HAM/1/3/1/6
Letter from Mrs Sarah Dickenson (née Chetham) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
[1]
6.
A good part
typed
Taxal Janry: 11th: 1775
It gave me great Pleasure to receive a Letter
from Dr: Miʃs Hamilton after so long a Silence, especiall[y]
as I found it was owing to the Miscarriage of a Letter
which I had not recd. &, not to your having forgot me.
had this been the case I coud not in reality have
blamed you. as I was conscious to myself of being a very
improper Correspondent for a young Lady, of your Age.
& ------------------------ : but your obliging partiality to me
when at Northn: made me vain enough to hope you
wou'd not totally forget me. & I find I was not mis-
taken. I paʃs'd the last Spring & most of the Summer,
in a very uncomforable State of Health. & was so bad
for some time that I had little hopes of surviving it.
& poor Sally was in a most dangerous Situation, fromwith
the Measles. Thank God we are both got pretty well,
& I have born the Winter hitherto. beyond my Expecta-
tions. I was a Month this Summer at Buxton. & think
I found great benefit. my Chief Complaint was
Rhuematism, but it brought me so very weak, so
low, & so thin that I think I coud almost venture to
Northampton without being known by you.
Is Mrs. Hamilton ever troubled with the Rhuematism?
if she is, Buxton is the only place in the World for her
there is often a great deal of good Company, & when the
Weather is good you may spend a few Weeks there, very
agreeably, & Matlock (which most People go to after
bathing at Buxton) is a sweet pretty romantic Place.
this (with the Wonders of the Peak) wou'd entertain you
for a Summers Excursion. I might then hope to see you
once more, tho' I am not without the Intention at least
of some time or other visiting Northampton, again,
but it will not I think be soon. I expect Mr Lawton
to return my Visit in the Summer, or I shall be very
angry. I recd: a Letter from that Gent yesterday, & shoud
take it as a favour if you woud let him know I did
receive it, & intend to write to him soon.
& now my dear young Friend give me leave to enquire
how you have spent your time since I had the plea-
sure of seeing you? for I know you coud not be Idle?
have you pursued your Latin? or what is your chief
Employment? I hear you have learnt to draw, &
I long to see some of your performances in this
way. as I know you had a natural Genious for
it. Sally begs you will indulge her with something
of your doing, if it be but the size of a crown
piece. she desires her most affect: regards to you & Mrs:
Hamilton, she still remembers with gratitude the great
Civilities she receiv'd from you.
your old Friend Jack is now at home for th[e] --- [2]
days & desires his Compts. he is very happily
fix'd with a worthy Clergiman near Derby, a
Man of great Sense & Learning, who only
takes 4 boarders; & whose behaviour is so agreeable
to Jack that he pursues his Studies with the greatest
pleasure, he is at present as good as we coud wish him
I really find myself incapable of drawing a Character
which woud do any sort of justice to the Friend I
have lost. she was a most deserving Woman, & the
only thing I can do towards the performance of
my promise is to send you a few of her Letters, wch:
will give you some Idea of the Beauties of her Mind
her Person (when young) was very handsome, but that
was her least Perfection.
my Eyes are grown extreamly weak, so that out
of Charity you must give me two or 3 letters for
one. which is the only footing on which I dare
venture to correspond, & this wou'd be too great a
favour to expect from you, as I have nothing
to pay you in return but the sincere regard of
Your Affect & obliged
S Dickenson
▼
▼
Mr D joynes with us all in wishing you the Compts: of
the Season.
Miʃs Hamilton
Northampton[3]
Calling this mo
at Ab --- ------------ &
understanding
your
[4]
[5]
6th-[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Parts of this letter (from p.2 ‘your old Friend Jack’) are quoted in Anson & Anson (1925: 12).
2. Probably Holi.
3. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
4. Postmark ‘Buxton’ in black ink.
5. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
6. Moved annotation here from bottom of address panel, written upside down.
Normalised Text
Taxal January 11th: 1775
It gave me great Pleasure to receive a Letter
from Dear Miss Hamilton after so long a Silence, especially
as I found it was owing to the Miscarriage of a Letter
which I had not received &, not to your having forgotten me.
had this been the case I could not in reality have
blamed you. as I was conscious to myself of being a very
improper Correspondent for a young Lady, of your Age.
: but your obliging partiality to me
when at Northampton made me vain enough to hope you
would not totally forget me. & I find I was not mistaken
. I passed the last Spring & most of the Summer,
in a very uncomfortable State of Health. & was so bad
for some time that I had little hopes of surviving it.
& poor Sally was in a most dangerous Situation, with
the Measles. Thank God we are both got pretty well,
& I have borne the Winter hitherto. beyond my Expectations
. I was a Month this Summer at Buxton. & think
I found great benefit. my Chief Complaint was
Rheumatism, but it brought me so very weak, so
low, & so thin that I think I could almost venture to
Northampton without being known by you.
Is Mrs. Hamilton ever troubled with the Rheumatism?
if she is, Buxton is the only place in the World for her
there is often a great deal of good Company, & when the
Weather is good you may spend a few Weeks there, very
agreeably, & Matlock (which most People go to after
bathing at Buxton) is a sweet pretty romantic Place.
this (with the Wonders of the Peak) would entertain you
for a Summers Excursion. I might then hope to see you
once more, though I am not without the Intention at least
of some time or other visiting Northampton, again,
but it will not I think be soon. I expect Mr Lawton
to return my Visit in the Summer, or I shall be very
angry. I received a Letter from that Gentleman yesterday, & should
take it as a favour if you would let him know I did
receive it, & intend to write to him soon.
& now my dear young Friend give me leave to enquire
how you have spent your time since I had the pleasure
of seeing you? for I know you could not be Idle?
have you pursued your Latin? or what is your chief
Employment? I hear you have learnt to draw, &
I long to see some of your performances in this
way. as I know you had a natural Genius for
it. Sally begs you will indulge her with something
of your doing, if it be but the size of a crown
piece. she desires her most affectionate regards to you & Mrs:
Hamilton, she still remembers with gratitude the great
Civilities she received from you.
your old Friend Jack is now at home for the ---
days & desires his Compliments he is very happily
fixed with a worthy Clergyman near Derby, a
Man of great Sense & Learning, who only
takes 4 boarders; & whose behaviour is so agreeable
to Jack that he pursues his Studies with the greatest
pleasure, he is at present as good as we could wish him
I really find myself incapable of drawing a Character
which would do any sort of justice to the Friend I
have lost. she was a most deserving Woman, & the
only thing I can do towards the performance of
my promise is to send you a few of her Letters, which
will give you some Idea of the Beauties of her Mind
her Person (when young) was very handsome, but that
was her least Perfection.
my Eyes are grown extremely weak, so that out
of Charity you must give me two or 3 letters for
one. which is the only footing on which I dare
venture to correspond, & this would be too great a
favour to expect from you, as I have nothing
to pay you in return but the sincere regard of
Your Affectionate & obliged
Sarah Dickenson
▼
▼
Mr Dickenson joins with us all in wishing you the Compliments of
the Season.
Miss Hamilton
Northampton
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: Letter from Mrs Sarah Dickenson (née Chetham) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/3/1/6
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sarah Dickenson (née Chetham)
Place sent: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: 11 January 1775
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mrs Sarah Dickenson to Mary Hamilton. She writes that she spent most of the spring and summer in poor health and feared for her survival. Sally had also been ill with the measles. She continues that she has spent a month this summer in Buxton and found it beneficial. Her main compliant was rheumatism, which affected her badly. She asks if Mrs Hamilton suffers from the same complaint and if so then she highly recommends Buxton. Here there is 'often a great deal of good company, & when the weather is good you may spend a few weeks there very agreeably'. She writes that many people visit Matlock after Buxton and that it is a pretty place and that the 'wonders of the Peaks' offer an entertaining excursion.
Mrs Dickenson asks if Hamilton continues with her Latin and asks what she has been doing since they last met. She has heard that she is learning to draw and knows that she has a 'natural Genious[sic] for it'. She reports that Mary Hamilton's friend 'Jack' [John Dickenson, her future husband] is at home [from Northampton] and sends his compliments. He is currently boarding with a clergyman in Derby and is 'pursuing his studies with the greatest pleasure'. She continues that she is finding it difficult to describe her old friend (see HAM/1/3/1/5) and decides that the best way to do so is by forwarding Hamilton some of her letters so that she can get 'some Idea of the Beauties of her Mind'.
Dated at Taxal [Derbyshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 713 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 July 2020)
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 April 2022