Diplomatic Text
X
8
from the Honble Wilhelmina Murray
Park Street 1 Jan.
1787
▼
My Dear Mrs. Dickinson
I was very glad to see under
Your own hand, that You was in the land of
the living, and settled so comfortably for the
Winter Season: Lady Stormont I found on coming
to town, at as great a loʃs to find You as myself
tho' she owned it was oweing to her silence, which
was not my case, and had I known where to
direct shd. certainly have sent You notice of
our arrival in the regions of smoke --
Captain Murray joyns with my Sister & self
in presenting Yourself and Mr. Dickinson
with the compts of the season, sincerely wishing
You very many happy returns -- it gives me great
pleasure to hear You are so well hope soon to
have that of hearing the great event is happily
over and of an aditional Happineʃs to You and
the Familly. I feel glad at Your situation and
think as Mr. Dickinson was to be ill it happened
very lucky, at the time; when You could remove
with Him; and be so well settled for Yourself
have You seen any thing of Lady Charlotte
Murray since she has been at Bath -- I find
it is as crouded as poʃsible East Indian Nabobs
and Irish Fortunes or, fortune hunters in
plenty. -- but I supose You quiet, and keep out
of the bustles --
We have had a week [of] very severe Weather frost
and snow, I was in a great bustle (being You [know]
a good Walker) to get sandals to convey me safely
over the ice, but by the time I got them the
frost broke and it is now so wet and dirty that
I want Stilts instead of cloggs --
We found our friend Mrs. Leland just recovering [from]
a long and painfull illneʃs which they called
the Shingles, but she is now got quite well &
in as good spirits as ever -- Lady Wallingford
is quite an invalid out one day and forced
to keep house three or four: but I dont think
she is not grown much older considering --
I cannot say so much of H. M. who I thought
looked very indifferrent, but if it is true that
She is so fond of Princeʃs Elizabeth -- her
continual attacks must wear her very much
the Drawing room was like a Masquerade
as to dreʃses, and tho' every body was complain
ing, that the feathers or flowers of their
Neighbours pulled out their powder & hair
yet every Body's cap was equaly troublesome
I was entertained when Mrs. Drummond
Smith was presented (as a bride) being tall
and dreʃst out with feathers -- when she came
to Kiʃs the hand she would have brushed
H. M. face with them, if the Queen had
not held her head, as back as poʃsible & her
hand as forward, which however was not
a gracefull posture or, a Gracious one --
Your old acquaintance Miʃs Black is
come to town but has got an inflamation
on her lungs, with which she is at present
very ill -- it generaly attacks her on coming
out of the fresh air into these smoky regions
by what You say there seems little chance
of seeing You in it, which I am selfish enough
to repine at very much: as I should be very
happy to see You: and at present know of
no call that is likly to draw us to Bath --
We all joyn in compts to Yourself & Mr. Dickinson
who we hope is got quite well -- accept the
Affectionate compts of my Sister & Dear Mrs.
Dickinsons Yours Affectionately
Wilhelmina Murray
Honble. Mrs. Murray
Park Str. 1st. Janry.
1787[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Park Street 1 January
1787
▼
My Dear Mrs. Dickinson
I was very glad to see under
Your own hand, that You was in the land of
the living, and settled so comfortably for the
Winter Season: Lady Stormont I found on coming
to town, at as great a loss to find You as myself
though she owned it was owing to her silence, which
was not my case, and had I known where to
direct should certainly have sent You notice of
our arrival in the regions of smoke --
Captain Murray joins with my Sister & self
in presenting Yourself and Mr. Dickinson
with the compliments of the season, sincerely wishing
You very many happy returns -- it gives me great
pleasure to hear You are so well hope soon to
have that of hearing the great event is happily
over and of an additional Happiness to You and
the Family. I feel glad at Your situation and
think as Mr. Dickinson was to be ill it happened
very lucky, at the time; when You could remove
with Him; and be so well settled for Yourself
have You seen any thing of Lady Charlotte
Murray since she has been at Bath -- I find
it is as crowded as possible East Indian Nabobs
and Irish Fortunes or, fortune hunters in
plenty. -- but I suppose You quiet, and keep out
of the bustles --
We have had a week of very severe Weather frost
and snow, I was in a great bustle (being You know
a good Walker) to get sandals to convey me safely
over the ice, but by the time I got them the
frost broke and it is now so wet and dirty that
I want Stilts instead of clogs --
We found our friend Mrs. Leland just recovering from
a long and painful illness which they called
the Shingles, but she is now got quite well &
in as good spirits as ever -- Lady Wallingford
is quite an invalid out one day and forced
to keep house three or four: but I think
she is not grown much older considering --
I cannot say so much of Her Majesty who I thought
looked very indifferent, but if it is true that
She is so fond of Princess Elizabeth -- her
continual attacks must wear her very much
the Drawing room was like a Masquerade
as to dresses, and though every body was complaining
, that the feathers or flowers of their
Neighbours pulled out their powder & hair
yet every Body's cap was equally troublesome
I was entertained when Mrs. Drummond
Smith was presented (as a bride) being tall
and dressed out with feathers -- when she came
to Kiss the hand she would have brushed
Her Majesty face with them, if the Queen had
not held her head, as back as possible & her
hand as forward, which however was not
a graceful posture or, a Gracious one --
Your old acquaintance Miss Black is
come to town but has got an inflammation
on her lungs, with which she is at present
very ill -- it generally attacks her on coming
out of the fresh air into these smoky regions
by what You say there seems little chance
of seeing You in it, which I am selfish enough
to repine at very much: as I should be very
happy to see You: and at present know of
no call that is likely to draw us to Bath --
We all join in compliments to Yourself & Mr. Dickinson
who we hope is got quite well -- accept the
Affectionate compliments of my Sister & Dear Mrs.
Dickinson Yours Affectionately
Wilhelmina Murray
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 Wilhelmina Murray (née King) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/5/2/8
Correspondence Details
Sender: Wilhelmina Murray (née King)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Bath (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 1 January 1787
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Wilhelmina Murray to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to general family news and to a presentation at court. Murray is glad to hear that Hamilton is in 'the land of the living' and is comfortably settled for the winter season. She asks if she has seen Lady Charlotte Murray since she has been in Bath and notes that it is 'crouded [sic] as possible East Indian Nabobs and Irish Fortunes, or fortune hunters in plenty'.
Murray notes that the weather had been very severe and that she had hoped to purchase some sandals to walk safely on ice, but by the time she had got a pair it was 'so wet and dirty that I want Stilts instead of cloggs'.
Murray reports on the health of mutual friends and acquaintances, including Queen Charlotte. Commenting on a drawing room event at Court, Murray reports that 'the Drawing Room was like a Masquerade [...] and tho' every body was complaining, that the feathers or flowers of their Neighbours pulled out their powder & hair yet every Body's cap was equaly troublesome'. Murray found it amusing when a Mrs Drummond was presented to the Queen '(as a bride) being tall and dresst out with feathers – when she came to Kiss the hand she would have brushed H. M. face with them, if the Queen had not held her head, as back as possible & her hand as forward, which however was not a
gracefull
graceful
posture, or a gracious one'.
Dated at Park Street [London].
Original reference No. 2.
Length: 1 sheet, 603 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: Donald Alasdair Morrison, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Emma Saavedra, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted November 2014)
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