Diplomatic Text
7.
Taxal June 16th: 1775
My dear Miʃs Hamilton
I am always in my Peni
tentials, when I write to you: I know, I am the worst
Correspondent in the World, & that, I do not deserve to
hear from you; this makes me quite asham'd of myself,
whenever you are so obliging to favour me with a Letter.
you'l say then, that I ought immediatly to set about
answering it. very true; but I have added ingratitude
to neglect in not returning Mrs: Hamilton & yourself
my best thanks for your great Civilities to Jack, &
the good Opinion you are so obliging to entertain
of him. He is at present a Dutiful good Lad, & I hope
will continue so, & be a comfort to his Friends, the
Notice you took of him made full amends for the
Mortifications he sufferd from other circumstances in
his Visit to Northampton. & he is at length return'd full
of Acknowledgements for your Politeneʃs & Hospitality.
& desires me to present his best Compts: to you both.
but I believe he intends to send you a few lines in
this Frank which I shall inclose. I am sorry to hear
any thing has happend to give you uneasineʃs; you
have too much tenderneʃs in your disposition & I
have often thought on this occation that the lot
of human Happineʃs is more equally dispens'd than
People generally Imagine, & that the dull & insensi
ble tho' incapable of the refined pleasures of friend
ship do at least paʃs through the World with more
ease to themselves, than they whose delicate sensibi
lities make them so deeply affected with the loʃs or
distreʃs of every Friend in a World where there
are so many opportunities to grieve than to rejoyce.[1]
I have not yet look'd among my old Friends Letters
since she died. I intend to do it very soon, & will send
you one or two of them, but I find myself utterly
incapable of drawing a Character, tho it was what
I always wishd I coud have been Mrs: of. if you have
any Talent that way I beg you will exert & improve
it for it is both entertaining & useful.
we have got very sultry hot Weather which disagrees with
me exceʃsively & I am but very lame & poorly at prest.
but I hope when it is more moderate I shall be better.
Mr D: joynes me in Compts: to good Mrs: Hamilton
& yourself & beg you will believe me
Your sincere friend
S Dickenson
I am sorry you are removing so far off us, but it wd:
give me pleasure to hear you had fixd yourselves
agreeably.
as I do not know whether Mr: Lawton be returnd from London
I shoud take it as a favour (if he is not) that you
give leave for your Servt: to put the inclos'd into
the Post Office.
Miʃs Hamilton
Northampton
7.[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Hamilton mentions friends who had died in GEO/ADD/3/83/4 and GEO/ADD/83/22 of 1779.
2. This number is written vertically to the left of the address.
Normalised Text
Taxal June 16th: 1775
My dear Miss Hamilton
I am always in my Penitentials
, when I write to you: I know, I am the worst
Correspondent in the World, & that, I do not deserve to
hear from you; this makes me quite ashamed of myself,
whenever you are so obliging to favour me with a Letter.
you'll say then, that I ought immediately to set about
answering it. very true; but I have added ingratitude
to neglect in not returning Mrs: Hamilton & yourself
my best thanks for your great Civilities to Jack, &
the good Opinion you are so obliging to entertain
of him. He is at present a Dutiful good Lad, & I hope
will continue so, & be a comfort to his Friends, the
Notice you took of him made full amends for the
Mortifications he suffered from other circumstances in
his Visit to Northampton. & he is at length returned full
of Acknowledgements for your Politeness & Hospitality.
& desires me to present his best Compliments to you both.
but I believe he intends to send you a few lines in
this Frank which I shall enclose. I am sorry to hear
any thing has happened to give you uneasiness; you
have too much tenderness in your disposition & I
have often thought on this occasion that the lot
of human Happiness is more equally dispensed than
People generally Imagine, & that the dull & insensible
though incapable of the refined pleasures of friendship
do at least pass through the World with more
ease to themselves, than they whose delicate sensibilities
make them so deeply affected with the loss or
distress of every Friend in a World where there
are so many opportunities to grieve than to rejoice.
I have not yet looked among my old Friends Letters
since she died. I intend to do it very soon, & will send
you one or two of them, but I find myself utterly
incapable of drawing a Character, though it was what
I always wished I could have been Mistress of. if you have
any Talent that way I beg you will exert & improve
it for it is both entertaining & useful.
we have got very sultry hot Weather which disagrees with
me excessively & I am but very lame & poorly at present
but I hope when it is more moderate I shall be better.
Mr Dickenson joins me in Compliments to good Mrs: Hamilton
& yourself & beg you will believe me
Your sincere friend
Sarah Dickenson
I am sorry you are removing so far off us, but it would
give me pleasure to hear you had fixed yourselves
agreeably.
as I do not know whether Mr: Lawton be returned from London
I should take it as a favour (if he is not) that you
give leave for your Servant to put the enclosed into
the Post Office.
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/1/3/1/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sarah Dickenson (née Chetham)
Place sent: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: 16 June 1775
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mrs Sarah Dickenson to Mary Hamilton. Again Mrs Dickenson apologises for being a poor correspondent and thanks Hamilton and her mother for the 'civilities' they have shown to Jack and for their good opinion of him. '[T]he notice you took of him made full amends for the mortifications he suffered from other circumstances in his visit to Northampton'.
Mrs Dickenson writes that she is sorry to hear that Hamilton feels uneasy. She notes that Hamilton 'has too much tenderness in your disposition'. 'Dull' and 'insensitive' people have an easier life than sensitive people affected by 'the loss or distress of every Friend in a World where there are so many opportunities to grieve than rejoice'. Mrs Dickenson will forward Hamilton one or two letters of her friend shortly and notes that she wishes she had the ability to describe her friend's character but 'I find myself utterly incapable'. She begs Hamilton if she has talent in this area to exert & improve it' as it is 'both entertaining & useful'.
Length: 1 sheet, 488 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: 4 April 2022