Diplomatic Text
Bristol Monday Night
11th. Decbr.. 1786
Think of the surprise
I felt at reading your letter, and think
of the pleasure I shou'd have felt but
for a circumstance the most vexatious
the most tormenting -- To morrow
morning as ever is, and many hours
before you will receive this I shall be,
Alas, on my way to London; -- Only think
of your coming at the precise moment
of my departure! was ever such a cruel
contretems? I am out of all patience at
the thoughts of at.[1] I expect to be in
London early on Wednesday when I shall
take care to repeat all your fine things
to Mrs. Garrick, at least as far as my
jealousy will give me leave.
Pray tell my sweet Friend I really thought
it an amazing time since I had heard
from her; and not knowing where you
were I cou'd not write to her.
I shall set out on my dreary journey in
a few Hours.
My youngest Sister (who I have a great
notion you will like) is a fellow Sufferer
with yourself, and an Annual visitor
to the Bath Waters; She will be obliged
to go in about a Week, and I shall send
her to call on Mrs. D. that I may
have the satisfaction of knowing more
particulars about her than I shall be able
to come at by other other means.
Oh! that I cou'd have seen you both
at my Cottage! but who knows what time
may produce. Adieu! God bleʃs you.
I hope to hear good Accounts of you both.
Yours dear Sir most faithfull[y]
Han: Mor[e]
Decbr. 1786
recd. at Bath
To[2]
John Dickenson Esq[3]
to be left at the Post Office
Bath[4]
[5]
[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. It is possible that the t of at is written over an erasure; perhaps an intended correction to it was left incomplete.
2. Remains of a stamp, which reads ‘BRISTOL’.
3. Scribblings of ink are written to the right of the address, possibly having at one point indicated the amount of postage due.
4. This address is written vertically in the middle of the page.
5. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
6. The lines at the bottom of the page belong to p.2.
Normalised Text
Bristol Monday Night
Think of the surprise
I felt at reading your letter, and think
of the pleasure I should have felt but
for a circumstance the most vexatious
the most tormenting -- To morrow
morning as ever is, and many hours
before you will receive this I shall be,
Alas, on my way to London; -- Only think
of your coming at the precise moment
of my departure! was ever such a cruel
contretemps? I am out of all patience at
the thoughts of at. I expect to be in
London early on Wednesday when I shall
take care to repeat all your fine things
to Mrs. Garrick, at least as far as my
jealousy will give me leave.
Pray tell my sweet Friend I really thought
it an amazing time since I had heard
from her; and not knowing where you
were I could not write to her.
I shall set out on my dreary journey in
a few Hours.
My youngest Sister (who I have a great
notion you will like) is a fellow Sufferer
with yourself, and an Annual visitor
to the Bath Waters; She will be obliged
to go in about a Week, and I shall send
her to call on Mrs. Dickenson that I may
have the satisfaction of knowing more
particulars about her than I shall be able
to come at by other means.
Oh! that I could have seen you both
at my Cottage! but who knows what time
may produce. Adieu! God bless you.
I hope to hear good Accounts of you both.
Yours dear Sir most faithfully
Hannah More
To
John Dickenson Esq
to be left at the Post Office
Bath
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 John Dickenson
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 173
Correspondence Details
Sender: Hannah More
Place sent: Bristol
Addressee: John Dickenson
Place received: Bath
Date sent: 11 December 1786
Letter Description
Summary: More, Hannah, 1745-1833. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to John Dickenson; Bristol, 1786 December 11.
Length: 1 sheet, 279 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 21 May 2021)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 26 October 2022