HAM/1/20/18
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
At last I have been honored
with a letter from you & as I find your
excuses are good, grant you a free
pardon for your late supposed offences.
I hardly know whether I walk upon my
head or my heels, having just returned
from Binning's Marriage, where every
thing & every body looked & spoke the
happineʃs they felt. Ly- Sophia was beautiful,
affectionate, & overcome with the sincere
congratulations she received and this day
paʃsed thro' Edinr- in her way to Tynning=
=home Lord Hadinton's Seat. I shall
follow her next week --
I don't like your
nervous fevers -- are you apt to be
Melancholy or Maggoty[1] -- I wish
I could have half an hour's conversation
with you, I should not fail of making
you laugh at least. The Locket shall
be sent to Mrs- Hunter accompany'd by
a letter from me containing the
Quinteʃsence of your good Wishes --
My Nonchalance is not
affected I aʃsure you. I have other crotchets
in my brain at present. A sincere attach=
=ment, even unto Marriage occupies my
thoughts. This is a secret unknown to
any of my family, but I trust to your
Prudence that it may remain so,
at least 'till I tell you that I find myself
agreable to the Fair One. She is of Noble
Alliance, handsome fortune, Amiable temper,
& such a person as my friends would wish
me to be connected with. To be plain
with you, I intend to make proposals
but not for some time yet. I likewise
confeʃs Mrs- Hunter's Marriage may
have an effect in hastening Mine. I
should be sorry to think that Dr Hs. Child
should ever inherit my Titles, at the
same time I sincerely wish my
Sister every good that can poʃsibly
happen to her.
Your Affair I delight in,
Was Mr- Stanhope a Widower, I should
have pitched upon him as your
humble Admirer --
Ly- Stormonts pride
will be lowered. Lord Cathcart is
married in America to a Miʃs Elliot
aged 16 -- a Girl -- of a Scotch
family -- Neice to the late Sir
Gilbert Elliot -- without a sixpence
& her father has Nine Children --
Ld- C—— appears to have been crazy. In
himself he will find little to comfort
him, having loaded his Estate with
Debt of his own contracting & by his
marriage perhaps entailed beggary
upon his Posterity -- It is a disagreable
Idea & I shall therefore drop it --
May heavenly Angels their wide wings display,
And guard thy Steps in ev'ry dangerous Way,
May all thy future days be blest with peace
And every hour, fresh springs of Joy increase,
In every state may you most happy be,
And when far distant off, pray think of me
Yours sincerely
Napier.
P.S. You see I have taken the hint about
the frank --
Miʃs Hamilton
St. James's
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘Full of whims and foolish fancies; freakish’ (OED s.v. maggoty adj. 1a. Accessed 16-09-2021).
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 5th- May 1779
At last I have been honoured
with a letter from you & as I find your
excuses are good, grant you a free
pardon for your late supposed offences.
I hardly know whether I walk upon my
head or my heels, having just returned
from Binning's Marriage, where every
thing & every body looked & spoke the
happiness they felt. Lady Sophia was beautiful,
affectionate, & overcome with the sincere
congratulations she received and this day
passed through Edinburgh in her way to Tynninghome
Lord Hadinton's Seat. I shall
follow her next week --
I don't like your
nervous fevers -- are you apt to be
Melancholy or Maggoty -- I wish
I could have half an hour's conversation
with you, I should not fail of making
you laugh at least. The Locket shall
be sent to Mrs- Hunter accompanied by
a letter from me containing the
Quintessence of your good Wishes --
My Nonchalance is not
affected I assure you. I have other crotchets
in my brain at present. A sincere attachment
, even unto Marriage occupies my
thoughts. This is a secret unknown to
any of my family, but I trust to your
Prudence that it may remain so,
at least till I tell you that I find myself
agreeable to the Fair One. She is of Noble
Alliance, handsome fortune, Amiable temper,
& such a person as my friends would wish
me to be connected with. To be plain
with you, I intend to make proposals
but not for some time yet. I likewise
confess Mrs- Hunter's Marriage may
have an effect in hastening Mine. I
should be sorry to think that Dr Hunters. Child
should ever inherit my Titles, at the
same time I sincerely wish my
Sister every good that can possibly
happen to her.
Your Affair I delight in,
Was Mr- a Widower, I should
have pitched upon him as your
humble Admirer --
Lady Stormonts pride
will be lowered. Lord Cathcart is
married in America to a Miss Elliot
aged 16 -- a Girl -- of a Scotch
family -- Niece to the late Sir
Gilbert Elliot -- without a sixpence
& her father has Nine Children --
Lord Cathcart appears to have been crazy. In
himself he will find little to comfort
him, having loaded his Estate with
Debt of his own contracting & by his
marriage perhaps entailed beggary
upon his Posterity -- It is a disagreeable
Idea & I shall therefore drop it --
May heavenly Angels their wide wings display,
And guard thy Steps in ev'ry dangerous Way,
May all thy future days be blessed with peace
And every hour, fresh springs of Joy increase,
In every state may you most happy be,
And when far distant off, pray think of me
Yours sincerely
Napier.
P.S. You see I have taken the hint about
the frank --
Miss Hamilton
St. James's
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 Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/18
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 5 May 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He discusses
general news including a wedding he attended, Hamilton's health, and
thoughts of marriage. He writes that he has a ‘sincere attachment’ but that
it is a secret from his family for the moment. The woman in question is of
noble birth and has a good fortune. He means to propose to her but wishes to
wait for some time before he does so.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 472 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 13 September 2021)
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: 3 December 2021