Diplomatic Text
▼
My dear Miʃs Hamilton
I have been every post day prevented from
thanking you for your kind letter of May 29th.
since my return hither July 30th. wch. was the
first of my receiving it -- it is now such an old
Story that I daresay you have almost forgot
you wrote one, but I should feel myself very
ungrateful not to thank you for it, & am
determined though much hurried that this pen
shall not go without my acknowledgements.
as my time is short I am desirousresolved to begin
on the subject which I most long just now to
mention to you, your charming amiable
Cousin Mrs. Graham -- Mr G's friendly attentions &
the infinite comfort we received from them in our fine
distreʃses here I have already mentioned to you, but
now that I have been two Months without interrup-
-tion with her also, I must tell you how fortunate I
think myself in her acquaintance & friendship for I
flatter myself I may claim both & it has been really
a more thorough intimacy than I cd. have boasted of, if
I had known her for years in London, & in all our mutual
distreʃses I suppose we were never half an hour out of each others
sight -- I cd. not think more highly of him than I did before
wch. makes me leʃs copious just now on his subject, but I
must say nothing could be more comfortable & happy &
indeed merry when we all were together -- when I left her at
Agromonte near Oporto the end of last Month their
proceedings were quite unsettled -- she now writes me word
that they have (very judiciously I think tho' I cd. not bear to
advise it) determined to give up all hopes thoughts of
seeing England, & to spend the next Winter at Lisbon or
in the South of France but I hope it will be the former
as it agreed so well with her last year -- she was afraid
that this determination wd. be a great disappointment
to her friends in England, a mortification it cer-
-tainly will be, but I have had the pleasure of
sending her word this morning, that by a letter
from Mrs. Hatton, I find that Ly Stormont in
the middle of July, had expreʃsed an idea that as
she was not then returned, it might be better for
her to stay till the ensuing
spring, so this will prove to
her that her friends will not
be surprised at her now remaining
here, & wd. approve very much of her not setting out
for England in Augst. Mrs. H. also mentioned Ly S's
being perfectly well, wch. will be a great comfort to Mrs.
G. as she had not heard of any of her friends since May.
Miʃs Cathcart is a charming little Girl but I must
now send this Letter off directly -- we never recd
that first Letter of M wch. you mention -- I'm sorry
we had such a loʃs for I'm sure it wd have been
charming -- Yrs. sincerely S. F.
we are all going on well[1]
[2]
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Moved postscript here from the top of p.1. The author drew a line to separate it from the opening part of the letter.
2. Postmark.
3. A figure 8 appears above this line indicating postage due.
4. 'Par via Ostend' is written in horizontal round brackets.
5. Seal, in red wax, with the monogram CF.
Normalised Text
▼
My dear Miss Hamilton
I have been every post day prevented from
thanking you for your kind letter of May 29th.
since my return hither July 30th. which was the
first of my receiving it -- it is now such an old
Story that I daresay you have almost forgotten
you wrote one, but I should feel myself very
ungrateful not to thank you for it, & am
determined though much hurried that this pen
shall not go without my acknowledgements.
as my time is short I am resolved to begin
on the subject which I most long just now to
mention to you, your charming amiable
Cousin Mrs. Graham -- Mr Graham's friendly attentions &
the infinite comfort we received from them in our fine
distresses here I have already mentioned to you, but
now that I have been two Months without interruption
with her also, I must tell you how fortunate I
think myself in her acquaintance & friendship for I
flatter myself I may claim both & it has been really
a more thorough intimacy than I could have boasted of, if
I had known her for years in London, & in all our mutual
distresses I suppose we were never half an hour out of each others
sight -- I could not think more highly of him than I did before
which makes me less copious just now on his subject, but I
must say nothing could be more comfortable & happy &
indeed merry when we all were together -- when I left her at
Agromonte near Oporto the end of last Month their
proceedings were quite unsettled -- she now writes me word
that they have (very judiciously I think though I could not bear to
advise it) determined to give up all thoughts of
seeing England, & to spend the next Winter at Lisbon or
in the South of France but I hope it will be the former
as it agreed so well with her last year -- she was afraid
that this determination would be a great disappointment
to her friends in England, a mortification it certainly
will be, but I have had the pleasure of
sending her word this morning, that by a letter
from Mrs. Hatton, I find that Lady Stormont in
the middle of July, had expressed an idea that as
she was not then returned, it might be better for
her to stay till the ensuing
spring, so this will prove to
her that her friends will not
be surprised at her now remaining
here, & would approve very much of her not setting out
for England in August Mrs. Hatton also mentioned Lady Stormont's
being perfectly well, which will be a great comfort to Mrs.
Graham as she had not heard of any of her friends since May.
Miss Cathcart is a charming little Girl but I must
now send this Letter off directly -- we never received
that first Letter of May which you mention -- I'm sorry
we had such a loss for I'm sure it would have been
charming -- Yours sincerely Sophia Fielding
we are all going on well
St. James's Palace
London
par
via
Ostend
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 Sophia Fielding (née Finch) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/34
Correspondence Details
Sender: Sophia Fielding (née Finch)
Place sent: Caldas da Rainha
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 15 August 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Sophia Fielding to Mary Hamilton. She writes that she received Hamilton’s letter dated 29 May on 30 July and has until now been prevented from writing back to her. The letter relates to her time at Caldas and to Hamilton’s cousin, Mrs Graham.
Dated at Caldas.
Length: 1 sheet, 530 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 26 May 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