Single Letter

HAM/1/4/5/3

Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


                                                         2,
Typed
                             Augst 1772[1]

      It has not been want of Affection
I do aʃsure you My Dr Miʃs Hamilton that
has kept me so long silent, nor will I
go about to make excuses for having been
so, but tell you the real truth which is
that having suffer'd a great deal in my
health upon our journey here, my Nerves
remain'd for some time in so weak a state
as made writing very irksome to me, &
since they have got stronger, I have liv'd
so much in publick, & have got such a
habit of lazineʃs in private, that I have
behav'd most shamefully to all my corres=
=pondents
, all this I hope you will forgive
as my hand & not my heart has been to
blame.
Our Summer here has been hitherto very



favourable to our Northern constitutions -- it
has been very seldom more than agreably
hot, & we have often had very refreshing
rains -- we have a very comfortable Society
here, particularly in the French Ambaʃsadors
family, whose daughter the Comteʃs de Chati=
=gnon
is a most amiable young Woman
we make parties upon the Water very
frequently, & are together every day which
I think is the comfort of Society, a comfort
one can seldom enjoy in England where
if you enjoy the comfortpany you like one
day, they are most likely dispers'd diverse
different ways the next -- I hope Mrs Hamilton
continues to enjoy her health & that she
has now recover'd her spirits in some mea=
=sure
for she realy made me quite uneasy
(as I have a ------ regard for her) to see how



the uneasineʃs of her mind prey'd upon
her (naturally good) constitution, I saw likewise
how you suffer'd for her, & that render'd you
still more amiable, I should be happy to
hear there was some prospect of your
being well settled, I know that would do
Mrs Hamilton good, as her heart is wrapd
up in you -- I beg My Dr Miʃs Hamilton you
will continue to let me hear from ------
& every thing about you & Mrs Hamilton [to]
whom I beg My kind Love Sr Wm. joins
in the same to her & you & I am
                             My Dr Miʃs Hamilton
                                                         Yr Most Affectionate Aunt
                                                         & Sincere friend CHamilton
Naples
Augst. ye 17th 1772[2]




                             by London
To & only
Miʃs Hamilton
      at
                             Northampton
Inghilterra[3]

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


Notes


 1. The mistaken date is presumably repeated, quite possibly by Hamilton herself, from the dateline and annotation at the foot of the letter; cf. the footnote on p.2.
 2. The year ‘1772’, added probably by Hamilton many years after the event, cannot be right: in August 1772 Sir William and Lady Catherine Hamilton were in England (see e.g. HAM/1/19/18). They arrived back in Naples ‘early in 1773’ (ODNB) after a lengthy journey via Vienna. The correct date is evidently 17 August 1773.
 3. Postmarks 'SE 7' above and '7 SE' below address when unfolded, indicating that the letter from Naples arrived in England c.7 September, about three weeks after it had been written.

Normalised Text


                                                        

                            

      It has not been want of Affection
I do assure you My Dear Miss Hamilton that
has kept me so long silent, nor will I
go about to make excuses for having been
so, but tell you the real truth which is
that having suffered a great deal in my
health upon our journey here, my Nerves
remained for some time in so weak a state
as made writing very irksome to me, &
since they have got stronger, I have lived
so much in public, & have got such a
habit of laziness in private, that I have
behaved most shamefully to all my correspondents
, all this I hope you will forgive
as my hand & not my heart has been to
blame.
Our Summer here has been hitherto very



favourable to our Northern constitutions -- it
has been very seldom more than agreeably
hot, & we have often had very refreshing
rains -- we have a very comfortable Society
here, particularly in the French Ambassadors
family, whose daughter the Comtess de Chatignon
is a most amiable young Woman
we make parties upon the Water very
frequently, & are together every day which
I think is the comfort of Society, a comfort
one can seldom enjoy in England where
if you enjoy the company you like one
day, they are most likely dispersed diverse
different ways the next -- I hope Mrs Hamilton
continues to enjoy her health & that she
has now recovered her spirits in some measure
for she really made me quite uneasy
(as I have a regard for her) to see how



the uneasiness of her mind preyed upon
her (naturally good) constitution, I saw likewise
how you suffered for her, & that rendered you
still more amiable, I should be happy to
hear there was some prospect of your
being well settled, I know that would do
Mrs Hamilton good, as her heart is wrapped
up in you -- I beg My Dear Miss Hamilton you
will continue to let me hear from ------
& every thing about you & Mrs Hamilton to
whom I beg My kind Love Sir William joins
in the same to her & you & I am
                             My Dear Miss Hamilton
                                                         Your Most Affectionate Aunt
                                                         & Sincere friend Catherine Hamilton
Naples
August the 17th




                             by London
To & only
Miss Hamilton
      at
                             Northampton
Inghilterra

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



 1. The mistaken date is presumably repeated, quite possibly by Hamilton herself, from the dateline and annotation at the foot of the letter; cf. the footnote on p.2.
 2. The year ‘1772’, added probably by Hamilton many years after the event, cannot be right: in August 1772 Sir William and Lady Catherine Hamilton were in England (see e.g. HAM/1/19/18). They arrived back in Naples ‘early in 1773’ (ODNB) after a lengthy journey via Vienna. The correct date is evidently 17 August 1773.
 3. Postmarks 'SE 7' above and '7 SE' below address when unfolded, indicating that the letter from Naples arrived in England c.7 September, about three weeks after it had been written.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/5/3

Correspondence Details

Sender: Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow)

Place sent: Naples

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 17 August 1773
when 17 August 1773 (precision: medium)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to life in Naples. Lady Hamilton notes that the journey to Naples has affected her health and has made writing difficult. She asks that Hamilton take into account that it was 'my hand & not my heart' that has prevented her writing sooner.
    Dated at Naples.
    Original reference No. 2.
   

Length: 3 sheets, 390 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 2016/17 provided by The John Rylands Research Institute.

Research assistant: Sarah Connor, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo

Transliterator: Sonia Mills, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2017)

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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