Single Letter

HAM/1/12/38

Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


Deal Castle: May 17th. 1782

      My Dear Miʃs Hamilton

      What will you say at the Sight of your Frank so
soon return'd? The Truth is, when I feel grateful I cannot be
Silent, therefore snatch'd up my Pen the Moment I hadve recd
your Letter, at the risk of tormenting you with a very stupid one,
that I mightay indulge my self in telling you, how much I feel
your kindneʃs in writing so immediately, &, how much pleasure
I expect from the Continuance of your Interesting Journal. From
hence I must acknowledge I have nothing to tell, Our Sea-
-Scenes
were as beautiful at Eastbourne, & our Landscapes much
more so, but yet I find much to enjoy, & am so well circumstanced to
join in any Composition you will produce in praise of Liberty
that I cannot enough lament my want of Talents to bear
a Share in it. Think my dear Miʃs H. what it is, to be able to
say to myself when I rise at 7 in the Morning (which I do here wth.
alacrity, because I do it by Choice) that I am in the full & absolute
Poʃseʃsion of my whole day, & when at Eleven that I retire to my
Room, tis more for neceʃsary Refreshment than Rest, having un-
-dergone
no fatigue either of Body or Mind; but I shd. be ungrate-


ful
to mark out only these negative Advantages, for I have
many delightful, & I hope useful Occupations, in the Attention
I am able to pay to my dear little Grand Children, where I find the
Soil so good, & so well prepared to receive every Instruction I am
capable of giving, that I may expect my Harvest without labour.
I am not of a turn ever to dwell upon what is unpleasant in my
Destination, & especially where real Comforts so much pre---ponderate,
I think it would be wrong to do so; however I am not insensible that
this banishment deprives me of many Enjoyments at present,
& most especially of the high one, I had so long look'd to, of wit-
-neʃsing
& partaking of the Joy of all my friends united, on the
return of my Son, I may say to Life, as well as to his Country. [1] how-
-ever
I hope for the happineʃs of seeing him en paʃsant, for that of
dear Mrs Carters being soon within my reach, & Mrs Feilding with
her other little Girl coming in about a Month to reside amongst
us. I am sure you will say I have reason to be contented with my
Lot, & I thankfully acknowledge it. In your Journal pray do not
forget particulars about yourself, for indeed my dear nobody can
interest themselves more Sincerely about you than I do, or attend
you more constantly in all your Peregrinations to & from Windʃor, as well



as in & about it, for I think you can hardly go up or down Stairs
without my being able to trace you to a Moment. In some future
Letter, I shall inform you of my regulations of my time, but I
do not promise you the Uniformity you are accustom'd to, thō
my Materials ought not to furnish me from their Num-
-ber
, with half the Variety yours should, & now Adieu Ever Yrs. C.F.
[2]

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


Notes


 1. George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, had been recovering from an injury at Caldas.
 2. The bottom right-hand corner of the last page is cut away.

Normalised Text


Deal Castle: May 17th. 1782

      My Dear Miss Hamilton

      What will you say at the Sight of your Frank so
soon returned? The Truth is, when I feel grateful I cannot be
Silent, therefore snatch up my Pen the Moment I have received
your Letter, at the risk of tormenting you with a very stupid one,
that I may indulge my self in telling you, how much I feel
your kindness in writing so immediately, &, how much pleasure
I expect from the Continuance of your Interesting Journal. From
hence I must acknowledge I have nothing to tell, Our Sea-Scenes
were as beautiful at Eastbourne, & our Landscapes much
more so, but yet I find much to enjoy, & am so well circumstanced to
join in any Composition you will produce in praise of Liberty
that I cannot enough lament my want of Talents to bear
a Share in it. Think my dear Miss Hamilton what it is, to be able to
say to myself when I rise at 7 in the Morning (which I do here with
alacrity, because I do it by Choice) that I am in the full & absolute
Possession of my whole day, & when at Eleven that I retire to my
Room, tis more for necessary Refreshment than Rest, having undergone
no fatigue either of Body or Mind; but I should be ungrateful



to mark out only these negative Advantages, for I have
many delightful, & I hope useful Occupations, in the Attention
I am able to pay to my dear little Grand Children, where I find the
Soil so good, & so well prepared to receive every Instruction I am
capable of giving, that I may expect my Harvest without labour.
I am not of a turn ever to dwell upon what is unpleasant in my
Destination, & especially where real Comforts so much preponderate,
I think it would be wrong to do so; however I am not insensible that
this banishment deprives me of many Enjoyments at present,
& most especially of the high one, I had so long looked to, of witnessing
& partaking of the Joy of all my friends united, on the
return of my Son, I may say to Life, as well as to his Country. however
I hope for the happiness of seeing him en passant, for that of
dear Mrs Carters being soon within my reach, & Mrs Feilding with
her other little Girl coming in about a Month to reside amongst
us. I am sure you will say I have reason to be contented with my
Lot, & I thankfully acknowledge it. In your Journal pray do not
forget particulars about yourself, for indeed my dear nobody can
interest themselves more Sincerely about you than I do, or attend
you more constantly in all your Peregrinations to & from Windsor, as well



as in & about it, for I think you can hardly go up or down Stairs
without my being able to trace you to a Moment. In some future
Letter, I shall inform you of my regulations of my time, but I
do not promise you the Uniformity you are accustomed to, though
my Materials ought not to furnish me from their Number
, with half the Variety yours should, & now Adieu Ever Yours Charlotte Finch

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quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, had been recovering from an injury at Caldas.
 2. The bottom right-hand corner of the last page is cut away.

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/1/12/38

Correspondence Details

Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)

Place sent: Deal

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 17 May 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton. She writes that she has picked up her pen to write to Hamilton as soon as she had read her letter "at the risk of tormenting [...] [Hamilton] with a very stupid one". The letter relates to the views and landscape of the area around Deal Castle. Finch writes of the Royal children who she states are prepared to receive all the instructions that she is capable to give. She reports that her daughter Mrs Fielding, is bringing her young daughter to reside with them and that she is very contented. She asks Hamilton to write her with information about herself and that she will write on the subject of how she spends her time but does not promise ‘the uniformity’ that Hamilton is accustomed to.
    Dated at Deal Castle [Kent].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 553 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 5 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

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