Diplomatic Text
I recd. Your dear letter ye. day after I had sent one which
I would give a great deal I had not written -- let an act of
oblivion be paʃs'd over it, and believe my present aʃsurances
that I harbour not a doubt of Your affection. I am quite
shock'd to think You have been so ill, I hope you will
take every proper precaution not to get fresh cold --
I think riding on Horseback would be good for You,
gentle exercise without fatigue will restore your strenght
better than medicines -- what a melancholy situation
indeed! surrounded by Invalids, I hope soon to hear
You are all well again & then I shalllet me hear no more
complaints of depreʃsion of Spirits. -- Hero is expected to
day. It is whisper'd that Lord Fairford means to propose
to Miʃs Murray -- I have not had this from any good authority.
Rhea's Princeʃs Royal eldest Daughter is quite well & I think never
look'd better. Lady Dartrey came here on Saturday to
Dinner & stays till Wednesday. no great satisfaction
do I enjoy from her being under ye. same Roof wth. me
for I never see her but in ye.
Drawing Room I wish a certain Dʃs.
& her Daughter wld. not come so
regularly upon the T—— I think
they lose their own consequence in doing so,
I spoke to them on Saty. they had not heard You were
so ill. I inclose a letter for Your amusement from
Perfecta. return it & do not let any person see it.
Adieu for to day. I have as You will easily perceive
written in haste
Ever Ever Yours
M: H:
Honble Miʃs Gunning[1]
Horton
Newport Pagnel
Bucks
Free
Wake[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
I received Your dear letter the day after I had sent one which
I would give a great deal I had not written -- let an act of
oblivion be passed over it, and believe my present assurances
that I harbour not a doubt of Your affection. I am quite
shocked to think You have been so ill, I hope you will
take every proper precaution not to get fresh cold --
I think riding on Horseback would be good for You,
gentle exercise without fatigue will restore your strength
better than medicines -- what a melancholy situation
indeed! surrounded by Invalids, I hope soon to hear
You are all well again & then let me hear no more
complaints of depression of Spirits. -- Hero is expected to
day. It is whispered that Lord Fairford means to propose
to Miss Murray -- I have not had this from any good authority.
Rhea's eldest Daughter is quite well & I think never
looked better. Lady Dartrey came here on Saturday to
Dinner & stays till Wednesday. no great satisfaction
do I enjoy from her being under the same Roof with me
for I never see her but in the
Drawing Room I wish a certain Duchess
& her Daughter would not come so
regularly upon the Terrace I think
they lose their own consequence in doing so,
I spoke to them on Saturday they had not heard You were
so ill. I enclose a letter for Your amusement from
Perfecta. return it & do not let any person see it.
Adieu for to day. I have as You will easily perceive
written in haste
Ever Ever Yours
Mary Hamilton
Honourable Miss Gunning
Horton
Newport Pagnell
Buckinghamshire
Free
Wake
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 Mary Hamilton to Charlotte Margaret Gunning
Shelfmark: HAM/1/15/2/22
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: Windsor (certainty: high)
Addressee: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)
Place received: Horton, Northamptonshire
Date sent: 2 July 1782
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Charlotte Gunning. Hamilton has received a letter in response of her own of 28 June 1782 and assures Gunning that she does not doubt her affection for her (see HAM/1/15/2/21), and that she had not known that she was so ill. She advises her to take care of herself and suggests that riding on horseback would be beneficial, as 'gentle exercise without fatigue will restore your streng[th] better than medicines'. She continues with news of friends, including the rumour of a proposal of marriage to Miss Murray, and the news that Lady Dartrey is currently staying at the Queen's House but that Hamilton is only able to see her in the drawing room. She reports that the Princess Royal is well and ends her letter in noting that she will send her a letter from 'Perfecta' [Lady Charlotte Finch] for her amusement, but that she must return it and not show it to anyone.
Original reference No. 19.
Length: 1 sheet, 286 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: Donald Alasdair Morrison, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Jack Jones, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted November 2014)
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: 10 December 2021