Diplomatic Text
Bristol 23d. July
1782
I have a notion, my
dear Madam, that our last letters paʃsed
each other on the road. Had they the
feelings of their Writers they woud have
felt no small regret at being so near each
other, without any intercourse; at least I
will answer for one of them, and it would
be unkind to entertain suspicions, leʃs generous
of the other, because, as the Philosophers
say, it would not be reasoning by Analogy.
And I do receive so many agreeable proofs
of your friendship and attachment when I
am within reach of you, that I can never
suspect you of indifference when I am not.
Miʃs Sharpe has been here lately:
She was in great spirits, and gay quite to
affectation, but as we could not enter into
those Subjects that were most present to each
of our thoughts, our conversation was awkward
and constrained. She never enquired after our
friend, tho' she knew I had lately seen
her, nor did I ask after her lover. She has
been spending a fortnight at Stourhead, before
she came to the Bristol Wells; and is now
gone back to the Lodge. Her friend Mrs. O'K——
told me she was to be married in about a
fortnight, and that I believe is ten days ago, so
I imagine the great event must be near taking
place. Mrs. O'K set off from hence to Ireland
for six weeks. When you write to our dear
friend at Deal,[1] probably these things may
be new to her, as she writes me word, she is
out of the way of hearing any thing of these
matters, except by accident, and you I believe
are in the habit of writing to her frequently.
I return your domestic history, or daily Memoirs
with many thanks for your understanding me
so thoroughly as to know I shou'd like to have it.
Tis well that you Courtiers have power, and dignity
and reputation to atone for the meritorious
sacrifices you must make of liberty and leisure.
“Tis meet the great shou'd have the fame of Happineʃs,
“The consolation of a little Envy.” -- This
last indeed is, I believe, a consolation you are
seldom without; but you, I have a notion do not
derive your first delights from this consideration
as you are, if I dont greatly mistake you, of
a cast of mind which gives you most pleasure
a faire des heureux, than des Envieus.
Finding the Aphorism of Solomon, that th[ere]
is nothing new under the Sun, as true in
literary as in worldly things, I am got ba[ck]
to Terence's Comedies, and to Secker's Sermons
Rather heterogeneous matter to be mixed up
together you may think. But Terence was
always a favorite Author of mine; as I thi[nk]
he is a rare instance of a Poet without a
redundant word; and whose exact delineation
of character and manners, well reward you
for the fewneʃs of his incidents and the same
of his plots. And of the venerable Arch Bp. I heard
a learned Man say, that some Sermons could
keep him good till Monday, some till tuesday,
but that Secker kept him good the whole
week.
Your telling me that our excellent Mrs.
Delany was going to Mrs. Boscawen increased
and revived my regret that I could not accept
the kind invitation of the latter to spend
part of the summer with her. With what
pleasure could I listen to the voice of Wisdom
personified in her, for a whole Summers day.
I begin to suspect there is a combination[2]
among the booksellers that I shan't get
Madame Genlis. Is it not provoking?
I am waiting with anxiety for a confirmation
of the very agreeable report, that my valuable
friend Bishop Barrington is to have the See
of Salisbury.[3] If he does, never was preferment
better bestowed. -- If he does not, he is a
Philosopher and a Christian, and of course
cannot never want the best consolations under
any disappointment.
Adieu my dear friend
Yours most faithfully
H. More
[4]
And what if Mr. Fox wont be our Minister
“I trust we have within the realm
“Five hundred as good as he.”
If by good the Author means moral, I think
[w]e need not doubt it.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This is most likely Elizabeth Carter, who spent summers in Deal. However, Hamilton received a number of letters from another mutual friend, Lady Charlotte Finch, who was staying at Deal with Prince Alfred in July 1782 (see HAM/1/12/42 to HAM/1/12/45).
2. ‘The banding together or union of persons for the prosecution of a common object: formerly used almost always in a bad sense = conspiracy, self-interested or illegal confederacy’ (OED s.v. combination 4.a. Accessed 11-03-2021).
3. Barrington became Bishop of Salisbury on 14 August 1782.
4. The postscript on this page is written upside down.
Normalised Text
Bristol 23d. July
1782
I have a notion, my
dear Madam, that our last letters passed
each other on the road. Had they the
feelings of their Writers they would have
felt no small regret at being so near each
other, without any intercourse; at least I
will answer for one of them, and it would
be unkind to entertain suspicions, less generous
of the other, because, as the Philosophers
say, it would not be reasoning by Analogy.
And I do receive so many agreeable proofs
of your friendship and attachment when I
am within reach of you, that I can never
suspect you of indifference when I am not.
Miss Sharpe has been here lately:
She was in great spirits, and gay quite to
affectation, but as we could not enter into
those Subjects that were most present to each
of our thoughts, our conversation was awkward
and constrained. She never enquired after our
friend, though she knew I had lately seen
her, nor did I ask after her lover. She has
been spending a fortnight at Stourhead, before
she came to the Bristol Wells; and is now
gone back to the Lodge. Her friend Mrs. O'Keeffe
told me she was to be married in about a
fortnight, and that I believe is ten days ago, so
I imagine the great event must be near taking
place. Mrs. O'Keeffe set off from hence to Ireland
for six weeks. When you write to our dear
friend at Deal, probably these things may
be new to her, as she writes me word, she is
out of the way of hearing any thing of these
matters, except by accident, and you I believe
are in the habit of writing to her frequently.
I return your domestic history, or daily Memoirs
with many thanks for your understanding me
so thoroughly as to know I should like to have it.
Tis well that you Courtiers have power, and dignity
and reputation to atone for the meritorious
sacrifices you must make of liberty and leisure.
“Tis meet the great shou'd have the fame of Happiness,
“The consolation of a little Envy.” -- This
last indeed is, I believe, a consolation you are
seldom without; but you, I have a notion do not
derive your first delights from this consideration
as you are, if I don't greatly mistake you, of
a cast of mind which gives you most pleasure
a faire des heureux, than des Envieus.
Finding the Aphorism of Solomon, that there
is nothing new under the Sun, as true in
literary as in worldly things, I am got back
to Terence's Comedies, and to Secker's Sermons
Rather heterogeneous matter to be mixed up
together you may think. But Terence was
always a favourite Author of mine; as I think
he is a rare instance of a Poet without a
redundant word; and whose exact delineation
of character and manners, well reward you
for the fewness of his incidents and the same
of his plots. And of the venerable Archbishop I heard
a learned Man say, that some Sermons could
keep him good till Monday, some till tuesday,
but that Secker kept him good the whole
week.
Your telling me that our excellent Mrs.
Delany was going to Mrs. Boscawen increased
and revived my regret that I could not accept
the kind invitation of the latter to spend
part of the summer with her. With what
pleasure could I listen to the voice of Wisdom
personified in her, for a whole Summers day.
I begin to suspect there is a combination
among the booksellers that I shan't get
Madame Genlis. Is it not provoking?
I am waiting with anxiety for a confirmation
of the very agreeable report, that my valuable
friend Bishop Barrington is to have the See
of Salisbury. If he does, never was preferment
better bestowed. -- If he does not, he is a
Philosopher and a Christian, and of course
cannot never want the best consolations under
any disappointment.
Adieu my dear friend
Yours most faithfully
Hannah More
And what if Mr. Fox won't be our Minister
“I trust we have within the realm
“Five hundred as good as he.”
If by good the Author means moral, I think
we need not doubt it.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Houghton Library Repository, Harvard University
Archive: Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More letters to Mary Hamilton
Item title: Letter from Hannah More to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 114
Correspondence Details
Sender: Hannah More
Place sent: Bristol
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 23 July 1782
Letter Description
Summary: More, Hannah, 1745-1833. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Bristol, 1782 July 23.
Length: 2 sheets, 710 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First transcribed for the project 'The Collected Letters of Hannah More' (Kerri Andrews & others) and 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: 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: Kerri Andrews, Senior Lecturer, Edge Hill University (submitted 11 August 2020)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 19 October 2022