Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/12/94

Letter from Harriet Finch to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


My dearest Miʃs Hamilton, I was this moment coming to
you having a very great deal to say to you -- But my Mor
will not let me come to you as she says it will be trouble
some to you this Evening -- So I cannot
tell you so soon as I wish'd de Vive voix how
kind & delightful it was in you your most
acceptable kindneʃs to me last night --
When first I thought of Asking it of you
as a Neighbour in my Urgent Neceʃsity I
thought it a mighty tricky Iʃsue -- But by ye
time I had cool'd my heels in yr. Room a
Second or 2 -- it then came into my mind yu-
wd. think it very Shabby & odd -- such an Ap-
plication -- & I still cd. wish you had been at
home when I sent a note to you whch. wd. have
explain'd it all & was truly in ye form of a
Petition -- The true cause (which I had not
time in ye Cold Room to Explain) was that I
cd. not by any means procure ye little
Sum in ye House -- S—— was as poor
as a Rat -- none of ye Rest of ye House-
-hold Could furnish me with sufficient
& (as I tell you all my Secrets) My dr. Mr-
I had so lately applied to in a similar
case I did wish to avoid repeating that if I cd
by any means -- & at last  ------  Rather
that I really cd. flatter my self with having
a little Friend in a Corner of ye Palace[1]
My Coach is now come but I just add
a little Plan I had laid which (as my Mor


tells me you have not been quite well today) must fall to ye
Ground -- My Bror. had given me 3 tickets for Lady
Derby's[2] tomorrow who sees masks &  --- My Idea was
that you & I shd. have procured a 3d- -- a decent
proper Chaperon -- & to have gone Equipp'd
in Men's Domino's[3] -- our Hair dreʃs'd in Ld
Lindsey's[4] Stile -- & -- & here been as
lively & amused as poʃsible -- & univer-
-sally admired by all ye finest People
there -- It is now out of
Sight so I must think no more
Abt it -- & in ye greatest haste
put an end to this Scrawl of
Scrawls from yr Affece
                             Harrit. Finch

Finch

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


Notes


 1. If this refers to Hamilton herself, it dates this letter as pre-1782 when she was still at court.
 2. If this is Elizabeth Smith-Stanley, Countess of Derby (1753-1797), this probably dates the letter no later than May 1778, when rumours about an affair between Lady Derby and John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, began to appear in the press. By August 1778 Lady Derby was publicly living apart from her husband. She tentatively returned to society c.1784, still estranged from her husband, who would not grant her a divorce, and outlived her. It is unlikely she would have thrown a ball in this later period.
 3. A 'domino' was a kind of cloak worn to the masquerade ball.
 4. Probably Robert Bertie, Marquess of Lindsey (1756-1779), a noted rake, who became the Duke of Ancaster upon his father's death in 1778, dating this note still further to pre-1778.

Normalised Text


My dearest Miss Hamilton, I was this moment coming to
you having a very great deal to say to you -- But my Mother
will not let me come to you as she says it will be troublesome
 to you this Evening -- So I cannot
tell you so soon as I wished de Vive voix how
kind & delightful it was in you your most
acceptable kindness to me last night --
When first I thought of Asking it of you
as a Neighbour in my Urgent Necessity I
thought it a mighty tricky Issue -- But by the
time I had cooled my heels in your Room a
Second or 2 -- it then came into my mind you
would think it very Shabby & odd -- such an Application
 -- & I still could wish you had been at
home when I sent a note to you which would have
explained it all & was truly in the form of a
Petition -- The true cause (which I had not
time in the Cold Room to Explain) was that I
could not by any means procure the little
Sum in the House -- Sophia was as poor
as a Rat -- none of the Rest of the Household
 Could furnish me with sufficient
& (as I tell you all my Secrets) My dear Mother
I had so lately applied to in a similar
case I did wish to avoid repeating that if I could
by any means -- & at last  ------  Rather
that I really could flatter my self with having
a little Friend in a Corner of the Palace
My Coach is now come but I just add
a little Plan I had laid which (as my Mother


tells me you have not been quite well today) must fall to the
Ground -- My Brother had given me 3 tickets for Lady
Derby's tomorrow who sees masks & My Idea was
that you & I should have procured a 3d- -- a decent
proper Chaperone -- & to have gone Equipped
in Men's Domino's -- our Hair dressed in Lord
Lindsey's Style -- & -- & here been as
lively & amused as possible -- & universally
 admired by all the finest People
there -- It is now out of
Sight so I must think no more
About it -- & in the greatest haste
put an end to this Scrawl of
Scrawls from your Affectionate
                             Harriet Finch

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. If this refers to Hamilton herself, it dates this letter as pre-1782 when she was still at court.
 2. If this is Elizabeth Smith-Stanley, Countess of Derby (1753-1797), this probably dates the letter no later than May 1778, when rumours about an affair between Lady Derby and John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, began to appear in the press. By August 1778 Lady Derby was publicly living apart from her husband. She tentatively returned to society c.1784, still estranged from her husband, who would not grant her a divorce, and outlived her. It is unlikely she would have thrown a ball in this later period.
 3. A 'domino' was a kind of cloak worn to the masquerade ball.
 4. Probably Robert Bertie, Marquess of Lindsey (1756-1779), a noted rake, who became the Duke of Ancaster upon his father's death in 1778, dating this note still further to pre-1778.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Harriet Finch to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/12/94

Correspondence Details

Sender: Harriet Finch

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Kew

Date sent: not after 1778
notAfter 1778 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Harriet Finch to Mary Hamilton. She writes that she was just coming to see Hamilton as she has much to tell her but her mother will not let her go to see her. She continues on Hamilton's kindness to her and general news. She is to go on a visit to an acquaintance tomorrow and she wishes Hamilton could be with her there.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 392 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 1 June 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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