Single Letter

HAM/1/7/4/2

Letter from John Farhill to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      I take the Liberty of informing you,
my dear Miʃs Hamilton, that I deliverd your
kind Invitation to Mrs Tufnell, who thinks
herself very much obliged, and will with
great Pleasure accept of it, if she is in
Town at the Time of the Prince's Christening:
this is not altogether certain; she hopes,
and requests therefore that you will not
disappoint any one on her account. --
      Do you ever now take a Trip to
Eastbourne? or are you totally engroʃs'd by
the gayer scenes of Windsor? Mr B. read
me a Paʃsage from a Letter of your's this
morning: as if by magical Enchantment
I was transported to Beachey Head, the
Sea, and a much more delightful Ob
ject
on my right hand; on my left --
but I will not tire you with a descrip
tion
of my Reveries; weak minds alone



delight in them; as however they make
me happy, I hope I may be permitted
sometimes to indulge them; to describe
them, I'll own, is unpardonable. When
we left E.Bourne the weather no doubt
must have cast a Gloom on our
minds. Fisher never spoke a Word
till we were arrivd at Herstmonceaux
and I did not feel myself at all
disposd to disturb his contemplations;
so on we went sad, and silent. The
good folk at Battle gave us an
hearty welcome on Sunday night, and a
Dance on Monday Evening. Such Belles,
and such Beaux! Oh Guardian Angels!
my Fellow Traveller was obliged to take
some Peppermint water before we went
to Bed: he is I think at present by
no means well; so very delicate a



Constitution requires more care than
he gives it -- I have lately preachd on
that head, he hears me very politely,
and goes on his own way: a little
Patience however is requird in a Work
of Reformation: I mean to preach again
I wish I had your Powers. Mr Roberts
says he never saw tso great an Im
provement
as in Princeʃs Elizabeth:
That your every wish, and Endeavour [may]
be crownd with an equal succeʃs is
the ardent Prayer
                             of your sincerely aff. Friend
                             and obl humble Servt
                                                         John Farhill
Kew Octr. 18th 1780[1]

                             My respectful Compts wait on
                             Lady C. Finch




Hamil[2]

                             Miʃs Hamilton[3]
                                 Queen's Lodge
                                     Windsor
[4]
[5]
Mr. Farhill Octr. 18th. 1780[6]

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


Notes


 1. This dateline appears to the left of the signature.
 2. This annotation is written vertically in the upper margin of the sheet.
 3. The address is crossed with a manuscript number 2 in black ink, denoting postage due.
 4. Faint Bishop mark in black ink, dated 18 October.
 5. Reamins of a seal, in red wax.
 6. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin.

Normalised Text


      I take the Liberty of informing you,
my dear Miss Hamilton, that I delivered your
kind Invitation to Mrs Tufnell, who thinks
herself very much obliged, and will with
great Pleasure accept of it, if she is in
Town at the Time of the Prince's Christening:
this is not altogether certain; she hopes,
and requests therefore that you will not
disappoint any one on her account. --
      Do you ever now take a Trip to
Eastbourne? or are you totally engrossed by
the gayer scenes of Windsor? Mr Bruyêres read
me a Passage from a Letter of your's this
morning: as if by magical Enchantment
I was transported to Beachey Head, the
Sea, and a much more delightful Object
on my right hand; on my left --
but I will not tire you with a description
of my Reveries; weak minds alone



delight in them; as however they make
me happy, I hope I may be permitted
sometimes to indulge them; to describe
them, I'll own, is unpardonable. When
we left Eastbourne the weather no doubt
must have cast a Gloom on our
minds. Fisher never spoke a Word
till we were arrived at Herstmonceaux
and I did not feel myself at all
disposed to disturb his contemplations;
so on we went sad, and silent. The
good folk at Battle gave us an
hearty welcome on Sunday night, and a
Dance on Monday Evening. Such Belles,
and such Beaux! Oh Guardian Angels!
my Fellow Traveller was obliged to take
some Peppermint water before we went
to Bed: he is I think at present by
no means well; so very delicate a



Constitution requires more care than
he gives it -- I have lately preached on
that head, he hears me very politely,
and goes on his own way: a little
Patience however is required in a Work
of Reformation: I mean to preach again
I wish I had your Powers. Mr Roberts
says he never saw so great an Improvement
as in Princess Elizabeth:
That your every wish, and Endeavour may
be crowned with an equal success is
the ardent Prayer
                             of your sincerely affectionate Friend
                             and obliged humble Servant
                                                         John Farhill
Kew October 18th

                             My respectful Compliments wait on
                             Lady Charlotte Finch






                             Miss Hamilton
                                 Queen's Lodge
                                     Windsor


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



 1. This dateline appears to the left of the signature.
 2. This annotation is written vertically in the upper margin of the sheet.
 3. The address is crossed with a manuscript number 2 in black ink, denoting postage due.
 4. Faint Bishop mark in black ink, dated 18 October.
 5. Reamins of a seal, in red wax.
 6. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from John Farhill to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/4/2

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Farhill

Place sent: Kew

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Windsor

Date sent: 18 October 1780

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Farhill to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to general news, including Farhill's return trip from Eastbourne. Farhill asks if Hamilton ever visits Eastbourne now or is her time taken up at Windsor. He carries on to note that Mr B. received a letter from Hamilton that morning and Farhill was at once 'transported to Beachey Head, the sea, and a much more delightful Object on my right hand'.
    He also writes that he has given Hamilton's invitation to a Mrs Tufnell who is very obliged and will accept it if she is in London at the time of the Prince's christening.
    Dated at Kew.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 375 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 October 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: 2 November 2021

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