Single Letter

HAM/1/7/6/10

Letter from John Fisher to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


                                                         Kew Sepr:. 16. 1782

      My dear Miʃs Hamilton

      Though I had not received your
commands to write, my own inclination would have urged me
to have troubled you with a few lines to have begged your accep=
=tance
of my best thanks for your hospitable reception of me
at Windsor.      If it could be supposed poʃsible that any circum=
=stance
could add to the happineʃs of living under the same roof
with Royalty, & at the invitation of Royalty, I would say that
my felicity had been considerably augmented by the kind attention
of my hosteʃs to whose particular care our Royal Mistreʃs had con=
=signed
me. -- But to speak seriously, I feel myself most
deeply impreʃsed with a sense of her Majestys most gracious &
condescending goodneʃs to me, which nothing I have done, or ever
shall be able to do, can merit. --
      Your Philosophical
Preparation from Chichester reached Kew in perfect preservation
& was presented to the person you designed it for,[1] in the manner
you prescribed. It was received with a countenance strongly



expreʃsive of curiosity with a mixture of surprize, but
which upon a discovery of the contents of the Phial, was, at first,
softened into a smile, & at last convulsed with a fit of
Laughter. The person whom you have heard me speak of
with so much warmth
was present at the opening of the
Pacquet, & was much entertained atwith the many changes our
friend
s Countenance underwent.
      And now, my good Madam
do not laugh while I relate to you the vexation I experienced
after I took my leave of you on Wednesday. My poor silly
Servant
, whose head I verily beleive was turned, had over &
above the two Guineas I had given him at Kew to pay his own
expences, & those of my horses, run me up a bill of between
two and three pounds more. I suppose my Gentleman foreseeing
that he should be discharged, had determined to live well, & enjoy
himself while he could. To console himself after his beating
I found he had a duck roasted for his dinner, with strong
Coffee as soon as his Cloath[2] was removed. I had some
doubts at first, whether I should not dismiʃs him upon the
spot, & leave him & the Master of the Inn Mr. Clode[3] to settle



their accounts together; -- but upon a little reflection
I judged it to be better to take him with me to Kew
where upon my arrival I instantly discharged him.
I found ten Shillings charged for the article of his
Lodging : I mention this, because you told me that ist
was the expreʃs order of a certain person that my Servants
lodgings should be paid.
      I beg your pardon for
troubling you so long upon so shabby a subject, but as you
had been acquainted with the former part of my distre[ʃs]
I co[uld not] prevail upon myself not to relate to you ------
sequ[el]
      I shall say nothing about our frien[d] ------
has told me, that he intended to make all due ackno[w=]
=ledgements
to you for your truly valuable present, &
kind remembrance of him.
      Permit me to subscribe myself
My dear Madam
                             Your much obliged most obedient
                                  most devoted humble Servant
                                                         J. Fisher




Miʃs Hamilton
at the Queens Lodge
      Windsor[4]

                                                         [5]
[6]

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


Notes


 1. This passage appears to describe Hamilton's gift of lobster claws, sent to John Farhill on 13 September 1782, for which Farhill sends his thanks in HAM/1/7/4/9.
 2. That is, ‘tablecloth’ (OED s.v. cloth n. 2. Accessed 30-11-2020).
 3. George Clode was the proprietor of the White Hart Inn at Windsor until his retirement in 1803.
 4. A large figure 2, two lines high, has been written to the right the address, denoting postage due.
 5. Remains of a stamp in black ink indicating the date 16 September.
 6. Remains of a seal, in red wax.

Normalised Text


                                                         Kew September 16. 1782

      My dear Miss Hamilton

      Though I had not received your
commands to write, my own inclination would have urged me
to have troubled you with a few lines to have begged your acceptance
of my best thanks for your hospitable reception of me
at Windsor.      If it could be supposed possible that any circumstance
could add to the happiness of living under the same roof
with Royalty, & at the invitation of Royalty, I would say that
my felicity had been considerably augmented by the kind attention
of my hostess to whose particular care our Royal Mistress had consigned
me. -- But to speak seriously, I feel myself most
deeply impressed with a sense of her Majestys most gracious &
condescending goodness to me, which nothing I have done, or ever
shall be able to do, can merit. --
      Your Philosophical
Preparation from Chichester reached Kew in perfect preservation
& was presented to the person you designed it for, in the manner
you prescribed. It was received with a countenance strongly



expressive of curiosity with a mixture of surprise, but
which upon a discovery of the contents of the Phial, was, at first,
softened into a smile, & at last convulsed with a fit of
Laughter. The person whom you have heard me speak of
with so much warmth was present at the opening of the
Packet, & was much entertained with the many changes our
friends Countenance underwent.
      And now, my good Madam
do not laugh while I relate to you the vexation I experienced
after I took my leave of you on Wednesday. My poor silly
Servant, whose head I verily believe was turned, had over &
above the two Guineas I had given him at Kew to pay his own
expenses, & those of my horses, run me up a bill of between
two and three pounds more. I suppose my Gentleman foreseeing
that he should be discharged, had determined to live well, & enjoy
himself while he could. To console himself after his beating
I found he had a duck roasted for his dinner, with strong
Coffee as soon as his Cloth was removed. I had some
doubts at first, whether I should not dismiss him upon the
spot, & leave him & the Master of the Inn Mr. Clode to settle



their accounts together; -- but upon a little reflection
I judged it to be better to take him with me to Kew
where upon my arrival I instantly discharged him.
I found ten Shillings charged for the article of his
Lodging : I mention this, because you told me that it
was the express order of a certain person that my Servants
lodgings should be paid.
      I beg your pardon for
troubling you so long upon so shabby a subject, but as you
had been acquainted with the former part of my distress
I could not prevail upon myself not to relate to you ------
sequel
      I shall say nothing about our friend ------
has told me, that he intended to make all due acknowledgements
to you for your truly valuable present, &
kind remembrance of him.
      Permit me to subscribe myself
My dear Madam
                             Your much obliged most obedient
                                  most devoted humble Servant
                                                         John Fisher




Miss Hamilton
at the Queens Lodge
      Windsor

                                                        

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



 1. This passage appears to describe Hamilton's gift of lobster claws, sent to John Farhill on 13 September 1782, for which Farhill sends his thanks in HAM/1/7/4/9.
 2. That is, ‘tablecloth’ (OED s.v. cloth n. 2. Accessed 30-11-2020).
 3. George Clode was the proprietor of the White Hart Inn at Windsor until his retirement in 1803.
 4. A large figure 2, two lines high, has been written to the right the address, denoting postage due.
 5. Remains of a stamp in black ink indicating the date 16 September.
 6. Remains of a seal, in red wax.

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/1/7/6/10

Correspondence Details

Sender: John Fisher

Place sent: Kew

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Windsor

Date sent: 16 September 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from John Fisher to Mary Hamilton. He writes thanking Hamilton for her 'kind reception' of him at Windsor and of receiving her 'Philosophical Preparation' from Chichester which was received at 'Kew in perfect preservation & was presented to the person you desired it for'. Fisher also writes of his servant who for his visit to Windsor was provided with two guineas to cover his expenses and that of Fisher's horses. Fisher reports that the servant ran a bill of two to three further pounds and on investigation found that he had enjoyed a 'duck roasted for his dinner, with strong Coffee, as soon as his cloth was removed'.
    Dated at Kew.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 547 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 13 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: 7 February 2022

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