Diplomatic Text
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton, It was not in my power Yesterday to add
a Line to you of thanks for your pretty affectionate Letter, when I
return'd the Manuscript you was so good as to send, which entertain'd
me & all here vastly. Nobody can be more sensible then I am to
all the kindneʃs you expreʃs for me, or more sincerely return it.
but my present State makes me incapable of expreʃsing or doing
any thing as I ought, so I hope all my friends will pardon my
Defficiencies. I must rejoice however about the happineʃs caused
by P. Williams return, thō I feel vastly being debarr'd my Share
in it. I do not find the least Amendment in my head &
that you know was my dread from the beginning of this disorder,
for without the hopes of getting rid of that, how can I look
forward with any Satisfaction. These Thoughts every body
tells me I must banish, but they will intrude in such
a Situation as mine, where inability must destroy all my
powers of being useful, & consequently of being happy. I
know the good hearts of the K. & Q. & have experienced it
in a thousand Instances, but the more I feel that, the more
I must be hurt. Adieu my dear I will not wear your Spirits
with my Distreʃs, wch. I know you will feel the more as you cannot
relieve it. Adieu ever most Affly. & Sincerely Yrs. CFinch
[1]
I have by mistake begun on a half Sheet
so cannot seal it which is very awkward
To
Miʃs Hamilton
St James's[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton, It was not in my power Yesterday to add
a Line to you of thanks for your pretty affectionate Letter, when I
returned the Manuscript you was so good as to send, which entertained
me & all here vastly. Nobody can be more sensible than I am to
all the kindness you express for me, or more sincerely return it.
but my present State makes me incapable of expressing or doing
any thing as I ought, so I hope all my friends will pardon my
Deficiencies. I must rejoice however about the happiness caused
by Prince Williams return, though I feel vastly being debarred my Share
in it. I do not find the least Amendment in my head &
that you know was my dread from the beginning of this disorder,
for without the hopes of getting rid of that, how can I look
forward with any Satisfaction. These Thoughts every body
tells me I must banish, but they will intrude in such
a Situation as mine, where inability must destroy all my
powers of being useful, & consequently of being happy. I
know the good hearts of the King & Queen & have experienced it
in a thousand Instances, but the more I feel that, the more
I must be hurt. Adieu my dear I will not wear your Spirits
with my Distress, which I know you will feel the more as you cannot
relieve it. Adieu ever most Affectionately & Sincerely Yours Charlotte Finch
I have by mistake begun on a half Sheet
so cannot seal it which is very awkward
To
Miss Hamilton
St James's
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/1/12/15
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)
Place sent: Harleyford, near Marlow
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 8 March 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton. She thanks Hamilton for the manuscript that she had passed her which she found entertaining. Finch writes that her ‘present state makes [...] [her] incapable of expressing’ things as she ought but hopes that her friends will pardon her. She thanks Hamilton for the kindness she expresses to her and reciprocates the friendship. She writes that being useful makes her happy and of the good hearts of the King and Queen.
Dated at Harley Ford.
Length: 1 sheet, 276 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 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