HAM/1/9/85
Letter from Mary Hamilton to Sarah and Elizabeth Dickenson (later Palombi)
Diplomatic Text
Mrs J Dickenson
1790
You are both very shabby correspondents
but knowing your frailty in this respect
I will not upbraid -- I will only secretly
lament -- I am not surprised that you
felt all that you describe you did feel
during that tremendous storm --
I was nervous & more affected, than perhaps
I ought to have been, by one we had at
this place; -- do you recollect, a poem of
Mrs. Carters written at Midnight during
a Thunder Storm?[1] -- perhaps you may not
& as I do not believe you have themher Poem's
I will transcribe it.
Let coward guilt with pallid fear,
To shelt'ring Caverns fly,
And justly dread the vengeful fate,
That thunders thro' ye. sky.
Protected by that hand, whose law
The threat'ning storms obey,
Intrepid virtue smiles secure,
As in the blaze of day.
In the thick cloud's tremendous gloom,
The light'nings lurid glare
It views
It views the same all-gracious pow'r,
That breathes ye. vernal air.
Thro' nature's ever varying scene,
By diff'rent ways pursu'd,
The one eternal end of heav'n
Is universal good.
The same unchanging mercy rules
When flaming Æther glows,
As when it tunes ye. Linnet's voice,
Or blushes in the Rose.
By reason taught to scorn those fears
That vulgar minds molest;
Let no fantastic terrors break
My dear Narciʃsa's rest.[2]
When, thro' creation's vast expanse,
The last dread Thunders roll,
Untune the concord of ye. spheres,
And shake the rising soul:
Unmov'd mayst thou the final storm,
Of jarring worlds survey
That ushers in the glad serene
Of everlasting day.
In the late publication of Mr. Soame
Jennings works, the Editor (who is an intimate
acquaintance of mine) ------------ -- has done
my late dr. frd. ye. Ducheʃs of Portland justice
by describing her in ye. following manner
“She died on[3] ye. 18th of June 1785 leaving behind
“her that famous Museum, replete with
“works in ye. fine arts & a most extensive
“Collection of natural History which, with
“no leʃs industry than judgement & at an
“expence wch. could be only supported by her
“princely fortune, she had been the greatest
“part of her life collecting, but this collection
“however it was gazed at, & with great judge-
“ment admired by men of Virtue & philoso-
“phy of our own & foreign nations, yet,
“when comparedtime shall have done away all
“traces of its existence her Graces unfeigned
“religion & piety, exact fulfilment of all
“domestic duties, superior talents of mind,
“native dignity amongst her equals, a flowing
“condescension to her equals inferiors,
“wch: made those whom she honored with
“her acquaintance forget the difference of
“their stations. Universal benevolence, & the
“most amiaable sweetneʃs of temper, will cause
“cause her ever to be remembered amongst
“the most famous of her sex, whose super-
“-ior characters reflect a lustre on the British
“Nation.” -- This is a true picture &
I could justly add more to it -- I should
not have sent it to you my dr. Sisters
but that I thought ye. publication
mightwould not soon have fallen in to your
hands -- & I thought such a character
worthy of interesting you even by
description.
I wish you could have been here during
ye. time Miʃs Phillips favored us with
her company -- she is so chearful at
ye. same time sensible & discreet.
Our dear Father seems quite delighted
with her character, & many an hearty
laugh have we shared betweenwith them
-- Pray open & read ye. enclosed paper & put
it upon his pillow so that he may
find it when he goes to bed -- I have
written it -- but do not acknowledge from
whence it came &c.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. See Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, with a new edition of her Poems, by the Rev. Montagu Pennington (ed.) (London: 1816), pp.54-55 for a printed edition.
2. In later publications of this poem, another verse is printed after this one and before the following line. It reads ‘Thy life may all the tend'rest care, Of Providence defend; And delegated Angels round, Their guardian wings extend.’ (Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, with a new edition of her Poems, by the Rev. Montagu Pennington (ed.) (London: 1816), p.55).
3. The original wording is ‘her Grace ſurviving him [i.e. William the 2nd Duke of Portland], departed this life at her feat at Bulſtrode, on Monday’.
Normalised Text
You are both very shabby correspondents
but knowing your frailty in this respect
I will not upbraid -- I will only secretly
lament -- I am not surprised that you
felt all that you describe you did feel
during that tremendous storm --
I was nervous & more affected, than perhaps
I ought to have been, by one we had at
this place; -- do you recollect, a poem of
Mrs. Carters written at Midnight during
a Thunder Storm? -- perhaps you may not
& as I do not believe you have her Poem's
I will transcribe it.
Let coward guilt with pallid fear,
To shelt'ring Caverns fly,
And justly dread the vengeful fate,
That thunders through the sky.
Protected by that hand, whose law
The threat'ning storms obey,
Intrepid virtue smiles secure,
As in the blaze of day.
In the thick cloud's tremendous gloom,
The light'nings lurid glare
It views the same all-gracious pow'r,
That breathes the vernal air.
Through nature's ever varying scene,
By diff'rent ways pursu'd,
The one eternal end of heav'n
Is universal good.
The same unchanging mercy rules
When flaming Æther glows,
As when it tunes the Linnet's voice,
Or blushes in the Rose.
By reason taught to scorn those fears
That vulgar minds molest;
Let no fantastic terrors break
My dear Narcissa's rest.
When, through creation's vast expanse,
The last dread Thunders roll,
Untune the concord of the spheres,
And shake the rising soul:
Unmov'd mayst thou the final storm,
Of jarring worlds survey
That ushers in the glad serene
Of everlasting day.
In the late publication of Mr. Soame
Jennings works, the Editor (who is an intimate
acquaintance of mine) -- has done
my late dear friend the Duchess of Portland justice
by describing her in the following manner
“She died on the 18th of June 1785 leaving behind
“her that famous Museum, replete with
“works in the fine arts & a most extensive
“Collection of natural History which, with
“no less industry than judgement & at an
“expense which could be only supported by her
“princely fortune, she had been the greatest
“part of her life collecting, but this collection
“however it was gazed at, & with great judgement
“admired by men of Virtue & philosophy
“of our own & foreign nations, yet,
“when time shall have done away all
“traces of its existence her Graces unfeigned
“religion & piety, exact fulfilment of all
“domestic duties, superior talents of mind,
“native dignity amongst her equals, a flowing
“condescension to her inferiors,
“which made those whom she honoured with
“her acquaintance forget the difference of
“their stations. Universal benevolence, & the
“most amiable sweetness of temper, will
“cause her ever to be remembered amongst
“the most famous of her sex, whose superior
“ characters reflect a lustre on the British
“Nation.” -- This is a true picture &
I could justly add more to it -- I should
not have sent it to you my dear Sisters
but that I thought the publication
would not soon fall in to your
hands -- & I thought such a character
worthy of interesting you even by
description.
I wish you could have been here during
the time Miss Phillips favoured us with
her company -- she is so cheerful at
the same time sensible & discreet.
Our dear Father seems quite delighted
with her character, & many an hearty
laugh have we shared with them
-- Pray open & read the enclosed paper & put
it upon his pillow so that he may
find it when he goes to bed -- I have
written it -- but do not acknowledge from
whence it came &c.
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 Mary Hamilton to Sarah and Elizabeth Dickenson (later Palombi)
Shelfmark: HAM/1/9/85
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Sarah Dickenson and Elizabeth Palombi (née Dickenson)
Place received: Rusholme, near Manchester (certainty: low)
Date sent: 1790
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Sarah and Elizabeth Dickenson, which includes a poem written by Mrs Elizabeth Carter during a thunderstorm.
Length: 1 sheet, 597 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: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 17 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: 19 December 2021