Diplomatic Text
Welsbourn[1] Jany 18
1784.
Without meaning any
Disrespect to Mrs Astley, I cannot tell
how to be sorry, Madam, that Mrs Delany
has followd his Majesties Example & chan=
=ged her Secretary, however my Vanity may
suffer by it, as I purchase ye Pleasure of receiving
ye new Ministers Dispatches, at ye Expence of
having my own looked into wth a very pene=
=trating Eye; tho' if I were disposed to defend
a little Inconsistency (wch as it looks like a remains
of Youth I am half unwilling to explain
away) I should not think it a very difficult Task
to do it; May you long continue to consider a
Cold as a serious Distemper, & never be
taught by a woful Experience that you are very well
off when you have Nothing worse to complain
of; I wish you no worse for your second Charge
than that I could give you a Taste of ye Hurries
of a Warwickshire Xmas, you would then be
convinced yt ye Life I believe you lead, I am
sure yt wch I lead in London is Tranquility to
them; As to your last Instance of Inconsistency
you will allow when you look at ye Person to
whom you are reading ye Letter, that ye Mind
does not always grow old wth ye Body, when
I am so old as to be insensible to ye Beauties
of ye Country & ye Approach of Spring I shall
care very little what becomes of me. So much
for my own Inconsistencies, what will you say
if I presume to think you are not entirely free
from them, if you meant to alarm & keep me
at Home, you should criticise in a leʃs agreeable
Manner, or I shall hardly be afraid of ye
Criticism or cease to wish meet ye Critic.
As I am unwilling to frighten you at your
first Entrance on your Office wth a Load of
Busineʃs, & hope to have ye Pleasure of seeing
Mrs Delany so soon, I will not trouble you
long on her Account at present, I will only
say how happy we all are that she continues
so well thro' so severe a Winter & how much
obliged to you for your kind Aʃsurance of it,
that I expect my Neice on Wednesday, shall
set out on Thursday, & look forward wth ye
greatest Pleasure in ye Hope of dining in
St James's Place on Fryday; yt I will not
give her ye Trouble of taking Lodgings for
me as I have engaged one at No 20 Cecil
Street within two doors of my old one,[2] wch
will be ready for me when I come to Town.
All our Circle are pretty well, ye dreadful
Colds are almost gone, all join in best Love
& Duty to Mrs Delany, my Brother Bern[ard]
begs to offer his Respects to yourself. If [I go]
on much farther you will say it is very [in]
=consistent I should complain of Hurry & teize
you with so long a Letter, In fact I am very
apt to forget myself when I am conver=
=sing with you, but other Calls will be heard
& allow me only Time to add yt I am with
great Truth
Madam
Your much obliged
& obedient humble Servant
Court Dewes.
Dewes Portland
Delany -- Port[4]
Miʃs Hamilton.[5]
pray let me have it again
to night for I have hardly
had time to read it. -- [6]
[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Wellesbourne Hall in Warwickshire was owned by Dewes family.
2. See Court Dewes' letter, dated March 1783 at 22 Cecil Street.
3. The archival date here is clearly wrong: that at the top of the letter is 18 January 1784, not 10 June, and the letter's reference to Christmas would bear this out.
4. These personal names have been split in two by unfolding.
5. This address is written vertically.
6. This annotation is written vertically.
7. Seal in red wax.
Normalised Text
Welsbourn January 18
1784.
Without meaning any
Disrespect to Mrs Astley, I cannot tell
how to be sorry, Madam, that Mrs Delany
has followed his Majesties Example & changed
her Secretary, however my Vanity may
suffer by it, as I purchase the Pleasure of receiving
the new Ministers Dispatches, at the Expense of
having my own looked into with a very penetrating
Eye; though if I were disposed to defend
a little Inconsistency (which as it looks like a remains
of Youth I am half unwilling to explain
away) I should not think it a very difficult Task
to do it; May you long continue to consider a
Cold as a serious Distemper, & never be
taught by a woeful Experience that you are very well
off when you have Nothing worse to complain
of; I wish you no worse for your second Charge
than that I could give you a Taste of the Hurries
of a Warwickshire Christmas, you would then be
convinced that the Life I believe you lead, I am
sure that which I lead in London is Tranquility to
them; As to your last Instance of Inconsistency
you will allow when you look at the Person to
whom you are reading the Letter, that the Mind
does not always grow old with the Body, when
I am so old as to be insensible to the Beauties
of the Country & the Approach of Spring I shall
care very little what becomes of me. So much
for my own Inconsistencies, what will you say
if I presume to think you are not entirely free
from them, if you meant to alarm & keep me
at Home, you should criticise in a less agreeable
Manner, or I shall hardly be afraid of the
Criticism or cease to wish meet the Critic.
As I am unwilling to frighten you at your
first Entrance on your Office with a Load of
Business, & hope to have the Pleasure of seeing
Mrs Delany so soon, I will not trouble you
long on her Account at present, I will only
say how happy we all are that she continues
so well through so severe a Winter & how much
obliged to you for your kind Assurance of it,
that I expect my Niece on Wednesday, shall
set out on Thursday, & look forward with the
greatest Pleasure in the Hope of dining in
St James's Place on Friday; that I will not
give her the Trouble of taking Lodgings for
me as I have engaged one at No 20 Cecil
Street within two doors of my old one, which
will be ready for me when I come to Town.
All our Circle are pretty well, the dreadful
Colds are almost gone, all join in best Love
& Duty to Mrs Delany, my Brother Bernard
begs to offer his Respects to yourself. If I go
on much farther you will say it is very inconsistent
I should complain of Hurry & tease
you with so long a Letter, In fact I am very
apt to forget myself when I am conversing
with you, but other Calls will be heard
& allow me only Time to add that I am with
great Truth
Madam
Your much obliged
& obedient humble Servant
Court Dewes.
Miss Hamilton.
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 Court Dewes to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: LWL Mss Vol. 75(52)
Correspondence Details
Sender: Court Dewes
Place sent: Warwickshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London (certainty: high)
Date sent: 18 January 1784
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Court Dewes to Mary Hamilton, mentioning Mary Delany's change in secretary, as well as his exchange of documents with Mary Hamilton.
Length: 1 sheet, 551 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 22 January 2021)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021