Diplomatic Text
7 Oclock
Septr. 10th. 1807
My dearest Mama
Mrs- & Miʃs Smith came in
about a quarter of an hour to the Inn, and
we sat there till we ------------------------ did not know what to say next -- Mrs-
Smith, has been a fine Woman, but from her
manners and dreʃs she might have been a
Sister of Mrs- Glover's; Miʃs Smith is not
pretty, has a pretty figure, and not very
vulgar, we got to Chicksands at three o'clock,
we were taken into the Library; at the end
of the new gothic Room, we found Ly H:O:
Ly Calder and two Miʃs Wilkinson's, very
pleasing, unaffected, young Women, Ly C:
was very polite to me, for Ly H: soon went
out of the Room, and she immediately
began to converse with me, and did so
till
we went to dreʃs -- the party at dinner
consisted of the above mention'd Ladies
Colonel Osborn (not unlike Sir George) Sir
Henry Calder, son of Ly C:'s, a young Man
about 19 very chearful and good humour'd,
he call's Colonel Osborn Uncle. The Miʃs
Wilkinson's are Nieces of Ly Calder's, Ld C:
has been here. The Gentlemen joined us
in the Library, (where we sat in the Eveng
as there was a fire), in half an hour
after we left them; We all worked, talked
and laugh'd till Eleven o'clock, when
Mr- Osborn came home, I mean the
young Colonel. O: he seem'd tired and
soon went to bed. Sir George is to
meet us at the Trees this morning
he was in London yesterday -- Lady H:
was much pleased that I brought
my white paper Puzzles as they call them
they were all delighted with them, as they
had never seen any -- There is a foreign
Gentleman here, I cannot find out his
name, that amuses himself with drawing
he puts them into a book, from the
binding of which, I expected to see
[so]me pretty sketches at least, but
when I saw them, I could hardly help
smiling, such attempts at drawing! Sir
H.C: is wild about shooting, he ask'd
me if my Papa liked it, I told him he did
& that he had got up at 5 o'clock, O, he said,
how I should like to have been with him --
I believe he has not had good sport --
Miʃs Smith boasted that Mr- Pickford kill'd
17 brace of birds before breakfast, and
went on giving an account of him, as
being a very Gentlemanlike Man, &c, Ly H:
------ said yes, but you have already told
us, that he is a poacher. We are all very
anxious about the Weather, if it rains I
believe we shall not go to the races but
▼
[1]go to Bedford to dinner. I sleep in one of the
new Rooms; instead of being number'd there
is over every door a Greek word, painted
on the Wall to distinguish them, like Sir George
Ly H: says I must stay till Monday & as I cannot
tell at what hour I think I had better return
in a Hack: Chaise Adieu my dearest Mama
LD:
My my most affecte- love
to dear Papa -- I am very
happy[2]
Single
To
Mrs- Dickenson
Leighton House
Beds:[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
▼
7 O'clock
My dearest Mama
Mrs- & Miss Smith came in
about a quarter of an hour to the Inn, and
we sat there till we did not know what to say next -- Mrs-
Smith, has been a fine Woman, but from her
manners and dress she might have been a
Sister of Mrs- Glover's; Miss Smith is not
pretty, has a pretty figure, and not very
vulgar, we got to Chicksands at three o'clock,
we were taken into the Library; at the end
of the new gothic Room, we found Lady Heneage Osborn
Lady Calder and two Miss Wilkinson's, very
pleasing, unaffected, young Women, Lady Calder
was very polite to me, for Lady Heneage soon went
out of the Room, and she immediately
began to converse with me, and did so
till
we went to dress -- the party at dinner
consisted of the above mentioned Ladies
Colonel Osborn (not unlike Sir George) Sir
Henry Calder, son of Lady Calder's, a young Man
about 19 very cheerful and good humoured,
he call's Colonel Osborn Uncle. The Miss
Wilkinson's are Nieces of Lady Calder's, Lord C:
has been here. The Gentlemen joined us
in the Library, (where we sat in the Evening
as there was a fire), in half an hour
after we left them; We all worked, talked
and laughed till Eleven o'clock, when
Mr- Osborn came home, I mean the
young Colonel. Osborn he seemed tired and
soon went to bed. Sir George is to
meet us at the Trees this morning
he was in London yesterday -- Lady Heneage
was much pleased that I brought
my white paper Puzzles as they call them
they were all delighted with them, as they
had never seen any -- There is a foreign
Gentleman here, I cannot find out his
name, that amuses himself with drawing
he puts them into a book, from the
binding of which, I expected to see
some pretty sketches at least, but
when I saw them, I could hardly help
smiling, such attempts at drawing! Sir
Henry Calder is wild about shooting, he asked
me if my Papa liked it, I told him he did
& that he had got up at 5 o'clock, O, he said,
how I should like to have been with him --
I believe he has not had good sport --
Miss Smith boasted that Mr- Pickford killed
17 brace of birds before breakfast, and
went on giving an account of him, as
being a very Gentlemanlike Man, &c, Lady Heneage
said yes, but you have already told
us, that he is a poacher. We are all very
anxious about the Weather, if it rains I
believe we shall not go to the races but
▼
go to Bedford to dinner. I sleep in one of the
new Rooms; instead of being numbered there
is over every door a Greek word, painted
on the Wall to distinguish them, like Sir George
Lady Heneage says I must stay till Monday & as I cannot
tell at what hour I think I had better return
in a Hackney Chaise Adieu my dearest Mama
Louisa Dickenson
My most affectionate love
to dear Papa -- I am very
happy
Single
To
Mrs- Dickenson
Leighton House
Bedfordshire
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 Louisa Dickenson (later Anson) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/3/2/1
Correspondence Details
Sender: Louisa Frances Mary (later Anson) Dickenson
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 10 September 1807
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Louisa Dickenson to her mother, in which she describes and gossips about the people she met and the activities she carried out on a visit to Chicksands Priory in Befordshire. Louisa writes of a Mr. and Mrs. Smith and of a Miss Smith who 'is not pretty, has a pretty figure, and not very vulgar'. They were taken into the Library 'at the end of the new gothic room' when they reached Chicksands. There she found Lady H. O. [Lady Heneage Osborn (née Finch) (d. 1820)]. Lady Calder [Lady Louisa Calder (née Osborn)] and her nieces, the two Miss Wilkinsons, were pleasing and unaffected. The party also consisted of Colonel Osborn [Colonel John Osborn (1772-1848), son of Lady Heneage Osborn] and Sir Henry Calder [Sir Henry Rodham Calder, 5th Baronet (1790-1868), son of Lady Calder], who was approximately 19 years old. She writes that the latter was cheerful and good humoured and called Colonel Osborn 'Uncle'. The gentlemen joined the ladies in the library in the evening. The ladies left them a half hour later and 'all worked, talked and laugh'd till Eleven o'clock', when 'the young Colonel [Osborn]' came home.
She continues that Sir George [Sir George Osborn, 4th Baronet (1742-1818), husband of Lady Heneage Osborn] 'is to meet us at the Trees this morning' and that he was in London the previous day. She reports that Lady Heneage Osborne was pleased with '[her] white paper Puzzles as they call them', as no-one had seen any before. She also reports that there is a 'foreign gentleman [there]', but that she has been unable to find out his name. The gentleman sketches and pastes the sketches into a book. Sir Henry Calder is 'wild about shooting' and asked Louisa if her father also enjoyed it. She does not believe that he has had good sport. Miss Smith boasts that a Mr. Pickford 'kill'd 17 brace of birds before breakfast' and then gave an account of him as being 'a very Gentlemanlike Man', though she had 'already told [them], that he is a poacher'.
Louisa ends her letter describing the rooms. She sleeps in one of the new rooms and instead of being numbered every room has a Greek letter 'painted on the Wall to distinguish them'. She is to stay until Monday and she will return in a Hackney Chaise.
Original reference No. 12.
Length: 1 sheet, 543 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
Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo
Transliterator: Adam Massey, 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