Diplomatic Text
My dearest Mrs: Dickenson
Ten thousand thanks for your comfort-
-able letter, which inform'd us that your excellent
husband was arrived safe to you, & that he suffer'd no more
from the strain, my Mother & Mrs. Lenton both desire
me to thank you for them, I am much flatter'd
by --- my good Brothers kind expreʃsions of regard for me,
give my love to him & tell him his joy at
seeing you was so great, that I fear it has made him
very absent, as he directs his letter the second, & you
the fifth; Be not uneasy my kind friend about
my health, I am upon the whole very well, some-
-times complaining it is true, this cold weather
agrees with me & when settled weather comes
I make no doubt but I shall recover my health
again. On Friday I was at Mr.. Hamilton's there
was a very elegant & polite party, The Dutcheʃs of
Bedford & two neices, Lord & Lady Stormont, Lord
& Lady Cathcart, Sr. James & Lady Wright Sr. Charles
& Lady Thompson, in all about seventy
people, Miʃs Hamilton & Miʃs Mathews were the
only singers, the Former was dreʃs'd with the
greatest taste & elegance, & look'd very pretty
She sung divinely, she this year far exceeds Miʃs
Mathews, their were five instrumental performers,
One (I cannot recollect his name) was a very pleasing agreeable & rather a
handsome man, I must tell you a Story of
him which I am sure must give you pleasure,
some years ago (perhaps seven or eight) he went
to Holland to follow his profffeʃsion as a Musician
when there a Lady of family & great fortune
fell very much in love with him & made
proposals of marriage to him, in case he
would give up his proffeʃsion, which he very
readily did, they were to have been married in
a fortnight when she fell ill of a fever
& died, but during her illneʃs she made a
will by which she ------ leaves him every
thing she had in the world, which was very
considerable indeed, as soon as she was buried,
he sent for all her relations, (for she had
several who though people of fashion in Holland
were very poor) he read the will, & as soon
as he had finish'd he divided every thing equally
amongst them, only keeping for himself £200 a year
a diamond and another ring & her picture, he return'd to
England to follow his profeʃsion, & he is very much careʃs'd
& noticed; I think it is as great an instance of
true & real generosity as I ever read or heard off.
Pray tell my Brother that I am grown so
great a card player that I have an invitation
to a small party at cards for Sunday sevennight
The answer I return'd was, that I was sorry I could
not wait on the Lady on the 19th.. as I never play'd
at cards on a sunday evening, do you not think
it was highly improper to send to a young person,
tell me if you think my answer was proper.
I have not heard from Mr. Collier which I am much sur-
-prized at, a thought came acroʃs me yesterday, which
I thought I would communicate to you, which is that
I should like to ask Mrs. Cartars oppinion, she is
remarkably clever, & I would as soon trust to her
Judgement as Mr. Collier's or any body else, tell
me what you think of it, I will always consult
you before I take any new steps, therefore after
you have thought seriously about it, write me
word what yr oppinion is. --
A. Maria din'd here yesterday, she is much
better, but looks rather thin, she left us to
go to Mrs. Vesey's to meet Mr. Walpole.
Sally has call'd here, She wishes to know
when you will send for her, as she could have
a place now, & she does not like to be so
long out of place, Indeed I wish you had her
as I think & hope she will answer to you,
she wish'd me to write, & she will wait for
Your answer. John went to Grimwoods the price
of the French & english Gorze or furze Seed is
two & nine pence a pound but if any quantity
is wanted two & six pence a pound.
Mr & Mrs.. Cole call'd the other night, they spoke
as every body else does well of your good
man. Tell him we miʃs him a little bit.
To morrow seven-night I am engaged to go to Mrs-
Vernon's, where I am to see Mrs.. Fitzherbert.
Adieu my dear friend
I remain yours unalterably
Mary Glover
I inclose Lady Wakes silk, pray present our
best Compts: to her & the rest of the family.
My pen paper & ink must be an apology
for this scrawl
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
My dearest Mrs: Dickenson
Ten thousand thanks for your comfortable
letter, which informed us that your excellent
husband was arrived safe to you, & that he suffered no more
from the strain, my Mother & Mrs. Lenton both desire
me to thank you for them, I am much flattered
by my good Brothers kind expressions of regard for me,
give my love to him & tell him his joy at
seeing you was so great, that I fear it has made him
very absent, as he directs his letter the second, & you
the fifth; Be not uneasy my kind friend about
my health, I am upon the whole very well, sometimes
complaining it is true, this cold weather
agrees with me & when settled weather comes
I make no doubt but I shall recover my health
again. On Friday I was at Mr.. Hamilton's there
was a very elegant & polite party, The Duchess of
Bedford & two nieces, Lord & Lady Stormont, Lord
& Lady Cathcart, Sir James & Lady Wright Sir Charles
& Lady Thompson, in all about seventy
people, Miss Hamilton & Miss Mathews were the
only singers, the Former was dressed with the
greatest taste & elegance, & looked very pretty
She sang divinely, she this year far exceeds Miss
Mathews, there were five instrumental performers,
One (I cannot recollect his name) was a very pleasing agreeable & rather a
handsome man, I must tell you a Story of
him which I am sure must give you pleasure,
some years ago (perhaps seven or eight) he went
to Holland to follow his profession as a Musician
when there a Lady of family & great fortune
fell very much in love with him & made
proposals of marriage to him, in case he
would give up his profession, which he very
readily did, they were to have been married in
a fortnight when she fell ill of a fever
& died, but during her illness she made a
will by which she leaves him every
thing she had in the world, which was very
considerable indeed, as soon as she was buried,
he sent for all her relations, (for she had
several who though people of fashion in Holland
were very poor) he read the will, & as soon
as he had finished he divided every thing equally
amongst them, only keeping for himself £200 a year
a diamond and another ring & her picture, he returned to
England to follow his profession, & he is very much caressed
& noticed; I think it is as great an instance of
true & real generosity as I ever read or heard of.
Pray tell my Brother that I am grown so
great a card player that I have an invitation
to a small party at cards for Sunday sennight
The answer I returned was, that I was sorry I could
not wait on the Lady on the 19th.. as I never played
at cards on a sunday evening, do you not think
it was highly improper to send to a young person,
tell me if you think my answer was proper.
I have not heard from Mr. Collier which I am much surprised
at, a thought came across me yesterday, which
I thought I would communicate to you, which is that
I should like to ask Mrs. Cartars opinion, she is
remarkably clever, & I would as soon trust to her
Judgement as Mr. Collier's or any body else, tell
me what you think of it, I will always consult
you before I take any new steps, therefore after
you have thought seriously about it, write me
word what your opinion is. --
Anna Maria dined here yesterday, she is much
better, but looks rather thin, she left us to
go to Mrs. Vesey's to meet Mr. Walpole.
Sally has called here, She wishes to know
when you will send for her, as she could have
a place now, & she does not like to be so
long out of place, Indeed I wish you had her
as I think & hope she will answer to you,
she wished me to write, & she will wait for
Your answer. John went to Grimwoods the price
of the French & english Gorse or furze Seed is
two & nine pence a pound but if any quantity
is wanted two & six pence a pound.
Mr & Mrs.. Cole called the other night, they spoke
as every body else does well of your good
man. Tell him we miss him a little bit.
To morrow seven-night I am engaged to go to Mrs-
Vernon's, where I am to see Mrs.. Fitzherbert.
Adieu my dear friend
I remain yours unalterably
Mary Glover
I enclose Lady Wakes silk, pray present our
best Compliments to her & the rest of the family.
My pen paper & ink must be an apology
for this scrawl
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Mary Glover to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/13/33
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Glover
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 9 March 1786
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Glover to Mary Hamilton, relating to a party she attended of about 70 people at Mr Hamilton’s [Mary Hamilton’s Uncle Frederick]. Included in the party were two nieces of the Duchess of Bedford, Lord and Lady Stormont and Lady Thompson. Glover writes of the people at the party and of the entertainment. She also writes of Hamilton’s friend, Anna Maria Clarke who visited her before she left to go to Mrs Veseys to meet [Horace] Walpole. Clarke wishes to know when Hamilton will send for her ‘as she could have a place now & she does not like to be so long out of place’. Clarke asked Glover to write to Hamilton for her and notes that she will wait for an answer.
Dated at Albemarle Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 826 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 25 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: 20 October 2023