Diplomatic Text
[1]
3d Janry 1785
Hampton[2]
And so we all fell in love
at first sight did we? For the paʃsion You
Say Mr. D. conceived for us is returned with
interest. In Mrs. Garrick you will have a
most formidable Rival, She therefore desires
You may be told of your danger, which is an
instance of generosity not very usual on these
occasions. Seriously tho', we are delighted with
his unaffected agreeable manners, and shou'd think
him very interesting, even without that desire
of thinking him so which his connexion with
You wou'd naturally inspire. I suppose I
may by this time condole with You on his
loʃs; for that reason I am glad that I may
congratulate you on the arrival of Your other
dear friends whose society will help to console You
I hope our dear Mrs. Carter has had a prosperous
Journey, and that You find her well and in
Spirits; pray aʃsure her of my most affectionate
love. -- / I hope you have thank'd the Duchʃs..
of Portland again and again for her noble
bounty to my poor Poeteʃs, rich Poeteʃs I must
now call her, as her affairs go on so prosperously.
When You see Mrs. Delany pray tell her that
I most respectfully offer her all the good wishes
of this good season and that I heartily wish
every new Year may bring with it an augmentation
of bleʃsings to her.
If you have not seen White's (Arabic Profeʃsor) Sermons
let me recommend them to You. They are a
Parallel between the History and Doctrines of
Christ and of Mahomet; they are written in
a noble and manly strain of Piety, sense, and
intelligence of the Subject; they unite a good
temper with a warm Spirit, and are eloquent
without affectation. As far as I have read I am charmed with 'em
When you write to me, which in charity ought
to be soon, pray mention how Lady Dartre[y]
does as I was much concerned to h ------------
had not been well. And besure tell me that
Mr. Walpole is quite recovered, or I shall take
it very ill at your hands, I can tell you.
Mrs. G. unites in kind love with Your very
affectionate & faithful
H. More
Have you had any comfortable
Parties yet, and where?
Hampton last day of the old Year -- Heaven
send us a happy new one!
[3]
[5]
[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This letter is transcribed by Hamilton for the benefit of her fiancé, John Dickenson (HAM/2/15 pp.10-11).
2. This apparent dateline appears to have been written not by More but by Hamilton on receipt of the letter.
3. Remains of a stamp, which contains the number ‘7’.
4. This address is written vertically.
5. Remains of a stamp, apparently reading ‘PENY POST PAYD | 1 FR’.
6. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
And so we all fell in love
at first sight did we? For the passion You
Say Mr. Dickenson conceived for us is returned with
interest. In Mrs. Garrick you will have a
most formidable Rival, She therefore desires
You may be told of your danger, which is an
instance of generosity not very usual on these
occasions. Seriously though, we are delighted with
his unaffected agreeable manners, and should think
him very interesting, even without that desire
of thinking him so which his connexion with
You would naturally inspire. I suppose I
may by this time condole with You on his
loss; for that reason I am glad that I may
congratulate you on the arrival of Your other
dear friends whose society will help to console You
I hope our dear Mrs. Carter has had a prosperous
Journey, and that You find her well and in
Spirits; pray assure her of my most affectionate
love. -- / I hope you have thanked the Duchess.
of Portland again and again for her noble
bounty to my poor Poetess, rich Poetess I must
now call her, as her affairs go on so prosperously.
When You see Mrs. Delany pray tell her that
I most respectfully offer her all the good wishes
of this good season and that I heartily wish
every new Year may bring with it an augmentation
of blessings to her.
If you have not seen White's (Arabic Professor) Sermons
let me recommend them to You. They are a
Parallel between the History and Doctrines of
Christ and of Mahomet; they are written in
a noble and manly strain of Piety, sense, and
intelligence of the Subject; they unite a good
temper with a warm Spirit, and are eloquent
without affectation. As far as I have read I am charmed with 'em
When you write to me, which in charity ought
to be soon, pray mention how Lady Dartrey
does as I was much concerned to h ------------
had not been well. And besure tell me that
Mr. Walpole is quite recovered, or I shall take
it very ill at your hands, I can tell you.
Mrs. Garrick unites in kind love with Your very
affectionate & faithful
Hannah More
Have you had any comfortable
Parties yet, and where?
Hampton last day of the old Year -- Heaven
send us a happy new one!
Miss Hamilton
Clarges Street
Picadilly
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 158
Correspondence Details
Sender: Hannah More
Place sent: Hampton
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 31 December 1784
Letter Description
Summary: More, Hannah, 1745-1833. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Hampton, 1785 January 3.
Length: 1 sheet, 399 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