Diplomatic Text
6
15 Septr 1783
My Dr Miʃs Hamilton it is now more
Time than I can reckon -- since I
heard from you or your Friends. I hope I shall
not leave Margate without knowing in
what situation I am to Find you all
whether you are out wandering in the Derbysh
Caverns whether Mrs Jackson has another
Child whether your agreeable Companions
are in Clargis Street or improving the
the Society of some of their Country friends
of all this I am as ignorant as a Post
tho' it a is a point in which I am so
much interested & anxious for the Health
of the ------ Sr Wm & Lady Wake --
I do not know any one thing or Person -- interesting
to you at Margate but that yr flirt is
very well & his f Wife & Friend paʃses the
Evenings much oftener ofter more to
to their mind by a Solitary Candle than
in Crowded Rooms where there are
such multitudes pour'd in from Sea
& Land you would think yrself --
in the great mask'd Ball of Europe West
& East Indies & yet very few names
familiar in the Aʃsemblys you frequent
you see how abominably I write so you
must thank me that I have not thrown
my Scratches at your Head as often as I
wish'd -- you wil be glad to hear Ld.
Spencer is rather better[1] -- alas my friend
Lady Clermont now with them embarks
at Margate for France alas this Place
so welcome to all the world is very mischievous
to me happy that you & some more such
tho many of the Claʃs send their minds abroad
are Clipt in Wing some how when their[2]
attempt to ------ transfer their Person &as
well as their talents into foreign Lands
how can I refrain when the word talents
starts up it is impoʃsible not to see Miʃs
More in perspective, -- she has made me so
vain that I venture to scratch to to
right & left as you see tho I only
intended a Billet to thank you for
your charming Letter -- whether that fine
Poem will be allow'd to the Preʃs we
shall talk off -- When we meet & I
have joined the added lines[3] -- I think
it is 3 to 4 you are now flirting upon --
the Pantiles of Tunbridge be it so
let us meet a les Soupé? en dishabille & yu
yuou not tire of yr friends ------ Handcock
& Veseys
Margate is sad without the d of Portland
how does she
Margate for this month at least 15
Septr. 1783
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Though in fact he died the following month.
2. Perhaps they miscorrected here.
3. More than likely the poem Hamilton refers to a couple of months later in a diary (HAM/2/5 p.15, entry for 13 November 1783): ‘I corrected Mrs Veseys copy of Miſs H Mores Poem of ye. Bas-bleu’.
4. These three lines appear written vertically in the middle of p.3.
5. Remains of seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton it is now more
Time than I can reckon -- since I
heard from you or your Friends. I hope I shall
not leave Margate without knowing in
what situation I am to Find you all
whether you are wandering in the Derbyshire
Caverns whether Mrs Jackson has another
Child whether your agreeable Companions
are in Clargis Street or improving
the Society of some of their Country friends
of all this I am as ignorant as a Post
though it is a point in which I am so
much interested & anxious for the Health
of the ------ Sir William & Lady Wake --
I do not know any one thing or Person -- interesting
to you at Margate but that your flirt is
very well & his Wife & Friend passes the
Evenings much more
to their mind by a Solitary Candle than
in Crowded Rooms where there are
such multitudes poured in from Sea
& Land you would think yourself --
in the great masked Ball of Europe West
& East Indies & yet very few names
familiar in the Assemblies you frequent
you see how abominably I write so you
must thank me that I have not thrown
my Scratches at your Head as often as I
wished -- you will be glad to hear Lord
Spencer is rather better -- alas my friend
Lady Clermont now with them embarks
at Margate for France this Place
so welcome to all the world is very mischievous
to me happy that you & some more such
though many of the Class send their minds abroad
are Clipped in Wing some how when their
attempt to transfer their Person as
well as their talents into foreign Lands
how can I refrain when the word talents
starts up it is impossible not to see Miss
More in perspective, -- she has made me so
vain that I venture to scratch to
right & left as you see though I only
intended a Billet to thank you for
your charming Letter -- whether that fine
Poem will be allowed to the Press we
shall talk of -- When we meet & I
have joined the added lines -- I think
it is 3 to 4 you are now flirting upon --
the Pantiles of Tunbridge be it so
let us meet a les Soupé? en dishabille &
you not tire of your friends ------ Handcock
& Veseys
Margate is sad without the duchess of Portland
how does she
Margate for this month at least 15
Miss 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 Elizabeth Vesey to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/2/6
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Vesey (née Vesey, later Handcock)
Place sent: Margate
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 15 September 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Vesey to Mary Hamilton, containing news of friends. Vesey has not heard from Hamilton for some time and notes that she hopes not to leave Margate without first finding out how she is. She wonders if Hamilton's companions are at home or 'improving the society of some of their Country friends'.
Original reference No. 6.
Length: 1 sheet, 417 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: Qianru Li, 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