Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/6/3/4(1)

Copy of notes from Queen Charlotte and King George III to Mary Delany

Diplomatic Text

[1] [2]
 - [3]     Copy of ye King & Queens Note to Mrs. Delany[4]
Windsor 7th. Novbr. 1784
      I have ye pleasure of returning Dr. Mrs. Delany
ye Catalogue of Mr. Granvilles collection of Musick[5]
wth. a Note frm. ye. King wch. will sufficiently prove
how much He is satisfied wth. ye manner in wch-
She has executed His Comiʃsion -- I avail
myself wth. pleasure of this opportunity of aʃsuring
one of ye worthiest of our Sex of my sincere
Regard and Esteem     Charlotte



Windsor Novbr. 7 1784
The King is much pleased wth. ye. very correct
manner in wch. Mrs. Delany has obligingly executed
ye Comiʃsion of obtaining an exact Catalogue of Mr-
Granvilles Collection of Mr. Handels Music -- &
desires she will forward it to Dr. Burney[6] -- at ye
same time as Mrs. Delany has communicated
Mr. Granvilles[7] willingneʃs of letting ye King see
those Volumes that are not in ye. list of His
original Collection -- He is desired at any convenient
opportunity to let ye. following ones be sent to
Town & great care shall be taken that they shall
be without damage returned

25 Cernadige
10 Opera of Ameneto[8]
22 Tasis
25 & 36 Vol of Deuts
39 Miscellanies & Water Works
[9]

as also ye Quarto Man:
of Song Composed of
ye great Master in
8 Parts beginning
Still I adore though you
deny me[10]

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


Notes


 1. The entire sheet is written in Mary Hamilton's hand, and the titles over each note are hers.
 2. There is another version of this letter available on the Stanford University website at ‘Nov 7 [1784]’. We are grateful to Dr Chloe Valenti for extensive help with this item (p.c. 24-01-2023).
 3. Possibly the letter A.
 4. The royal response is very prompt indeed: it is only on 6 November 1784 that Mary Hamilton notes in her diary that Mrs Delany ‘sent the catalogue of Handels Musick for ye. King & Mrs. Hagerdorn to give ye. Queen’ (see HAM/2/14 p.99).
 5. Mary Delany's brother, Bernard Granville (1699-1775), was a noted musical enthusiast and friend of Handel. His collection of Handel manuscripts was particularly famous; it is described in detail in R. A. Streatfeild, ‘The Granville Collection of Handel Manuscripts’, The Musical Antiquary, Vol 2 (1911), 208-224..
 6. Dr Charles Burney was at this time in the process of writing an account of the Handel ‘Commemoration’ that had taken place between 24 May and 5 June 1784 of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the composer's death, and (it was incorrectly thought) the centenary of his birth (which was actually in 1685). It was illustrated by the artist Edward Frances Burney, Charles's nephew, and dedicated to the King. Roger Lonsdale records that Burney himself had requested this catalogue via his daughter Frances, but that Delany ‘thought it proper to send it first to the King, who returned it with his approval and the direction that it be forwarded to Burney’. See Lonsdale, Dr Charles Burney: A Literary Biography (Oxford: Clarendon, 1965), pp.307-308.
 7. Bernard Granville died without issue in 1775. His estate passed to his nephew, Rev. John Dewes, who adopted the name of Granville.
 8. Probably a reference to Admeto, re di Tessaglia.
 9. There is a wavy vertical line dividing the first column (list of works) from the second (paragraph beginning ‘as also the Quarto ...’).
 10. Dr Valenti suggests that this might be a translated version of ‘Pena tiranna’ from Amadigi di Gaula, especially as the Stanford version has ‘Amadisce’ at no.25, perhaps for Amadis, the name given on Granville's list to Amadigi di Gaula.

Normalised Text


 -      
Windsor 7th. November 1784
      I have the pleasure of returning Dear Mrs. Delany
the Catalogue of Mr. Granvilles collection of Music
with a Note from the King which will sufficiently prove
how much He is satisfied with the manner in which
She has executed His Commission -- I avail
myself with pleasure of this opportunity of assuring
one of the worthiest of our Sex of my sincere
Regard and Esteem     Charlotte



Windsor November 7 1784
The King is much pleased with the very correct
manner in which Mrs. Delany has obligingly executed
the Commission of obtaining an exact Catalogue of Mr-
Granvilles Collection of Mr. Handels Music -- &
desires she will forward it to Dr. Burney -- at the
same time as Mrs. Delany has communicated
Mr. Granvilles willingness of letting the King see
those Volumes that are not in the list of His
original Collection -- He is desired at any convenient
opportunity to let the following ones be sent to
Town & great care shall be taken that they shall
be without damage returned

25 Cernadige
10 Opera of Ameneto
22 Teseo
25 & 36 Vol of Duets
39 Miscellanies & Water Works


as also the Quarto Manuscript
of Song Composed of
the great Master in
8 Parts beginning
Still I adore though you
deny me

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



 1. The entire sheet is written in Mary Hamilton's hand, and the titles over each note are hers.
 2. There is another version of this letter available on the Stanford University website at ‘Nov 7 [1784]’. We are grateful to Dr Chloe Valenti for extensive help with this item (p.c. 24-01-2023).
 3. Possibly the letter A.
 4. The royal response is very prompt indeed: it is only on 6 November 1784 that Mary Hamilton notes in her diary that Mrs Delany ‘sent the catalogue of Handels Musick for ye. King & Mrs. Hagerdorn to give ye. Queen’ (see HAM/2/14 p.99).
 5. Mary Delany's brother, Bernard Granville (1699-1775), was a noted musical enthusiast and friend of Handel. His collection of Handel manuscripts was particularly famous; it is described in detail in R. A. Streatfeild, ‘The Granville Collection of Handel Manuscripts’, The Musical Antiquary, Vol 2 (1911), 208-224..
 6. Dr Charles Burney was at this time in the process of writing an account of the Handel ‘Commemoration’ that had taken place between 24 May and 5 June 1784 of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the composer's death, and (it was incorrectly thought) the centenary of his birth (which was actually in 1685). It was illustrated by the artist Edward Frances Burney, Charles's nephew, and dedicated to the King. Roger Lonsdale records that Burney himself had requested this catalogue via his daughter Frances, but that Delany ‘thought it proper to send it first to the King, who returned it with his approval and the direction that it be forwarded to Burney’. See Lonsdale, Dr Charles Burney: A Literary Biography (Oxford: Clarendon, 1965), pp.307-308.
 7. Bernard Granville died without issue in 1775. His estate passed to his nephew, Rev. John Dewes, who adopted the name of Granville.
 8. Probably a reference to Admeto, re di Tessaglia.
 9. There is a wavy vertical line dividing the first column (list of works) from the second (paragraph beginning ‘as also the Quarto ...’).
 10. Dr Valenti suggests that this might be a translated version of ‘Pena tiranna’ from Amadigi di Gaula, especially as the Stanford version has ‘Amadisce’ at no.25, perhaps for Amadis, the name given on Granville's list to Amadigi di Gaula.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Copy of notes from Queen Charlotte and King George III to Mary Delany

Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/3/4(1)

Correspondence Details

Sender: Queen Charlotte and King George III

Place sent: Windsor

Addressee: formerly Pendarves), Mary Delany (née Granville

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 7 November 1784

Letter Description

Summary: Copy of notes from Queen Charlotte and King George III to Mary Delany. They write separately in appreciation of Delany's catalogue of Bernard Granville's collection of Handel manuscripts.
    The other side of the sheet contains HAM/1/6/3/4(2) and HAM/1/6/3/4(3).
   

Length: 1 sheet, 215 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 18 August 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: 7 July 2023

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