Diplomatic Text
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton,
Thō a very few days will probably give
me a better Opportunity of thanking you for your long-
-expected Letter, yet I must avail myself of the
first in my power, to aʃsure you of the pleasure it
gave me, thō it told me one Circumstance I am
truly sorry to hear, that of your having lost a Person
that was dear to you; which is a Loʃs in my Opinion
the most to be lamented, as it can the least be re-
-pair'd. I thank God all my Comforts here of that
kind, are in perfect health; & in their Society, I
have paʃs'd a happy & chearful three weeks. My
time now draws near a Conclusion, but I look
with great Pleasure to the hopes of finding all I
I am interested about in Town, as well at my return
as well as when I left them. I wrote my thanks
to the 2 dear Princeʃses by the last post enclosed
to Miʃs Goldsworthy, wch. I hope have been received,
& beg you will present my Duty to them, & Love to
her[1], to whom from the hurry of the Post I could
make but a Short Letter. Many thanks for
yr kind Congratulations on Lord Winchilsea's
Account, & accept his thanks also.[2] Mrs. Feilding
is rejoiced that you have enter'd on a Study, wch. She
hopes will be as interesting to you, as Botany was
to her & me We shall revive our attention to it I hope
in the Summer, but the present Season invites
to nothing that can carry one out of Doors, unleʃs
we could be inspired with the Paʃsion of this Country,
wch. is Hunting, & is enjoy'd here in all its glory. Your
Anecdote of the Dutcheʃs d'Coventry is very moving,
& convinces me of what I always thought, that un-
-der no Circumstances, departing from the Truth
should be adopted. My 3 little Babes are here
as fresh as Roses, & defy all Cold; if they succeed
as well in our Journey, I shall hope to present them to you,
much improved by their Country Séjour. Adieu my dear
Miʃs Hamilton & believe that you cannot wish me to be
more Sincerely & Affly. Yrs. than I really am. C.F.
P.S.
I am glad to hear Mrs. Hamn. is well & beg my Com̄ps to her.
Mrs Feilding desires her Love & Thanks for your kind Letter.
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Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton,
Though a very few days will probably give
me a better Opportunity of thanking you for your long-expected
Letter, yet I must avail myself of the
first in my power, to assure you of the pleasure it
gave me, though it told me one Circumstance I am
truly sorry to hear, that of your having lost a Person
that was dear to you; which is a Loss in my Opinion
the most to be lamented, as it can the least be repaired
. I thank God all my Comforts here of that
kind, are in perfect health; & in their Society, I
have passed a happy & cheerful three weeks. My
time now draws near a Conclusion, but I look
with great Pleasure to the hopes of finding all
I am interested about in Town, as well at my return
as when I left them. I wrote my thanks
to the 2 dear Princesses by the last post enclosed
to Miss Goldsworthy, which I hope have been received,
& beg you will present my Duty to them, & Love to
her, to whom from the hurry of the Post I could
make but a Short Letter. Many thanks for
your kind Congratulations on Lord Winchilsea's
Account, & accept his thanks also. Mrs. Feilding
is rejoiced that you have entered on a Study, which She
hopes will be as interesting to you, as Botany was
to her & me We shall revive our attention to it I hope
in the Summer, but the present Season invites
to nothing that can carry one out of Doors, unless
we could be inspired with the Passion of this Country,
which is Hunting, & is enjoyed here in all its glory. Your
Anecdote of the Duchess d'Coventry is very moving,
& convinces me of what I always thought, that under
no Circumstances, departing from the Truth
should be adopted. My 3 little Babes are here
as fresh as Roses, & defy all Cold; if they succeed
as well in our Journey, I shall hope to present them to you,
much improved by their Country Séjour. Adieu my dear
Miss Hamilton & believe that you cannot wish me to be
more Sincerely & Affectionately Yours than I really am. Charlotte Finch
P.S.
I am glad to hear Mrs. Hamilton is well & beg my Compliments to her.
Mrs Feilding desires her Love & Thanks for your kind Letter.
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 Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/2
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)
Place sent: Burley, Rutland
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 27 December 1777
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton. She thanks Hamilton for her letter which gave her great pleasure. She is sorry to hear that she has lost someone dear to her and thanks God that her family 'are in perfect health; & in their Society I have passed a happy & cheerful three weeks'. She will soon be back at Court and writes that she has sent a note to the princesses enclosed to Miss Goldsworthy, which she hopes has been received.
The letter is concerned with general news. Finch thanks Hamilton for her congratulations on Lord Winchilsea's account and her daughter Mrs Fielding is 'rejoiced' at Hamilton studying a subject that she may find as interesting as Botany is to Finch ,who intends to continue her interest in the subject in the summer. She reports that hunting is enjoyed 'in all its glory' in Burley and that the Duchess of Coventry is very merry. Her three 'babies' are very well and if they can cope with the journey, then she will present them to Hamilton as much improved by their country trip.
Dated at Burley.
Length: 1 sheet, 409 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 21 April 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