HAM/1/19/65
Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
[1]
42d- Sep 6 |74
Yours My dear Ward came to hand only a few
hours ago, occasioned by my having been from
home on a jaunt to Stirlingshire and Schaw
Park /Ld Cathcarts/ otherwise you may be per=
swaded I should not have been so long in
anʃwering so kind a letter from one I have
so great a regard for & who I am extremely
sensible does me great honor by her friend=
=ship, which I am in hopes will still con=
=tinue, all I shall ʃay in regard to yours, is
that it was wrote like yourself with
that delicacy, friendship, & good ʃense particular=
ly the Characteristic of Miʃs Hamilton that few
or none couldcan come up too, Believe me that
I am extremely obliged to you & Mrs Hamilton
for that kind concern you both shew to me
& I thank God my health is ʃince I have been
in the country greatly mended for the
better & so is my spirits tho I must ʃay
very, very little effects both at times, tho
I do everything in my Power to keep both as
they should be & am in hopes that if I can
get this Winter over I shall reestablish my
health entirely. I was extremely obliged to
you for your long letter ʃome weeks ago
with your most entertaining description
of the places you saw with Lin your jaunt with
Lady Wake to Bath &c but you will forgive
me in not anʃwering that letter particularly
till I get home & have more time on my
hands than I poʃsibly can have abroad
tho I must just mention one thing which is
that if you do not take a little more care
of your health than you have done lately
by your own account, you may ruin your
constitution entirely, allow me to scold a little
my friendship for my dear Ward entittles me
to do it to Miʃs Hamilton, you are too sanguine
(if I may be allowed to make use of the word) in
your pursuits of any thing you like, for which
reaʃon after its over your body suffers & you
get a fever which brings you to deaths door
& you are surprised that your constitution
of body, is not as strong as that of your mind
believe me my dear Ward too much fatigue
is not the thing for you, you think yourself
much stronger than you really are, witneʃs
your meeting with your mama after your
jaunt, those fitts will become more frequent
if great care is not taken to prevent ʃuch
a sensibility getting the better of a Constitution
not the strongest in the world. If I have ʃaid
too much I beg pardon of Miʃs Hamilton and
make no doubt but any ward will forgive
my doing my duty as a Guardian. You may
be ʃure I shall ʃend you ʃome more of these
odes if I can get them but the author is not
always in a humour to oblige me and has
really threatned that the last I sent you
would be the last of his compoʃition in
that way & he is rather of the Mule Kind
when he takes it into his head & is not
fond of that sort of writing however I
shall do my best to oblige you
Lord Cathcart & family join my three
eldest young folks in best wishes to you
& Mrs Hamilton & I hope you will not
forget me to her in the most affct manner
& Compliments to all my friends in North
hampton -- Has you & Mrs --- s made it
up yet? that is a story you will not trust
me with however believe me to be wth
the greatest truth My dearest Ward
Yrs most affctly
Shaw Park Sepr, 6th- 1774
Lord Napiers letters
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Yours My dear Ward came to hand only a few
hours ago, occasioned by my having been from
home on a jaunt to Stirlingshire and Schaw
Park /Lord Cathcarts/ otherwise you may be persuaded
I should not have been so long in
answering so kind a letter from one I have
so great a regard for & who I am extremely
sensible does me great honour by her friendship
, which I am in hopes will still continue
, all I shall say in regard to yours, is
that it was written like yourself with
that delicacy, friendship, & good sense particularly
the Characteristic of Miss Hamilton that few
or none can come up to, Believe me that
I am extremely obliged to you & Mrs Hamilton
for that kind concern you both show to me
& I thank God my health is since I have been
in the country greatly mended for the
better & so is my spirits though I must say
very, very little effects both at times, though
I do everything in my Power to keep both as
they should be & am in hopes that if I can
get this Winter over I shall reestablish my
health entirely. I was extremely obliged to
you for your long letter some weeks ago
with your most entertaining description
of the places you saw in your jaunt with
Lady Wake to Bath &c but you will forgive
me in not answering that letter particularly
till I get home & have more time on my
hands than I possibly can have abroad
though I must just mention one thing which is
that if you do not take a little more care
of your health than you have done lately
by your own account, you may ruin your
constitution entirely, allow me to scold a little
my friendship for my dear Ward entitles me
to do it to Miss Hamilton, you are too sanguine
(if I may be allowed to make use of the word) in
your pursuits of any thing you like, for which
reason after it's over your body suffers & you
get a fever which brings you to deaths door
& you are surprised that your constitution
of body, is not as strong as that of your mind
believe me my dear Ward too much fatigue
is not the thing for you, you think yourself
much stronger than you really are, witness
your meeting with your mama after your
jaunt, those fits will become more frequent
if great care is not taken to prevent such
a sensibility getting the better of a Constitution
not the strongest in the world. If I have said
too much I beg pardon of Miss Hamilton and
make no doubt but any ward will forgive
my doing my duty as a Guardian. You may
be sure I shall send you some more of these
odes if I can get them but the author is not
always in a humour to oblige me and has
really threatened that the last I sent you
would be the last of his composition in
that way & he is rather of the Mule Kind
when he takes it into his head & is not
fond of that sort of writing however I
shall do my best to oblige you
Lord Cathcart & family join my three
eldest young folks in best wishes to you
& Mrs Hamilton & I hope you will not
forget me to her in the most affectionate manner
& Compliments to all my friends in Northampton
-- Has you & Mrs --- s made it
up yet? that is a story you will not trust
me with however believe me to be with
the greatest truth My dearest Ward
Yours most affectionately
Shaw Park September 6th- 1774
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 William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/65
Correspondence Details
Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord
Place sent: Clackmannanshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 6 September 1774
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, thanking
Hamilton and her mother for their concern. He writes of an earlier letter
that Hamilton had sent to him with a description of her visit to Bath and
cautions Hamilton to look after her health better and not to tire herself.
He scolds her noting that she is surprised that her ‘constitution of body is
not as strong as that of [...] [her] mind’ and that she is too enthusiastic
in her pursuits at what she likes and that she suffers and becomes ill
afterwards.
Napier ends his letter with a message of good wishes from Hamilton’s Uncle
Cathcart and his family.
Dated at Shaw Park.
Length: 1 sheet, 631 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 18 December 2020)
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