Diplomatic Text
My Dear Miʃs Hamilton
I beg you to deliver the enclosed to the Princeʃs
Royal, & to present my humble Duty to their Majesties & to
the Princes & Princeʃses. As soon as I had sent you my
Letter I gave orders for a Supper for Genl Carpenter & the
three Gentlemen Ushers, who arrived between 8 & 9; they
seem'd much pleas'd with that Attention, & at a very little
after Twelve, I resign'd my dear little Royal Charge into their
Care, an Office it was impoʃsible to perform without feeling
it tenderly, as indeed every body seem'd to do that was pre-
-sent at the Scene; it closes with such endleʃs Happineʃs to
him, that tis for ourselves only we feel when we lament it.
I hope the King & Queen receive all the Comfort from that
Thought, it ought to bring, & that I shall soon have the
Satisfaction of Seeing them & all that are nearest to them
return in health to this Place wch: looks so desolate without
them. Miʃs Goldsworthy is but indifferent I think & the
Busineʃs of last Night sat very heavy upon her, however
I hope her Blister & keeping my quiet will set her up again.
Our miserable rainy Weather I am afraid must have been
very troublesome at Kew, thō the Princeʃses Letters speak
of your walking a good deal. Adieu my dear Miʃs
Hamilton; I am sorry my Franker[1] is gone or you shd.
not have to pay for a double Letter, Ever most Sincerely
Yrs. CFinch
Windsor Augt. 27th. 1782.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My Dear Miss Hamilton
I beg you to deliver the enclosed to the Princess
Royal, & to present my humble Duty to their Majesties & to
the Princes & Princesses. As soon as I had sent you my
Letter I gave orders for a Supper for General Carpenter & the
three Gentlemen Ushers, who arrived between 8 & 9; they
seemed much pleased with that Attention, & at a very little
after Twelve, I resigned my dear little Royal Charge into their
Care, an Office it was impossible to perform without feeling
it tenderly, as indeed every body seemed to do that was present
at the Scene; it closes with such endless Happiness to
him, that tis for ourselves only we feel when we lament it.
I hope the King & Queen receive all the Comfort from that
Thought, it ought to bring, & that I shall soon have the
Satisfaction of Seeing them & all that are nearest to them
return in health to this Place which looks so desolate without
them. Miss Goldsworthy is but indifferent I think & the
Business of last Night sat very heavy upon her, however
I hope her Blister & keeping my quiet will set her up again.
Our miserable rainy Weather I am afraid must have been
very troublesome at Kew, though the Princesses Letters speak
of your walking a good deal. Adieu my dear Miss
Hamilton; I am sorry my Franker is gone or you should
not have to pay for a double Letter, Ever most Sincerely
Yours Charlotte Finch
Windsor August 27th. 1782.
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/1/12/49
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Charlotte Finch (née Fermor)
Place sent: Windsor
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Kew
Date sent: 27 August 1782
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Charlotte Finch to Mary Hamilton. She writes that as soon as she had sent Hamilton her letter she gave the order for a supper for General Carpenter and the other gentleman and they seemed pleased with it. After which she passed her ‘dear little Royal Charge [the body of Prince Alfred] into their care, an office it was impossible to perform without feeling it tenderly’. The sad scene affected everyone who viewed it. Finch writes that the child now is in ‘endless happiness’ and it is only those that are left behind that lament and hopes that the King and Queen receive some comfort from this thought.
Finch updates Hamilton on the health of Miss Goldsworthy who is being treated with a blister.
Dated at Windsor.
Length: 1 sheet, 263 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 27 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