Single Letter

HAM/1/4/4/23

Letter from Sir William Hamilton to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


Naples Augt. 2d. 1785

I received your Letter My Dear
Niece
a few days ago on my return
from a Tour of the Islands of Ischia,
Ventotiene, Ponza, Palmarole
Zanone &c all Volcanick, and
Ponza is so curious as to furnish
matter for a letter to the R. Society
when I can lay aside the idleneʃs
which is apt to fasten upon me
in this bewitching Climate
Otiosa Napoli has ever been its
Epithet & so I find it -- I sincerely
congratulate you on your Marriage
I have such an opinion of your
judgements that I am convinced
of Mr. Dickensons merit tho' I have
                                                         not



not the pleasure of knowing him
pray tell him from the moment
hiof His marriage I am become
his humble Servant & shall be
happy when an opportunity shall
offer of making his acquaintance --
He is a lucky Man for I do swear
of all the Women on Earth I do
not know one that in my opinion
woud make so good a wife as
yourself, I believe if I had
not been your Uncle I shoud have
been apt to have proposed to you
myself; and then I am little
too old. You joke about Ly. C
I do aʃsure you that I did not
mean to propose to her when she
thought I did & answerd that she



had determined never to change
her State. But I will be fair enough
to say that she seemd to me to have
many domestick qualities & her
taste for musick was so perfect
& my present Situation so desolate
that if she had been willing I might
have done what I suppose the
world wou'd call a folly -- however
I believe it is best as it is. W[hen]
the Court is here, I live with
their Sicilian Majesties but now
They are absent I paʃs my time rather
dully -- for what is a home without
a bosom friend & Companion? My
Books, pictures -- musick, prospect
are certainly something, but the
Soul to all is wanting. Adieu
my Dear Mrs. Dickinson Your most
                             affecly.
                                                         Wm. Hamilton



                             [1]

                             via Mantua
Miʃsent to Chesterfield
To
Mrs. Dickenson at
Miʃs Clarkes No 27Taxal
                             Clarges StreetChapel Le Frith
Ingleterre     LondonDerbyshire


                             [2]
                             [3]
which[4]

Daschau
Daeskeu[5]

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


Notes


 1. Bishop mark reads 'AU 23'.
 2. Seal in red wax remains intact.
 3. Bishop mark reads '27 AU'.
 4. This annotation is written vertically in the right-hand margin.
 5. This annotation is written vertically in the right-hand margin.

Normalised Text


Naples August 2d. 1785

I received your Letter My Dear
Niece a few days ago on my return
from a Tour of the Islands of Ischia,
Ventotiene, Ponza, Palmarole
Zanone &c all Volcanic, and
Ponza is so curious as to furnish
matter for a letter to the Royal Society
when I can lay aside the idleness
which is apt to fasten upon me
in this bewitching Climate
Otiosa Napoli has ever been its
Epithet & so I find it -- I sincerely
congratulate you on your Marriage
I have such an opinion of your
judgements that I am convinced
of Mr. Dickensons merit though I have
                                                        



not the pleasure of knowing him
pray tell him from the moment
of His marriage I am become
his humble Servant & shall be
happy when an opportunity shall
offer of making his acquaintance --
He is a lucky Man for I do swear
of all the Women on Earth I do
not know one that in my opinion
would make so good a wife as
yourself, I believe if I had
not been your Uncle I should have
been apt to have proposed to you
myself; and then I am little
too old. You joke about Lady C
I do assure you that I did not
mean to propose to her when she
thought I did & answered that she



had determined never to change
her State. But I will be fair enough
to say that she seemed to me to have
many domestic qualities & her
taste for music was so perfect
& my present Situation so desolate
that if she had been willing I might
have done what I suppose the
world would call a folly -- however
I believe it is best as it is. When
the Court is here, I live with
their Sicilian Majesties but now
They are absent I pass my time rather
dully -- for what is a home without
a bosom friend & Companion? My
Books, pictures -- music, prospect
are certainly something, but the
Soul to all is wanting. Adieu
my Dear Mrs. Dickinson Your most
                             affectionately
                                                         William Hamilton



                            

                            

To
Mrs. Dickenson

                            
    


                            
                            


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



 1. Bishop mark reads 'AU 23'.
 2. Seal in red wax remains intact.
 3. Bishop mark reads '27 AU'.
 4. This annotation is written vertically in the right-hand margin.
 5. This annotation is written vertically in the right-hand margin.

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/1/4/4/23

Correspondence Details

Sender: Sir William Hamilton

Place sent: Naples

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

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

Date sent: 2 August 1785

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Sir William Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. He congratulates Mary on her marriage to Mr Dickenson. Sir William notes that Dickenson is a lucky man as he knows of no other woman that will make as good a wife as she and if he were not her uncle he may have proposed to her himself.
    He writes of Hamilton joking about his proposing to Lady C [Lady Clarges] He assures her that he did not mean to, though she thought he had, and declared that she had no intention of marrying again. He acknowledges that his situation at the moment is ‘desolate’ and if she had wished to marry he may have done so.
    He reports on his life in Naples. When the Royal Court is in the City Sir William lives with their Majesties but when they are away his time is quite dull.
    Dated at Naples [Italy].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 353 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: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 6 October 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

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