Single Letter

HAM/1/4/3/10

Letter from Jane Holman to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


Miʃs Hamilton[1]

     
Bath -- August 6th: 1787.

                                                        
My dear Mrs: Dickenson --

      I shou'd have done myself the Plea-
sure
of answering your Letter sooner, but that
I have been in a good Deal of Hurry, lately, which
you will easily believe, when I tell you, that my
Mother
suddenly took the Resolution of coming with
me, to Bath: she had long wish'd me to drink the
Bath Waters; not for any Material Indisposition;
only on account of my now and then, having a
little Head-Ach, which she says, is bilious. My
Father
remain'd in London, because of our new



House; which we expect to get into, at Michaelmas.
      My Mother and I, have been here upwards
of a Fortnight, and propose staying five Weeks
longer -- It is a Time of the Year, at which we can
more conveniently be absent from London, than
at that which is call'd the Bath Season. Nothing can
agree with me better than drinking the Waters, and
bathing.      I wrote to Mrs: Halsey a Day or two, ago --
You ask me, how I like her Choice? I think Mr:
Halsey
has all the Appearance of being a very
good-natur'd Man; and one whose Disposition is
suited to Mrs: Halsey's -- I did not know that
Miʃs A—— C—— was not delighted with him.
      My Sister is not gone to Naples -- she had thoughts
of doing so; not on account of her Health, but
because Mr: Stratford (having got into some Diffi-
culties
,) wish'd to break up House-keeping; and



live with his Brother -- he therefore, suggested it to
Mrs: Stratford, to go abroad with her three Chil-
dren
, to remain for perhaps a few Years; in
which Time he hop'd to get out of his Embaraʃsments.
Naples was the Place fix'd upon; but as her
Father
and Mother, and Friends, did not think
it an eligible one, she gave up the Thoughts o[f]
it [an]d went into the Neighbourhood of Ge[neva]
where she has now been, I think, about two M[onths.]
she is in Company with a Family of great respectabi
lity
, who went with her from Dublin, on a Plan of
Oeconomy.
      I saw Mrs: Siddons pretty often last Winter: not
as often in private as I cou'd have wish'd; owing
partly to her numerous Occupations, and partly (I am
sorry to say,) to her being frequently indispos'd. She
does not act all this Summer, by which Precaution I
hope she will have a good Winter. She was to paʃs some



Time with Lord and Lady Harcourt; and to spend
the Remainder of her Summer, in various Visits.
I hope you will come to London in the Spring, and
shew us your pretty Daughter, who I am delighted to




hear, has happily got over the Small-Pox -- you may
now reckon her Beauty safe, you know. We hear
from my Father frequently, who always gives us the Plea-
sure
of hearing that Robert is well. My Mother's Compts: attend
you and Mr: Dickenson, to whom I beg mine also. -- Adieu,
                             my dear Cousin, believe me yours sincerely --
                                                         J: Hamilton.
P.S. We saw Mrs: Walkinshaw a
short Time before we left Town, & she
was very well.[2]

Miʃs H

     Mrs: Dickenson[3]
Taxal
Derbyshire
Cheshire.[4]

Supposed --
Near Macclesfield[5]

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


Notes


 1. Moved annotation here from below the dateline at the top of the page.
 2. This postscript appears at the bottom of p.3, to the left of the signature.
 3. Postmarks 'CHESTER 189' to left of address and 'BATH 110' above it.
 4. Moved address panel here from centre of p.3 when unfolded, written vertically.
 5. Moved annotation (ann2) here from centre of p.3 when unfolded, written to the left of the signature.

Normalised Text



     

Bath -- August 6th: 1787.

                                                        
My dear Mrs: Dickenson --

      I should have done myself the Pleasure
of answering your Letter sooner, but that
I have been in a good Deal of Hurry, lately, which
you will easily believe, when I tell you, that my
Mother suddenly took the Resolution of coming with
me, to Bath: she had long wished me to drink the
Bath Waters; not for any Material Indisposition;
only on account of my now and then, having a
little Headache, which she says, is bilious. My
Father remained in London, because of our new



House; which we expect to get into, at Michaelmas.
      My Mother and I, have been here upwards
of a Fortnight, and propose staying five Weeks
longer -- It is a Time of the Year, at which we can
more conveniently be absent from London, than
at that which is called the Bath Season. Nothing can
agree with me better than drinking the Waters, and
bathing.      I wrote to Mrs: Halsey a Day or two, ago --
You ask me, how I like her Choice? I think Mr:
Halsey has all the Appearance of being a very
good-natured Man; and one whose Disposition is
suited to Mrs: Halsey's -- I did not know that
Miss Anna Clarke was not delighted with him.
      My Sister is not gone to Naples -- she had thoughts
of doing so; not on account of her Health, but
because Mr: Stratford (having got into some Difficulties
,) wished to break up House-keeping; and



live with his Brother -- he therefore, suggested it to
Mrs: Stratford, to go abroad with her three Children
, to remain for perhaps a few Years; in
which Time he hoped to get out of his Embarrassments.
Naples was the Place fixed upon; but as her
Father and Mother, and Friends, did not think
it an eligible one, she gave up the Thoughts of
it and went into the Neighbourhood of Geneva
where she has now been, I think, about two Months.
she is in Company with a Family of great respectability
, who went with her from Dublin, on a Plan of
Economy.
      I saw Mrs: Siddons pretty often last Winter: not
as often in private as I could have wished; owing
partly to her numerous Occupations, and partly (I am
sorry to say,) to her being frequently indisposed. She
does not act all this Summer, by which Precaution I
hope she will have a good Winter. She was to pass some



Time with Lord and Lady Harcourt; and to spend
the Remainder of her Summer, in various Visits.
I hope you will come to London in the Spring, and
show us your pretty Daughter, who I am delighted to




hear, has happily got over the Small-Pox -- you may
now reckon her Beauty safe, you know. We hear
from my Father frequently, who always gives us the Pleasure
of hearing that Robert is well. My Mother's Compliments attend
you and Mr: Dickenson, to whom I beg mine also. -- Adieu,
                             my dear Cousin, believe me yours sincerely --
                                                         Jane Hamilton.
P.S. We saw Mrs: Walkinshaw a
short Time before we left Town, & she
was very well.


     Mrs: Dickenson
Taxal


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



 1. Moved annotation here from below the dateline at the top of the page.
 2. This postscript appears at the bottom of p.3, to the left of the signature.
 3. Postmarks 'CHESTER 189' to left of address and 'BATH 110' above it.
 4. Moved address panel here from centre of p.3 when unfolded, written vertically.
 5. Moved annotation (ann2) here from centre of p.3 when unfolded, written to the left of the signature.

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/1/4/3/10

Correspondence Details

Sender: Jane Holman (née Hamilton)

Place sent: Bath

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

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

Date sent: 6 August 1787

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Jane Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter reports on a visit to Bath for the benefit of the waters. Jane's mother had long wished her to take the waters, as Jane suffers headaches on occasions, which her mother says are 'bilious'. They have been in Bath for two weeks and hope to stay for a further five, as she says she enjoys bathing and drinking the waters and it is now the time of year when one can conveniently be away from London.
    The letter turns to mutual friends and on Mrs Halsey's choice of a husband. Jane reports that her sister had not gone to Naples, which she was thinking of doing, as her husband, Mr Stratford, '(having got into some Difficulties,) wish'd to break up House-keeping; and live with his Brother', and had suggested that his wife move to Naples with their three children and remain there for a number of years, by which time he hoped to be out of his 'Embar[r]assments'. Her family and friends persuaded her against Naples. [The letter has been damaged, but a later letter confirms that her chosen location is Geneva.] She is reported to be with a respectable family who had travelled with her from Dublin as a matter of economy.
    The letter carries on to talk of Mrs Siddons [Sarah Siddons (née Kemble) (1755-1831), famous actress, friend of Mary Hamilton], who is not to act this summer, which Jane hopes will mean that she will be in better health this winter. Mrs Siddons was to spend some time with Lord and Lady Harcourt [George Simon Harcourt, 2nd Earl Harcourt (1736-1809), and his wife and first cousin Elizabeth Harcourt (née Vernon), Countess Harcourt (d. 1826)] and the rest of the summer in other visits. The letter ends with Hamilton writing that she is glad to hear that Mary Hamilton's daughter Louisa has recovered from smallpox and continues: 'you may now reckon her Beauty safe, you know'.
    Dated at Bath.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 524 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: Adriana Pérez-Pazo, dissertation student, University of Vigo (submitted March 2015)

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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