HAM/1/4/7/17
Letter from Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Diplomatic Text
4
typed
1st Lady Hamilton
from Naples to her Sister in law
Mrs Charles Hamilton
before 1771[1]
My Dr Sister
▼
I have waited long with a
great impatience hoping to have the plea
sure of hearing from you but finding it
in Vain I can resist no longer & must
take up my pen to tell you that it has
been a real Mortification both to Mr
Hamilton & Myself not to hear from
you or Mr Hamilton -- I hope however this
will put you both in Mind that we
are still in the Land of the Living & that
bothneither of us ------------------------------ have not
forgot your kindneʃs & Attentions to us -- &
be assured we never shall, particularly my
self -- therefore it will be needleʃs to repeat
that we beg to hear from you both -- I
have quite recover'd my health in this
Country which is a great point gain'd
for me, but as to Society (I mean such as
I can like) it is almost impoʃsible to
procure it, however I am very well
contented for while I can have Mr
Hamiltons Company I do not want
any other -- he is as much disgusted
with the Neapolitan Manners as I
am, we therefore stay at home as
much as the proper Ceremonys of
his Situation will permit, none of
which he ever omits for fear of of
fending -- our house is very comfortable
it is without one of the Gates of
the City & so retird from all noise.
that we may fancy ourselves in the
Country -- we have a full View of the
Bay of Naples (which is just under
our Window) & the Island of Capria,
in short the Air & Situation is certainly
very fine & I wish you & Mr Hamilton
would come & try it -- at present there
are no diversions going forward ex
cept onetwo little Vile theatres leʃs than
the little one in the haymarket where people sit five
hours to hear very pretty Musick very
ill perform'd & Nonsensical Works acted
with the lowest Buffoonery -- but such
is the Neapolitan taste, & they look
upon a good Punchinello as a most
Respectable Character, next Monday
the great theatre begins, it is so
large that with difficulty you hea[r]
the Voices, so that altogether in th[is]
Country of Musick there is very li[ttle]
Good to be heard except that of the
Churches which is really charming --
& Now My Dr Mrs Hamilton I will bid you
Adieu & only Add Hamiltons & My Love
to your Self Mr Hamilton & your daughter
I hope to hear soon from you & am
My Dr Sister Yr Most Affecte & Obligd
humble Servt[2]
C. Hamilton
Naples Octber. ye 29th[3]
The Honble Charles Hamilton
at Northampton
in
Inghilterra Northamptonshire
to Mrs. C. Hamilton[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My Dear Sister
▼
I have waited long with a
great impatience hoping to have the pleasure
of hearing from you but finding it
in Vain I can resist no longer & must
take up my pen to tell you that it has
been a real Mortification both to
Hamilton & Myself not to hear from
you or Mr Hamilton -- I hope however this
will put you both in Mind that we
are still in the Land of the Living & that
neither of us have
forgotten your kindness & Attentions to us -- &
be assured we never shall, particularly my
self -- therefore it will be needless to repeat
that we beg to hear from you both -- I
have quite recovered my health in this
Country which is a great point gained
for me, but as to Society (I mean such as
I can like) it is almost impossible to
procure it, however I am very well
contented for while I can have Mr
Hamiltons Company I do not want
any other -- he is as much disgusted
with the Neapolitan Manners as I
am, we therefore stay at home as
much as the proper Ceremonies of
his Situation will permit, none of
which he ever omits for fear of offending
-- our house is very comfortable
it is without one of the Gates of
the City & so retired from all noise.
that we may fancy ourselves in the
Country -- we have a full View of the
Bay of Naples (which is just under
our Window) & the Island of Capri,
in short the Air & Situation is certainly
very fine & I wish you & Mr Hamilton
would come & try it -- at present there
are no diversions going forward except
two little Vile theatres less than
the little one in the haymarket where people sit five
hours to hear very pretty Music very
ill performed & Nonsensical Works acted
with the lowest Buffoonery -- but such
is the Neapolitan taste, & they look
upon a good Punchinello as a most
Respectable Character, next Monday
the great theatre begins, it is so
large that with difficulty you hear
the Voices, so that altogether in this
Country of Music there is very little
Good to be heard except that of the
Churches which is really charming --
& Now My Dear Mrs Hamilton I will bid you
Adieu & only Add Hamiltons & My Love
to your Self Mr Hamilton & your daughter
I hope to hear soon from you & am
My Dear Sister Your Most Affectionate & Obliged
humble Servant
Catherine Hamilton
Naples October the 29th
The Honourable Charles Hamilton
at Northampton
in
Inghilterra Northamptonshire
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 Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow) to Mrs Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Shelfmark: HAM/1/4/7/17
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Catherine Hamilton (née Barlow)
Place sent: Naples
Addressee: Mary Catherine Hamilton (née Dufresne)
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: between 29 October 1765 and 29 October 1771
notBefore 29 October 1765 (precision: high)
notAfter 29 October 1771 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Hamilton to Mrs Hamilton, who writes on the recovery of her health 'in this Country', 'but as to Society' she can hardly find any she likes. As long as she has her husband's company, she writes, she will be content. She reports that William Hamilton is 'as much disgusted with the Neapolitan Manners as I am' and therefore they stay at home 'as much as the proper Ceremonys [sic] of his Situation will permit'. She describes their house, which has 'a full View of the Bay of Naples'. She notes that there two little theatres where people sit for hours 'to hear very pretty Musick very ill perform[e]d & Nonsensical Works acted with the lowest Buffoonery'. She notes that 'next Monday the great theatre begins, it is so large that with difficulty you hea[r] the Voices, so that altogether in th[is] Country of Musick there is very li[ttle] Good to be heard except that of the Churches'.
Dated at Naples.
Original reference No. 4.
Length: 1 sheet, 444 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 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Taslima Kohinur, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)
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