Diplomatic Text
I am juʃt come home from my Walk, & have
read my dear Miʃs Hamilton's Letter with
the greateʃt Concern. -- Heaven is my Witneʃs
------ that I meant not to give her Offence -- What could
hurt you at my ʃupposing you meant to chate=
=chize me? -- for I only meant to ʃay, you wanted
to divert yourʃelf a little, by roasting me, as the
Phrase is, for my imprudent way of Life. --
It ʃhew'd your friendʃhip as much & had as good an Effect
as a ʃerious Lecture from a Person of matur[e]
Age; -- & by the Anʃwers I wrote, I intended
only to ʃhew you, there was nothing I would
conceal from a friend, tho' the Subject I ʃhould
never have broached myself. -- Farewell, my
dear Miʃs Hamilton; -- I was not ʃo much mis=
=taken in your Character, but I told you before
that you would one day as readily take Offence at me,
as you had ʃhewn a friendʃhip for me, which
believe me, I ʃhall never forget. --
My reʃpectful Compts: to
your dear Mama. -- I ʃhall
take the Liberty of ʃending
ʃometimes to enquire after her
Health. --
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
I am just come home from my Walk, & have
read my dear Miss Hamilton's Letter with
the greatest Concern. -- Heaven is my Witness
that I meant not to give her Offence -- What could
hurt you at my supposing you meant to catechize
me? -- for I only meant to say, you wanted
to divert yourself a little, by roasting me, as the
Phrase is, for my imprudent way of Life. --
It showed your friendship as much & had as good an Effect
as a serious Lecture from a Person of mature
Age; -- & by the Answers I wrote, I intended
only to show you, there was nothing I would
conceal from a friend, though the Subject I should
never have broached myself. -- Farewell, my
dear Miss Hamilton; -- I was not so much mistaken
in your Character, but I told you before
that you would one day as readily take Offence at me,
as you had shown a friendship for me, which
believe me, I shall never forget. --
My respectful Compliments to
your dear Mama. -- I shall
take the Liberty of sending
sometimes to enquire after her
Health. --
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/17
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Hope
Place sent: Northampton (certainty: medium)
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)
Date sent: between 1773 and 1774
notBefore 1773 (precision: medium)
notAfter 1774 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton. He replies to Hamilton’s letter
‘with the greatest concern’: he did not mean to cause any offence. He
asks what can hurt her ‘at my supposing you meant to chastise me? For I
only meant to say, you wanted to divert your self a little, by roasting
me, as the Phrase is, for my Impudent way of Life’. He notes that it
showed him her friendship and had as good an effect on him as if he had
had a lecture from a ‘Person of mature Age’. His answer meant only to
show her that there is nothing he would conceal from a friend. Hope notes
that he was not mistaken in her character in that she would be as ready to
take offence at him as she was to show friendship.
Length: 1 sheet, 187 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 27 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: 24 December 2021