Single Letter

HAM/1/11/24

Letter from Lady Dartrey (later Lady Cremorne) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


23


Tunbridge Wells
      Friday
      Augst: 20th
                                                         1784


      I was unwilling to write to you
my Dr: Miʃs Hamilton, 'till I could give you
some Account of Ld: Mansfield -- I beg you to
tell Ly- Stormont, that He this Morning did us
the Honor of breakfasting here, with us & that
he was so lively & agreable, I could not think
him ever an Invalid -- Every body here says
He has found great Benefit by the Waters,
& Air of this Place -- Lord D meets him every
Day upon the Pantiles,[1] & I aʃsure you, the
hopes of meeting him carried me down
the day before Yesterday, & I waited 2 hours, --
in vain -- it was a bad day, & he did not
come down -- I aʃsure you few People, wd: tempt



me to spend so long a time, on so disagreable
a Walk -- for I believe in Europe there is not
so dirty or tiresome a One -- He looks very
well, & is in much better Spirits than I expected.
      I beg you to aʃsure Dr: Mrs: Delany & Mrs: Boscawen that I
should feel happy in having it in my power to
shew any Civility to Miʃs Sayse, but I never go
to the Rooms[2], Publick Breakfasts, or any of
those Things, wh: a young Lady would very
naturally feel a Civility & Attention. Julia
at present prefers walking on the Common, &
skipping over Heath like a Lambkin, & I
am foolish enough to prefer walking, & indeed
talking with her, to walking the Pantiles of or
going to the the heated Rooms -- If Miʃs Sayse
will condescend to drink Tea with such a
stupid Old Mother
-- I shall be vastly happy
to see her. I have made an acquaintance
(rather an Intimacy) with Mr: Sheridan the Father,[3] & I am in



some hopes he will teach me to read without
Joking, he is to have a Reading next wedy: & he
has invited me, & my Family.
      I beg you will tell Lord
Stormont
, I heard he did me the Honor of
calling, & I was very sorry, I was not at home
Lord Dartrey waited on him the next Day
(I beg you to tell him also) but he was gone
to Town. I hope Lady Stormont & her Little
One
are going on well.
                             Adieu here are more
than six Lines, & I think it wd: be very
generous in you to send me six pages
in return,
                             Yrs: sincerely
                                                         PD
                                                         Sat Morng 8'o'Clock[4]
[5]I hope you have had
good Accounts from Mr: Dickenson pray let me know
I am just going to see      
Ly: J. Penn at the Vine[6] --
13 miles off -- I inclose you a Letter from
                             Ly: C. Finch, & Miʃs Cowley



                             Ld: D returns
                             his best thanks to you & Sr: Wm
                             Hamilton
about the Calabrese
                             & the Drawing -- I have
                             nothing to trouble him with
                             but to take care of you & Mr: D—— --
      Dickenson when you go to Naples --
N.B.Sr.. Wm. Hamilton my Uncle & Lord Stormont
advised that Mr D & I should spend some time
on the Continent after we were married --




Lady Dartrey
August 1784[7]

To
      Miʃs Hamilton
           Clargis Street[8] [9]
[10]

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


Notes


 1. The Pantiles is an early 17th-century Georgian colonnade in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent. It was also known as The Walks and The (Royal) Parade.
 2. That is, the Assembly-Rooms, which according to Thomas Hood and John Harris, were on 'the Parade' (Beauties of England and Wales, pub. Thomas Maiden, 1808: viii. 1300). This is probably the site of the current Royal Victoria Hotel, 51-55 The Pantiles.
 3. Thomas Sheridan was an actor and in later life, a teacher of elocution (to which Lady Dartrey is referring in her joke about 'teaching her to read').
 4. Moved dateline here from the middle of the postscript.
 5. The postscript starts directly after the signature and is written around the dateline.
 6. Possibly the sixteenth-century coaching inn of the same name that still stands in Cousley Wood, Wadhurst near Tunbridge Wells, at the time of writing.
 7. This annotation by Mary Hamilton was written upside down in the centre of the bottom of the page.
 8. Present-day Clarges Street in Westminster.
 9. The address is written vertically in the middle of the page.
 10. The remains of two largely intact seals appear above and below the address.

Normalised Text




Tunbridge Wells
      Friday
      August 20th
                                                        


      I was unwilling to write to you
my Dear Miss Hamilton, till I could give you
some Account of Lord Mansfield -- I beg you to
tell Lady Stormont, that He this Morning did us
the Honour of breakfasting here, & that
he was so lively & agreeable, I could not think
him ever an Invalid -- Every body here says
He has found great Benefit by the Waters,
& Air of this Place -- Lord Dartrey meets him every
Day upon the Pantiles, & I assure you, the
hopes of meeting him carried me down
the day before Yesterday, & I waited 2 hours, --
in vain -- it was a bad day, & he did not
come down -- I assure you few People, would tempt



me to spend so long a time, on so disagreeable
a Walk -- for I believe in Europe there is not
so dirty or tiresome a One -- He looks very
well, & is in much better Spirits than I expected.
      I beg you to assure Dear Mrs: Delany & Mrs: Boscawen that I
should feel happy in having it in my power to
show any Civility to Miss Sayse, but I never go
to the Rooms, Public Breakfasts, or any of
those Things, which a young Lady would very
naturally feel a Civility & Attention. Julia
at present prefers walking on the Common, &
skipping over Heath like a Lambkin, & I
am foolish enough to prefer walking, & indeed
talking with her, to walking the Pantiles or
going to the heated Rooms -- If Miss Sayse
will condescend to drink Tea with such a
stupid Old Mother -- I shall be vastly happy
to see her. I have made an acquaintance
(rather an Intimacy) with Mr: Sheridan the Father, & I am in



some hopes he will teach me to read without
Joking, he is to have a Reading next wednesday & he
has invited me, & my Family.
      I beg you will tell Lord
Stormont, I heard he did me the Honour of
calling, & I was very sorry, I was not at home
Lord Dartrey waited on him the next Day
(I beg you to tell him also) but he was gone
to Town. I hope Lady Stormont & her Little
One are going on well.
                             Adieu here are more
than six Lines, & I think it would be very
generous in you to send me six pages
in return,
                             Yours sincerely
                                                         Philadelphia Dartrey
                                                         Saturday Morning 8 o'clock
I hope you have had
good Accounts from Mr: Dickenson pray let me know
I am just going to see      
Lady Juliana Penn at the Vine --
13 miles off -- I enclose you a Letter from
                             Lady Charlotte Finch, & Miss Cowley



                             Lord Dartrey returns
                             his best thanks to you & Sir William
                             Hamilton about the Calabrese
                             & the Drawing -- I have
                             nothing to trouble him with
                             but to take care of you & Mr: Dickenson --
      when you go to Naples --





To
      Miss Hamilton
           Clargis Street

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



 1. The Pantiles is an early 17th-century Georgian colonnade in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent. It was also known as The Walks and The (Royal) Parade.
 2. That is, the Assembly-Rooms, which according to Thomas Hood and John Harris, were on 'the Parade' (Beauties of England and Wales, pub. Thomas Maiden, 1808: viii. 1300). This is probably the site of the current Royal Victoria Hotel, 51-55 The Pantiles.
 3. Thomas Sheridan was an actor and in later life, a teacher of elocution (to which Lady Dartrey is referring in her joke about 'teaching her to read').
 4. Moved dateline here from the middle of the postscript.
 5. The postscript starts directly after the signature and is written around the dateline.
 6. Possibly the sixteenth-century coaching inn of the same name that still stands in Cousley Wood, Wadhurst near Tunbridge Wells, at the time of writing.
 7. This annotation by Mary Hamilton was written upside down in the centre of the bottom of the page.
 8. Present-day Clarges Street in Westminster.
 9. The address is written vertically in the middle of the page.
 10. The remains of two largely intact seals appear above and below the address.

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/1/11/24

Correspondence Details

Sender: Philadelphia Hannah, Baroness Cremorne Dawson (née Freame)

Place sent: Tunbridge Wells

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 20 August 1784

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Lady Dartrey to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to the benefit of the waters at Tunbridge Wells, poetry and acquaintances including Lady Mansfield, Lord Stormont, Mrs Boscawen and Mrs Delany.
    Dartrey ends her letter stating that she has nothing to trouble Sir William Hamilton (see HAM/1/4/4) with except taking care of Dickenson and Hamilton in Naples. Below this, written in Hamilton's hand, is a note stating that her uncle, Sir William, had advised that she and her husband should spend some time on the continent after they were married.
    Dated at Tunbridge Wells [Kent].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 500 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

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