Single Letter

HAM/1/15/2/22

Letter from Mary Hamilton to Charlotte Margaret Gunning

Diplomatic Text



July 1st. 1782

      I recd. Your dear letter ye. day after I had sent one which
I would give a great deal I had not written -- let an act of
oblivion be paʃs'd over it, and believe my present aʃsurances
that I harbour not a doubt of Your affection. I am quite
shock'd to think You have been so ill, I hope you will
take every proper precaution not to get fresh cold --
I think riding on Horseback would be good for You,
gentle exercise without fatigue will restore your strenght
better than medicines -- what a melancholy situation
indeed! surrounded by Invalids, I hope soon to hear
You are all well again & then I shalllet me hear no more
complaints of depreʃsion of Spirits. -- Hero is expected to
day. It is whisper'd that Lord Fairford means to propose
to Miʃs Murray -- I have not had this from any good authority.
Rhea's Princeʃs Royal eldest Daughter is quite well & I think never
look'd better. Lady Dartrey came here on Saturday to
Dinner & stays till Wednesday. no great satisfaction
do I enjoy from her being under ye. same Roof wth. me
      for I never see her but in ye.
      Drawing Room I wish a certain Dʃs.
      & her Daughter wld. not come so
      regularly upon the T—— I think
      they lose their own consequence in doing so,
I spoke to them on Saty. they had not heard You were
so ill. I inclose a letter for Your amusement from
Perfecta. return it & do not let any person see it.
      Adieu for to day. I have as You will easily perceive
written in haste
                             Ever Ever Yours
                                                         M: H:




Honble Miʃs Gunning[1]
      Horton
      Newport Pagnel
           Bucks
Free
Wake[2]

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


Notes


 1. Postmark '2 JY' above address when unfolded (indicating that the letter went through the post on 2 July 1782), postmark 'WINDSOR' and frank 'FREE' to right.
 2. These lines appear to the left of the address.

Normalised Text



July 1st. 1782

      I received Your dear letter the day after I had sent one which
I would give a great deal I had not written -- let an act of
oblivion be passed over it, and believe my present assurances
that I harbour not a doubt of Your affection. I am quite
shocked to think You have been so ill, I hope you will
take every proper precaution not to get fresh cold --
I think riding on Horseback would be good for You,
gentle exercise without fatigue will restore your strength
better than medicines -- what a melancholy situation
indeed! surrounded by Invalids, I hope soon to hear
You are all well again & then let me hear no more
complaints of depression of Spirits. -- Hero is expected to
day. It is whispered that Lord Fairford means to propose
to Miss Murray -- I have not had this from any good authority.
Rhea's eldest Daughter is quite well & I think never
looked better. Lady Dartrey came here on Saturday to
Dinner & stays till Wednesday. no great satisfaction
do I enjoy from her being under the same Roof with me
      for I never see her but in the
      Drawing Room I wish a certain Duchess
      & her Daughter would not come so
      regularly upon the Terrace I think
      they lose their own consequence in doing so,
I spoke to them on Saturday they had not heard You were
so ill. I enclose a letter for Your amusement from
Perfecta. return it & do not let any person see it.
      Adieu for to day. I have as You will easily perceive
written in haste
                             Ever Ever Yours
                                                         Mary Hamilton




Honourable Miss Gunning
      Horton
      Newport Pagnell
           Buckinghamshire
Free
Wake

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



 1. Postmark '2 JY' above address when unfolded (indicating that the letter went through the post on 2 July 1782), postmark 'WINDSOR' and frank 'FREE' to right.
 2. These lines appear to the left of the address.

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/1/15/2/22

Correspondence Details

Sender: Mary Hamilton

Place sent: Windsor (certainty: high)

Addressee: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)

Place received: Horton, Northamptonshire

Date sent: 2 July 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Charlotte Gunning. Hamilton has received a letter in response of her own of 28 June 1782 and assures Gunning that she does not doubt her affection for her (see HAM/1/15/2/21), and that she had not known that she was so ill. She advises her to take care of herself and suggests that riding on horseback would be beneficial, as 'gentle exercise without fatigue will restore your streng[th] better than medicines'. She continues with news of friends, including the rumour of a proposal of marriage to Miss Murray, and the news that Lady Dartrey is currently staying at the Queen's House but that Hamilton is only able to see her in the drawing room. She reports that the Princess Royal is well and ends her letter in noting that she will send her a letter from 'Perfecta' [Lady Charlotte Finch] for her amusement, but that she must return it and not show it to anyone.
    Original reference No. 19.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 286 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: Donald Alasdair Morrison, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Jack Jones, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted November 2014)

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: 10 December 2021

Document Image (pdf)