HAM/1/11/7
Letter from Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Sat June 9th:
1781
My Dearest Miʃs Hamilton
I recd: your Letter this Morng:
as I was just going into the Coach -- & during my
airing, as you may easily imagine; I thought of
little else than the Contents of it. I hasten to send
you an answer -- tho' I am distreʃsed to know what
to say. I am grieved to hear you have been ill,
& that you think your health may materially
suffer by the continuance in your Place -- it
hurts me to think this, on many accounts -- and
it is so strong a Plea, that were you sure of themit
I could bring no Argument against it -- but
surely my Dear, a Month or two -- provided you
recover yr: health, as I trust you will, can make
no difference; & I should be sadly grieved to have
you mention your Scheme during Dr. Ly: C. Finchs
absence; or at least 'till something is settled on
her account in case her bad state of health
may hinder her return. -- do my dr: consider of
it. for it would grieve my very heart to have you
do any thing that should have the appearance of
ingratitude to the the Q. as of unkindneʃs to Ly: Cha.
& you know -- what a difference it may be to her,
to find another in your Place -- besides the great
distreʃs it may be to the Q. to have a new Person
put in, whilst Ly: Cha. is absent -- do my dr: Friend
let me beg of you to postpone yr.- Scheme of writing
'till Ly: Cha's return, or at least as I said before,
till we know how She will be obliged to act -- unleʃs
you are really so ill (wh: I trust you are not,)
------ to make it impoʃsible for you to attend
without risk to yr.- Constitution -- if Docr: Turton
who is yr: Friend; & as well as Physician, thinks
you really cannot attend this Summer
without this hazard -- I can say no more -- &
I am sure were I not your Friend, & loved
you disinterestedly I should I not giv - e this
advice -- when I might enjoy so much more
of your Company & conversation by yr: giving
up yr: Place -- I am now writing in haste -- the
Dinner is on the Table -- & soon after Dinner I ex
=pect Mrs: Quin & her Son -- but I know you will
excuse every thing -- & be aʃsured -- I advice this
on yr: account --
Yrs: ever
PD
let me hear from
you I beg -- for I shall be
anxious to know what you do. --
whatever it is; I am sure it will be upon principle --
but I do hope -- you will upon mature consideration
postpone speaking; -- & when you &
I meet; we will settle according
as affairs turn out by that time
I mean respecting our Dr: Ly: C. & 'till
then provided you are pretty well; surely you
can go on -- The Q -- if you are Ill, must see it is
impoʃsible for you, to attend; & I should think you
might tell her; (as She has always behaved in so very
kind & friendly a manner to you) that you are un=
=happy at not being able to do your duty & I fear you must be obliged to give up your Place: -- but you
know all this better than I can. -- ▼[1]
I wish with all my heart I was with you -- I could
talk to you so much better than I can write -- do pray
consider well before you write; & I do for many reasons
wish you could put off yr: Scheme till next Winter
▼ ▼ ▼
[2]I writ to you last post & sent it
directed to the Queen's Lodge Windsor
I imagined you were there.
[3]pray tell me if the Q
said any thing about me after she sent for me -- I was at the
moment going to have my Tooth drawn
[4]wch: I was quite sorry for -- as I wished very
particularly to be able to go --
Pray write to me soon & enquire for
the Letter I sent to you to Windsor
June 9th: 1781[5]
[8]
[9]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. There are numerous postscripts to this letter. It appears that at this point Lady Dartrey broke off and then continued with postscripts on the back of the sheet (at the top and bottom respectively), before resuming on the previous page and finishing on the back above the address. These postscripts have been moved to represent their logical order.
2. This postscript appears at the bottomof p.3.
3. Moved postscript here from the bottom of p.2.
4. This part of the postscript is written vertically along the right-hand margin of the page.
5. This annotation is written vertically on the left-hand side of the page, over the postmark.
6. The address is written vertically in the middle of the page.
7. The address appears to be crossed with a postage paid mark.
8. Seal in red wax.
9. Postmark 'Bristol' appears vertically on the left-hand side of the page.
Normalised Text
Saturday June 9th:
My Dearest Miss Hamilton
I received your Letter this Morning
as I was just going into the Coach -- & during my
airing, as you may easily imagine; I thought of
little else than the Contents of it. I hasten to send
you an answer -- though I am distressed to know what
to say. I am grieved to hear you have been ill,
& that you think your health may materially
suffer by the continuance in your Place -- it
hurts me to think this, on many accounts -- and
it is so strong a Plea, that were you sure of it
I could bring no Argument against it -- but
surely my Dear, a Month or two -- provided you
recover your health, as I trust you will, can make
no difference; & I should be sadly grieved to have
you mention your Scheme during Dear Lady Charlotte Finchs
absence; or at least till something is settled on
her account in case her bad state of health
may hinder her return. -- do my dear consider of
it. for it would grieve my very heart to have you
do any thing that should have the appearance of
ingratitude to the Queen as of unkindness to Lady Charlotte
& you know -- what a difference it may be to her,
to find another in your Place -- besides the great
distress it may be to the Queen to have a new Person
put in, whilst Lady Charlotte is absent -- do my dear Friend
let me beg of you to postpone your Scheme of writing
till Lady Charlotte's return, or at least as I said before,
till we know how She will be obliged to act -- unless
you are really so ill (which I trust you are not,)
to make it impossible for you to attend
without risk to your Constitution -- if Doctor Turton
who is your Friend; as well as Physician, thinks
you really cannot attend this Summer
without this hazard -- I can say no more -- &
I am sure were I not your Friend, & loved
you disinterestedly I should I not give this
advice -- when I might enjoy so much more
of your Company & conversation by your giving
up your Place -- I am now writing in haste -- the
Dinner is on the Table -- & soon after Dinner I expect
Mrs: Quin & her Son -- but I know you will
excuse every thing & be assured -- I advise this
on your account --
Yours ever
Philadelphia Dartrey
let me hear from
you I beg -- for I shall be
anxious to know what you do. --
whatever it is; I am sure it will be upon principle --
but I do hope -- you will upon mature consideration
postpone speaking; -- & when you &
I meet; we will settle according
as affairs turn out by that time
I mean respecting our Dear Lady Charlotte & till
then provided you are pretty well; surely you
can go on -- The Queen -- if you are Ill, must see it is
impossible for you, to attend; & I should think you
might tell her; (as She has always behaved in so very
kind & friendly a manner to you) that you are unhappy
at not being able to do your duty & I fear you must be obliged to give up your Place: -- but you
know all this better than I can. -- ▼
I wish with all my heart I was with you -- I could
talk to you so much better than I can write -- do pray
consider well before you write; & I do for many reasons
wish you could put off your Scheme till next Winter
▼ ▼ ▼
I wrote to you last post & sent it
directed to the Queen's Lodge Windsor
I imagined you were there.
pray tell me if the Queen
said any thing about me after she sent for me -- I was at the
moment going to have my Tooth drawn
which I was quite sorry for -- as I wished very
particularly to be able to go --
Pray write to me soon & enquire for
the Letter I sent to you to Windsor
Miss Hamilton
St: James's palace
London
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/1/11/7
Correspondence Details
Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)
Place sent: Clifton, near Bristol
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: 9 June 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Lady Dartrey to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to Hamilton's wish to resign from her position at Court. Dartrey wishes to advise her but is unsure how to. Hamilton has written her to say that her position at court is detrimental to her health and Dartrey replies that it hurts her 'to think this, on many accounts [...] it is so strong a plea, that were you sure of it I could [...] [have no argument against it'. She continues that a month or two will see her recover. She advises telling Lady Finch her scheme for the moment or at least until something has been settled. She asks her to postpone her decision and stressed that to have to employ a replacement whilst Lady Finch is absent may cause some distress to the royal household. She advises that Hamilton delays her decision until the return of Lady Finch as we do not know 'how she will be obliged to act'. That is unless Hamilton is so ill that it is impossible for her to attend to her position and if Dr Turton thinks Hamilton 'really cannot attend this Summer without this hazard – I can say no more'. Dartrey notes that if she were not her friend she would not give her this advice. Whatever her decision, Dartrey asks her to let her know as she will be anxious to hear.
Dated at Clifton.
Length: 1 sheet, 692 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 25 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