myself
airs for I am as pale as any of
them though it is not with raking
for I have been in bed before 12
for these three weeks past, but
literally with ennui & disgust --
it is with the sincerest pleasure
& with more alacrity than I thought
myself capable of, that I arranged
& packed up my books &c --
for Horton, where I am now
going for 5 Weeks exclusive of
my leave which I shall equally
have in November & December --
the King's journey has been, or
rather will be, of great service
to me, for it sets me at liberty
till the next Drawingroom
the 14th of August -- I sincerely
hope it will be as beneficial
to him in his health, & as agreeable
as an excursion --
My dear Friend let me hear
from you, & about you, Mr Dickenson


and your dear little Louisa whom
I hope Richmond air agrees
perfectly with -- tell me your
plans, & whether there is any
chance of your coming into
Northamtonshire before the 14th
of August, I should be glad of
any certainty of seeing you, but
I think you will be able to stay
longer with us if you come
in November -- Come you must
I am determined upon it & you
shall no longer be let off -- I
shall write to you when I am
settled at Horton to tell you how
happy & well I am, & how much
better it will be for you if you
will come to be happy with us
& to make us so -- adieu, God
bless you my dear Friend,
may you always be as happy
& well as I wish you -- God bless
you -- adieu --
      Wednesday night July 9th



remember me very kindly
to Mr Dickenson --




(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. This number is written vertically.
 2. Moved from right margin at bottom of page, written vertically.
 3. These three lines are written upside down at the bottom of the page.
 4. This number appears upside down at the bottom of the page, as photographed.

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/1/15/1/29

Correspondence Details

Sender: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)

Place sent: London (certainty: low)

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Richmond (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 9 July 1788

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Charlotte Gunning to Mary Hamilton. She writes of her disappointment at not seeing Hamilton either in Bath or London and also that she has been set 'at liberty' from court until the next drawing room, as the King is to be away.
    Original reference No. 28.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 445 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: Nicole Tamer, 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

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