Diplomatic Text
Curzon Street Mar. 31. 1791
Dear Sir
I consider your very obliging letter, with which
I have been favored, as a proof of your
friendship & regard, & for which I desire to
return my particular acknowledgements. I own,
I am led to prefer the Opinion & practice of
those Gentlemen, who have made the structure
of the Human body, & the Nature of medicines
their constant & regular study, to those who
have not had such advantages. But as Mr.
John Hunter told me last Winter, my Complaint
lay so deep, that He did not apprehend any
external application would reach it, but that
I must trust to time & a good Constitution, I have
not lately much troubled the profeʃsion. I have
certainly a freer use of the leg, but the amendment
is very slow, & I must content Myself with having
had a full share of activity & motion. If I had
not been advised against the Use of Warm
bathing, I should have been inclined to have
tried Buxton, & certainly it would have been a
strong inducement, to have had an Opportunity of
paying our respects to Mrs. Dickenson & yrself. We
are Happy to receive so good an account of Her, &
the little Louisa. Mrs. Iremonger's Complaint in
her Eyes is much leʃs than it was, when We first
came to town, but her Health is not so perfect, as her
friends wish it. My Daughter desires me to say,
that she did not receive the letter from Mrs.
Dickenson, but intends to write to Her very soon.
Tho' I beleive you to be a prudent Man, yet I
should have been surprized indeed, if you had been
the only man, that had escaped the inconveniencies
that all the World fall into, when they begin to
build, of exceeding their original intentions. I hope
you will approve of yr. alterations, when they are
finished, & that you both will have health to injoy
them. Though We approve of Mr. Pitt's measures
in general, & wish Him to continue Minister, yet
some of his best friends object to the frequent
alarms of War; & still more, if they proceed
farther; they think, that, during the unsettled
state of france, from which Country our cheif
danger lies, We ought to attend to the leʃsening
our immense debt, especially as now there so fair
a prospect of doing it; the new Sinking fund
redeeming every year £1,700,000 of the 3 per ct.; they
farther think, that Ruʃsia would be our most Uʃeful
ally, & that it little imports England, to whom
Constantinople should belong.
as you live so much in the Country, I suppose
you occupy some land. Where the Quantity is in
proportion to the Establishment & the Consumption,
I imagine, there cannot be much loʃs, & that it
will afford some amusement. Mrs. I., my Daughter
& Catherine (who grows tall & is delicate) join with me
in presenting our best Wishes, & I am Dr. Sr. yr. faithful
& obliged Servt.
Joshua Iremonger
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Curzon Street March 31. 1791
Dear Sir
I consider your very obliging letter, with which
I have been favoured, as a proof of your
friendship & regard, & for which I desire to
return my particular acknowledgements. I own,
I am led to prefer the Opinion & practice of
those Gentlemen, who have made the structure
of the Human body, & the Nature of medicines
their constant & regular study, to those who
have not had such advantages. But as Mr.
John Hunter told me last Winter, my Complaint
lay so deep, that He did not apprehend any
external application would reach it, but that
I must trust to time & a good Constitution, I have
not lately much troubled the profession. I have
certainly a freer use of the leg, but the amendment
is very slow, & I must content Myself with having
had a full share of activity & motion. If I had
not been advised against the Use of Warm
bathing, I should have been inclined to have
tried Buxton, & certainly it would have been a
strong inducement, to have had an Opportunity of
paying our respects to Mrs. Dickenson & yourself. We
are Happy to receive so good an account of Her, &
the little Louisa. Mrs. Iremonger's Complaint in
her Eyes is much less than it was, when We first
came to town, but her Health is not so perfect, as her
friends wish it. My Daughter desires me to say,
that she did not receive the letter from Mrs.
Dickenson, but intends to write to Her very soon.
Though I believe you to be a prudent Man, yet I
should have been surprised indeed, if you had been
the only man, that had escaped the inconveniencies
that all the World fall into, when they begin to
build, of exceeding their original intentions. I hope
you will approve of your alterations, when they are
finished, & that you both will have health to enjoy
them. Though We approve of Mr. Pitt's measures
in general, & wish Him to continue Minister, yet
some of his best friends object to the frequent
alarms of War; & still more, if they proceed
farther; they think, that, during the unsettled
state of france, from which Country our chief
danger lies, We ought to attend to the lessening
our immense debt, especially as now there so fair
a prospect of doing it; the new Sinking fund
redeeming every year £1,700,000 of the 3 per counting; they
farther think, that Russia would be our most Useful
ally, & that it little imports England, to whom
Constantinople should belong.
as you live so much in the Country, I suppose
you occupy some land. Where the Quantity is in
proportion to the Establishment & the Consumption,
I imagine, there cannot be much loss, & that it
will afford some amusement. Mrs. Iremonger, my Daughter
& Catherine (who grows tall & is delicate) join with me
in presenting our best Wishes, & I am Dear Sir your faithful
& obliged Servant
Joshua Iremonger
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 Joshua Iremonger to John Dickenson
Shelfmark: HAM/1/8/1/9
Correspondence Details
Sender: Joshua Iremonger
Place sent: London
Addressee: John Dickenson
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 31 March 1791
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Joshua Iremonger to John Dickenson, on the subject of his
health, with news on his family and on William Pitt. He writes that he
approves in general of Pitt’s measures and wishes him to ‘continue [as]
minister’, some of his friends are concerned over the ‘frequent alarms of
War’. He writes that France is our main danger and whilst that country is
unsettled we should concern ourselves ‘with lessoning our immense debt’
particularly as now we are in a position to do this. Iremonger quotes the
‘new sinking fund [which] redeems £170,000’ each annum.
Iremonger also writes on his health and notes that if he had not been
advised not to bathe in warm water that he would have visited Buxton and
would have been able to call on Hamilton there.
Dated at Curzon Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 510 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 6 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