Diplomatic Text
I hope my Dear Miʃs Hamilton will do me
the Justice to bellieve it will always give me pleasure
to hear from her -- & that I could only regreate receiveing
a Letter from you instead of yr Mamma because the
reason of yr being employ'd was so disagreeable a one
to her & of course to You -- asure her we are extreamly
Sorry she has been so much Indisposed but hope the
Rhumatism has left her long beffore this can reach You
& heartily wish yr next may bring more Comfortable
accounts of both her & Mr Hamilton -- whose Goutish
Complaints Mr Napier sympathizes with; in a double Capacity
being still far from free from them himself I should
have told you all this sooner but am far from being
well myself & often so much distrest that I'm quite
incapable to hold a Pen -- I write with pain now, but
do it: in hopes of being entitled to Speedy good Acts: of
You all as You Young Lady's are not Lyable to
the same Interuptions of correspondance we married
ones often meet with. I likewise want to tell You
I have had information that half a fine Buck is
on its way from Risby to Northampton -- a present to Us
so beg yr Pappa will look out sharp for it -- & eat it to our
Healths 'twould be a thousand pity's to have it lost had
we been there we would have eat it together -- as it is
it will be great ------ Comfort to Us to know that you had wt
we imagine is very good of its kind -- . We still hope
to be with You about the midle of Octr: I therefore hope
when yr Pappa sees Mr Samuel he'll tell him so & yt
the Moment the route[1] arrives I shall sett out for his
House where I hope to find every thing ready for our
Reception -- at the same time it wont be so; if the people
here can prevent it or keep us amongst them -- so you
see how litle certainty falls to the Lott of us Millitary
People -- one thing however is certain that we shall ever
esteem ourselves Happy in an Oportunity of being in yr
Neighbourhood -- as for other things we have no cause to
regreate yr Babylonians nothing can be more Civill or
Sociable than the people here -- 'tis one constant round of
Invitations for us & those we are most Intimate with to
Partake of Venison & all good things that can be Collec
=ted together & no Vaills[2] nor Card Money alow'd in the
County -- I shall not at all regreate finding Loo abolisht
amongst You -- as its a Game I never will make one at.[3]
I'm sorry for yr Sake yr Pappa & Mamma dont mean to
be at the Races but perhaps your party may Muster
more forces by that time -- I have had no Acts of my Br but
by the Pappers since he Sailled[4] he wrote me from London he
was to write to Mr Hamilton beffore he sett out. Mr Napier
joins yr Cousins & me in best compts: to You yr Pappa & Mamma
& I am Ever Dear Miʃs Hamilton Most faithfully Yours &c &c
M A Napier.
I wont make you pay double by putting this in a Cover
the Venison is a present from Miʃs Mostyne to whom half the
Estate of Risby bellongs --
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Military order to depart (OED s.v. route 3).
2. ‘A gratuity given ... by a visitor on his departure to the servants of the house in which he has been a guest’ (OED s.v. vails, 5).
3. The now-rare make one ‘take part (in), be present (at)’ (OED s.v. make v. 1, 25b. Accessed 18-03-2021).
4. Cathcart, appointed Ambassador to the Russian court, had sailed for St Petersburg earlier that month.
Normalised Text
I hope my Dear Miss Hamilton will do me
the Justice to believe it will always give me pleasure
to hear from her -- & that I could only regret receiving
a Letter from you instead of your Mamma because the
reason of your being employed was so disagreeable a one
to her & of course to You -- assure her we are extremely
Sorry she has been so much Indisposed but hope the
Rheumatism has left her long before this can reach You
& heartily wish your next may bring more Comfortable
accounts of both her & Mr Hamilton -- whose Goutish
Complaints Mr Napier sympathizes with; in a double Capacity
being still far from free from them himself I should
have told you all this sooner but am far from being
well myself & often so much distressed that I'm quite
incapable to hold a Pen -- I write with pain now, but
do it: in hopes of being entitled to Speedy good Accounts of
You all as You Young Lady's are not Liable to
the same Interruptions of correspondence we married
ones often meet with. I likewise want to tell You
I have had information that half a fine Buck is
on its way from Risby to Northampton -- a present to Us
so beg your Pappa will look out sharp for it -- & eat it to our
Healths 'twould be a thousand pity's to have it lost had
we been there we would have eaten it together -- as it is
it will be great Comfort to Us to know that you had what
we imagine is very good of its kind -- . We still hope
to be with You about the middle of October I therefore hope
when your Pappa sees Mr Samuel he'll tell him so & that
the Moment the route arrives I shall set out for his
House where I hope to find every thing ready for our
Reception -- at the same time it won't be so; if the people
here can prevent it or keep us amongst them -- so you
see how little certainty falls to the Lot of us Military
People -- one thing however is certain that we shall ever
esteem ourselves Happy in an Opportunity of being in your
Neighbourhood -- as for other things we have no cause to
regret your Babylonians nothing can be more Civil or
Sociable than the people here -- 'tis one constant round of
Invitations for us & those we are most Intimate with to
Partake of Venison & all good things that can be Collected
together & no Vails nor Card Money allowed in the
County -- I shall not at all regret finding Loo abolished
amongst You -- as it's a Game I never will make one at.
I'm sorry for your Sake your Pappa & Mamma don't mean to
be at the Races but perhaps your party may Muster
more forces by that time -- I have had no Accounts of my Brother but
by the Papers since he Sailed he wrote me from London he
was to write to Mr Hamilton before he set out. Mr Napier
joins your Cousins & me in best compliments to You your Pappa & Mamma
& I am Ever Dear Miss Hamilton Most faithfully Yours &c &c
Mary Anne Napier.
I won't make you pay double by putting this in a Cover
the Venison is a present from Miss Mostyne to whom half the
Estate of Risby belongs --
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 Anne Napier to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/2
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Mary Anne Napier (née Cathcart)
Place sent: Boston
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton (certainty: high)
Date sent: 26 August 1768
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Anne Napier [later Lady Napier] to Mary Hamilton. She writes with general news, discusses the two families' health, hoping for 'Speedy good Ac[coun]ts of You all'. She hopes her family will visit the Hamiltons in mid-October but worries that they may be prevented, as 'litle [sic] certainty falls to the Lott of us Millitary [sic] People'.
Dated at Boston [Lincolnshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 577 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 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Ana Olveira Mariño, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)
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