HAM/1/11/4
Letter from Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
3
admitted
addmitted[1]
Decr: 289th:
1780
My Dearest Miʃs Hamilton
Why were you so near me
yesterday, & not one moment in Stanhope St:[2]
I answer for you, that you could not continue
to come -- be it as it may -- I must send this
Line to ask, whether Miʃs Duckworth,
may come to yr: Room on Monday --
if there is a chance of seeing the Prin-
=ceʃses -- it wd: be a great gratification
to her, & I know you are always happy
in giving pleasure, whenever you can. --
I suppose I shall only have a glimpse of
you, when I come to pay my duty to
the Princeʃses -- pray tell Pʃs: Elizabeth
I am quite happy to think I shall see
her Royal
Highneʃs so soon, & I hope pretty Princeʃs
Sophia has not quite forgot me.
I was so sorry I had not any
Riddles Jeux d'Esprits &c to send you,
but indeed my Dr: I know nothing
now but nursing my Julia -- who
bears parting with her Nurse, in a
manner that wd: touch your heart.
Adieu Miʃs D begs her kindest
Comps: Lord D is still at Bath, & is better
for the Waters
Yrs: very sincerely
PDartrey
I must send you
some pretty Lines
the Dss: of Devonshire
repeated to me of Lord Palmerston's[3]
upon a Lock of Hair.
'Tis Yours, this Triffle to improve,
Its worth depends on You;
a Trifle, if you do not love,
A Treasure if you do --
[4]
[5]
Haller's
Letters
to his Daughter[8] [9]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Both cancelled spellings are written upside down.
2. Present-day Stanhope Gate in London, just east of Hyde Park in Mayfair. Present-day Stanhope Street in London (Regent's Park) was called Mary Street until the 1860s.
3. Palmerston moved in literary and intellectual circles and contributed poetry to Lady Miller's Batheaston Vase.
4. Postmark ‘1 JA’, and another illegible stamp.
5. Remains of a seal in red wax.
6. A large figure ‘4’ has been written above the address, denoting postage due, replacing a cancelled ‘2’, presumably because of the redirection.
7. Whoever crossed out ‘Windsor’ and redirected the letter to ‘London’ did not add a London address.
8. Written vertically at the bottom left-hand margin of the page
9. This annotation refers to Albrecht von Haller, Letters from Baron Haller to his daughter: on the truths of the Christian religion (William Creech, 1780). Mary Hamilton owned a copy of this work, inscribed by Queen Charlotte (see HAM/1/1/2/5), and currently held in Special Collections at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester.
10. Written vertically in the middle of the right-hand margin of the page
Normalised Text
December 29th:
1780
My Dearest Miss Hamilton
Why were you so near me
yesterday, & not one moment in Stanhope Street
I answer for you, that you could not continue
to come -- be it as it may -- I must send this
Line to ask, whether Miss Duckworth,
may come to your Room on Monday --
if there is a chance of seeing the Princesses
-- it would be a great gratification
to her, & I know you are always happy
in giving pleasure, whenever you can. --
I suppose I shall only have a glimpse of
you, when I come to pay my duty to
the Princesses -- pray tell Princess Elizabeth
I am quite happy to think I shall see
her Royal
Highness so soon, & I hope pretty Princess
Sophia has not quite forgotten me.
I was so sorry I had not any
Riddles Jeux d'Esprits &c to send you,
but indeed my Dear I know nothing
now but nursing my Julia -- who
bears parting with her Nurse, in a
manner that would touch your heart.
Adieu Miss Dawson begs her kindest
Compliments Lord Dartrey is still at Bath, & is better
for the Waters
Yours very sincerely
Philadelphia Dartrey
I must send you
some pretty Lines
the Duchess of Devonshire
repeated to me of Lord Palmerston's
upon a Lock of Hair.
'Tis Yours, this Triffle to improve,
Its worth depends on You;
a Trifle, if you do not love,
A Treasure if you do --
Miss Hamilton
Queen's Lodge
Windsor
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 Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/11/4
Correspondence Details
Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 29 December 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Dartrey to Mary Hamilton. She wishes to know why Hamilton was so close to her in town yesterday and did not come to visit her. She asks as to whether Miss Duckworth can come to Hamilton's room on Monday if there is a possibility that she would see the princesses as it would be a great satisfaction for her to see them. Dartrey supposes that she will only have a glimpse of Hamilton when she comes to visit the princesses. She apologises that she has no 'riddles' to send her but her time is spent nursing her daughter, Julia.
Dartrey also forwards Hamilton some lines of poetry relayed to her by the Duchess of Devonshire 'of Lord Palminston's upon a Lock of Hair'.
Dated at London.
Length: 1 sheet, 250 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 March 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