Diplomatic Text
10th Novbr. 1779 -- I thank you my friend for ▼
Your last kind note affectionate & affecting Note
I will promise & endeavour I again promise
to endeavour to diʃsipate the gloom melancholy
turn you so constantly complain of in me,
but you must allow that the return of the season
will forcibly bring to mind the aweful solemn
scene I was witneʃs to last year[4] -- a Thousand
circumstances You cannot enter into, & wch. I
cannot communicate, makes me shed many
tears bitter tears upon my pillow -- Yet,
(& Almighty God I thank thee for it)
I am enabled to derive comfort from ye-
reflection, that from my earliest days
I never deviated from the strictest ties of
duty either in word or deed -- You have
never lost
2
lost a friend -- besides my Parents, I ▼
have lost five persons -- & that within a
a short space of time & at an early period of my
life that I was attached to, either from
gratitude for their partial affection for me,
or from my love of them -- ye. oldest of these
not more than 40 years -- Some time my
frd. is required to deaden the impreʃsion
of grief -- I trust the weakneʃs of my
nature will be pardoned, for I am per-
fectly sensible of ye. Duty of acquiescence
& resignation to ye. Supreme Will.
Do me ye. favor to read, what has pleased me
much, a Poem by S Johnson, -- The Vanity
of human Wishes &c &c &c --
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The image displayed here differs from the one available from the Royal Archives, which has the order of pages reversed.
2. Moved annotation (ann1) here from far right of p.1 at the end of the first line.
3. Moved annotation (ann2) here from far right of p.2 between the first and second lines.
4. Hamilton's mother is said to have died on 28 November 1778 (Anson & Anson 1925: 68, and see GEO/ADD/3/83/26), which is at odds with a note on a copy or draft letter dated 23 November 1779: 'This day last year my Mother died' (HAM/1/15/2/3), unless that note was a later addition.
Normalised Text
10th November 1779 -- I thank you my friend for ▼
Your last kind affectionate & affecting Note
I again promise
to endeavour to dissipate the melancholy
turn you so constantly complain of in me,
but you must allow that the return of the season
will forcibly bring to mind the awful solemn
scene I was witness to last year -- a Thousand
circumstances You cannot enter into, & which I
cannot communicate, makes me shed many
bitter tears upon my pillow -- Yet,
(& Almighty God I thank thee for it)
I am enabled to derive comfort from the
reflection, that from my earliest days
I never deviated from the strictest ties of
duty either in word or deed -- You have
never
lost a friend -- besides my Parents, I ▼
have lost five persons -- & that within a
short space of time & at an early period of my
life that I was attached to, either from
gratitude for their partial affection for me,
or from my love of them -- the oldest of these
not more than 40 years -- Some time my
friend is required to deaden the impression
of grief -- I trust the weakness of my
nature will be pardoned, for I am perfectly
sensible of the Duty of acquiescence
& resignation to the Supreme Will.
Do me the favour to read, what has pleased me
much, a Poem by Samuel Johnson, -- The Vanity
of human Wishes &c &c &c --
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/3/83/22
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 10 November 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on her melancholy; and on losing friends and parents at a young age.
Hamilton requests that the Prince read a poem by [Samuel] Johnson that has pleased her, 'The Vanity of Human Wishes'.
[Draft.]
Length: 1 sheet, 237 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