Diplomatic Text
X 12
9 OClock Saturday Evg 11 Feby. AD 1786 --
At 5 I sent of a frank to my affectionate Wife
inclosing 9 pages of A Maria's diary -- and a joint L——
of Mrs. & Miʃs Glovers. -- not having so good an Account
as I wish'd from Mrs Delany, & finding my self tolera-
bly well, I went at 6 to see her, & had the pleasure of findg
her extremely chearful, -- She told me that she had
been very ill since I saw her, that she had had a
giddineʃs in her head, & had been bled -- I wish she
would not admit so many people in a morning --
or at least set a part one half of the day to receive
their Visits -- there were no leʃs than 16 people
with her this morning -- There was only Miʃ - -
She very lively and just as you could wish her
to be -- we talked a great deal about you & ye- Royl. family --
I was saying something of my better half and
She, with great Vivacity, said “I will not allow
that -- There are two good hearts perfectly united”
She desired me to tell you that the Queen frequently
makes enquiries after you & wants to know
“where you are and if you are happy -- for you
“deserve to be so” -- She said you loved Anecdotes
and therefore I was to tell you, that one day as
that little princeʃs Amelia was dining with the
King She fixed her Eyes upon some fish and desired
to have some, the King told her she must not have any
for it was not good for her -- the young Lady's Spirit
was hurt at this Refusal -- & turning her head to the
Attendants -- “here (said she) take this fish away
it is not good for the King” -- Mrs. Delany says
her house at Windsor is between the two Lodges -- that
she devotes every afternoon to their Majesties Commands
[a]nd desired me particularly to tell you -- that every thing
was made agreeable to her -- their majesties laid aside all
restraint & form -- that they had shewn great civilities to Mrs.
Granville -- and to the little boy -- who seeing the Soldiers at
their exercise, run to Mrs. Delany and told her that he had
seen a great many Kings -- Mrs. D—— one day aʃsisted the Queen
in putting on her Cloak, which Mrs. D. said was light & warm
the next day the Q. brought a bundle under her arm &
presented a Cloak of the same sort to Mrs. D. -- I almost love
her for these Attentions to a person so dear to you -- Mr. & Mrs.
Cole came in which interupted our tête a tête -- I wish
to recollect every thing yr- dear friend says, as I know it will
give you pleasure -- Mr. & Mrs. C.. made many Enquiries abt- you.
Mr. C. said if I shd happen to be paʃsing thrō Lincoln Inn
fields in a heavy shower of rain, I shd. find a welcome shelter
under his Roof -- I made a very fine bow &c -- Mrs Dewes came
in -- at 9 I run over to enquire after Lady Herries and
had the happineʃs to hear that she was better -- as
soon as I got home Mr. & Mrs. Cole came in & interrupted
my writing to you, as I had just taken up my
pen --
Sunday -- I got up early this morning & went
to Mr. Kinders -- and breakfasted with him -- he was very
kind & a little prosaick -- when he went to wait upon
Mrs. Cole, he found himself in a very delicate Situation
for he was introduced to Mr. C. & he soon found that he
was a stranger to the busineʃs -- he began to be very
warm & Mrs. C. appeased his wrath by telling him yt.
no person had any demand against him -- but not a
word abt. the £5. & she prevented Kinder from reading ye- body
of her second Letter -- Mr. K—— said the whole had
been very artfully contrived & he wishes me to see
the Letter &c -- I have the pleasure to tell you
that I am perfectly well to day -- & in good spirits --
As soon as I returned I found Andrew Freece -- wh[en]
I told him that Lady Wake wd. write to Sir J. ------ [he]
seemed to hesitate & said, wch. I did not like, that he wis[hed]
to know if she really wd. do so -- but then he said he ha[d not]
the least Objection -- I told him the place of Butler [was]
a confidential one & therefore every neceʃsary information[1]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
9 O'Clock Saturday Evening 11 February AD 1786 --
At 5 I sent off a frank to my affectionate Wife
enclosing 9 pages of Anna Maria's diary -- and a joint Letter
of Mrs. & Miss Glovers. -- not having so good an Account
as I wished from Mrs Delany, & finding my self tolerably
well, I went at 6 to see her, & had the pleasure of finding
her extremely cheerful, -- She told me that she had
been very ill since I saw her, that she had had a
giddiness in her head, & had been bled -- I wish she
would not admit so many people in a morning --
or at least set apart one half of the day to receive
their Visits -- there were no less than 16 people
with her this morning -- There was only Mis - -
She very lively and just as you could wish her
to be -- we talked a great deal about you & the Royal family --
I was saying something of my better half and
She, with great Vivacity, said “I will not allow
that -- There are two good hearts perfectly united”
She desired me to tell you that the Queen frequently
makes enquiries after you & wants to know
“where you are and if you are happy -- for you
“deserve to be so” -- She said you loved Anecdotes
and therefore I was to tell you, that one day as
little princess Amelia was dining with the
King She fixed her Eyes upon some fish and desired
to have some, the King told her she must not have any
for it was not good for her -- the young Lady's Spirit
was hurt at this Refusal -- & turning her head to the
Attendants -- “here (said she) take this fish away
it is not good for the King” -- Mrs. Delany says
her house at Windsor is between the two Lodges -- that
she devotes every afternoon to their Majesties Commands
and desired me particularly to tell you -- that every thing
was made agreeable to her -- their majesties laid aside all
restraint & form -- that they had shown great civilities to Mrs.
Granville -- and to the little boy -- who seeing the Soldiers at
their exercise, ran to Mrs. Delany and told her that he had
seen a great many Kings -- Mrs. Delany one day assisted the Queen
in putting on her Cloak, which Mrs. Delany said was light & warm
the next day the Queen brought a bundle under her arm &
presented a Cloak of the same sort to Mrs. Delany -- I almost love
her for these Attentions to a person so dear to you -- Mr. & Mrs.
Cole came in which interrupted our tête a tête -- I wish
to recollect every thing your dear friend says, as I know it will
give you pleasure -- Mr. & Mrs. Cole. made many Enquiries about you.
Mr. Cole said if I should happen to be passing through Lincoln Inn
fields in a heavy shower of rain, I should find a welcome shelter
under his Roof -- I made a very fine bow &c -- Mrs Dewes came
in -- at 9 I ran over to enquire after Lady Herries and
had the happiness to hear that she was better -- as
soon as I got home Mr. & Mrs. Cole came in & interrupted
my writing to you, as I had just taken up my
pen --
Sunday -- I got up early this morning & went
to Mr. Kinders -- and breakfasted with him -- he was very
kind & a little prosaic -- when he went to wait upon
Mrs. Cole, he found himself in a very delicate Situation
for he was introduced to Mr. Cole & he soon found that he
was a stranger to the business -- he began to be very
warm & Mrs. Cole appeased his wrath by telling him that
no person had any demand against him -- but not a
word about the £5. & she prevented Kinder from reading the body
of her second Letter -- Mr. Kinder said the whole had
been very artfully contrived & he wishes me to see
the Letter &c -- I have the pleasure to tell you
that I am perfectly well to day -- & in good spirits --
As soon as I returned I found Andrew Freece -- when
I told him that Lady Wake would write to Sir J. ------ he
seemed to hesitate & said, which I did not like, that he wished
to know if she really would do so -- but then he said he had not
the least Objection -- I told him the place of Butler was
a confidential one & therefore every necessary information
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Journal-letter from John Dickenson to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/2/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Dickenson
Place sent: London (certainty: medium)
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith (certainty: low)
Date sent: 12 February 1786
Letter Description
Summary: Journal-letter from John Dickenson to his wife Mary née Hamilton covering the period 11-12 February 1786. He visited Mrs Delany [Mary Delany, née Granville (1700-1788), English Bluestocking, artist, and letter-writer] and found her well after recovering from 'giddiness in her head', for which she has been bled. He wishes that she would not allow so many visitors each morning or at least set aside part of the day to receive visits. Dickenson reports that there were sixteen people visiting her that morning. They spoke a lot about Hamilton and when he referred to her as his 'better half', Mrs Delany reprimanded him and said: 'I will not allow that – there are two good hearts perfectly united'. Mrs Delany noted that the Queen often makes enquiries about Hamilton and wishes to know if she is happy, for she 'deserves to be so'. Knowing that Hamilton enjoys anecdotes, Mrs Delany tells Dickenson one about Princess Amelia, who when dining with the King set her eyes on some fish, but the King would not allow her any, stating that it would not be good for her. After this refusal she called for attendants and requested that the fish be removed, as it was not good for the King.
The letter continues to update Hamilton on his visits and meetings of 11th and 12th February.
Length: 1 sheet, 768 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Donald Alasdair Morrison, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Hope Isaac, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted November 2014)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021