Diplomatic Text
Dearest dearest dearest Friend,
The World says that impudence
is the Soldier's Cockade. From what
paʃsed this Afternoon I should fancy
that you must think that I have
more than usually falls to ye. ʃhare
of any man when I perceived how
much ʃtruck and astonished you was with my
ʃudden appearance, I was then
obliged to say something which might
explain to any By stander, why
& wherefore I ʃpoke to you at so
unusual a place, & at so unusual
an hour, but believe me I never
I never make use of that selfsame
impudence, but to draw some friend
or other out of blame. Have not
you notwithstanding all yr. promises
yet placed so much confidence in
him whom you honor with the
name of Friend as to believe that
he never will do any thing which
he thinks can be hurtful in the
ʃmallest degree, either privately
or in the eyes of the World, to yr.
honor, or reputation. Last night
when I proposed to you to meet
me in the Garden I intended nothing
else, but to ʃatisfy myself concerning
the State of yr. health, whether yr.
pain yr. ʃide was better or not
I had the same intention to Night,
but the moment I perceived your [dear]
face overʃpread with a Blush, I
immediately retired never wishing
to give you an instant's pain, by
any of my actions or expreʃsions,
I only wish my dearest Friend
by this aʃsurance to convince you
that I mayam worthy of that
confidence from you, which I have
placed in you. Adieu, for the
present, I have written this in the
greatest hurry, & believe me that I
shall l --- duringlove and esteem you as
more than any friend, during the whole
of my life.
7th. June 1779[1]
Monday
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Dearest dearest dearest Friend,
The World says that impudence
is the Soldier's Cockade. From what
passed this Afternoon I should fancy
that you must think that I have
more than usually falls to the share
of any man when I perceived how
much struck and astonished you was with my
sudden appearance, I was then
obliged to say something which might
explain to any Bystander, why
& wherefore I spoke to you at so
unusual a place, & at so unusual
an hour, but believe me
I never make use of that selfsame
impudence, but to draw some friend
or other out of blame. Have not
you notwithstanding all your promises
yet placed so much confidence in
him whom you honour with the
name of Friend as to believe that
he never will do any thing which
he thinks can be hurtful in the
smallest degree, either privately
or in the eyes of the World, to your
honour, or reputation. Last night
when I proposed to you to meet
me in the Garden I intended nothing
else, but to satisfy myself concerning
the State of your health, whether your
pain your side was better or not
I had the same intention to Night,
but the moment I perceived your
face overspread with a Blush, I
immediately retired never wishing
to give you an instant's pain, by
any of my actions or expressions,
I only wish my dearest Friend
by this assurance to convince you
that I am worthy of that
confidence from you, which I have
placed in you. Adieu, for the
present, I have written this in the
greatest hurry, & believe me that I
shall love and esteem you as
more than any friend, during the whole
of my life.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Windsor Castle, The Royal Archives
Archive: GEO/ADD/3 Additional papers of George IV, as Prince, Regent, and King
Item title: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/82/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.7 June 1779
notBefore 6 June 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 7 June 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on his sudden appearance that night.
Written Monday.
Length: 1 sheet, 292 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now 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: XML version: Transcription and Research Assistant funding in 2018/19 provided by the Student Experience Internship programme of the University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Emma Donington Kiey, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Emma Donington Kiey (submitted June 2019)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021