Diplomatic Text
I am very Sorry for the Cause of my Dear Miʃs
Hamiltons Sillence -- we heartily wish yr Pappa & Mamma
the entire Recovery of their Healths with every thing that
can make Liffe agreeable to You & them. Accept & offer
them from us all our best Wishes for many Happy
returns of the Saison: as its generaly a Merry makeing
time I hope you'll be all able to enjoy it as
Such. As to us we are at present Well indeed we
have had our Share of Sickneʃs as well as you
since we parted -- as to me I'm so Unweildy I shall
not be sorry when the time comes that is to confine
me altogether I might now return Mrs Betty Isteds Card
with great truth were I to return to Northampton -- & Say
I am too big to go Visitting -- however like her I still
contrive to crawll about amongst my friends people
here are much leʃs Babylonians than with you they
are an Honest kind good Sort of People -- live well
& are very ready to give their friends a part of their
good things No Election disputes & but litle party of any
kind amongst people of any fashion though the Division
of the Fens bred horrid Riots but since we have been
here all goes Smooth -- . I hope you do us the Justice to
bellieve we heartily regreate the present Interuption
of the pleasures we proposed ourselves in yr Neighbour=
=hood & Society & that we shall ever Esteem ourselves Happy
in any Oportunity to Renew it; but otherwise we have
changed much for the better especialy as Mr Samuels
House extravagantly dear as it was would have proved
too Small for the Augmentation we hope for to our
familly -- here we have an Excellent House, room enough
& plenty of good Furniture -- . I agree wt yr Pappa
in thinking the Ruʃsian dispatch was sent to the
Second hand first; the Hurry they arewere in I fansy made
them not send above one Letter to a familly to be trans
mitted through the different Branches of it -- : I imagine
they are now more at Leisure haveing received a long
Letter Yesterday from yr Aunt -- my Br: is remarkably well &
the rest very much so; their own House not yet fitted
up to receive them they are all in good Spiritts & she
infinatly pleas'd wt their Situation & the Usage they meet
with -- so its to be hoped all will go well to the end wt
them. What a schocking affair was that of Mr Ardens:
Im sorry Mrs Isted trains her Eleve's no better & hope
the Widow will alwise remain so. Adieu my Dear Miʃs
Hamilton pray write soon & bellieve me Ever most
Sincearly Yours &c &c &c
M A Napier
Enclose my Letter under Covers
to John Hope Esqr. M: P: at
His House Broad Street
London
& send me all yr News
& wt yr Elections are doing
for ------------ its not over yet.[1]
[2]
[3] [4]
To --
Miʃs Hamilton
at the Honble: Ch: Hamilton's
free
J. Hope M[:P:]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.
2. A faint FREE frank in red ink to right of postscript, under signature. The bottom of the page has been cut away, preserving only the address on the other side.
3. The address is in the hand of the provider of the frank, John Hope, then MP for Linlithgowshire. It is written vertically.
4. FREE frank in red ink above address. Round duty mark in black ink, dated 29 December.
Normalised Text
I am very Sorry for the Cause of my Dear Miss
Hamiltons Silence -- we heartily wish your Pappa & Mamma
the entire Recovery of their Healths with every thing that
can make Life agreeable to You & them. Accept & offer
them from us all our best Wishes for many Happy
returns of the Saison: as it's generally a Merry making
time I hope you'll be all able to enjoy it as
Such. As to us we are at present Well indeed we
have had our Share of Sickness as well as you
since we parted -- as to me I'm so Unwieldy I shall
not be sorry when the time comes that is to confine
me altogether I might now return Mrs Betty Isteds Card
with great truth were I to return to Northampton -- & Say
I am too big to go Visiting -- however like her I still
contrive to crawl about amongst my friends people
here are much less Babylonians than with you they
are an Honest kind good Sort of People -- live well
& are very ready to give their friends a part of their
good things No Election disputes & but little party of any
kind amongst people of any fashion though the Division
of the Fens bred horrid Riots but since we have been
here all goes Smooth -- . I hope you do us the Justice to
believe we heartily regret the present Interruption
of the pleasures we proposed ourselves in your Neighbourhood
& Society & that we shall ever Esteem ourselves Happy
in any Opportunity to Renew it; but otherwise we have
changed much for the better especially as Mr Samuels
House extravagantly dear as it was would have proved
too Small for the Augmentation we hope for to our
family -- here we have an Excellent House, room enough
& plenty of good Furniture -- . I agree with your Pappa
in thinking the Russian dispatch was sent to the
Second hand first; the Hurry they were in I fancy made
them not send above one Letter to a family to be transmitted
through the different Branches of it -- : I imagine
they are now more at Leisure having received a long
Letter Yesterday from your Aunt -- my Brother is remarkably well &
the rest very much so; their own House not yet fitted
up to receive them they are all in good Spirits & she
infinitely pleased with their Situation & the Usage they meet
with -- so it's to be hoped all will go well to the end with
them. What a shocking affair was that of Mr Ardens:
Im sorry Mrs Isted trains her Eleve's no better & hope
the Widow will alwise remain so. Adieu my Dear Miss
Hamilton pray write soon & believe me Ever most
Sincerely Yours &c &c &c
Mary Anne Napier
Enclose my Letter under Covers
to John Hope Esqr. Member of Parliament at
His House Broad Street
London
& send me all your News
& what your Elections are doing
for ------------ it's not over yet.
To --
Miss Hamilton
at the Honourable Charles Hamilton's
free
John Hope M:P:
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 Anne Napier to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/4
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Mary Anne Napier (née Cathcart)
Place sent: Boston
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton (certainty: high)
Date sent: 20 December 1768
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Anne Napier [later Lady Napier] to Mary Hamilton, expressing hope for a full recovery for Hamilton's mother and father. Napier writes of her own family's health and of her latest pregnancy, noting that if she was still in Northampton, she would be 'too big to go Visitting [sic]'.
Dated at Boston [Lincolnshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 520 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 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Tiffany Winterburn, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)
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