HAM/1/20/118
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Wilton Lodge
12th. Decr- 1791.
My Dear Sister,
Was you born in Ireland?
Did You ever dip in the Shannon? Resolve
me these questions speedily, for till You
do so, I must remain lost in wonderment
& astoundation. Instead of that humble,
penitential acknowledgement of your Ne=
=gligence, due to my uncommon condes=
=cension in writing a Second Letter to You,
the very first Page of your Folio Epistle
contains a downright attack on Me, & an
expectation of my falling on my Marrow
Bones,[1] the first time we may chance to
meet. Luckily, a Snow Storm & an Empty
Purse, are two strong Motives for remaining
at Home, I might otherwise have been
tempted, instantly to have set out, to Bil=
=lingsgate[2] You in Person. Be aʃsured, it
is not want of inclination, but only the above
mentioned Causes & my well known Spirit
of Moderation, that prevent my taking my
Revenge, by transporting myself & Family to
eat You out of House & Home this Christmas.
Think of the punishment You have escaped,
& let the terrifying Nature of it sink so
deep into your Memory as to work a com=
=pleat Reformation & Amendment in your
manners. And beware of forcing Me, to vent
any part of that Gall & Spleen on You, which,
divers croʃs & diabolical machinations of
my Enemies, have caused to arise, and much
discompose the amiable gentleneʃs of my
disposition. Having said so much by way
of caution, I shall make a stop in my Ex=
=hortations, to allow You proper time, to
reflect seriously, on the enormity of your
Effrontery & Presumption --
You are pleased to refer Me
to Mr. Dickenson, for an Account of the Why
you did not write to Me. But be it known
to You, that I entertain too high an Opinion
of the Dignity & Authority of the Lord & Master
of a Family, to put so groʃs an Affront on a
Husband, as to suppose him bound to answer
for a Wife's Lazineʃs or Inattention, I therefore
positively command You to make your
own proper submiʃsion & Apology under
your own proper signature. By the bye,
You was so conscious of the Arrogance of
your last Letter, that you sent it away
without date or name affixed to it. The
first page, to be sure, has, “Taxal Novr 1791” at
the Top of it, & on the fourth Page appears “Decr. 4 --
1791” -- but neither of these can be esteemed
legal dates.
That I may not entirely drive
You to Despair, I will now condescend to
tell You, that whenever Mr. Dickenson will
either bring or send You here, You shall be
received with decent affection & treated with
a tolerable share of kindneʃs. The sooner
you make your appearance, the more
convinced I shall be of your Contrition, and
really I would advise Mr. Dickenson to bring
You here without loʃs of time, as I begin
to suspect, a little sharp Rebuke, would be
good for You. We wont starve You, for
be it known to You, that we now kill
all our own Meat. Excellent Mutton, Admi=
=rable Highland Beef, Delicate Chinese Pork,
& delicious Poultry of all kinds.
What a pity it was, the Chevalier
Palombi did not stray as far North as Wilton
Lodge. He might, perhaps, have taken a
fancy for my Sister Harriot, & so removed
the probability, which now attends her, of
leading Apes,[3] (It is fortunate, that she is not
looking over my Shoulder,) & the vexation, which
his inclination for Miʃs D.
has given your family. of
your Engaging, Charming Emma,
I know nothing, except having
heard, that Sir Wm. H. had married a Young, beautiful
woman, of a very musical disposition, & who the
illnatured world suspected, had been on a footing
of intimacy with him, before their Nuptials. Not
having considered the Noble K.B. as accountable
to Me for any of his actions, I never enquired
further, but shall receive any communica=
=tion from You, on that subject, with the most
profound Attention. And now, Madam, You may
flatter yourself with my good wishes & those
of my Rib. Love & affection to Mr. D. & the Brat. My
Brats are well. The last, denominated Sophia. All this
from Your Affece. Brother, till Death,
Napier.
Hawick Thirteenth Decr= 1791.[4]
[5]
Mrs= Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derby
by Carlisle
Napier.
[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘The shin bones; (also) the knees. Frequently used humorously in phrases referring to kneeling in supplication, prayer, etc.’ (OED s.v. marrowbone n. 2.a. Accessed 04-11-2021).
2. Derived from the place-name Billingsgate and the language supposedly found there: ‘scurrilous vituperation, violent abuse’ (OED s.v. Billingsgate n. 2). The verb is attested only once in the OED (accessed 04-11-2021) and does not appear in Grose's (1788) Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
3. ‘To lead apes in hell: the fancied consequence of dying an old maid’ (OED s.v. ape n. 6. Accessed 04-11-2021).
4. The general election of June-July 1790 made Napier one of the 12 Scottish representative peers, though he noted that the list was open to legal challenge. The role allowed him to frank his own letters, and in the first such to Hamilton, dated 1 August 1790, he wrote: ‘If the House of Lords enter into the discuſsion of these Peerages, I may poſsibly Frank on, for many Months’ (HAM/1/20/113).
5. Postmark ‘HAWICK’ in brown ink.
6. Remains of a gummed wafer.
Normalised Text
Wilton Lodge
12th. December 1791.
My Dear Sister,
Was you born in Ireland?
Did You ever dip in the Shannon? Resolve
me these questions speedily, for till You
do so, I must remain lost in wonderment
& astoundation. Instead of that humble,
penitential acknowledgement of your Negligence
, due to my uncommon condescension
in writing a Second Letter to You,
the very first Page of your Folio Epistle
contains a downright attack on Me, & an
expectation of my falling on my Marrow
Bones, the first time we may chance to
meet. Luckily, a Snow Storm & an Empty
Purse, are two strong Motives for remaining
at Home, I might otherwise have been
tempted, instantly to have set out, to Billingsgate
You in Person. Be assured, it
is not want of inclination, but only the above
mentioned Causes & my well known Spirit
of Moderation, that prevent my taking my
Revenge, by transporting myself & Family to
eat You out of House & Home this Christmas.
Think of the punishment You have escaped,
& let the terrifying Nature of it sink so
deep into your Memory as to work a complete
Reformation & Amendment in your
manners. And beware of forcing Me, to vent
any part of that Gall & Spleen on You, which,
divers cross & diabolical machinations of
my Enemies, have caused to arise, and much
discompose the amiable gentleness of my
disposition. Having said so much by way
of caution, I shall make a stop in my Exhortations
, to allow You proper time, to
reflect seriously, on the enormity of your
Effrontery & Presumption --
You are pleased to refer Me
to Mr. Dickenson, for an Account of the Why
you did not write to Me. But be it known
to You, that I entertain too high an Opinion
of the Dignity & Authority of the Lord & Master
of a Family, to put so gross an Affront on a
Husband, as to suppose him bound to answer
for a Wife's Laziness or Inattention, I therefore
positively command You to make your
own proper submission & Apology under
your own proper signature. By the bye,
You was so conscious of the Arrogance of
your last Letter, that you sent it away
without date or name affixed to it. The
first page, to be sure, has, “Taxal November 1791” at
the Top of it, & on the fourth Page appears “December 4 --
1791” -- but neither of these can be esteemed
legal dates.
That I may not entirely drive
You to Despair, I will now condescend to
tell You, that whenever Mr. Dickenson will
either bring or send You here, You shall be
received with decent affection & treated with
a tolerable share of kindness. The sooner
you make your appearance, the more
convinced I shall be of your Contrition, and
really I would advise Mr. Dickenson to bring
You here without loss of time, as I begin
to suspect, a little sharp Rebuke, would be
good for You. We won't starve You, for
be it known to You, that we now kill
all our own Meat. Excellent Mutton, Admirable
Highland Beef, Delicate Chinese Pork,
& delicious Poultry of all kinds.
What a pity it was, the Chevalier
Palombi did not stray as far North as Wilton
Lodge. He might, perhaps, have taken a
fancy for my Sister Harriot, & so removed
the probability, which now attends her, of
leading Apes, (It is fortunate, that she is not
looking over my Shoulder,) & the vexation, which
his inclination for Miss Dickenson
has given your family. of
your Engaging, Charming Emma,
I know nothing, except having
heard, that Sir William Hamilton had married a Young, beautiful
woman, of a very musical disposition, & who the
ill-natured world suspected, had been on a footing
of intimacy with him, before their Nuptials. Not
having considered the Noble Knight Bachelor as accountable
to Me for any of his actions, I never enquired
further, but shall receive any communication
from You, on that subject, with the most
profound Attention. And now, Madam, You may
flatter yourself with my good wishes & those
of my Rib. Love & affection to Mr. Dickenson & the Brat. My
Brats are well. The last, denominated Sophia. All this
from Your Affectionate Brother, till Death,
Napier.
Hawick Thirteenth December 1791.
Mrs= Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derby
by Carlisle
Napier.
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/1/20/118
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Roxburghshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 13 December 1791
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
Emma Hamilton. Napier writes inviting Mary to Wilton Lodge and notes that it
is a shame that the Chevalier Palombi did not travel as far North as he may
have taken a liking to his sister, Harriet. He also refers to Sir William
Hamilton's wife [they married in 1791] Emma, and Palombi's preference for
Hamilton's sister-in-law Sarah Dickenson [whom he was to marry] over Emma
Lyon. The 'vexation which his inclination for Miss D has given your family
of your Engaging, Charming Emma, I know nothing, except having heard, that
Sir W[illia]m H[amilton] had married a young, beautiful woman, of a very
musical disposition, & who the ill natured world suspected, had been on
a footing of intimacy before their nuptials'. Napier declares that as he did
not consider Sir William accountable to him he had not enquired further into
the subject.
Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 729 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 4 November 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