Diplomatic Text
Won't your Gardener think me void of
all Gallantry, my dear Miʃs Hamilton, if
I ʃend him away without an Anʃwer? --
I'll give him a few Lines, then, if it were
only to preʃerve the Esteem of an old Son
of Adam. -- As for that Daughter of Eve, --
ʃhe is mistaken, if ʃhe ever expects to have
flattery from Me. -- I am too much her friend
to offer it; &, notwithstanding her Badinage,
ʃhe has too much good ʃense to accept the
Offering; -- and that good Sense, too, makes
her as capable of arguing with me on
any Subject ------------------ as brother Rhimer ------ -- So,
do not think, it was from any consciouʃneʃs
of a Superiority of Judgement, need I ventured
to banter you on your favourite Poem;
Nor yet from Envy of ʃuperior merit. --
I admire thoʃe Poems of the Book, I have
read, & think them highly worthy of a place
in your Library. -- I
You did not ride yesterday. I ʃhall be
out of all patience with you, if you
do not ride today; and do not pay that bad
Compt: to Mrs: Hamilton's Understand=
=ing, to ʃay you cannot leave her a
couple of Hours alone. --
You ʃay, you my dear friend, you are
now ʃo much ------ upon your Guard, you do not know
are at a loʃs to expreʃs myselfyourself in any
Stile. -- With your prudence & good ʃense,
behold you then invulnerable. -- While
I shall ever lay myself open to Thoʃe
I believe my Friends. -- My best Wiʃhes
my dear Miʃs Hamilton, ever attend
you in every Attack & Defense, for
I am ʃure you will intend no Harm
either with your Tongue or with your
Pen. -- You forgot again mentioning
our Lame friend. -- Adieu --
Your affecte: &c
J.H.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Won't your Gardener think me void of
all Gallantry, my dear Miss Hamilton, if
I send him away without an Answer? --
I'll give him a few Lines, then, if it were
only to preserve the Esteem of an old Son
of Adam. -- As for that Daughter of Eve, --
she is mistaken, if she ever expects to have
flattery from Me. -- I am too much her friend
to offer it; &, notwithstanding her Badinage,
she has too much good sense to accept the
Offering; -- and that good Sense, too, makes
her as capable of arguing with me on
any Subject as brother Rhymer -- So,
do not think, it was from any consciousness
of a Superiority of Judgement, I ventured
to banter you on your favourite Poem;
Nor yet from Envy of superior merit. --
I admire those Poems of the Book, I have
read, & think them highly worthy of a place
in your Library. --
You did not ride yesterday. I shall be
out of all patience with you, if you
do not ride today; and do not pay that bad
Compliment to Mrs: Hamilton's Understanding
, to say you cannot leave her a
couple of Hours alone. --
You say, my dear friend, you are
now so much upon your Guard, you
are at a loss to express yourself in any
Style. -- With your prudence & good sense,
behold you then invulnerable. -- While
I shall ever lay myself open to Those
I believe my Friends. -- My best Wishes
my dear Miss Hamilton, ever attend
you in every Attack & Defense, for
I am sure you will intend no Harm
either with your Tongue or with your
Pen. -- You forgot again mentioning
our Lame friend. -- Adieu --
Your affectionate &c
John Hope
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/1/6/8/19
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, flattering and teasing her and light-heartedly discussing topics such as poetry and riding. He comments: 'You did not ride yesterday. I shall be out of all patience with you, if you do not ride today'.
Length: 1 sheet, 287 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: Sam Hepburn, 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: 24 December 2021