Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/10/1/22

Letter from Anna Maria Clarke to John Dickenson

Diplomatic Text


Decr 7th 1814
Mrs. A M Clarke[1]
Post Office Canterbury

My dear friend
      I hope you excused my not answer-
-ing your very interesting Letter on the subject of
the intended marriage of your most amiable Daughter
as it was particularly grateful to me to congratu-
late dear Louisa herself on the occasion I hope
my Letters to her with Postcript to dear Mrs. Dickenson
were received -- I beg you will remember me
very affectionately to both & mention my Letter
when you shall write
      I was inexpreʃsibly gratified by that much desired
reconciliation & I anxiously wish that two
friends so long attached may be always united
by that tender tie which was so shamefully
broken[2] I rejoice much on this occasion
I once lost the favor & friendship of a
Relation of my Mother's own Sister who had been
a Parent to me by some oblique conduct in a Person &


some property was depending but the loʃs of my
friend only caused me vexation --
I imparted the agreeable intelligence to Dr. Inglis
& Mrs. Inglis who both were very much
gratified & desired me to expreʃs it for
them with very kind remembrance Dr. I
called to thank me -- he again called &
left the following Lines en Auteur
I wish you to write to him as he expreʃsed
in confidence to myself that he should have
been more flatterd if you had written to
him this proves his warm attachment to you
so pray my dear Brother thank him for
the effusion & restore his good humour --
suppreʃsing what has paʃsed
Pray inquire & inform me whether Col & Mrs


Roberts are returned to Upper Grosvenor Street I am
anxious to hear as I have not heard from or written
to them for some time nor do I know any thing
respecting dear Lady Wake I shall depend on
the favor of a Line -- We are very comfortable - 
in our Apartments which you have furnished
and we appear very smart I am going this Eve
to play at Whist perhaps &in one of the
prebendal Parties Dr. Whalesby Mrs. W is a
wellbred & pleasing woman -- I must now
make room for Dr. Inglis & with kindest
friendship say farewell ever yours
                                                         A M C


      a Thought
on hearing of the approaching marriage of Miʃs Louisa
Dickenson with Major General Anson --
      to MGA

When from their Eastern to this Western Bed
Neptune & Phoebus the first Anson led;
Of all that met the Navigator's eye
No blesd Oasis could with Tinian[3] vie.
      Thou his Descendant tra travelling Life's wide round
      Hast in thy search, but one Louisa found


With whom united in the Bands of Love
A Desert must to Thee a Tinian prove.
By a sincere friend & wellwisher to Miʃs L D

▼

NB the last line may have been suggested
by that well-known Couplet
Thou from all dangers darkneʃs canst exclude
And from a Desert banish solitude[4]

John Dickenson Esqr[5]
      Devonshire Place
           Cavendish Square
                             London[6]
[7]

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


Notes


 1. Clarke's use of Mrs. rather than Miss is explained as follows by OED: ‘A title prefixed to the name of an unmarried lady or girl [...]. Now rare except as a title of courtesy applied, with or without inclusion of the first name, to elderly unmarried ladies (this use seems to have arisen in the late 18th cent.)’ (OED s.v. Mrs. n. 1, 1b).
 2. A reference to a disagreement between Lady Wake and Mary Hamilton (see HAM/1/11/50, HAM/1/17/295 and HAM/1/10/1/21).
 3. Island in the Northern Marianas.
 4. Cowley's couplet ['Thou from all shades the darkness canst exclude'] is slightly misquoted.
 5. Postmarks ‘F 10DEC1[0] 18[14]’ and ‘CANTERBURY 56’ to left of address when unfolded. Address is overwritten with an ‘8’, indicating postage due.
 6. Moved address panel here from centre of p.3 when unfolded, written vertically.
 7. Remains of a seal, in red wax.

Normalised Text


December 7th 1814
Mrs. Anna Maria Clarke
Post Office Canterbury

My dear friend
      I hope you excused my not answering
 your very interesting Letter on the subject of
the intended marriage of your most amiable Daughter
as it was particularly grateful to me to congratulate
 dear Louisa herself on the occasion I hope
my Letters to her with Postscript to dear Mrs. Dickenson
were received -- I beg you will remember me
very affectionately to both & mention my Letter
when you shall write
      I was inexpressibly gratified by that much desired
reconciliation & I anxiously wish that two
friends so long attached may be always united
by that tender tie which was so shamefully
broken I rejoice much on this occasion
I once lost the favour & friendship of a
Relation of my Mother's own Sister who had been
a Parent to me by some oblique conduct in a Person &


some property was depending but the loss of my
friend only caused me vexation --
I imparted the agreeable intelligence to Dr. Inglis
& Mrs. Inglis who both were very much
gratified & desired me to express it for
them with very kind remembrance Dr. Inglis
called to thank me -- he again called &
left the following Lines en Auteur
I wish you to write to him as he expressed
in confidence to myself that he should have
been more flattered if you had written to
him this proves his warm attachment to you
so pray my dear Brother thank him for
the effusion & restore his good humour --
suppressing what has passed
Pray inquire & inform me whether Colonel & Mrs


Roberts are returned to Upper Grosvenor Street I am
anxious to hear as I have not heard from or written
to them for some time nor do I know any thing
respecting dear Lady Wake I shall depend on
the favour of a Line -- We are very comfortable
in our Apartments which you have furnished
and we appear very smart I am going this Evening
to play at Whist perhaps in one of the
prebendal Parties Dr. Whalesby Mrs. Whalesby is a
wellbred & pleasing woman -- I must now
make room for Dr. Inglis & with kindest
friendship say farewell ever yours
                                                         Anna Maria Clarke


      a Thought
on hearing of the approaching marriage of Miss Louisa
Dickenson with Major General Anson --
      to MajorGeneralAnson

When from their Eastern to this Western Bed
Neptune & Phoebus the first Anson led;
Of all that met the Navigator's eye
No blessed Oasis could with Tinian vie.
      Thou his Descendant travelling Life's wide round
      Hast in thy search, but one Louisa found


With whom united in the Bands of Love
A Desert must to Thee a Tinian prove.
By a sincere friend & wellwisher to Miss Louisa Dickenson

▼

NB the last line may have been suggested
by that well-known Couplet
Thou from all dangers darkness canst exclude
And from a Desert banish solitude

John Dickenson Esqr
      Devonshire Place
           Cavendish Square
                             London

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



 1. Clarke's use of Mrs. rather than Miss is explained as follows by OED: ‘A title prefixed to the name of an unmarried lady or girl [...]. Now rare except as a title of courtesy applied, with or without inclusion of the first name, to elderly unmarried ladies (this use seems to have arisen in the late 18th cent.)’ (OED s.v. Mrs. n. 1, 1b).
 2. A reference to a disagreement between Lady Wake and Mary Hamilton (see HAM/1/11/50, HAM/1/17/295 and HAM/1/10/1/21).
 3. Island in the Northern Marianas.
 4. Cowley's couplet ['Thou from all shades the darkness canst exclude'] is slightly misquoted.
 5. Postmarks ‘F 10DEC1[0] 18[14]’ and ‘CANTERBURY 56’ to left of address when unfolded. Address is overwritten with an ‘8’, indicating postage due.
 6. Moved address panel here from centre of p.3 when unfolded, written vertically.
 7. 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 Anna Maria Clarke to John Dickenson

Shelfmark: HAM/1/10/1/22

Correspondence Details

Sender: Anna Maria Clarke

Place sent: Canterbury

Addressee: John Dickenson

Place received: London

Date sent: 7 December 1814

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Anna Maria Clarke to Mary Hamilton. She writes on the intended marriage of Hamilton's daughter Louisa to Major-General Sir William Anson, and she enjoins John Dickenson to thank a Dr Inglis for his 'effusion', a poem on the occasion 'To M G A', which she quotes in full.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 498 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Donald Alasdair Morrison, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo

Transliterator: Lucy Cook, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted November 2014)

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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