Diplomatic Text
▼
½ past 8 oClock 18th. Novbr
1779[1]
My dearest, dearest, dearest Miranda,
my Sister, my Friend, ▼
According to yr. desire I answer
yrs. of M——y last, I think ye. precaution
a very neceʃsary one, & therefore shall not
only comply with that, but with every
thing else (I hope) my Miranda desires.
I understand much to my joy, yt. this
is not to be our last's Day's Chace this
Season, but there is a report which strong
=ly prevails, & wh: I ghave great reason
to give credit to, from what I heard my
Father say about ye. hunting, yt. we
shall all meet at W. at Christmaʃs
in order to paʃs a fortnight or three Weeks
of ye. Hollidays there. Ye. least reason
I have for liking this idea is as you may suppose yt. I am
afraid of seeing my Miranda there. Oh!
Heavens how inexpreʃsible wld.. my joy
be to meet my Miranda in a manner I cld..
wish, after ye. noise & racket of ye. busy
Town. But what signifies tantalizing
myʃelf, however we will hope yt. such
a time may come, let us always hope for
ye. best I hope you continue to receive
good accounts of M. G. she will I
think be a great comfort to you in ye.
Winter, especially as she lives so near to
you, after you have been at some publick
place or other, you may retire to her Apartment
in order to have a ¼ of an hour's Conversation
with her, or she may come to yr. apartment.
Ye. question my Miranda I mentioned
to you in my last, & wh. I left you totally
at liberty, about answering, is this, remember
upon What grounds I mention it, to you
having yr. promise fairly and honestly
to answer me any question you can properly
answer me concerning yrself. “Whether
“or no, you ever had, or have, or think you
“shall have andy ideas of entering into a
“relcloser connection or relationship with yr.
“other Brother, or whether he hever has entertained or does,
“or whether you think he ever will enter=
“=tain such an idea.” Pardon oh pardon
my Miranda, ye. imprudence of such
a question, consider how much I look
upon myself as interested in it. Consider
it is putting my mind at rest, & to a
certain degree following ye grounds & original pallan of our friendship for each other by putting both, not only yrself
mybut myself to ye test, for I aʃsure you
it costs me more to ask, than it does you
to answer, but perhaps you will in yr.
truly affectionate manner say, but why
does it cost my friend so much to ask
me a question yt. he says interests him
is he afraid of me, am not I his real
true, & best friend, do not I deserve
his whole confidence, you have it
my Miranda, by Heaven you have it,
& it was principally f --- nfrom this ground
yt. my imprudence proceeded, if there
is any itn it, if there is, pray pardon it.
It is just supper time so Ad. Ad. Ad
my dst.. dst.. dst.. Sister Friend, Miranda, may
Heaven bleʃs you, & preserve you, & believe when
I say I am
eternally --- yr. sincerely affectionate Friend &
Brother Palemon toujours de même.
[2]P.S. I wiʃh to know whatever you hear about me good, bad, or indifferent, I will
certainly follow yr advice of marking something in my Letters, allusive
to ye preceeding ones of yrs. encore une fois Dieu vous beniʃse.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
▼
My dearest, dearest, dearest Miranda,
my Sister, my Friend, ▼
According to your desire I answer
yours of Monday last, I think the precaution
a very necessary one, & therefore shall not
only comply with that, but with every
thing else (I hope) my Miranda desires.
I understand much to my joy, that this
is not to be our last Day's Chase this
Season, but there is a report which strongly
prevails, & which I have great reason
to give credit to, from what I heard my
Father say about the hunting, that we
shall all meet at Windsor at Christmas
in order to pass a fortnight or three Weeks
of the Holidays there. the least reason
I have for liking this idea is as you may suppose that I am
afraid of seeing my Miranda there. Oh!
Heavens how inexpressible would my joy
be to meet my Miranda in a manner I could
wish, after the noise & racket of the busy
Town. But what signifies tantalizing
myself, however we will hope that such
a time may come, let us always hope for
the best I hope you continue to receive
good accounts of Miss . she will I
think be a great comfort to you in the
Winter, especially as she lives so near to
you, after you have been at some public
place or other, you may retire to her Apartment
in order to have a ¼ of an hour's Conversation
with her, or she may come to your apartment.
The question my Miranda I mentioned
to you in my last, & which I left you
at liberty, about answering, is this, remember
upon What grounds I mention it, to you
having your promise fairly and honestly
to answer me any question you can properly
answer me concerning yourself. “Whether
“or no, you ever had, or have, or think you
“shall have any ideas of entering into a
“closer connection or relationship with your
“other Brother, or whether he ever has entertained or does,
“or whether you think he ever will entertain
such an idea.” Pardon oh pardon
my Miranda, the imprudence of such
a question, consider how much I look
upon myself as interested in it. Consider
it is putting my mind at rest, & to a
certain degree following the grounds & original plan of our friendship for each other by putting both, not only yourself
but myself to the test, for I assure you
it costs me more to ask, than it does you
to answer, but perhaps you will in your
truly affectionate manner say, but why
does it cost my friend so much to ask
me a question that he says interests him
is he afraid of me, am not I his real
true, & best friend, do not I deserve
his whole confidence, you have it
my Miranda, by Heaven you have it,
& it was principally from this ground
that my imprudence proceeded, if there
is any in it, if there is, pray pardon it.
It is just supper time so Adieu Adieu Adieu
my dearest dearest dearest Sister Friend, Miranda, may
Heaven bless you, & preserve you, & believe when
I say I am
eternally your sincerely affectionate Friend &
Brother Palemon toujours de même.
P.S. I wish to know whatever you hear about me good, bad, or indifferent, I will
certainly follow your advice of marking something in my Letters, allusive
to the preceding ones of yours. encore une fois Dieu vous benisse.
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/3/82/63
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London (certainty: low)
Date sent: 18 November 1779
notBefore 18 November 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 18 November 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on being at Windsor at Christmas for the hunting; her friendship with 'M G'; and on her connection with her 'other brother'.
The Prince asks 'whether or no, you ever had, or have, or think you shall have any ideas of entering into a closer connection with your other Brother...'. [This is likely to refer to the 8th Lord Napier, see GEO/ADD/3/83/19].
In postscript the Prince states that he wants Hamilton to tell him whatever she hears about him.
Received Thursday morning at ½ past 8 o'clock.
Signed 'Palemon'.
Length: 1 sheet, 587 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 January 2020)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021