Diplomatic Text
11
Windsor 17th- April 1781
11 oClock at Night ▼
You might I think my Dear Friend have
imagin'd that I should wish to have
recd. some accounts of your health -- not
a word do you say respecting it, though
you know you were far from Well on
Saturday Eveg. when we met at Mrs: Culling Smiths.
The King told me he thought you look'd
very Ill at Chapel on Sunday, this I
I did not hear till too late to make an
enquiry before I left town -- I cannot
help therefore judging from your silence
that you are worse than when I saw
You -- you ------------------ surely would not have with-
held from me the satisfaction of knowing
you were better.
We came here about 7 on Sunday & spent
the Eveg. in conversation (Madm Hardenberg is
in ye. House) Yesterday Morng. Rhea had letters
to write, so Pʃ's. Royal[1] Sabine—— -- Eliza & the Genl-Genl. Frytag and
▼ ▼
myself took a pleasant walk round ye little Park;
I paʃs'd ye. Seat whereon we had sat together
& felt a sensible pleasure in the recollection,
I trust my AstreaFriend we shall this Summer
contrive frequent interviews of ye. same
Kind -- what a proof of the real comfort & pleasure[2]
arrising from Virtuous connections the remembrance of
past scenes are never painful -- can any
thing my love be more pure, more sacred
than our connection?
FridayThursday 19th.
You may see my friend by the Crumpled
appearance of this paper how long I've
worn it in my pocket -- it is hardly poʃsible
for me to scribble a dozen lines at this
place -- I have just been made happy
by your Dr. Letter of yesterday -- I endulg'd RH with
a sight of it -- God bleʃs you I mus[t]
send this scrap or you will not hear fr[om]
me before my return; I really have not
had an instant to myself -- I will comego to
you, or you had better come to me Saty.
I will order some triflething for us to eat
together, in my Room 4 oClock. we will
then talk over my week's absence
God Bleʃs you once More[3]
17 April
1781[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This addition is indicated by an asterisk, linking it to a note which appears at the bottom of the page.
2. A symbol here indicates an annotation, but the corresponding annotation is not present; it was probably removed when the section on p.2 was cut away.
3. The bottom-right corner of this page is cut away.
4. This annotation is written vertically.
Normalised Text
Windsor 17th- April 1781
11 o'Clock at Night ▼
You might I think my Dear Friend have
imagined that I should wish to have
received some accounts of your health -- not
a word do you say respecting it, though
you know you were far from Well on
Saturday Evening when we met at Mrs: Culling Smiths.
The King told me he thought you looked
very Ill at Chapel on Sunday, this I
did not hear till too late to make an
enquiry before I left town -- I cannot
help therefore judging from your silence
that you are worse than when I saw
You -- you surely would not have withheld
from me the satisfaction of knowing
you were better.
We came here about 7 on Sunday & spent
the Evening in conversation (Madame Hardenberg is
in the House) Yesterday Morning Rhea had letters
to write, so Ps's. Royal —— -- Eliza & the GeneralGeneral Frytag and
▼ ▼
myself took a pleasant walk round the little Park;
I passed the Seat whereon we had sat together
& felt a sensible pleasure in the recollection,
I trust my Friend we shall this Summer
contrive frequent interviews of the same
Kind -- what a proof of the real comfort & pleasure
arising from Virtuous connections the remembrance of
past scenes are never painful -- can any
thing my love be more pure, more sacred
than our connection?
Thursday 19th.
You may see my friend by the Crumpled
appearance of this paper how long I've
worn it in my pocket -- it is hardly possible
for me to scribble a dozen lines at this
place -- I have just been made happy
by your Dear Letter of yesterday -- I indulged RH with
a sight of it -- God bless you I must
send this scrap or you will not hear from
me before my return; I really have not
had an instant to myself -- I will go to
you, or you had better come to me Saturday
I will order some thing for us to eat
together, in my Room 4 o'Clock. we will
then talk over my week's absence
God Bless you once More
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 Hamilton to Charlotte Margaret Gunning
Shelfmark: HAM/1/15/2/13
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: Windsor
Addressee: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 19 April 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Charlotte Gunning. Hamilton enquires of
Gunning's health as the King had told her that Gunning looked ill at
Chapel on Sunday and she has heard nothing from her since.
Dated at Windsor.
Original reference No. 11.
Length: 1 sheet, 353 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 23 September 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: 30 September 2023