Single Letter

HAM/1/7/5/3

Letter from Sophia Fielding (née Finch) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


                                                         Burley Decr. 6th. 1777

My dear Miʃs Hamilton
      Though Ht. has talked of writing this
post, & indeed began her Letter, yet it has so
often happened to her to fail of having it ready
that I am determined not to put off telling
you by this, that my Mother arrived well
& happily on Thursday Morning, & has found
as you will believe a very joyful Houʃe. I
have commiʃsioned Ht. to enclose a Little Drawing
that I have been attempting in Water Colours &
Chalk from some of the Tapestry here. it
is really not worth yr. acceptance, but I
thought the size wd. suit your little book,



however as little valuable as it is, my Mother
thinks it wd. be entirely spoiled in going by the
Post, so I will hope to bring it you myself in a
few Weeks, when I flatter myself we shall have
some comfortable meetings at St. James's -- I have
been long charged with many kind Meʃsages on
this Subject from Mrs. Carter, who promises not
to think you too young if you will not think her
too old -- my time will never allow of making
you proper Compliments of Congratulation, &
now Condolence on Publick & Private Events
but I must employ so much of it as I can in
begging More kindest Compts. to Mrs. Hamilton



& dear Miʃs G, & that you will accept of them from
all at Burley & particularly of from yr. own Child[1] who
has now learnt to say Yes, so I shall certainly
ask her if she loves Miʃs Hamilton.
      I am now got on a dangerous subject for
a person in haste so I will really quit it at
once & only aʃsure you that I am
                             ever most sincerely
                                & faithfully Yrs.
                                                         Sophia Feilding

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


Notes


 1. Possibly Fielding's youngest daughter Augusta Sophia, whom Hamilton seems to take a particular interest in (see HAM/1/7/5/2).

Normalised Text


                                                         Burley December 6th. 1777

My dear Miss Hamilton
      Though Harriet has talked of writing this
post, & indeed began her Letter, yet it has so
often happened to her to fail of having it ready
that I am determined not to put off telling
you by this, that my Mother arrived well
& happily on Thursday Morning, & has found
as you will believe a very joyful House. I
have commissioned Harriet to enclose a Little Drawing
that I have been attempting in Water Colours &
Chalk from some of the Tapestry here. it
is really not worth your acceptance, but I
thought the size would suit your little book,



however as little valuable as it is, my Mother
thinks it would be entirely spoiled in going by the
Post, so I will hope to bring it you myself in a
few Weeks, when I flatter myself we shall have
some comfortable meetings at St. James's -- I have
been long charged with many kind Messages on
this Subject from Mrs. Carter, who promises not
to think you too young if you will not think her
too old -- my time will never allow of making
you proper Compliments of Congratulation, &
now Condolence on Public & Private Events
but I must employ so much of it as I can in
begging More kindest Compliments to Mrs. Hamilton



& dear Miss Goldsworthy, & that you will accept of them from
all at Burley & particularly from your own Child who
has now learnt to say Yes, so I shall certainly
ask her if she loves Miss Hamilton.
      I am now got on a dangerous subject for
a person in haste so I will really quit it at
once & only assure you that I am
                             ever most sincerely
                                & faithfully Yours
                                                         Sophia Feilding

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



 1. Possibly Fielding's youngest daughter Augusta Sophia, whom Hamilton seems to take a particular interest in (see HAM/1/7/5/2).

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Sophia Fielding (née Finch) to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/5/3

Correspondence Details

Sender: Sophia Fielding (née Finch)

Place sent: Burley, Rutland

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 6 December 1777

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Sophia Fielding to Mary Hamilton. She writes with general news and of the arrival of her mother, Lady Charlotte Finch (see HAM/1/12).
    Dated at Burley.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 301 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 10 November 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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