Diplomatic Text
Satry. afternoon
½ past 4
Dearest, dearest, dearest Sister, Friend, Miranda
I sincerely thank you for this additional instance
of yr. confidence, tho' I wanted no further proof of it than
what you had already given me, of How different
are yr. views from those of yr. family'sfriends,[2] but I
cannot help esteeming yr. family not only for
its own intrinsick parts,[3] but because it has ye honor
of claiming my dearest Miranda, which is
more than any other family can boast of.
Yr. friend M. G.[4] I love and esteem for
her vertues, as if she was my own friend, she is my
friend, for what friend is there of my Miranda
that being acquainted with my friendship, love, & affection
for her wld.. not also be my friend. You tell me nothing
of ye. situation of yr. health, & spirits, or whether
yr. dreadful pain in yr. side has again reminded you
that it once took such hold of you, you do not
consider how anxious I am upon these several
heads, my whole happineʃs as I have often told you
centers entirely yrs. you know it does, & you believe
it, but at times, out of pure méchanceté as you aloneyou pretend not
to it in order to alarm me.
How cld.. my dearest Sister suppose yt.
what she writes wld.. either be tiresome, disagreable, or
trivial in my eyes; you must have conceived a very
different opinion of me from that which you had, to
suppose my ever being capable of such a thing. I hope
ye. Birds I sent you, proved good, they were totally meant
▼[5]
for you. I sent one to Sr. George Mettam at ye. same time
I sent you yrs. yesterday. Adieu for ye. present if I can
I will write you a Note for Tomorrow Morning. To tell you
my ever dearest Miranda, that I love, honor, & esteem
you, is to tell you what I think you are perfectly aʃsured of, therefore
excuse me when I repeat it over to you again, & believe
me ever to be,
Yr. ever affectionate Brother
Palemon toujours de même.
P.S.
I have not received any Paterns as yet, but will forward ym..
to you as soon as I receive ym.. for yr. opinion. I have heard
we are besides this long jaunt to W——r to paʃs ye. C——ʃs H——s
there, I shall have ye happineʃs of seeing my Miranda more
frequently than I had flattered my ʃelf. Tell me every thing you
hear concerning W—— You have not of late signed yrself,
my Sister as well as Friend, & called me by ye. name of Brother
whh.. I wish to see you do again. Ad. Ad. Ad. dearest dearest, dearest
Miranda. toujours chére.
Since I wrote ye. Postscript I have received from Town some Paterns of
some cloaths my Taylor says they are ye most fashionable wear for Gentlemen &
speaks truth, pray chuse --- one & tell me truly yr.. ideas. Ad. Ad. Ad. ma bien aimée. [6]
I know not how it is[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. On the order of letters from mid-October 1779, see GEO/ADD/3/83/16 p.1 n.1.
2. The first of what would have been three occurrences of family in the same sentence has been replaced by friends in the then-current sense ‘close relations’ (OED s.v. 3. Accessed 16-10-2021).
3. The mark of insertion is accidentally placed after the comma rather than before.
4. Probably Miss (Charlotte) Gunning, the initial of the surname partially erased by Mary Hamilton.
5. The additional words ‘speaks truth, pray chuse’ in the second postscript.
6. Four words of this second postscript have strayed over to the foot of p.2. Most of the postscript is quoted in Anson & Anson (1925: 87), who add ‘(To this letter is still pinned a pattern of soft brown material.)’.
7. These words at the top of the last page are probably the Prince's. They are smudged and may have been deliberately erased.
Normalised Text
Dearest, dearest, dearest Sister, Friend, Miranda
I sincerely thank you for this additional instance
of your confidence, though I wanted no further proof of it than
what you had already given me, How different
are your views from those of your friends, but I
cannot help esteeming your family not only for
its own intrinsic parts, but because it has the honour
of claiming my dearest Miranda, which is
more than any other family can boast of.
Your friend Miss I love and esteem for
her virtues, as if she was my own friend, she is my
friend, for what friend is there of my Miranda
that being acquainted with my friendship, love, & affection
for her would not also be my friend. You tell me nothing
of the situation of your health, & spirits, or whether
your dreadful pain in your side has again reminded you
that it once took such hold of you, you do not
consider how anxious I am upon these several
heads, my whole happiness as I have often told you
centres entirely yours you know it does, & you believe
it, but at times, out of pure méchanceté you pretend not
to it in order to alarm me.
How could my dearest Sister suppose that
what she writes would either be tiresome, disagreeable, or
trivial in my eyes; you must have conceived a very
different opinion of me from that which you had, to
suppose my ever being capable of such a thing. I hope
the Birds I sent you, proved good, they were totally meant
▼
for you. I sent one to Sir George Mettam at the same time
I sent you yours yesterday. Adieu for the present if I can
I will write you a Note for Tomorrow Morning. To tell you
my ever dearest Miranda, that I love, honour, & esteem
you, is to tell you what I think you are perfectly assured of, therefore
excuse me when I repeat it over to you again, & believe
me ever to be,
Your ever affectionate Brother
Palemon toujours de même.
P.S.
I have not received any Patterns as yet, but will forward them
to you as soon as I receive them for your opinion. I have heard
we are besides this long jaunt to Windsor to pass the Christmas Holidays
there, I shall have the happiness of seeing my Miranda more
frequently than I had flattered my self. Tell me every thing you
hear concerning Windsor You have not of late signed yourself,
my Sister as well as Friend, & called me by the name of Brother
which I wish to see you do again. Adieu Adieu Adieu dearest dearest, dearest
Miranda. toujours chére.
Since I wrote the Postscript I have received from Town some Patterns of
some clothes my Tailor says they are the most fashionable wear for Gentlemen &
speaks truth, pray choose --- one & tell me truly your ideas. Adieu Adieu Adieu ma bien aimée.
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/3/82/51
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.16 October 1779
notBefore 15 October 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 16 October 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton on his anxiety over her health, his esteem for her friend 'M'; and on wishing to receive her opinion on patterns.
Signed 'Palemon'.
Length: 1 sheet, 495 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: (submitted December 2019)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021