Diplomatic Text
10 It is a very great comfort & satisfaction to me to indulge
the idea that my friend will one day rise superior to the ▼
to the crowd around him -- that he will be eminent for
his Virtues -- great by his actions -- that he will despise
the follies of the world -- guard against the vices of it &
yet enjoy every rational refin'd satisfaction it may offers -- ▼
that he will learn to reflect his example will influence. --
-- that he will (if he chuses) be a bright ornament to the
age he lives in, & an example to be quoted hereafter. --
such my friend are the thoughts I indulge respecting you -- the
noteletter you wrote this morng. has given me this train of Idea's
my friendship for you is so great, that I declare I wld. with
joy make my life the sacrifice cld. they by that means be
realiz'd -- I am extremely glad to find You can make such
proper reflections upon the various characters you meet with.
at the same time I think you was even to me rather too
severe uponin your strictures concerning M. F. she spoke not the
language of her heart 'twas only ye. language of ye. World -- one can-
not help feeling a degree of compaʃsion to see a mind capable
of receiving the finest impreʃsions so depraved by bad example
-- I could not help smiling when I read the conversation that
paʃs'd between you -- 'twas much more innocent than many
things that reac'dh'd my ears & which I own quite shock'd me
-- I do not know whether they might strike you in ye. manner they
did me. -- I think I have no reason to complain, for I should not have
imagined she wld- let me off so easily as I must have affronted
her, for I have notnever once this Summer return'd her visit,
I have purposely avoided her society -- though the brilliancy of her
wit is very entertaining & she can when she pleases aʃsume a more sober style of conver-
sation -- but I really dreaded even the appearance of an
intimacy wth. her for fear it should in her moments of condescension
appear next Winter in public wch I own -- & I ------------------------
I should wish to shun.
Sunday Afterternoon
Sepr. 5th. 1779 --
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Moved annotation here from the right margin, level with the second line of text.
2. Moved second annotation here from the right margin, written vertically. There is a wavy pencilled line running down the margin from the second line of text to idea's in the eleventh, presumably indicating the extent of what was typed; however, no extract appears in Anson & Anson (1925).
Normalised Text
It is a very great comfort & satisfaction to me to indulge
the idea that my friend will one day rise superior to the ▼
crowd around him -- that he will be eminent for
his Virtues -- great by his actions -- that he will despise
the follies of the world -- guard against the vices of it &
yet enjoy every rational refined satisfaction it may offer -- ▼
that he will learn to reflect his example will influence. --
-- that he will (if he chooses) be a bright ornament to the
age he lives in, & an example to be quoted hereafter. --
such my friend are the thoughts I indulge respecting you -- the
letter you wrote this morning has given me this train of Idea's
my friendship for you is so great, that I declare I would with
joy make my life the sacrifice could they by that means be
realized -- I am extremely glad to find You can make such
proper reflections upon the various characters you meet with.
at the same time I think you was even to me rather too
severe in your strictures concerning Miss Finch she spoke not the
language of her heart 'twas only the language of the World -- one cannot
help feeling a degree of compassion to see a mind capable
of receiving the finest impressions so depraved by bad example
-- I could not help smiling when I read the conversation that
passed between you -- 'twas much more innocent than many
things that reached my ears & which quite shocked me
-- I do not know whether they might strike you in the manner they
did me. -- I think I have no reason to complain, for I should not have
imagined she would let me off so easily as I must have affronted
her, for I have not once this Summer returned her visit,
I have purposely avoided her society -- though the brilliancy of her
wit is very entertaining & she can when she pleases assume a more sober style of conversation
-- but I really dread even the appearance of an
intimacy for fear it should in her moments of condescension
appear next Winter in public which I own --
I should wish to shun.
Sunday Afternoon
September 5th. 1779 --
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 Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales
Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/83/10
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 5 September 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on her hopes for his future virtue; and her wish to avoid the society of 'M F'.
Hamilton hopes that the Prince will 'one day rise superior to the crowd around him...[and] be a bright ornament to the age he lives in...'. She refers to the Prince's conversation with 'M F' and states that 'she spoke not the language of her heart 'twas only the language of the world'.
Written Sunday afternoon.
[Draft.]
Length: 1 sheet, 370 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 July 2019)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 10 December 2021