Diplomatic Text
My good Miʃs Hamilton
I feel myself so much obliged to you for the
Pacquet which Mrs. Newton was so obliging to send me this
morning, that I look upon myself as bound to take the advan=
tage of the very first Post to return you my best thanks.
I very frequently lament the want of opportunities of paying my
respects to you. Tis an odd circumstance that tho' we are engaged
in the service of the same family, & within a distance leʃs than
twenty miles, we should be as much strangers to each other, as
if we were in two different Countries. I was very happy to
discover the handwriting of Miʃs Hamilton, & no leʃs pleased
to hear a good account of that very valuable woman Lady C.
whom to know is to admire. Her Letter was particularly pleasing
to me, because I had been anxious about her for several weeks,
past, not having been able to learn a syllable about her, or
Lord Winchelsea in this neighbourhood.
I enclose to you the other Letter you
entrusted me with. At present I know not what to say
to the principal subject of it. It is so very delicate a
matter to venture to recommend a person for so important a
Charge, that one ought to use the greatest care & circumspection:
I will certainly take the earliest opportunity of paying my
respects at Chelsea, but shall say nothing upon the subject,
unleʃs it is first mentioned to me. When that opportunity
will present itself I cannot tell, as my Collegue is upon
his leave of absence: I am not without hopes but that I
shall have it in my power to pay my visit on Saturday, as
*P.E. expects to be summoned to Windsor on that day, and
*Mr.B. --- gives me to understand, he beleives my attendance
will be dispensed with.
One part of the letter you enclosed
to me pained me much; Tis that, in which great anxiety is
expreʃsed about your state of health. I hope to God there is
*Prince Edward -- Mr Bryuyeres
no reason why your friend should be alarmed.
Pray take care of yourself on the approaching Festivity.
I am afraid you will suffer for the neceʃsary consumption
of spirits, & exertion on that joyous occasion.
But I ought to recollect that I am trespaʃsing upon
time, which I am sure could be much better employed:
I shall therefore conclude with signing my self
My dear Madam
Your much obliged most obedient
Servant
J.F.
[1]
[3]
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The remainder of this side of the page, both beneath and around the closer, has been cut away, suggesting that a postscript may have been censored.
2. A large figure '4', about 3 lines deep, has been written across the address, denoting postage due.
3. Remains of a stamp dated 8 August, in black ink.
4. Remains of a watermark, showing the initials 'GR', standing for 'George Rex'.
Normalised Text
My good Miss Hamilton
I feel myself so much obliged to you for the
Packet which Mrs. Newton was so obliging to send me this
morning, that I look upon myself as bound to take the advantage
of the very first Post to return you my best thanks.
I very frequently lament the want of opportunities of paying my
respects to you. Tis an odd circumstance that though we are engaged
in the service of the same family, & within a distance less than
twenty miles, we should be as much strangers to each other, as
if we were in two different Countries. I was very happy to
discover the handwriting of Miss Hamilton, & no less pleased
to hear a good account of that very valuable woman Lady Charlotte
whom to know is to admire. Her Letter was particularly pleasing
to me, because I had been anxious about her for several weeks,
past, not having been able to learn a syllable about her, or
Lord Winchelsea in this neighbourhood.
I enclose to you the other Letter you
entrusted me with. At present I know not what to say
to the principal subject of it. It is so very delicate a
matter to venture to recommend a person for so important a
Charge, that one ought to use the greatest care & circumspection:
I will certainly take the earliest opportunity of paying my
respects at Chelsea, but shall say nothing upon the subject,
unless it is first mentioned to me. When that opportunity
will present itself I cannot tell, as my Colleague is upon
his leave of absence: I am not without hopes but that I
shall have it in my power to pay my visit on Saturday, as
Prince Edward expects to be summoned to Windsor on that day, and
Mr.Bruyeres gives me to understand, he believes my attendance
will be dispensed with.
One part of the letter you enclosed
to me pained me much; Tis that, in which great anxiety is
expressed about your state of health. I hope to God there is
no reason why your friend should be alarmed.
Pray take care of yourself on the approaching Festivity.
I am afraid you will suffer for the necessary consumption
of spirits, & exertion on that joyous occasion.
But I ought to recollect that I am trespassing upon
time, which I am sure could be much better employed:
I shall therefore conclude with signing my self
My dear Madam
Your much obliged most obedient
Servant
John Fisher
at the
Queens Lodge
Windsor
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 Fisher to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/4/6
Correspondence Details
Sender: John Fisher
Place sent: Kew
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: 8 August 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from John Fisher to Mary Hamilton. He regrets the lack of
opportunities to pay his respects to her. It is 'an odd circumstance that
tho[ugh] we are engaged in the service of the same Family, & within a
distance less than twenty miles, we should be so much strangers to each
other, as if we were in two different Countries'. Fisher thanks Hamilton
for her letter and writes that he is pleased also to receive a letter
from Lady Finch as no-one had been able to learn anything about her or
Lord Winchilsea for some time. [Lady Finch was in Caldas, Portugal with
her son: see HAM/1/12/29.]
Fisher returns a letter to Hamilton that she had sent him to comment
upon and advises that it is such a delicate a subject that he is unsure
as to be able to recommend a person 'for so important a Charge'. He is to
visit Chelsea shortly but notes that he will not mention the subject
unless it is first mentioned'.
The letter continues on Fisher's concerns over Hamilton's health.
Dated at Kew.
Length: 1 sheet, 426 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 26 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: 7 February 2022