Diplomatic Text
[1]
x
Bulstrode Wednesday 14th Novr
1781
23
My Dear Madam
I enclose the Title of the book as
The Queen commanded must beg you trans=
=cribe it as my dim Eyes will not suffer me
to write it better.
It is impoʃsible for me to expreʃs, the
sense I have of the honours, conferr'd on me
by their majesties; but you know well
how to do justice to my profound respects
and Gratitude in a better manner than I
can do it myself. I am not the least fatigued
(tho not quite so young as when I scamper'd
after the hounds in Pink Lutestring)[2][3] by the
part I bore in the Royal chase; but delighted
with the recollection of so pleasant a scene.
The Ducheʃs Dr of Portland who is just awake
perfectly well, desires her best compliments
to you, and that you will present her humble
Duty to the King and Queen and will
obey
obey their Majesties most pleasing
commands tomorrow at the appointed
hour attended by My Dear Miʃs Hamilton[s][4]
most affectionate &
most Obliged humble Ser[t]
MDelany
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This letter appears in Llanover (1862: 67).
2. ‘A kind of glossy silk fabric’ (OED s.v. lutestring n2. Accessed 18-01-2021).
3. Mary Delany refers here to an anecdote of which the King is presumably aware. Hamilton details this anecdote in LWL Mss Vol. 75(26).
4. Llanover (1862: 67) has s here.
Normalised Text
Bulstrode Wednesday 14th November
My Dear Madam
I enclose the Title of the book as
The Queen commanded must beg you transcribe
it as my dim Eyes will not suffer me
to write it better.
It is impossible for me to express, the
sense I have of the honours, conferred on me
by their majesties; but you know well
how to do justice to my profound respects
and Gratitude in a better manner than I
can do it myself. I am not the least fatigued
(though not quite so young as when I scampered
after the hounds in Pink Lutestring) by the
part I bore in the Royal chase; but delighted
with the recollection of so pleasant a scene.
The Duchess Dowager of Portland who is just awake
perfectly well, desires her best compliments
to you, and that you will present her humble
Duty to the King and Queen and will
obey their Majesties most pleasing
commands tomorrow at the appointed
hour attended by My Dear Miss Hamiltons
most affectionate &
most Obliged humble Servant
Mary Delany
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
Archive: Mrs. Delany correspondence
Item title: Letter from Mary Delany to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: LWL Mss Vol. 75(25)
Correspondence Details
Sender: formerly Pendarves), Mary Delany (née Granville
Place sent: Gerrards Cross
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 14 November 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Delany to Mary Hamilton, enclosing the title of a book which the Queen had asked for (see also LWL Mss Vol. 75, item 23).
Length: 1 sheet, 177 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 18 January 2021)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021