Diplomatic Text
Lisbon Saturday April 14. 17801.
It has pleased God that we should at last arrive here yesterday
after a very stormy comfortleʃs voyage of eleven days, and
in heath sufficient to bear a more trying scene than my utmost
apprehensions had figured to me, though thank God not so
dreadful a one as it might have been; for three weeks ago, there
was not the smallest expectation of my dearest dearest Brother's
life -- his disorder at that time was they think at its crisis,
for it has since turned to a violent and painful attack on his
Bowels, strong enough to destroy any person in perfect health,
but to him it seems to restore strength, I suppos'd by removing
the obstructions that has oppreʃs'd him, -- when I say it restores
strength to him I must add that you cannot, (or they say we
either) have an Idea of the weakneʃs to which he has been reduced,
he appeared lifeleʃs for 24 hours in his last attack, and was for
a long time unable to speak, hear or lift his hand to his head,
and in this state he was, just about the time that we were at Exeter;
so think my Dest ——. if the worst had happened, there would
have been no opportunity of stopping us, and the conclusion of our
voyage yesterday, during the whole of which my Mother was in a state
of suffering and illneʃs, must I think with such a blow, have made
an end of her. I can hardly recover the horror which such an Idea
gives me, though I am sure it ought to encrease our thankfulneʃs
for finding him as we do, not only alive and in a recovering way,
but really free from disorder except that attack on his bowels
which they look on to be the saving of his Life -- we anchored
about 12 or 1 o'clock yesterday, and got on shore at two having
apprized my Brother- of our arrival by Mr. Conyers who went off
off with the first Boats. Mr. Graham was so good as to come into
our Boat, and was the first person that gave us an idea of the
dreadful State my Brother had been in, and of his present reduced
one; -- which he did in so gentle and gradual a manner as
enabled my Mother and all of us to bear the shock better than we
could have hoped, but no preparation cd. fit us for supporting
the first sight of him -- however thank God he does not seem
the worse for it to day, and Dr. Hare & Dr Payne both repeatedly
aʃsure us that they look on him as at present out of danger.
My Mother is as you will believe quite unable to write,
indeed I have not told her I am doing so, for I meant to write
only one Letter to Mrs. Habback to be shewn to all our friends;
however my Dest. —— I have since found time for this,
and I know their —— and your dear —— are so
gracious & good in their enquiries that I thought you
might wish to have such an Account as you cd. keep by you,
which could not have been the case with that which Mrs.
Habback is to carry to every body -- My Mother is I think
better of the disorder she has had in her Stomach during our
whole expedition, but not well -- the sea sickneʃs did her harm
rather than good -- Ht. bore it better than I expected
Yrs- Sincerely S.F
we are in the same Hotel with my Brother, which is a great Comfort.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Lisbon Saturday April 14. 1781.
It has pleased God that we should at last arrive here yesterday
after a very stormy comfortless voyage of eleven days, and
in health sufficient to bear a more trying scene than my utmost
apprehensions had figured to me, though thank God not so
dreadful a one as it might have been; for three weeks ago, there
was not the smallest expectation of my dearest dearest Brother's
life -- his disorder at that time was they think at its crisis,
for it has since turned to a violent and painful attack on his
Bowels, strong enough to destroy any person in perfect health,
but to him it seems to restore strength, I supposed by removing
the obstructions that has oppressed him, -- when I say it restores
strength to him I must add that you cannot, (or they say we
either) have an Idea of the weakness to which he has been reduced,
he appeared lifeless for 24 hours in his last attack, and was for
a long time unable to speak, hear or lift his hand to his head,
and in this state he was, just about the time that we were at Exeter;
so think my Dearest ——. if the worst had happened, there would
have been no opportunity of stopping us, and the conclusion of our
voyage yesterday, during the whole of which my Mother was in a state
of suffering and illness, must I think with such a blow, have made
an end of her. I can hardly recover the horror which such an Idea
gives me, though I am sure it ought to increase our thankfulness
for finding him as we do, not only alive and in a recovering way,
but really free from disorder except that attack on his bowels
which they look on to be the saving of his Life -- we anchored
about 12 or 1 o'clock yesterday, and got on shore at two having
apprised my Brother- of our arrival by Mr. Conyers who went
off with the first Boats. Mr. Graham was so good as to come into
our Boat, and was the first person that gave us an idea of the
dreadful State my Brother had been in, and of his present reduced
one; -- which he did in so gentle and gradual a manner as
enabled my Mother and all of us to bear the shock better than we
could have hoped, but no preparation could fit us for supporting
the first sight of him -- however thank God he does not seem
the worse for it to day, and Dr. Hare & Dr Payne both repeatedly
assure us that they look on him as at present out of danger.
My Mother is as you will believe quite unable to write,
indeed I have not told her I am doing so, for I meant to write
only one Letter to Mrs. Habback to be shown to all our friends;
however my Dearest —— I have since found time for this,
and I know their Majesties and your dear —— are so
gracious & good in their enquiries that I thought you
might wish to have such an Account as you could keep by you,
which could not have been the case with that which Mrs.
Habback is to carry to every body -- My Mother is I think
better of the disorder she has had in her Stomach during our
whole expedition, but not well -- the sea sickness did her harm
rather than good -- Harriet bore it better than I expected
Yours Sincerely Sophia Fielding
we are in the same Hotel with my Brother, which is a great Comfort.
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 Sophia Fielding (née Finch) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/5/9
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sophia Fielding (née Finch)
Place sent: Lisbon
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 14 April 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Sophia Fielding to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to the
arrival of Fielding at Lisbon and her brother’s [Lord Walsingham] health.
Fielding had undergone an uncomfortable, stormy voyage of eleven days to
Lisbon She has travelled there along with her mother, Lady Charlotte
Finch on account of her brother’s health. She writes in detail on her
expectation of finding her brother close to death, of his sufferings and
on his improved state of health.
Dated at Lisbon.
Length: 1 sheet, 610 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 2 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