Single Letter

HAM/1/15/1/38

Letter from Charlotte Margaret Gunning to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


35

St James's Dec: 10th 1789

I have just received your second letter my dear
Friend
which indeed most justly reproaches
my silence, but if you knew how I have
been plagued & tormented to death on vario[us]
accounts & by various circumstances you
would be very indulgent & make even
more allowances for me than I do for
myself. I received your first kind letter at
Richmond near a Month ago -- & thank you
most sincerely my dear Friend for all your
kind wishes for my happineʃs -- I came
from thence to Town to attend the Queen to
the Play, the first time the dear King had
been there since his illneʃs -- nothing I can
say, - can convey to your mind a just
idea of the joy, applause & acclamation
with which we were receivd, it was the most
affecting thing I ever saw -- the whole House
which was fuller if I may say so, than it could
hold, sung 6 times over God save the King --
this they repeated as often last Wednesday.
I have been at St Leonards for ten days & for
this week past in Town, every day intending



to write to you & every day being prevented you
will believe how impoʃsible it has been to
me to find a moment's leisure when I
tell you that not to speak of many of my
other Friends to whom I have been shamefuly
remiʃs, I have never yet written to my Friend
Mr Young to inform him of my intended
marriage, you may imagine I have this much
at heart & yet I have never yet found the moment,
I have been tormented to death about Houses
seen a hundred, all too small, so dear, dirty
or too far from my Father, you have no idea
of the difficulty or the price -- at length we have
been reduced to take a neat shell in South
Audley Street for a year ready furnished, it
is very clean, comfortably, nicely furnished
- & gives us time to look about us & fix upon
a comfortable habitation for life --
Mr D—— had been very unwell for a fortnight
the Gout flying about him -- he is quite well
now, & goes on Monday in to Somersetshire
to carry his Children to Ld Ilchesters for th[e]
Holydays -- he returns for new years day
& I believe the marriage will take place
on some of the early days of January.



I can now tell you that Miʃs Digby a daughter
of the Dean's & niece of Mr D. is to succeed
me -- it is a very kind at the same time
a very proper mark of the Queens regard
for Mr D. she is very pretty amiable
& being one of 11 Children it is a very eligible
situation for her -- I have as yet told you
nothing of my Health which is now perfect[ly]
good thank God & has been so for these
3 weeks or Month past -- I rejoice extreme[ly]
in the information you gave me of Mr D.
have given up Taxal to you, I think two
the c[i]rcumstance of two families in a H[ouse]
always a very disagreeable one, howeve[r]
well they are united, besides that you
had really no room to see or receive you[r]
Friend's a comfort one cannot dispense
with if one lives the whole year in the
Country -- you flatter me with the pleasur[e]
of seeing you in Town -- when will it be? not
till the spring I imagine -- My Father
is not very well & Bell has I think lost
her good looks & Health since she left
Margate -- My Brother at Paris & very
well -- remember me kindly to Mr
Dickenson
-- & love to Louisa who I hope
improves in everything that can add to you[r]



comfort & happineʃs -- God bleʃs you believe
me ever affec: & sincerely    C. M. G——

To[1]
      Mrs Dickenson
           Taxal
      Chapel le Frith
                             Derbyshire[2]
[3]

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


Notes


 1. Postmark 'DE 11 89' split to left and right of address when unfolded, indicating that the letter went through the post on 11 December 1789.
 2. This address is written vertically in the middle of the page when unfolded.
 3. There are a number of scribbled characters and lines drawn around and over the address.

Normalised Text



St James's December 10th

I have just received your second letter my dear
Friend which indeed most justly reproaches
my silence, but if you knew how I have
been plagued & tormented to death on various
accounts & by various circumstances you
would be very indulgent & make even
more allowances for me than I do for
myself. I received your first kind letter at
Richmond near a Month ago -- & thank you
most sincerely my dear Friend for all your
kind wishes for my happiness -- I came
from thence to Town to attend the Queen to
the Play, the first time the dear King had
been there since his illness -- nothing I can
say, - can convey to your mind a just
idea of the joy, applause & acclamation
with which we were received, it was the most
affecting thing I ever saw -- the whole House
which was fuller if I may say so, than it could
hold, sang 6 times over God save the King --
this they repeated as often last Wednesday.
I have been at St Leonards for ten days & for
this week past in Town, every day intending



to write to you & every day being prevented you
will believe how impossible it has been to
me to find a moment's leisure when I
tell you that not to speak of many of my
other Friends to whom I have been shamefully
remiss, I have never yet written to my Friend
Mr Young to inform him of my intended
marriage, you may imagine I have this much
at heart & yet I have never yet found the moment,
I have been tormented to death about Houses
seen a hundred, all too small, so dear, dirty
or too far from my Father, you have no idea
of the difficulty or the price -- at length we have
been reduced to take a neat shell in South
Audley Street for a year ready furnished, it
is very clean, comfortably, nicely furnished
- & gives us time to look about us & fix upon
a comfortable habitation for life --
Mr Digby had been very unwell for a fortnight
the Gout flying about him -- he is quite well
now, & goes on Monday in to Somersetshire
to carry his Children to Lord Ilchesters for the
Holidays -- he returns for new years day
& I believe the marriage will take place
on some of the early days of January.



I can now tell you that Miss Digby a daughter
of the Dean's & niece of Mr Digby is to succeed
me -- it is a very kind at the same time
a very proper mark of the Queens regard
for Mr Digby she is very pretty amiable
& being one of 11 Children it is a very eligible
situation for her -- I have as yet told you
nothing of my Health which is now perfectly
good thank God & has been so for these
3 weeks or Month past -- I rejoice extremely
in the information you gave me of Mr Dickenson
have given up Taxal to you, I think
the circumstance of two families in a House
always a very disagreeable one, however
well they are united, besides that you
had really no room to see or receive your
Friend's a comfort one cannot dispense
with if one lives the whole year in the
Country -- you flatter me with the pleasure
of seeing you in Town -- when will it be? not
till the spring I imagine -- My Father
is not very well & Bell has I think lost
her good looks & Health since she left
Margate -- My Brother at Paris & very
well -- remember me kindly to Mr
Dickenson -- & love to Louisa who I hope
improves in everything that can add to your



comfort & happiness -- God bless you believe
me ever affectionately & sincerely    Charlotte Margaret Gunning

To
      Mrs Dickenson
           Taxal
      Chapel le Frith
                             Derbyshire

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



 1. Postmark 'DE 11 89' split to left and right of address when unfolded, indicating that the letter went through the post on 11 December 1789.
 2. This address is written vertically in the middle of the page when unfolded.
 3. There are a number of scribbled characters and lines drawn around and over the address.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Charlotte Margaret Gunning to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/15/1/38

Correspondence Details

Sender: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith

Date sent: 11 December 1789

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Charlotte Gunning to Mary Hamilton. She describes the King's and Queen's visit to the theatre, his first attendance since his illness, and the enthusiastic reception they received: 'the whole House which was fuller if I may say so, than it could hold, sung 6 times over God save the King'. Gunning has been extremely busy, spending ten days in St Leonard's, then returning to town, and she apologises for not writing earlier to Hamilton. She is house-hunting: 'I have been tormented to death about Houses seen a hundred, all too small, so dear, dirty or too far from my Father, you have no idea of the difficulty or the price – at length we have been reduced to take a neat shell in South Audley Street for a year ready furnished, it is very clean, comfortably, nicely furnished & gives us time to look about us & fix upon a comfortable habitation for life'. Mr D [her fiancé Stephen Digby] has been suffering from gout, but is well now and goes to Somerset on Monday. He will return for New Year's Day and the wedding will take place early in January. His niece, Miss Digby, will take Gunning's place at Court. Gunning describes her as very pretty, amiable and one of eleven children. She is pleased with the news that John Dickenson Senior has agreed to give up Taxal to Hamilton and her husband. 'I think the c[i]rcumstance of two families in a H[ouse] always a very disagreeable one, howeve[r] well they are united, besides that you had really no room to see or receive you[r] Friend's [sic]'.
    Dated at St James's [London].
    Original reference No. 35.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 654 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Louisa Coley, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2016)

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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