Diplomatic Text
6 Novbr. I pretend not my frd. to inquire why you are so anxious to
inquirebe informed into the nature of my friendship with Lord Napier, but ▼
I will tell you as far as relates to myself -- I never had any other
idea but that of esteem & friendship -- I never shall enter into
any other engagement with him -- I think he loves me as his
best friend & Sister -- I tell you my friend that I
think a person of true refinement will never enter into ye-
sacred union if they do not feel they do or can love that
person beyond every earthly being -- upon this principle
I have ever acted & if my nature changes not -- ever shall.
--- We must take things as we find them & act up as well
as we can to our respective situations in life
“Act well your part, there all the honor lies”
My heart is open to yr. inspection -- The errors of my
judgement you will find it an honest one -- The errors of
my judgement must never be imputed to its dictates --
You need not ask me to tell you what I hear said of you
my friendship will never suffer me to be silent -- so
you may depend upon hearing -- good -- bad -- or indifferent,
wth. my comments of course -- Adieu
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
6 November I pretend not my friend to inquire why you are so anxious to
be informed into the nature of my friendship with Lord Napier, but ▼
I will tell you as far as relates to myself -- I never had any other
idea but that of esteem & friendship -- I never shall enter into
any other engagement with him -- I think he loves me as his
best friend & Sister -- I tell you my friend that I
think a person of true refinement will never enter into the
sacred union if they do not feel they do or can love that
person beyond every earthly being -- upon this principle
I have ever acted & if my nature changes not -- ever shall.
We must take things as we find them & act up as well
as we can to our respective situations in life
“Act well your part, there all the honor lies”
My heart is open to your inspection --
you will find it an honest one -- The errors of
my judgement must never be imputed to its dictates --
You need not ask me to tell you what I hear said of you
my friendship will never suffer me to be silent -- so
you may depend upon hearing -- good -- bad -- or indifferent,
with my comments of course -- Adieu
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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/3/83/19
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 6 November 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on the nature of her friendship with Lord Napier.
Hamilton states that her friendship with Napier is 'that of esteem & friendship'.
[Draft.]
Length: 1 sheet, 217 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 August 2019)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 10 December 2021