Single Letter

HAM/1/7/7/2

Letter from Wilhelmina King (later Murray) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


X 2           From Will- King

5.

                                                         Dover Street 3 April 1782
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton

      considering the Storms, and Violence
of the Elements; cannot help, enquiring after my Friends,
retired into Rural felicity; to expose themselves to all
the fury of it, and the danger of catching colds; it
will give me great pleasure to see you return safe,
without any inconvenience; and shall take the first
opportunity of seeing you are so -- .
news you cannot expect, as every thing Bon Ton has
left the regions of smoke, and, rather than be so vulgar
as to remain; are gone to be blown or wash'd away in the
Country: And the few odd folks that remain, are so busy
talking of who is in, or, who is out: that news is totaly
forgot, the Bishop of Durham was married Sunday evening[1]
Mrs. Boughton very ill with the Gout; Miʃs Mary
Shirley
was married yesterday to Capt: Smith Mrs. Traceys



nephew
, Mr. Shirley so bad with the Gout he was obliged
to make Gen: Tryon his Deputy, to give his daughter
away -- so matrimony and Gout, are much about --
I have had a letter from Naples, dated the 3rd. of
March from Caserta, in answer to mine; Lady Hamilton
spight of all our acusations, declares herself not guilty
and tho' at a loʃs to acount, for her letters as well as
ours being lost, seems to feel herself quite inocent:
and says you ought not to complain as you are in
her Debt, but as she sincerely loves and wishes you
well She will write and tell you so very soon, she
also promises, a letter to her old correspondents in
this House: and clears herself about having wrote to
Mr. Beckford as it was in answer to half a Dozen he
had sent her -- She says the Court has been very gay
by the Grand Duke & Ducheʃs of the Russia's[2] being there
but that She has had so bad a winter as to health
and nerves that She has excused herself to all the
great fêtes; but that She went to a private one the
Queen
gave them and at which She did her the honor



to present her to them. She describes the Great Duke as
a very ugly little man: the length of his nose to his upper
lip, longer than the nose itself; very tottering, & weak in
make, as well as constitution; which one expects from
a man that was declared incapable a few years ago
of living, and that would not be suffer'd to it, if he
had eigther spirit or health to make a figure -- his
Princeʃs
has person enough for both, being remarably
tall and large: so that their apearance must be rather
laughable, especialy as their fondneʃs is so great as
to Kiʃs and toy in public, on which occasion her
Highneʃs
is obliged to stoop or the little Prince
could never reach her --
I should think if he has any feeling, he must have
an Awkward one at Naples, as the Embaʃsador[3] from
Ruʃsia
, was so great a favorite with his first wife as to
occasion her to be poisoned: and as that may have been
told his second it pleads some excuse for the great
fondneʃs She shews him: as she must be in continual
dread of the like fate -- this acount a gentleman
gave me that is lately returned from abroad and
makes me no way envy the Brilliant situation of



of such great Princes and Princeʃses -- after all it is only
Splendid Misery! and our humbler lot by far the happiest
at least having the power of chusing our situation, if we
are unhappy, there is leʃs room for compaʃsion --



the weather has been so bad my Mother has not been able
to get out, but has begun Aʃses Milk and I hope you will
find her much improved -- we all joyn in best wishes
and in hopes of seeing you with Lillies & Roses from the
Charms of Country Retirement remains Dear Miʃs Hamilton
                                                         Your Affectionate Friend
                                                                   Wil: King


Miʃs Hamilton
The Queens Lodge
      Windsor -- [5]

                             [6]
                             [7]

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


Notes


 1. John Egerton, Bishop of Durham, married Mary Boughton on 31 March 1782.
 2. Pavel Petrovich, later Paul I of Russia, and his wife Sophia Dorothea of Württemburg.
 3. 'The spelling embassador was very common in the 17th century, but appears to have been considerably rarer from the 18th century onwards, although on usage in the mid-18th century compare the following comment by Johnson (1755): ‘Our authors write almost indiscriminately embassador or ambassador...’ (OED s.v. embassador).
 4. A large figure'2', 2 lines deep, denoting the postage due on the letter.
 5. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
 6. Bishop mark for 3 April in black ink.
 7. Mark from a seal in black wax.

Normalised Text


          

                                                         Dover Street 3 April 1782
My Dear Miss Hamilton

      considering the Storms, and Violence
of the Elements; cannot help, enquiring after my Friends,
retired into Rural felicity; to expose themselves to all
the fury of it, and the danger of catching colds; it
will give me great pleasure to see you return safe,
without any inconvenience; and shall take the first
opportunity of seeing you are so -- .
news you cannot expect, as every thing Bon Ton has
left the regions of smoke, and, rather than be so vulgar
as to remain; are gone to be blown or washed away in the
Country: And the few odd folks that remain, are so busy
talking of who is in, or, who is out: that news is totally
forgotten, the Bishop of Durham was married Sunday evening
Mrs. Boughton very ill with the Gout; Miss Mary
Shirley was married yesterday to Captain Smith Mrs. Traceys



nephew, Mr. Shirley so bad with the Gout he was obliged
to make General Tryon his Deputy, to give his daughter
away -- so matrimony and Gout, are much about --
I have had a letter from Naples, dated the 3rd. of
March from Caserta, in answer to mine; Lady Hamilton
spite of all our accusations, declares herself not guilty
and though at a loss to account, for her letters as well as
ours being lost, seems to feel herself quite innocent:
and says you ought not to complain as you are in
her Debt, but as she sincerely loves and wishes you
well She will write and tell you so very soon, she
also promises, a letter to her old correspondents in
this House: and clears herself about having written to
Mr. Beckford as it was in answer to half a Dozen he
had sent her -- She says the Court has been very gay
by the Grand Duke & Duchess of the Russia's being there
but that She has had so bad a winter as to health
and nerves that She has excused herself to all the
great fêtes; but that She went to a private one the
Queen gave them and at which She did her the honour



to present her to them. She describes the Great Duke as
a very ugly little man: the length of his nose to his upper
lip, longer than the nose itself; very tottering, & weak in
make, as well as constitution; which one expects from
a man that was declared incapable a few years ago
of living, and that would not be suffered to it, if he
had either spirit or health to make a figure -- his
Princess has person enough for both, being remarkably
tall and large: so that their appearance must be rather
laughable, especially as their fondness is so great as
to Kiss and toy in public, on which occasion her
Highness is obliged to stoop or the little Prince
could never reach her --
I should think if he has any feeling, he must have
an Awkward one at Naples, as the Embassador from
Russia, was so great a favourite with his first wife as to
occasion her to be poisoned: and as that may have been
told his second it pleads some excuse for the great
fondness She shows him: as she must be in continual
dread of the like fate -- this account a gentleman
gave me that is lately returned from abroad and
makes me no way envy the Brilliant situation



of such great Princes and Princesses -- after all it is only
Splendid Misery! and our humbler lot by far the happiest
at least having the power of choosing our situation, if we
are unhappy, there is less room for compassion --



the weather has been so bad my Mother has not been able
to get out, but has begun Asses Milk and I hope you will
find her much improved -- we all join in best wishes
and in hopes of seeing you with Lilies & Roses from the
Charms of Country Retirement remains Dear Miss Hamilton
                                                         Your Affectionate Friend
                                                                   Wilhelmina King


Miss Hamilton
The Queens Lodge
      Windsor --

                            
                            

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quotations,
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 1. John Egerton, Bishop of Durham, married Mary Boughton on 31 March 1782.
 2. Pavel Petrovich, later Paul I of Russia, and his wife Sophia Dorothea of Württemburg.
 3. 'The spelling embassador was very common in the 17th century, but appears to have been considerably rarer from the 18th century onwards, although on usage in the mid-18th century compare the following comment by Johnson (1755): ‘Our authors write almost indiscriminately embassador or ambassador...’ (OED s.v. embassador).
 4. A large figure'2', 2 lines deep, denoting the postage due on the letter.
 5. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
 6. Bishop mark for 3 April in black ink.
 7. Mark from a seal in black wax.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Wilhelmina King (later Murray) to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/7/7/2

Correspondence Details

Sender: Wilhelmina Murray (née King)

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Windsor

Date sent: 3 April 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Wilhelmina King to Mary Hamilton, concerning society news, news of weddings and family news.
    King reports that the 'Bon Ton' have left London, 'and, rather than to be so vulgar to remain, are gone to be blown or wash[e]d away in the Country; and the few old folks that remain, are so busy talking of who is in, and, who is out'.
    King has received a letter from Lady Hamilton in Naples who reports that she and her husband, Sir William, met the Grand Duke and Duchess of the Russia's. The Grand Duke is described as being 'a very ugly little man: the length of his nose to his upper lip, longer that the nose itself'. She continues that 'his Princess has person enough for both, being remarkably tall and large: so that their appearance must be rather laughable' especially on public occasions when 'her highness is obliged to stoop so the little Prince could never reach her'. King does not envy the life of the Royals 'after all it is only splendid misery' and humble people at least have the choice as to whom to marry.
    Dated at Dover Street [London].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 681 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: Qiaoshen Hua, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted 20 April 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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