Diplomatic Text
Sunday Morng-
My dearest, dearest, dearest, Sister, Friend,
I have according to my promise sent you
back yr. Letters this Morning, I have looked ym.. over
& over again, the Letters I think are very affectionate
& kind ones, & I find my sentiments so perfectly synonymous
withto those contained in ye. Sonnet & Character yt. I
fancy they must have been written by two persons whose hearts
are very nearly in ye situation of mine. Cependant brisons
ladeʃsus, I shall however entreat of you to remind me
of ye. name of Clementina, you told it me at W——
but it slipped out of my memory. But as for those of
[Clara],[1] & of ye writers of ye. Sonnet, & Character, my prudence
forbids my treʃspaʃsing too much upon yr. generosity, especially
as you have placed such implicit confidence in me, indeed
more than I deserved, however I hope you will never
find it greatly misplaced. As for me, my Miranda
there is not a secret of my Soul, that I do not, that
I have not disclosed to you, you have closely inspected
my heart & my mind, & I hope you find neither
of them bad. One paʃsion I have which I forgot
to mention before in my Portrait, & which I think
you may place among my Vertues, that is my affec=
=tion to a Friend, (& to you most especially as ye.
best of all my Friends,) which would carry me such
lengths, yt.. I wld.. lay down my life most willing=
=ly for their service.
I am very sorry as Mrs.. Carter has
such weight with you, yt.. she disapproves so much
of ye. Character of Tom Jones, especially as I I compa=
=red it to mine, I thought I was paying a compliment
to myself in so doing, you must however confeʃs that
there is great openneʃs, frankneʃs, generosity, spirit
& gratitude, strongly marked in his Character, yet
I remember, when I made ye. comparison, & it stung
me then, you was quite silent upon ye. subject,
whereas I thought you wld.. have cought at it[2] &
with yr. usual frankneʃs have either told me that
my Character was better or worse than his, I cld..
not help thinking this very singular, however
as I know you to be an odd unaccountable
creature, it did not make much impreʃsion
upon me.
I sent you y --- t --- day Evening
some Paterns which I beg you will keep
as long as you have a mind, before you give
me yr. opinion of y.m.. you may return ym..
to me, either this E——g or T——w M——g
or not till I return from W——r, when I promise
you, you shall have an account of every thing yt.
paʃses at W——r during yr. absence, as well as of ye.
Chace on Tu——y M——g, friendship as you say is
always sympathetick, I shall probably go &
seat myʃelf in yr. Chair, & brood over ye. many
happy hours I have spent ------ there in conversation
with you, & shall say to myself, what t is there
now wanting to make you happy? why my
Miranda, without whom every thing to me is
nothing. If you have any commands for, or
any little thing to bring from W——r, tell me
& I will execute yr. commiʃsion. Adieu, Adieu,
Adieu, dearest, dearest, dearest, Sister, friend,
Miranda,
Whatever becomes of me, wherever I am,
or wherever I go, you are never absent from
ye thoughts of
yr. ever sincerely affectionate Brother
Palemon toujours de même
P.S.[3]
Pray tell me how poor E——d[4] behaved in ye Coach
& what sort of Company he was & what he said to you.
Ad. Ad. Ad. toujours chére.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. ‘Clementina’ and ‘Clara’ are most likely code names, among Hamilton's friends. ‘Clementina’ is Lady Mary Webb (see the HAM/1/8/7 series), and ‘Clara’ appears to be Miss Ann Litchfield (see HAM/1/8/7/22).
2. The sense of catch at is ‘seize (a chance, opportunity, etc.); to take up or embrace (an idea)’ (OED s.v. catch v. Phrasal verbs 2, 2).
3. The label P.S. of the postscript appears to the left of the English salutation.
4. If the initial letter is indeed E, this likely refers to the badly-behaved Prince Edward (see GEO/ADD/3/82/43 and /56).
Normalised Text
My dearest, dearest, dearest, Sister, Friend,
I have according to my promise sent you
back your Letters this Morning, I have looked them over
& over again, the Letters I think are very affectionate
& kind ones, & I find my sentiments so perfectly synonymous
to those contained in the Sonnet & Character that I
fancy they must have been written by two persons whose hearts
are very nearly in the situation of mine. Cependant brisons
ladessus, I shall however entreat of you to remind me
of the name of Clementina, you told it me at Windsor
but it slipped out of my memory. But as for those of
, & of the writers of the Sonnet, & Character, my prudence
forbids my trespassing too much upon your generosity, especially
as you have placed such implicit confidence in me, indeed
more than I deserved, however I hope you will never
find it greatly misplaced. As for me, my Miranda
there is not a secret of my Soul, that I do not, that
I have not disclosed to you, you have closely inspected
my heart & my mind, & I hope you find neither
of them bad. One passion I have which I forgot
to mention before in my Portrait, & which I think
you may place among my Virtues, that is my affection
to a Friend, (& to you most especially as the
best of all my Friends,) which would carry me such
lengths, that I would lay down my life most willingly
for their service.
I am very sorry as Mrs.. Carter has
such weight with you, that she disapproves so much
of the Character of Tom Jones, especially as I compared
it to mine, I thought I was paying a compliment
to myself in so doing, you must however confess that
there is great openness, frankness, generosity, spirit
& gratitude, strongly marked in his Character, yet
I remember, when I made the comparison, & it stung
me then, you was quite silent upon the subject,
whereas I thought you would have caught at it &
with your usual frankness have either told me that
my Character was better or worse than his, I could
not help thinking this very singular, however
as I know you to be an odd unaccountable
creature, it did not make much impression
upon me.
I sent you yesterday Evening
some Patterns which I beg you will keep
as long as you have a mind, before you give
me your opinion of them you may return them
to me, either this Evening or Tomorrow Morning
or not till I return from Windsor, when I promise
you, you shall have an account of every thing that
passes at Windsor during your absence, as well as of the
Chase on Tuesday Morning, friendship as you say is
always sympathetic, I shall probably go &
seat myself in your Chair, & brood over the many
happy hours I have spent there in conversation
with you, & shall say to myself, what is there
now wanting to make you happy? why my
Miranda, without whom every thing to me is
nothing. If you have any commands for, or
any little thing to bring from Windsor, tell me
& I will execute your commission. Adieu, Adieu,
Adieu, dearest, dearest, dearest, Sister, friend,
Miranda,
Whatever becomes of me, wherever I am,
or wherever I go, you are never absent from
the thoughts of
Your ever sincerely affectionate Brother
Palemon toujours de même
P.S.
Pray tell me how poor E——d behaved in the Coach
& what sort of Company he was & what he said to you.
Adieu Adieu Adieu toujours chére.
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/3/82/47
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 10 October 1779
notBefore 10 October 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 10 October 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on returning her letters [from others]; his character; and her opinion on some patterns.
The Prince refers to similarities between himself and the character of 'Tom Jones', of which Mrs [Elizabeth] Carter has a poor opinion.
Written Sunday morning.
Signed 'Palemon'.
In postscript the Prince asks how 'poor L..d behaved in the Coach & what sort of company he was & what he said to you'.
Length: 1 sheet, 610 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