Diplomatic Text
5 oClock -- 22d Novbr- 1779
My dearest, dearest, dearest Miranda,
my Sister, my Friend, ▼
What a dear whimsical creature
thou art, however I have a crow to pull
with you,[3], who in ye. names of Euterpe
& Melpomene ever desired meyou to appear
to yme, in a disposition in wh.. you really
was not, pardon me my dearest Sister
is yt. quite consistant with true
friendship, did not I tell you you
was equally dear & amiable in my
eyes in whatever mood you was,
you will again say I have been
giving some odd twist to yr. meaning.
Now I have spit my fire: How cld.. you
twist my meaning so as to suppose
I recommended to you to follow all ye. cries
& follies of ye. age, what I meant
by diʃsipation, was going more into
ye. World among yr. friends & acquain-
=tances, than is in yr. power to do
here, & by that means to diʃsipate yr.
melancholy & to resume yr. usual
air de badinage
As you desire so much to
have ye. Book I will send it to you
I have two sets of it, therefore you need
not hurry yrself to return it, however
I shall not go on with it till you
have returned it, after having marked
every beautiful paʃsage. You will
observe I have not advanced above
ye. 1st.. hundred Pages in it, &
have marked here & there a paʃsage
wh.. hit my fancy, when I spoke so
highly of ye. Book, it was merely
a character I heard of it from ye.
person who originally lent ym——it
to me, however ye. Set you shall
have is my own, therefore mark
it wherever there is a pretty
paʃsage, & give me fairly yr. opinion
of it, it is called ye. Memoirs of
Miʃs Sidney Biddulph, & is generally
believed to be written by ye. Old Mr..
or Mrs.. Sheridan, I can not tell
wh.. for I know they both have
written.[4] Good night My Miranda
--- pleaʃant dreams, & happy slumbers
be yr. lot. my Cold is something
better to night thank God, I will
let you know how it is tomorrow after
my ride.
Monday Morning.
I have been out riding this Morning & find
myʃelf ye. better for it. My Cold I hope
is going off for it has lodged itself
in my head, & makes me sneeze, & my
eyes & nose run to a most amazing
degree, always suppose my Miranda
yt. I never cld.. look upon it as
perfect confidence unless I was to be perfectly
minutious about myʃelf. I am of
opinion yt. what you intend to do
with regard to yt. little Burr[5] is
perfectly right, & yt ye. sooner
------ you put yr. plan in execution ye.
better. I admire ye. idea of ye.
Bobwig & think it wld.. become
him amazingly. God bleʃs you &
preserve you, & may we long long
long enjoy our mutual friendship
prays Yr. Yr. Yr. Palemon toujours de même
P.S.
Pray tell my ##[6] about ye days in Town. A. A. A. toujours chére
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. On the order of the preceding three letters, see GEO/ADD/3/82/65 p.1 n.1.
2. Moved annotation here from position to the right of the salutation.
3. To have a crow to pull with someone is ‘to have something disagreeable or awkward to settle with [them]; to have a matter of dispute, or something requiring explanation, to clear up; to have some fault to find with [them]’ (OED s.v. crow n. 1, 3b. Accessed 31-01-2020).
4. It was in fact Mrs (Frances) Sheridan who wrote the novel.
5. ‘That which clings like a bur; a thing or person difficult to get rid of or “shake off”’ (OED s.v. bur | burr n. 3. Accessed 28-06-2020), a reference to 'the little Gentleman' of GEO/ADD/3/83/49.
6. The cross-hatched symbol (represented in this transcription by ##) more likely stands for Messenger (cf. GEO/ADD/3/82/67, GEO/ADD/3/82/72) than for Mother (cf. GEO/ADD/3/82/60, GEO/ADD/3/82/62, etc.). It does not look like a normal alphabetic abbreviation that has been cancelled or censored.
Normalised Text
My dearest, dearest, dearest Miranda,
my Sister, my Friend, ▼
What a dear whimsical creature
thou art, however I have a crow to pull
with you,, who in the names of Euterpe
& Melpomene ever desired you to appear
to me, in a disposition in which you really
was not, pardon me my dearest Sister
is that quite consistent with true
friendship, did not I tell you you
was equally dear & amiable in my
eyes in whatever mood you was,
you will again say I have been
giving some odd twist to your meaning.
Now I have spit my fire: How could you
twist my meaning so as to suppose
I recommended to you to follow all the cries
& follies of the age, what I meant
by dissipation, was going more into
the World among your friends & acquaintances
, than is in your power to do
here, & by that means to dissipate your
melancholy & to resume your usual
air de badinage
As you desire so much to
have the Book I will send it to you
I have two sets of it, therefore you need
not hurry yourself to return it, however
I shall not go on with it till you
have returned it, after having marked
every beautiful passage. You will
observe I have not advanced above
the 1st.. hundred Pages in it, &
have marked here & there a passage
which hit my fancy, when I spoke so
highly of the Book, it was merely
a character I heard of it from the
person who originally lent it
to me, however the Set you shall
have is my own, therefore mark
it wherever there is a pretty
passage, & give me fairly your opinion
of it, it is called the Memoirs of
Miss Sidney Biddulph, & is generally
believed to be written by the Old Mr..
or Mrs.. Sheridan, I can not tell
which for I know they both have
written. Good night My Miranda
pleasant dreams, & happy slumbers
be your lot. my Cold is something
better to night thank God, I will
let you know how it is tomorrow after
my ride.
Monday Morning.
I have been out riding this Morning & find
myself the better for it. My Cold I hope
is going off for it has lodged itself
in my head, & makes me sneeze, & my
eyes & nose run to a most amazing
degree, always suppose my Miranda
that I never could look upon it as
perfect confidence unless I was to be perfectly
minutious about myself. I am of
opinion that what you intend to do
with regard to that little Burr is
perfectly right, & that the sooner
you put your plan in execution the
better. I admire the idea of the
Bobwig & think it would become
him amazingly. God bless you &
preserve you, & may we long long
long enjoy our mutual friendship
prays Your Your Your Palemon toujours de même
P.S.
Pray tell my ## about the days in Town. 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/3/82/66
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 22 November 1779
notBefore 22 November 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 22 November 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on reading 'The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph', and asking Hamilton to mark out 'pretty passages' within it.
The Prince states that 'The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph' is believed to have been written by either Mr or Mrs Sheridan. He refers to Hamilton's intentions regarding 'that little Burr'. He refers to the symptoms of his cold, and to Hamilton's melancholy.
Received Monday afternoon at 5 o'clock.
Signed 'Palemon'.
Length: 1 sheet, 512 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