Diplomatic Text
The Inclosed Lines muʃt plead my Excuse
for not waiting on Miʃs Hamilton to-
morrow Evening. ------ Underʃtanding his Disgrace[1]
is no ʃecret in ------------ [2] he thought he
could not do better than join in the Laugh
againʃt himself. -- He can do no more, 'till
he receives Letters from Town, that will
ʃhew he had no Intention to abʃcond from
his Creditors, & that it was by their own
advice & concurrence he left London. --
Mrs H I am happy I can give you
ʃome good News along with the bad; for I
believe you to be my friends, & you can feel in
either. -- Peruʃe the Inclosed from Amʃterdam
& return it me to morrow morning. --
It is ʃome conʃolation to think that thoʃe
who know me moʃt beʃt, as Companions,
are more my frie[nds] than my own Relations.
Indeed they know no m little of me, than
that I have ʃpent a great deal of money; and
with them, the want of Œconomy comprehends every ʃin.
------ --
X X
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Possibly a reference to Hope's arrest for debt in Northampton, presumably around February 1773. The cutting catalogued as HAM/1/6/8/12 is a printed letter of Hope's dated 12 March 1773 responding to an earlier letter of 4 March by an aggrieved creditor, probably a Mr Johnstone (see HAM/1/6/8/8), which in turn referenced a previous letter of Hope's.
2. It is probably the word ‘Northampton’ that has been cut away.
3. The address is written vertically in the middle of the page.
4. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
The Enclosed Lines must plead my Excuse
for not waiting on Miss Hamilton tomorrow
Evening. ------ Understanding his Disgrace
is no secret in ------------ thought he
could not do better than join in the Laugh
against himself. -- He can do no more, till
he receives Letters from Town, that will
show he had no Intention to abscond from
his Creditors, & that it was by their own
advice & concurrence he left London. --
I am happy I can give you
some good News along with the bad; for I
believe you to be my friend, & you can feel in
either. -- Peruse the Enclosed from Amsterdam
& return it me to morrow morning. --
It is some consolation to think that those
who know me best, as Companions,
are more my friends than my own Relations.
Indeed they know little of me, than
that I have spent a great deal of money; and
with them, the want of Economy comprehends every sin.
--
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 John Hope to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/8/21
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Hope
Place sent: Northampton (certainty: medium)
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: between February and March 1773
notBefore February 1773 (precision: medium)
notAfter March 1773 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Hope to Mary Hamilton. He writes enclosing some 'lines' to Hamilton and on the subject of his 'disgrace' and he assures her that he had no intention of attempting to 'abscond' from his creditors.
Length: 1 sheet, 162 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 19 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: 6 January 2022