Diplomatic Text
Mr: Preston is a Clergyman, has been abroad with two young Men
of fashion, & the first time my Uncle William got leave to
go to England -- he was left charge des Affaires at Naples -- he is singularly
sensible & agreeable, gentle & polite in his manner, & notwith-
standing his Person is but indifferent, & his face plain, there is
something interesting wch. claims ones attention.
You already knew my opinion of Dear Lady Dartrey -- as for him
I do not believe there exists a more worthy benevolent
being. -- from each I have experienced upon the most trying
occasions every mark of the tenderest friendship -- Oh my friend
what a bleʃsing it is to have a strong sense of gratitude how
otherwise could we repay ye. obligations we lay under but by
expreʃsions of that gratitude which to generous minds is
sufficient recompence
[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. For convenience, this undated letter has been provisionally located when the Prince has been reading over some of Hamilton's correspondence. However, the true date may be almost any time between May and December 1779, as the Georgian Papers Online catalogue records, though surely before 5 December.
2. Probably a tick mark.
3. The second page is blank.
Normalised Text
Mr: Preston is a Clergyman, has been abroad with two young Men
of fashion, & the first time my Uncle William got leave to
go to England -- he was left charge des Affaires at Naples -- he is singularly
sensible & agreeable, gentle & polite in his manner, & notwithstanding
his Person is but indifferent, & his face plain, there is
something interesting which claims ones attention.
You already knew my opinion of Dear Lady Dartrey -- as for him
I do not believe there exists a more worthy benevolent
being. -- from each I have experienced upon the most trying
occasions every mark of the tenderest friendship -- Oh my friend
what a blessing it is to have a strong sense of gratitude how
otherwise could we repay the obligations we lay under but by
expressions of that gratitude which to generous minds is
sufficient recompense
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/3/83/40
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: ?October 1779
when October 1779 (precision: low)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on her good opinion of Mr Preston, a Clergyman, and Lady Dartrey.
Hamilton refers to her Uncle William [Hamilton] leaving Mr Preston in 'charge des affaires' at Naples.
[Copy.]
Length: 1 sheet, 143 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: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed March 2020)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 10 December 2021