Diplomatic Text
in book
But to be typed in time[1]
Nerots Hotel
Kings Street Tuesday
9th. Decbr. 178 - 3
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton
I did not answer the
Ducheʃs's most gracious Letter
inviting us again to Bullstrode
because Charles & I fully intended
to have answerd it in Person at
Bullstrode. yesterday I was told
that the King had said he woud
send for me to paʃs a few days at
Windsor the end of this Week --
Saturday we had fixed for paying
our respects to the Ducheʃs -- but
it is now impoʃsible for me to absent
myself
myself from Town, as my in-
telligence was from a good quarter
Be so good then as to say every
thing you can imagine to
the Ducheʃs that is most respectfull
and aʃsure Her Grace (which is
very true) that I am myuch disap
-pointed as I realy was made
happy the day I paʃsed with
you & wished much to have
repeated the visit -- as soon as
the Ducheʃs comes to Town I will
wait upon Her & shew Her
Her the Vase which from
Mr- Lightfoot's[2] report will have
I dare say Her Grace is eager to see
I have not time to tell you
how much I love you as I am
called to go to Dinner.
most affectionately yrs.
WH
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This annotation is written diagonally at the top left of the page.
2. The Revd. John Lightfoot was curator of the Duchess of Portland's private collection. See also HAM/1/2/8/1 for John Dickenson's visit to the collection (including the Portland Vase) in 1786.
Normalised Text
Nerots Hotel
Kings Street
My Dear Miss Hamilton
I did not answer the
Duchess's most gracious Letter
inviting us again to Bullstrode
because Charles & I fully intended
to have answered it in Person at
Bullstrode. yesterday I was told
that the King had said he would
send for me to pass a few days at
Windsor the end of this Week --
Saturday we had fixed for paying
our respects to the Duchess -- but
it is now impossible for me to absent
myself from Town, as my intelligence
was from a good quarter
Be so good then to say every
thing you can imagine to
the Duchess that is most respectful
and assure Her Grace (which is
very true) that I am much disappointed
as I really was made
happy the day I passed with
you & wished much to have
repeated the visit -- as soon as
the Duchess comes to Town I will
wait upon Her & show
Her the Vase which from
Mr- Lightfoot's report
I dare say Her Grace is eager to see
I have not time to tell you
how much I love you as I am
called to go to Dinner.
most affectionately yours
William Hamilton
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 Sir William Hamilton to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/4/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sir William Hamilton
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Gerrards Cross
Date sent: 9 December 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Sir William Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. He notes that he has not replied to the Duchess of Portland’s letter inviting him to Bulstrode as he had intended to have answered the letter in person at Bulstrode. He had been unable to do this as he was told that the King would be sending for him to spend a few days at Windsor this week. It is now impossible to visit the Duchess and Sir William asks his niece ‘to say everything you can imagine to the Duchess that is most respectful’. He will visit the Duchess as soon as she comes to London and show her the vase [the Portland Vase, now in the British Museum] which he understands she is anxious to see.
Dated at Nerot’s Hotel, King's Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 201 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 28 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: 2 November 2021