Diplomatic Text
x
10 O'clock Wednesday
14th March 1781
13
My Dear Madam
I hope the Regal Flower[1] has return'd safe
into your hands tho not so blooming as when I
receiv'd it; I fear I have kept it too long, but
my Vivacity like the flower droops with Time -- &
I truly think nothing leʃs than the Honour & delight
of having been thought worthy such a task by her majesty
cou'd have given me the power of attempting
it; you know my Dear Madam how truly
sensible I am of the Queens goodneʃs & you
also know how difficult it is to do justice to that
gratitude which an honest heart must feel --
joy, joy for our Excellent good news!
The Bishp. of Chester and Mrs Porteus drink Tea
here x my never failing Friend this afternoon -- have you a moment to
spare? if you have, you cannot bestow it where
it will be more truly Valued than on
Yr most affectte. & Obliged
MDelany
don't write I know
yr hours are better employd,
than in ansg. notes.
From St. James Place
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Delany executed a collage portraying the Amaryllis Regia, sent to her from Queen Charlotte, in March 1781.
Normalised Text
10 O'clock Wednesday
My Dear Madam
I hope the Regal Flower has returned safe
into your hands though not so blooming as when I
received it; I fear I have kept it too long, but
my Vivacity like the flower droops with Time -- &
I truly think nothing less than the Honour & delight
of having been thought worthy such a task by her majesty
could have given me the power of attempting
it; you know my Dear Madam how truly
sensible I am of the Queens goodness & you
also know how difficult it is to do justice to that
gratitude which an honest heart must feel --
joy, joy for our Excellent good news!
The Bishop of Chester and Mrs Porteus drink Tea
here x my never failing Friend this afternoon -- have you a moment to
spare? if you have, you cannot bestow it where
it will be more truly Valued than on
Your most affectionate & Obliged
Mary Delany
don't write I know
your hours are better employed,
than in answering notes.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
Archive: Mrs. Delany correspondence
Item title: Note from Mary Delany to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: LWL Mss Vol. 75(11)
Correspondence Details
Sender: formerly Pendarves), Mary Delany (née Granville
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 14 March 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Note from Mary Delany to Mary Hamilton, expressing hope that the 'regal flower' that she had been given by the Queen for a collage has returned safely into Mary Hamilton's hands.
Length: 1 sheet, 174 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 13 January 2021)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021