Single Letter

HAM/1/4/3/5

Letter from Jane Holman to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


London November 21st
1785./


My dear Cousin./

      I receiv'd your friendly Letter about a
Week ago -- You told me to write to you whenever I had leisure
[I] hope you will excuse my not having done it, as I have
[b]een much agitated lately, by the expectation of my dear Sister -- She
arriv'd in London last Thursday -- I leave you to conceive my
joy upon seeing her, after an absence of upwards of 3 years
& a half -- my joy is much embitter'd by her being to stay a
very short time in London -- I fear not a Week longer --
it breaks my Heart to think of our separation, for Heaven
knows when we shall meet again -- we may to be sure, sooner
than we expect, for this meeting was a chance./ We took her
last Saturday to Brumpton to see Lady Warwick, and this Morning
to Wandsworth-Hill to Lady Stormont's -- Lord & Lady Stormont
are well, but rather uneasy about little Charles Murray, who
has got a Cold that occasions a swelling in his Throat./ My Brother



is with us at present, and desires to be remember'd to you -- he
also bids me to give Mr: de la Gyfardière's Compliments to you,
who he says he saw not long ago./ Poor Mr: Glover is likely to
die very soon -- how I pity ------[1] Mrs: and Miʃs Glover! he will be
such a loʃs to them. --      have been out very little as yet --
I have been once at the Play -- not on a Night that Mrs: Siddons
perform'd -- she expects to be confin'd the latter end of this Month,
yet goes on performing still; and as I am told, if poʃsible better
than ever -- she is a wonderful Creature is she not? --
      Is Mr: Dickenson return'd to you yet? if he is, pray prese[nt]
my Compliments to him -- Are your Caves and Grottoes finish'd
yet? -- London is not yet near full as you may suppose --
the Parliament sat so late, that people are glad to make the
Summer as long as they can, now they are out of Town./
I go on practising Music as much as ever -- I hope I have made
some improvement this last Summer; you tell me it is thought
so -- Are Miʃs Dickenson's musical? Mr: Dickenson wasis I
remember, very fond of Music./ When do you intend to visit
London? I suppose not this Winter, as you are so much pleas'd
with your present situation./ My Brother was much gratified by
your writing to him -- he is very affectionate -- he does not forget
those who show friendship to him./ I am told that I look a great



deal stronger for having spent the Summer in the Country -- I
bath'd pretty constantly, which was of great service to me I believe --
tho' there was nothing the matter with me./      This is a very stu-
-pid
Letter but I can't help it; I have no news to tell you./
My Father and Mother are very well -- Accept their best Wishes,
with those of My Sister, and believe me, my dear Cousin, yours
                                                         affectionately./

                                                         J: Hamilton./

P:S:
Make my Father's and Mother's Compliments to Mr: Dickenson.[2]



Mrs: Dickenson[3]
      Taxal
      Chapel-le[-Frith]
      Che[shire][4]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. Missing word likely to be 'poor'.
 2. The rest of p.2, col.2 has been cut away.
 3. Postmarks 'CHES[TER]FIE[LD]' above and '28 NO' below address when unfolded. The latter suggests that it took about a week before this letter was sent after it had been written. In HAM/1/4/3/6 p.1 (from August 1786) Jane also mentions that a letter of hers to Mary Hamilton 'has miscarried', and perhaps something similar happened here.
 4. The address appears in the middle of the page when unfolded. Half of the address is cut away.

Normalised Text


London November 21st
1785./


My dear Cousin./

      I received your friendly Letter about a
Week ago -- You told me to write to you whenever I had leisure
I hope you will excuse my not having done it, as I have
been much agitated lately, by the expectation of my dear Sister -- She
arrived in London last Thursday -- I leave you to conceive my
joy upon seeing her, after an absence of upwards of 3 years
& a half -- my joy is much embittered by her being to stay a
very short time in London -- I fear not a Week longer --
it breaks my Heart to think of our separation, for Heaven
knows when we shall meet again -- we may to be sure, sooner
than we expect, for this meeting was a chance./ We took her
last Saturday to Brumpton to see Lady Warwick, and this Morning
to Wandsworth-Hill to Lady Stormont's -- Lord & Lady Stormont
are well, but rather uneasy about little Charles Murray, who
has got a Cold that occasions a swelling in his Throat./ My Brother



is with us at present, and desires to be remembered to you -- he
also bids me to give Mr: de la Gyffardière's Compliments to you,
who he says he saw not long ago./ Poor Mr: Glover is likely to
die very soon -- how I pity Mrs: and Miss Glover! he will be
such a loss to them. --      have been out very little as yet --
I have been once at the Play -- not on a Night that Mrs: Siddons
performed -- she expects to be confined the latter end of this Month,
yet goes on performing still; and as I am told, if possible better
than ever -- she is a wonderful Creature is she not? --
      Is Mr: Dickenson returned to you yet? if he is, pray present
my Compliments to him -- Are your Caves and Grottoes finished
yet? -- London is not yet near full as you may suppose --
the Parliament sat so late, that people are glad to make the
Summer as long as they can, now they are out of Town./
I go on practising Music as much as ever -- I hope I have made
some improvement this last Summer; you tell me it is thought
so -- Are Miss Dickenson's musical? Mr: Dickenson is I
remember, very fond of Music./ When do you intend to visit
London? I suppose not this Winter, as you are so much pleased
with your present situation./ My Brother was much gratified by
your writing to him -- he is very affectionate -- he does not forget
those who show friendship to him./ I am told that I look a great



deal stronger for having spent the Summer in the Country -- I
bathed pretty constantly, which was of great service to me I believe --
though there was nothing the matter with me./      This is a very stupid
Letter but I can't help it; I have no news to tell you./
My Father and Mother are very well -- Accept their best Wishes,
with those of My Sister, and believe me, my dear Cousin, yours
                                                         affectionately./

                                                         Jane Hamilton./

P:S:
Make my Father's and Mother's Compliments to Mr: Dickenson.



Mrs: Dickenson
      Taxal
      Chapel-le-Frith
      Cheshire

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. Missing word likely to be 'poor'.
 2. The rest of p.2, col.2 has been cut away.
 3. Postmarks 'CHES[TER]FIE[LD]' above and '28 NO' below address when unfolded. The latter suggests that it took about a week before this letter was sent after it had been written. In HAM/1/4/3/6 p.1 (from August 1786) Jane also mentions that a letter of hers to Mary Hamilton 'has miscarried', and perhaps something similar happened here.
 4. The address appears in the middle of the page when unfolded. Half of the address is cut away.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Jane Holman to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/3/5

Correspondence Details

Sender: Jane Holman (née Hamilton)

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith

Date sent: 21 November 1785

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Jane Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter talks of family and general news including a visit from Jane Hamilton's sister Elizabeth to London, and her joy of seeing her after an absence of three and a half years. The sisters have been visiting family members, including Lady Warwick and Lady Stormont. She has also been to see a play, but unfortunately not on a night that Mrs Siddons [née Kemble, Sarah Siddons, actress (1755-1831)] performed, who she reports is 'expects to be confin[e]d the latter end of this Month, yet goes on performing still; and as I am told, if possible better than ever – she is a wonderful Creature is she not?'.
    Jane reports that London is not as busy as expected, as Parliament is 'out so late' and people are making the most of their summer and staying away from the city. She informs Mary Hamilton that she continues to practise music and that she has been told that she is looking much stronger after spending her summer in the Country. She bathed regularly and believes that this did her much good, although 'there was nothing the matter with me'. The letter also reports that Mr Glover is not expected to live much longer. Dated at London.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 531 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: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Rebecca Prescott, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2016)

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

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