Diplomatic Text
Audley End
Saffron Walden Eʃsex
Febry 5th- 1802
My dear Mrs Dickenson
I beg to know how you all do -- & most particulary do I long to
hear that the dear Lou: is now feeling recover'd -- not long ago
Mrs de Salis mention'd having read a very kind letter from you -- wherein
you mention state, that yr dear Child was all but well. she had
been near well very often, but you could not pronounce her to be
quite so -- these longings of mine cd have been sooner made known
but for a variety of circumstances, viz I chose to relapse
at the return of the hard frost. this vex'd me. I was obliged
to have recourse to Medicine & dine up Stairs, & recover'd
--- very Stupid. The next Thing which happen'd was the death
of our Aunt Blosset.[1] whom I never saw -- & alth'o she left me
did not leave us any of her Property, yet as She lived & died
in a House of ours in Dublin.[2] & the Lease was out -- we have
been much occupied in writing to each other, as her death &
my orders to our Agent has occasion'd our making a discovery
not very favorable to those who were formerly Employ'd by us --
or you wd actively wonder what could occupy these Sisters, in
the Selling of a House 2 of them never saw -- but I love to
investigate very deeply -- & I was therefore obliged to write to constrain
them from being too open, besides all this -- when the Weather
is fine we go out in the Whisky[3] -- & after our return, I am
too apt to Goʃsip with my charming Miʃs Neville we are all
as you may suppose in great anxiety for her Health which I am
sorry to add is not in so flourishing a state as I could wish --
she grows thin. is very weak -- & sometimes Coughs -- we are all
upon our knees to make her take care of herself. which she
resists unmercifully -- but what a sad discovery does this make --
she is in all respects so good. & so delightful -- but she is
Unpersuadable. so that it is a melancholy thing to hear that
human nature cannot be perfect.
we have had a good deal of company since I have been here --
I do not quite understand the Politicks of this House -- Lord B:
seems attach'd to Pitt.[4] & as long as he Supports, I presume he
will do so -- his Brother's in law, are decided opponents. to
poor Addington[5] -- & are not very gentle in their A --- d --- Animad-
versions on his Measures -- we pray however for the arrival of
the definitive Treaty,[6] I must tell you one report, which
I do not Credit, nor do I think you will credit -- that Ad——n
gives the Princes of the Blood[7] Just as much Money for
the Treasury as they please to ask for & to Spend -- this
will give you an Idea of the means they use to supplant him
in the Publick Esteem.[8] Last Week we had Mr Annesley the
Member for Reading -- & after his departure he wrote some
news to Lord B: that a great deal of Money was to be
rais'd. That the —— debts are to be paid. & that
------ Fellow & ------ were Executors -- but I flatter my self
that if that Gentleman had wrote to a House -- which
he knew to be wholly Ad——ns -- he might have
told [a] different Story -- having some little reason to suspect his
sincerity -- The pious good Duke of G——r has proved inconstant
to Lady Almeria, & has taken to himself a French Marchneʃs[9]
his former Ta --- ne Weeps: (I have no compaʃsion) & I am
clear his present favourite --- lts -- his poor ducheʃs[10] -- can
neither be sorry or glad, for her time remains to come -- but
When I compare this man with my Royal Patron the late
Duke of Cumberland. I am very apt to Triumph in his good
behaviour -- he always treated his Wife with respect. whatever his
private amours might have been I cannot pretend to determine
but the exterior was decent -- Mrs Fitzherbert is Still so very
indifferent, that the World in general think she will not recover
but must die -- at present we have Mr & Mrs Windham, the
latter is a most excellent & Aimiable Woman -- I shall withhold
my Pen -- I will not write what I think of her Husband -- [11]
▼
I suppose a greater reversal of fortune never was experienc'd by
any Woman -- nor by any one who deserves the change more entirely --
poor dear Mrs Chapone.[12] I regret her extremely -- I intend'd to make
her Paragone to our dear Mrs Carter -- in my last letter -- Mʃ's I
knew she has not been quite so well with her since Mrs Doyle
married -- my kind love -- Mrs Jalaberts Compts & the dinner Bell --
obliges me to conclude my self yrs ever & sincely DBlosset
[15]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. It is unclear who Dorothy Blosset is referring to here. It is possibly Susanna Elizabeth Blosset (born 1716), who was a 1st cousin of Dorothy's father and died in Dublin, where she was listed as a spinster in the local parish records. However, according to the records she died on 3 January 1801, not in 1802.
2. The Blosset family were Huguenots from France (more specifically from the former province of Nivernais), and fled to various countries such as The Netherlands, England and Ireland (chiefly to Dublin and Cork) after the Revocation, i.e. the edict of Fontainebleau from 22 October 1685 (cf. Smiles, S. The Huguenots. Their Settlements, Churches, & Industries in England and Ireland, 2nd edn. 1868, p.498). Salomon Blosset de Loche (Dorothy's great-grandfather) migrated to Dublin, where he purchased lands from commissioners who had been appointed to sell forfeited estates. Both Solomon and his son Paul (Dorothy's grandfather) dealt in property in the early eighteenth century, and owned houses on St. Stephen's Green, north and west (see Monica Nevin, General Charles Vallancey 1725-1812, in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1993, Vol. 123, 19-58).
3. ‘A kind of light two-wheeled one-horse carriage, used in England and America in the late 18th and early 19th cent[uries]’ (OED s.v. whisky n.2. Accessed 01-11-2021).
4. Richard Griffin, 2nd Baron Braybrooke, was classed as pro-Pitt in John Robinson’s list of January 1784 (cf. W.T. Laprade, Parliamentary Papers of John Robinson, 1774-1784, 1922). At this point in time William Pitt the Younger was not Prime Minister. He had left office in 1801 and would serve again as prime minister from 1804 until his death in 1806.
5. The Prime Minister at the time of this letter.
6. The Treaty of Amiens was signed by Joseph Bonaparte and Marquess Cornwallis in Amiens on 27 March 1802, a few weeks after this letter was written. It was also known as the ‘definitive treaty of peace’, as it ended the hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition (1798-1802).
7. Referring to a person who was a legitimate descendant from hereditary monarchs in multiple European countries. In France, it was the highest rank held at court (after the immediate family of the king) during the ancien régime (until 1789) and the Bourbon Restoration (1815-1830).
8. It seems as if supporters of Pitt the Younger were trying to spread rumours about Henry Addington trying to broker an unfavourable peace with Napoleonic France.
9. Dorothy Blosset possibly meant to write 'Marchioness' here.
10. It was well-known that prince William Henry and Maria Waldegrave (née Walpole) had a difficult and often unhappy marriage.
11. Dorothy Blosset could here be talking about the politician William Windham and his wife Cecila (née Forrest), but Blosset's remark on the husband here seems to indicate she is instead referring to the politician Charles William Wyndham, who was involved in a scandalous adultery case (the trial took place in 1791), and his wife Anne Barbara Frances (née Villiers, previously Lambton).
12. Hester Chapone had died about a month before this letter was written.
13. A stamp indicating postage was 'FREE' (as provided by Lord Braybrooke), and a date in February 1802, possibly 6 or 8, i.e. a few days after the letter was written.
14. Faint postmark 'SAFFRON WALDON' in black ink, distance illegible.
15. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
Audley End
Saffron Walden Essex
February 5th-
My dear Mrs Dickenson
I beg to know how you all do -- & most particularly do I long to
hear that the dear Louisa is now feeling recovered -- not long ago
Mrs de Salis mentioned having read a very kind letter from you -- wherein
you state, that your dear Child was all but well. she had
been near well very often, but you could not pronounce her to be
quite so -- these longings of mine could have been sooner made known
but for a variety of circumstances, viz I chose to relapse
at the return of the hard frost. this vexed me. I was obliged
to have recourse to Medicine & dine up Stairs, & recovered
--- very Stupid. The next Thing which happened was the death
of our Aunt Blosset. whom I never saw -- & although she
did not leave us any of her Property, yet as She lived & died
in a House of ours in Dublin. & the Lease was out -- we have
been much occupied in writing to each other, as her death &
my orders to our Agent has occasioned our making a discovery
not very favourable to those who were formerly Employed by us --
or you would actively wonder what could occupy these Sisters, in
the Selling of a House 2 of them never saw -- but I love to
investigate very deeply -- & I was therefore obliged to write to constrain
them from being too open, besides all this -- when the Weather
is fine we go out in the Whisky -- & after our return, I am
too apt to Gossip with my charming Miss Neville we are all
as you may suppose in great anxiety for her Health which I am
sorry to add is not in so flourishing a state as I could wish --
she grows thin. is very weak -- & sometimes Coughs -- we are all
upon our knees to make her take care of herself. which she
resists unmercifully -- but what a sad discovery does this make --
she is in all respects so good. & so delightful -- but she is
Unpersuadable. so that it is a melancholy thing to hear that
human nature cannot be perfect.
we have had a good deal of company since I have been here --
I do not quite understand the Politics of this House -- Lord Braybrooke
seems attached to Pitt. & as long as he Supports, I presume he
will do so -- his Brother's in law, are decided opponents. to
poor Addington -- & are not very gentle in their Animadversions
on his Measures -- we pray however for the arrival of
the definitive Treaty, I must tell you one report, which
I do not Credit, nor do I think you will credit -- that Addington
gives the Princes of the Blood Just as much Money for
the Treasury as they please to ask for & to Spend -- this
will give you an Idea of the means they use to supplant him
in the Public Esteem. Last Week we had Mr Annesley the
Member for Reading -- & after his departure he wrote some
news to Lord Braybrooke that a great deal of Money was to be
raised. That the —— debts are to be paid. & that
------ Fellow & ------ were Executors -- but I flatter my self
that if that Gentleman had written to a House -- which
he knew to be wholly Addingtons -- he might have
told a different Story -- having some little reason to suspect his
sincerity -- The pious good Duke of Gloucester has proved inconstant
to Lady Almeria, & has taken to himself a French Marchness
his former Ta --- ne Weeps: (I have no compassion) & I am
clear his present favourite --- lts -- his poor duchess -- can
neither be sorry or glad, for her time remains to come -- but
When I compare this man with my Royal Patron the late
Duke of Cumberland. I am very apt to Triumph in his good
behaviour -- he always treated his Wife with respect. whatever his
private amours might have been I cannot pretend to determine
but the exterior was decent -- Mrs Fitzherbert is Still so very
indifferent, that the World in general think she will not recover
but must die -- at present we have Mr & Mrs Windham, the
latter is a most excellent & Amiable Woman -- I shall withhold
my Pen -- I will not write what I think of her Husband --
▼
I suppose a greater reversal of fortune never was experienced by
any Woman -- nor by any one who deserves the change more entirely --
poor dear Mrs Chapone. I regret her extremely -- I intended to make
her Paragone to our dear Mrs Carter -- in my last letter -- Ms's I
knew she has not been quite so well with her since Mrs Doyle
married -- my kind love -- Mrs Jalaberts Compliments & the dinner Bell --
obliges me to conclude my self yours ever & sincerely Dorothy Blosset
Leighton -- House
Leighton Buzzard
GriffinBraybrooke
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Dorothy Blosset to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/8/2/28
Correspondence Details
Sender: Dorothy Blosset
Place sent: Saffron Walden
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 5 February 1802
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Dorothy Blosset to Mary Hamilton. She writes about her family, including her aunt, and about the 'company' who have called on her.
Dated at Audley End [Essex].
Length: 1 sheet, 831 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 24 March 2021)
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