Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/83/31

Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales

Diplomatic Text


31

31

I would not have you my
Dr. friend
become callous to
ye. opinion of ye. world -- the P.S.
of your note[1] has, upon a reperus
-al
, hurt me extremely -- you say
my Friend “you despise all
“foolish reports as beneath
you” -- Oh consider what you
owe yourself -- consider what
likewise heaven has amply
endowed you with talents, &
every requisite to become
the ornament, ye. example,
the Glory of a Nation -- I
again tell you my friendship
for y & affection for you is
great & sincere & how &c --
does not this deserve some
little return, & surely my
friend
wd. not hesitate to
grant it when he must be
convinced I have no motive
self interested motive, do not
then, Oh do not for my sake asif



2
if not for your own lay your-
self
open to ye. world in a
character to which you would
blush to sign your name --
If I have said too much
impute it to that friendship
I feel & wch. I have honestly
dared to avow to you --
Do not answer this till you
have time to do it fully
Heaven guard -- preserve
& direct you prays your
sincere & tenderest friend
      Adieu
7 Decbr.1779

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Normalised Text



I would not have you my
Dear friend become callous to
the opinion of the world -- the postscript
of your note has, upon a reperusal
, hurt me extremely -- you say
my Friend “you despise all
“foolish reports as beneath
you” -- Oh consider what you
owe yourself -- consider
likewise heaven has amply
endowed you with talents, &
every requisite to become
the ornament, the example,
the Glory of a Nation -- I
again tell you my friendship
& affection for you is
great & sincere &c --
does not this deserve some
little return, & surely my
friend would not hesitate to
grant it when he must be
convinced I have no
self interested motive, do not
then, Oh do not for my sake




if not for your own lay yourself
open to the world in a
character to which you would
blush to sign your name --
If I have said too much
impute it to that friendship
I feel & which I have honestly
dared to avow to you --
Do not answer this till you
have time to do it fully
Heaven guard -- preserve
& direct you prays your
sincere & tenderest friend
      Adieu
7 December1779

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quotations,
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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/3/83/31

Correspondence Details

Sender: Mary Hamilton

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 7 December 1779

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on the Prince's behaviour, and urging him not to 'become callous to the opinion of the world'.
    [Draft.]
   

Length: 1 sheet, 194 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed January 2020)

Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors

Revision date: 10 December 2021

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