Diplomatic Text
My dear Cousin,
I wrote you word in my last, of the
various circumstances that prevented
my accepting your kind invitation to Leighton
House. Immediately afterwards, I was
still more effectually prevented from
thinking of it; as I was attacked by a
second very severe fit of illneʃs. I am,
however, now recovering, but much
reduced, and very weak. My Father
(with whom I told you I was in consultation)
had advised me to lose no time in securing my-
self a little establishment, as every thing
of that sort wouldwill become scarcer and
consequently dearer, with the advance
of the Season. I have, accordingly, set
several friends to look out; but my ill-
neʃs has retarded my proceedings, by
impeding my seeking for myself. I am
in hopes of soon getting suited; and am
the more patient, as I could not, at pre-
sent, with prudence, remove; particu-
larly in this severe weather.
I have heard from Mr: Holman since
I wrote to you -- there is not the slightest
appearance of any favourable change
in that quarter, I am sorry to say; but,
as to pecuniary busineʃs, if he punctually
adhere to what he promises, I may,
with the aʃsistance my dear Father will
afford me, be enabled to live pretty com-
fortably, upon the very moderate scale
I shall adopt. -- When I am once
settled, I must endeavour to tranquillize
and occupy my mind, as I owe all my
illneʃs to agitation and grieving.
I believe there never were such
letters of egotism as I send you; but I
know you and your kind family wish
to hear about me. My Father wrote
me word of Mr: Dickenson's obliging letter
of invitation; but he cannot be induced
to go from home.
I hope you, Mr: Dickenson, and my Cousin
Louisa, have escaped the Colds that have
been so generally consequent to this weather.
Pray, present them my kindest regards,
and accept them yourself. I must now
conclude, as writing is rather an effort
to me, at present. Believe me,
my dear Cousin
your truly obliged & affectionat[e]
Jane Holman
35 Aldgate High St: London.
Dec: 8th: 1807.[1]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The rest of the sheet is torn or cut away. Though no words are visibly affected, one half of the postmark is lost.
2. Postmark 'C --- 8 [1]80 - ' below address when unfolded.
3. There is another fragmentary biblical quotation and other scribbles and pen trials around the address. It is unclear who the writer(s) may be.
Normalised Text
My dear Cousin,
I wrote you word in my last, of the
various circumstances that prevented
my accepting your kind invitation to Leighton
House. Immediately afterwards, I was
still more effectually prevented from
thinking of it; as I was attacked by a
second very severe fit of illness. I am,
however, now recovering, but much
reduced, and very weak. My Father
(with whom I told you I was in consultation)
had advised me to lose no time in securing myself
a little establishment, as every thing
of that sort will become scarcer and
consequently dearer, with the advance
of the Season. I have, accordingly, set
several friends to look out; but my illness
has retarded my proceedings, by
impeding my seeking for myself. I am
in hopes of soon getting suited; and am
the more patient, as I could not, at present
, with prudence, remove; particularly
in this severe weather.
I have heard from Mr: Holman since
I wrote to you -- there is not the slightest
appearance of any favourable change
in that quarter, I am sorry to say; but,
as to pecuniary business, if he punctually
adhere to what he promises, I may,
with the assistance my dear Father will
afford me, be enabled to live pretty comfortably
, upon the very moderate scale
I shall adopt. -- When I am once
settled, I must endeavour to tranquillize
and occupy my mind, as I owe all my
illness to agitation and grieving.
I believe there never were such
letters of egotism as I send you; but I
know you and your kind family wish
to hear about me. My Father wrote
me word of Mr: Dickenson's obliging letter
of invitation; but he cannot be induced
to go from home.
I hope you, Mr: Dickenson, and my Cousin
Louisa, have escaped the Colds that have
been so generally consequent to this weather.
Pray, present them my kindest regards,
and accept them yourself. I must now
conclude, as writing is rather an effort
to me, at present. Believe me,
my dear Cousin
your truly obliged & affectionate
Jane Holman
35 Aldgate High Street London.
December 8th: 1807.
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
Single
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 Jane Holman to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/3/25
Correspondence Details
Sender: Jane Holman (née Hamilton)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 8 December 1807
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mrs Jane Holman née Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to Holman's health and her marriage. She reports that Mr Holman's character remains unchanged, but, with regard to money, if he adheres to what he writes, she should be able to live comfortably, if moderately, with some assistance from her father. Once she is settled, she will 'endeavour to tranquillize and occupy my mind, as I owe all my illness to agitation and grieving'.
Dated at 35 Aldgate High Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 362 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: Anna Maguire, 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