Diplomatic Text
Cheverel Oct: 18th- 1784
[M]y dear Friend
I began to be afraid You had
[le]ft me off; and as I wrote to our dear Mrs. Carter the
[o]ther day; but I comforted myself that you were too busy
[a]nd too happy to find time to write, and therefore tho'
[I] regretted I did not complain. -- I did not get your
[le]tter till to day the 18th. You will see the reason by the date
[of] this. I am not at Bristol, but on a visit to our
[ex]cellent friends the Stonhouse's, to whom I had a most
[co]nvenient opportunity of delivering Your kind Meʃsage.
I do indeed envy you the situation of which[1] you seem
[so] well to know the value. What can be more delightful
[in] this world, or give one a more lively idea of the
[p]leasures of the next than “to hear wisdom and goodneʃs
[co]ntinually dropping from the lips, and illustrated in
[t]he lives of your noble Hosteʃs and her honoured
friend? Pray present my most affectionate respects to dear
Mrs. Delany and tell her I will certainly send a
Copy of Dean's Swift's charming letter as soon as I
get to Bristol; the letter is there, or I wou'd have
obey'd her commands directly. She does me great honour
in asking my opinion of Les Veillées du Chateau.[2] Littl[e]
as that opinion is worth, I am not en etat to
give it, for just as I had finished the 1st. Vol:
I was called off to other reading, and have never
been able to return to it. I cannot therefore speak
in detail of a Work I have not read; so far as I
did go I found it unexceptionable as to morals, and
interesting to a degree that surprises one, considering
that the Narratives and Events are nothing in
themselves, but become charming by the Art she
has of seizing the affections, and of giving an useful
turn to the most unpromising circumstances. --
I beg you will immediately let Lady Stormont have a
copy of Le Bas bleue. I am so much flattered by her
desire to poʃseʃs it, that if it wou'd not have been
impertinent I wou'd have enclos'd it in this Cover. --
I shou'd have burst with envy at the Account of Your
Hampton Party when you tell me that Mr. Walpole and
Sir W. H.Hamilton were of it, if the remembrance that you
have lost Sr. Wm.[3] did not convert Envy into Pity. I feel
for you the greatneʃs of this loʃs. --
Mrs. Montagu and I have been in Treaty for me to
return this Month to Sandleford, but we cou'd not
accommodate our time to each other, so we have
agreed that my Visit shall be paid to her at Bath
to which place she comes with the Primate of
Ireland early in next Month; towards the end of it I
shall be thinking of turning my face towards Hampton
I spent a night at Bath in my way hither, I divided
my Time between Lady Middleton and Mrs. Ord who are
both there, and have promised to give them a day
in my way back, which will be about the 25th. --
Among the many things which I expect You will
tell me in your promised letter, the principal one
is whether you are to live in Town: this is to me a
very interesting piece of intelligence; I shou'd be sadly
mortified to lose you, but I hope there is no danger.
I must not forget to tell You of a Phenomenon
I have lately discovered, and which at present
much engages my Mind. The excellent Ducheʃs of Portland and
her incomparable friend Mrs. Delany have found few things
more wonderful in all their deep researches into
Nature. I have lately made a friendship with
a poor Creature, born and bred a Milkwoman
whose whole life has been devoted to the lowest offices
such as milking Cows, selling the Milk about the
Streets, and feeding Hogs to support a miserable
existence, and feed Six Small children, and yet
who writes most excellent Verses. She has a fine
Imagination, stored with abundance of Images,
a great variety of Poetical Expreʃsion, and
an ear so finely tuned, that in five hundred
lines, I have not been able to detect an
unmusical one. She has very noble sentiments, and
what is infinitely better, very good principles.
I wou'd have sent You some Specimens, but
unluckily, the good Woman hads so interlarded all
her Poems with undeserved praises of your
unworthy friend, that I must entirely weed it
before I can shew them to any body. In her
choice of words she is excellent, yet has never
seen a Dictionary. In short I do look upon
her to be quite a Prodigy. --
The Stonhouses desire me to say for them
every thing that is kind affectionate for
them, and the good Dr. bids me tell you that
he never married but two Couples, but if you
will bring Mr. D. down to Cheverel, he will
be delighted to make you the third. They join
me in wishing You all the happineʃs You
desire and deserve.
Adieu! let me find a letter from Yo[u]
on my return to Bristol. Never mind Franks
Yours my dear friend
most affectionately
H More
how happy for this poor Woman[4] to have been thrown in
My friends way & what a satisfaction to her benevolent heart
to be ye. instrument, for I doubt not but it will ------ in ye. end
prove so, of raising a worthy object from distreʃs & of transplanting
this fair field flower to a richer soil where its beauty will
improve by cultivation & it will no longer “waste its sweetneʃs
on ye. desert air”!
Mrs. ------ in the ------
------ post ------ send ------------------ [5]
[8]
[9]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. There is a hyphen-like mark between of and which.
2. Les veillées du chateau, ou cours de morale a l'usage des enfants was written by Stéphanie Félicité comtesse de Genlis and published in 1784.
3. Sir William had returned to Naples in September 1784.
4. Ann Yearsley, a milkwoman sponsored as a poet by Hannah More (see also MS Eng 1778 153).
5. These two lines are written vertically on the left-hand side of the page. They seem to have been written by Hannah More, before being cancelled, possibly censored by Mary Hamilton.
6. A large ‘6’ is written to the left of the address, likely indicating postage due.
7. This addres is written vertically.
8. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
9. Remains of a single stamp can be found both above and below the address, together reading ‘20 OC’, for 20 October. This can only be October 1784, between the engagement of John Dickenson and Mary Hamilton in June 1784 (see HAM/2/10 pp.151ff.) and their marriage in June 1785.
Normalised Text
Cheverel October 18th-
My dear Friend
I began to be afraid You had
left me off; and as I wrote to our dear Mrs. Carter the
other day; but I comforted myself that you were too busy
and too happy to find time to write, and therefore though
I regretted I did not complain. -- I did not get your
letter till to day the 18th. You will see the reason by the date
of this. I am not at Bristol, but on a visit to our
excellent friends the Stonhouse's, to whom I had a most
convenient opportunity of delivering Your kind Message.
I do indeed envy you the situation of which you seem
so well to know the value. What can be more delightful
in this world, or give one a more lively idea of the
pleasures of the next than “to hear wisdom and goodness
continually dropping from the lips, and illustrated in
the lives of your noble Hostess and her honoured
friend? Pray present my most affectionate respects to dear
Mrs. Delany and tell her I will certainly send a
Copy of Dean Swift's charming letter as soon as I
get to Bristol; the letter is there, or I would have
obeyed her commands directly. She does me great honour
in asking my opinion of Les Veillées du Chateau. Little
as that opinion is worth, I am not en etat to
give it, for just as I had finished the 1st. Volume
I was called off to other reading, and have never
been able to return to it. I cannot therefore speak
in detail of a Work I have not read; so far as I
did go I found it unexceptionable as to morals, and
interesting to a degree that surprises one, considering
that the Narratives and Events are nothing in
themselves, but become charming by the Art she
has of seizing the affections, and of giving an useful
turn to the most unpromising circumstances. --
I beg you will immediately let Lady Stormont have a
copy of Le Bas bleue. I am so much flattered by her
desire to possess it, that if it would not have been
impertinent I would have enclosed it in this Cover. --
I should have burst with envy at the Account of Your
Hampton Party when you tell me that Mr. Walpole and
Sir William Hamilton were of it, if the remembrance that you
have lost Sir William did not convert Envy into Pity. I feel
for you the greatness of this loss. --
Mrs. Montagu and I have been in Treaty for me to
return this Month to Sandleford, but we could not
accommodate our time to each other, so we have
agreed that my Visit shall be paid to her at Bath
to which place she comes with the Primate of
Ireland early in next Month; towards the end of it I
shall be thinking of turning my face towards Hampton
I spent a night at Bath in my way hither, I divided
my Time between Lady Middleton and Mrs. Ord who are
both there, and have promised to give them a day
in my way back, which will be about the 25th. --
Among the many things which I expect You will
tell me in your promised letter, the principal one
is whether you are to live in Town: this is to me a
very interesting piece of intelligence; I should be sadly
mortified to lose you, but I hope there is no danger.
I must not forget to tell You of a Phenomenon
I have lately discovered, and which at present
much engages my Mind. The excellent Duchess and
her incomparable friend have found few things
more wonderful in all their deep researches into
Nature. I have lately made a friendship with
a poor Creature, born and bred a Milkwoman
whose whole life has been devoted to the lowest offices
such as milking Cows, selling the Milk about the
Streets, and feeding Hogs to support a miserable
existence, and feed Six Small children, and yet
who writes most excellent Verses. She has a fine
Imagination, stored with abundance of Images,
a great variety of Poetical Expression, and
an ear so finely tuned, that in five hundred
lines, I have not been able to detect an
unmusical one. She has very noble sentiments, and
what is infinitely better, very good principles.
I would have sent You some Specimens, but
unluckily, the good Woman has so interlarded all
her Poems with undeserved praises of your
unworthy friend, that I must entirely weed it
before I can show them to any body. In her
choice of words she is excellent, yet has never
seen a Dictionary. In short I do look upon
her to be quite a Prodigy. --
The Stonhouses desire me to say
every thing that is kind affectionate for
them, and the good Dr. bids me tell you that
he never married but two Couples, but if you
will bring Mr. Dickenson down to Cheverel, he will
be delighted to make you the third. They join
me in wishing You all the happiness You
desire and deserve.
Adieu! let me find a letter from You
on my return to Bristol. Never mind Franks
Yours my dear friend
most affectionately
Hannah More
Mrs.
post send
Miss Hamilton
Bulstrode
Gerrards Cross
Buckinghamshire
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 153
Correspondence Details
Sender: Hannah More
Place sent: Great Cheverell, Wiltshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Gerrards Cross
Date sent: 18 October 1784
Letter Description
Summary: More, Hannah, 1745-1833. Autograph manuscript letter (unsigned) to Mary Hamilton; Cheverell, 1784 October 18. Originally catalogued separately as MS Eng 1778 153 (first sheet) and MS Eng 1778 167 (second sheet).
Length: 2 sheets, 890 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: 25 October 2022