Diplomatic Text
I have not a right to divulge the secrets of others, &
never shall be guilty of so doing, but when my
discretion points out I may do them honor if I
love them, or not injure by communication; -- I
have no scruple of telling you, my friend, that ye. name
is a little scheme of ours, in case of accident,[3] to amuse
& divert her mind from dwelling too much on serious
subjects -- I am now & then to write ye. topics of ye-
day, & as she is acquainted wth. ye. principal actors
of ye Drama she may sometimes be diverted with
ye. motel motley scenes -- I am quite grateful
abt.for your expreʃsions abt. —— indeed she is very
amiable -- I look up to her Lady Dartrey, Mrs. Carter
& a few others as superior beings &c &c
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This undated letter has been provisionally placed after GEO/ADD/3/82/47, where the Prince returns the last of the letters from Hamilton's friends and asks for some names to be clarified.
2. Underneath the letter draft is a faint pencil drawing of two men facing each other.
3. Possibly a reference to Charlotte Gunning, prone to depression. Hamilton and Gunning often refer to each other as ‘Miranda’ and ‘Astrea’, respectively.
4. This page is blank.
Normalised Text
I have not a right to divulge the secrets of others, &
never shall be guilty of so doing, but when my
discretion points out I may do them honour if I
love them, or not injure by communication; -- I
have no scruple of telling you, my friend, that the name
is a little scheme of ours, in case of accident, to amuse
& divert her mind from dwelling too much on serious
subjects -- I am now & then to write the topics of the
day, & as she is acquainted with the principal actors
of the Drama she may sometimes be diverted with
the motley scenes -- I am quite grateful
for your expressions about —— indeed she is very
amiable -- I look up to her Lady Dartrey, Mrs. Carter
& a few others as superior beings &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/3/83/60
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.10 October 1779
notBefore 7 October 1779 (precision: low)
notAfter 10 October 1779 (precision: low)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on discretion; a scheme to divert the mind of [unknown] from 'dwelling too much on serious subjects'; and her admiration for [unknown], Lady Dartrey and Mrs Carter.
[Draft.]
Length: 1 sheet, 139 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed February 2020)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 10 December 2021