Diplomatic Text
My dear Mr. Dickenson
I hope you were able to make out the
scrawl I sent you yesterday, I was so compleatly tired
& ill that instead of writing I should have prefer'd my
bed, -- but dear A Maria din'd with us & she told me
she had four & twenty pages allready written to
your Cara Sposa I hope you will think that
volume large enough, she looks very well, but I do
not think she intends paying a visit to Lady W
she said yesterday she could not, we beg'd to know
her reason, the answer was it would not be con-
-venient, I have some notion it is on account
of Bell who ishas not been quite well all the winter,
she is better now & her spirits are rather better.
Sunning Hill is such a sweet place I wish you
could see it, I cannot enjoy it as I used to do,
there is no spot nor place that does not constant-
-ly remind me of the dear improver of it, I can fancy
that I see him, that I hear him, as I walk, I miʃs him
there far more than here, Oh my dear brother Mr- John Dickenson[1] ithe is
such a loʃs, you know not what a loʃs it is to me. --
▼
I will say no more, for it affects me more now than at
the time we lost that best of friends of Father's. --
I was happy in hearing that your good Father was
recover'd, I will now tell you that we were all very
uneasy on his account when you were in Town as my
mother was certain he was worse than he wrote you
word he was. I hope you feel no more from the ugly
strain that you complain'd so much of when we had
you for our guest, I do miʃs you a little bit every
now & then; Miʃs Barnard whom you saw is married
& is very much improv'd in her looks, her husband is
an agreeable man, rather graver than you are if any thing too grave; I hope
she will be happy, though without flattery I do not
think she will be quite so happy as a certain pair
of my acquaintance.
You say you will some time or other give me
a little advice on a certain subject, their is no ones
advice I would sooner take or be more thankful for
than your's & my dearest Mrs: D..s -- I will look upon
it as a particular mark of your esteem & love
for me. Adieu I must drop for church, I feel as
if their was thunder in the air, rain would be
very acceptable every thing is very backward with
us.
her, ------------------ told us ------ she ------ £100 at her
death[2]
Monday Morning I think by my conclusion yester-
-day you will perceive that I was out of spirits, I was
not well, but I am much better to day. We drank tea
at Mr. Hamiltons in the afternoon, we saw a picture
of Lord Archibald Hamilton painted by Sr Godfrey Kneller which the Duke of Queensbury
has lately made a present of to Mr: Hamilton, it has
been painted ever since the year 92 when my Lord
was about 19 years of age, he is dreʃs'd in Armour very
handsome, & I think I saw a small resemblance of Mr:
H—— Sir William Cunningham has in his poʃseʃsion a picture
of the late Duke of Hamilton which he has promised to Mr:
H—— for a companion to the other painted by Sr. Godfrey likewise
the colours are still very fine. My Mother has just
purchased a pr- of ponies, they are black & very handsome,
they are now breaking, she is very happy at the thoughts
of driving them this summer, I never saw her look better
& she is very well, she desires her affectionate love to
her dear Miranda & her saucy husband, a gentleman with
whom you have a slight acquaintance. You know I
suppose that my publication will soon be en train, Mr.
Collier undertakes all the trouble for me, it will detain
us a little longer in Town than I could wish. There are
On thursday I went with a friend to see the stag turn'd
out on Ascot Heath, the King was there & a great deal
of company; Lord Hinchinbroke the master of the stag hounds
had been very ill & was not able to attend the monday
before, he therefore made his Apologies to the King
& told him he had been very ill of a fever, I give
you joy my lord, a fever is much better than a stroke
was his majest --- y's[3] answer, very comforting, I hope you
think. --
Pray tell Mrs: D—— that Mrs: Bloodworth is dead & has
left debts to be paid to the amount of seven hundred
pound, she had not a farthing of money about her, & ye-
Queen buried her at her own expence, this woman has
been found out since her death to be a very great
hypocrite who during her life time was thought to be very
charitable & religious. Mrs. Lenton desires her best
compts.. to you & Mrs.. D. --
When the Prince's marriage was mention'd before the
Queen, she said O-. George has many such wives as
Mrs.. F——t he had his failings, but had a good
heart at the bottom; this is one of the reports out of
many, ------------------ I did not see Mrs: F I just left Mrs: Vernon's
a quater of an hour before she came, Mrs.. V: ask'd
her if she chose to play at cards, she said no I thank
you, we have been playing till I am quite tired,
she had really been at cards with the P—— the whole
evening. -- I will now conclude this dull & tedious
scrawl with aʃsuring my brother that I am with
great truth his ever obliged friend & sister
M.. Glover
My affectionate & kindest
love to my dear Mrs.. Dickenson[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This annotation identifying 'my dear brother' as John Dickenson appears at the bottom of the page, and is linked to the main text via paired crosses.
2. The paper has been torn along the top edge, and the remains of an erased earlier letter or draft are still partially visible.
3. Probably ‘ie’.
4. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.
Normalised Text
My dear Mr. Dickenson
I hope you were able to make out the
scrawl I sent you yesterday, I was so completely tired
& ill that instead of writing I should have preferred my
bed, -- but dear Anna Maria dined with us & she told me
she had four & twenty pages already written to
your Cara Sposa I hope you will think that
volume large enough, she looks very well, but I do
not think she intends paying a visit to Lady Wake
she said yesterday she could not, we begged to know
her reason, the answer was it would not be convenient
, I have some notion it is on account
of Bell who has not been quite well all the winter,
she is better now & her spirits are rather better.
Sunning Hill is such a sweet place I wish you
could see it, I cannot enjoy it as I used to do,
there is no spot nor place that does not constantly
remind me of the dear improver of it, I can fancy
that I see him, that I hear him, as I walk, I miss him
there far more than here, Oh my dear brother he is
such a loss, you know not what a loss it is to me. --
▼
I will say no more, for it affects me more now than at
the time we lost that best of friends of Father's. --
I was happy in hearing that your good Father was
recovered, I will now tell you that we were all very
uneasy on his account when you were in Town as my
mother was certain he was worse than he wrote you
word he was. I hope you feel no more from the ugly
strain that you complained so much of when we had
you for our guest, I do miss you a little bit every
now & then; Miss Barnard whom you saw is married
& is very much improved in her looks, her husband is
an agreeable man, rather graver than you are if any thing too grave; I hope
she will be happy, though without flattery I do not
think she will be quite so happy as a certain pair
of my acquaintance.
You say you will some time or other give me
a little advice on a certain subject, there is no ones
advice I would sooner take or be more thankful for
than your's & my dearest Mrs: Dickensons -- I will look upon
it as a particular mark of your esteem & love
for me. Adieu I must drop for church, I feel as
if there was thunder in the air, rain would be
very acceptable every thing is very backward with
us.
Monday Morning I think by my conclusion yesterday
you will perceive that I was out of spirits, I was
not well, but I am much better to day. We drank tea
at Mr. Hamiltons in the afternoon, we saw a picture
of Lord Archibald Hamilton painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller which the Duke of Queensbury
has lately made a present of to Mr: Hamilton, it has
been painted ever since the year 92 when my Lord
was about 19 years of age, he is dressed in Armour very
handsome, & I think I saw a small resemblance of Mr:
Hamilton Sir William Cunningham has in his possession a picture
of the late Duke of Hamilton which he has promised to Mr:
Hamilton for a companion to the other painted by Sir Godfrey likewise
the colours are still very fine. My Mother has just
purchased a pair of ponies, they are black & very handsome,
they are now breaking, she is very happy at the thoughts
of driving them this summer, I never saw her look better
& she is very well, she desires her affectionate love to
her dear Miranda & her saucy husband, a gentleman with
whom you have a slight acquaintance. You know I
suppose that my publication will soon be en train, Mr.
Collier undertakes all the trouble for me, it will detain
us a little longer in Town than I could wish.
On thursday I went with a friend to see the stag turned
out on Ascot Heath, the King was there & a great deal
of company; Lord Hinchinbroke the master of the stag hounds
had been very ill & was not able to attend the monday
before, he therefore made his Apologies to the King
& told him he had been very ill of a fever, I give
you joy my lord, a fever is much better than a stroke
was his majesty's answer, very comforting, I hope you
think. --
Pray tell Mrs: Dickenson that Mrs: Bloodworth is dead & has
left debts to be paid to the amount of seven hundred
pound, she had not a farthing of money about her, & the
Queen buried her at her own expense, this woman has
been found out since her death to be a very great
hypocrite who during her life time was thought to be very
charitable & religious. Mrs. Lenton desires her best
compliments to you & Mrs.. Dickenson --
When the Prince's marriage was mentioned before the
Queen, she said O-. George has many such wives as
Mrs.. Fitzherbert he had his failings, but had a good
heart at the bottom; this is one of the reports out of
many, I did not see Mrs: Fitzherbert I just left Mrs: Vernon's
a quarter of an hour before she came, Mrs.. Vernon asked
her if she chose to play at cards, she said no I thank
you, we have been playing till I am quite tired,
she had really been at cards with the Prince the whole
evening. -- I will now conclude this dull & tedious
scrawl with assuring my brother that I am with
great truth his ever obliged friend & sister
Mary Glover
My affectionate & kindest
love to my dear Mrs.. Dickenson
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 Mary Glover to John Dickenson
Shelfmark: HAM/1/13/34
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Glover
Place sent: London
Addressee: John Dickenson
Place received: unknown
Date sent: between 23 and 24 April 1786
notBefore 23 April 1786 (precision: high)
notAfter 24 April 1786 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Glover to John Dickenson. She reports that she dined with Anna Maria Clarke who told her that she has already written 24 pages ‘to your Cara Sposa’ and she hopes that Hamilton will think that volume large enough. Clarke is well but Glover does not think she will visit Lady Wake. She says it is because it is not convenient but Glover thinks the real reason is because of the poor health of her sister Bell.
Glover wishes Dickenson could see her home at Sunning Hill which she considers a ‘sweet place’ though she cannot enjoy it as much without her father. She at times feels as if she hears him and sees him there. She misses him there more than she does in her home in London. She writes on Dickenson’s father and with news of acquaintances that he met when he visited. Miss Barnard is now married and her looks have improved. She hopes that she will be happy though she doubts that she will be as happy as Dickenson and Hamilton. Glover writes of a visit to Mr [Frederick] Hamilton who showed her a picture of Lord Archibald Hamilton which was painted by [Godfrey] Kneller which the Duke of Queensberry had given him. Sir William Cunningham has a picture of the late Duke of Hamilton which he has promised to give to Mr Hamilton. Glover also writes of her mother who is well and sends her love to Hamilton and her ‘saucy husband’.
Glover also writes of the soon to be published work [of her father’s writings] which is being looked after by Mr Collier and keeps her in London longer than she wishes to be. She writes of going to see the stag turned out at Ascot Heath and notes that the King was there. She also writes with news of Mrs Bloodworth who died leaving large debts and that the Queen had her buried at her own expense. She writes that when the Prince’s [of Wales] marriage was mentioned before the Queen she said ‘George has many such wives as Mrs F——t [Maria Fitzherbert] he had his failings, but had a good heart at the bottom; this is one of the reports out of many’. She notes that she left before seeing Mrs F[itzherbert].
Length: 1 sheet, 1001 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 29 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