Diplomatic Text
“I know the anxious care I have had for you has
“not been mispent”
Those are your Fathers words,[1] & such a Father,
Such a Friend -- such a Man! can you Sir con-
tinue to wish for my friendship, can I continue
to encourage it when you have his, & are certain
of that of your excellent Mothers -- Heaven forbid!
what shall I say for myself -- I can say nothing in excuse
but that I have been highly imprudent in
accepting your friendship -- for you that inex
perience has led you into an error -- farewel --
forget my imprudence, & remember what you
owe your Parents, your Country, & Yourself, Farewell
may
may the God of Mercies grant you his protection
-- may you have no vices -- no follies to repent of
Once more farewell
I really take it ill that you will persist aboutin getting the
Bracelet &c
typed
This must have been in July 1779
the Prince writes on 24th “Let not any reflections of the imprudence, inconsistency or impropriety
“of yr conduct in accepting of my friendship disturb yr peace & happineʃs, etc -- [2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. A quotation from his father's words could derive from the batch(es) of letters lent by the Prince around 29 July (GEO/ADD/3/82/18 and GEO/ADD/3/82/19). Although the Prince's GEO/ADD/3/82/16(1) of 25 July had already acknowledged his debt to his parents, a date nearer the end of July seems more likely. The catalogue's ‘c.26 August’ has not been followed.
2. The annotator assumes that this letter dates from July 1779, quoting from the Prince's GEO/ADD/3/82/15 of 24 July, but that letter is clearly a specific reply to Hamilton's GEO/ADD/3/83/4 of 23 July and not to the present letter. The bracelet is not mentioned in dated letters after 2 August until the Prince's GEO/ADD/3/82/27 of c.26 August, and here Hamilton complains of his persistence over the bracelet. The Prince in turn may be responding to the present letter or note in his GEO/ADD/3/82/28 and GEO/ADD/3/82/29 of c.29 August, which respectively complain of her calling him ‘Sir’ throughout, and that ‘ye. coldneſs of ye. Style as well as ye. expreſsions of it alarmed me to ye. highest degree’.
Normalised Text
“I know the anxious care I have had for you has
“not been misspent”
Those are your Fathers words, & such a Father,
Such a Friend -- such a Man! can you Sir continue
to wish for my friendship, can I continue
to encourage it when you have his, & are certain
of that of your excellent Mothers -- Heaven forbid!
what shall I say for myself -- I can say nothing in excuse
but that I have been highly imprudent in
accepting your friendship -- for you that inexperience
has led you into an error -- farewell --
forget my imprudence, & remember what you
owe your Parents, your Country, & Yourself, Farewell
may the God of Mercies grant you his protection
-- may you have no vices -- no follies to repent of
Once more farewell
I really take it ill that you will persist in getting the
Bracelet &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/3/83/36
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: July 1779
notBefore 24 July 1779 (precision: high)
notAfter July 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on the imprudence of their friendship; and on his continuing to get a bracelet.
Hamilton refers to George III and Queen Charlotte.
[Copy.]
Length: 1 sheet, 144 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