Single Letter

HAM/1/19/19

Letter from William Napier (later 7th Lord Napier) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      3d-

Canterbury Sept. 5th 1772

      Well said My Dear Young Moralizing Philo=
=sopher
, its certainly a very hard knowledge
to know oneself and as you say, we ought
most certainly to dedicate all our time
in pursuit of that knowledge, Yet alas
even tho we do, its seldom, or indeed
ever acquired. Vanity not only hides
our faults from us, but often makes
us believe we perfectly know ourselves,
which Belief runs us into more folly's
then any thing I know off -- However if
I know the least of myself I think I
may venture to aʃsure My dearest
Miʃs Hamilton how very much obliged
I am to her for the Purse which shall
be my constant companion till wore
out, & when that happens, I make no
doubt my impudence may deʃire
another, as least I think its what you
may expect from your Goodneʃs to



me, the old proverb ʃays give ʃome People
an inch they'll take an Ell -- tho I am
not very well pleased that you deʃire me
always to wear it in my Pocket that it
may not ʃuffer me to forget you.
Is that a kind saying from My dear Daughter?
I'll refer that to your self and I expect
that you will anʃwer my question in your
next -- Your Minds Eye is likeways
out for your letter was neither twirled
round & casted from me with the Pish &c
&c &c But received & read with the Greateʃt
pleasure imaginable with a, what
a good Girl this is to be so indulging
as write so often to me, but I could only
wish she would make her favors still
greater, that is to ʃay her letters longer.
I am happy you like Mrs- Carters Poems
it flatters my vanity not a little to find
my opinion is supported by one I have
so great a respect for her Judgement



but I'll say no more as you'll call it
flattery which is a Crime I never was
accuʃed off before, & yet three parts of
my last letter was not worth the answer
ing
because made up of nothing else
so your Ladyship is pleased to ʃay, I
wish it was in my power to abuse you
for your foibles, did I know of any you
had be aʃsured you should hear of them
in every letter I wrote you. were we
to live much longer than the old Man in the
Bible together, & correspond the whole time,
you See I am very angry and if I did
not expect an excuse in Your other
sheet that you promise for what
you ʃaid, I would punish you by writing
another sheet but to shew you upon
pardon being ask'd, it likeways can be
granted I beg my best respects to Mrs Hamilton
& My dearest Mary May believe me to be
her most unalterable friend WmNapier

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Normalised Text


     

Canterbury September 5th 1772

      Well said My Dear Young Moralizing Philosopher
, it's certainly a very hard knowledge
to know oneself and as you say, we ought
most certainly to dedicate all our time
in pursuit of that knowledge, Yet alas
even though we do, it's seldom, or indeed
ever acquired. Vanity not only hides
our faults from us, but often makes
us believe we perfectly know ourselves,
which Belief runs us into more folly's
than any thing I know of -- However if
I know the least of myself I think I
may venture to assure My dearest
Miss Hamilton how very much obliged
I am to her for the Purse which shall
be my constant companion till wore
out, & when that happens, I make no
doubt my impudence may desire
another, as least I think it's what you
may expect from your Goodness to



me, the old proverb says give some People
an inch they'll take an Ell -- though I am
not very well pleased that you desire me
always to wear it in my Pocket that it
may not suffer me to forget you.
Is that a kind saying from My dear Daughter?
I'll refer that to your self and I expect
that you will answer my question in your
next -- Your Minds Eye is likeways
out for your letter was neither twirled
round & casted from me with the Pish &c
&c &c But received & read with the Greatest
pleasure imaginable with a, what
a good Girl this is to be so indulging
as write so often to me, but I could only
wish she would make her favours still
greater, that is to say her letters longer.
I am happy you like Mrs- Carters Poems
it flatters my vanity not a little to find
my opinion is supported by one I have
so great a respect for her Judgement



but I'll say no more as you'll call it
flattery which is a Crime I never was
accused of before, & yet three parts of
my last letter was not worth the answering
because made up of nothing else
so your Ladyship is pleased to say, I
wish it was in my power to abuse you
for your foibles, did I know of any you
had be assured you should hear of them
in every letter I wrote you. were we
to live much longer than the old Man in the
Bible together, & correspond the whole time,
you See I am very angry and if I did
not expect an excuse in Your other
sheet that you promise for what
you said, I would punish you by writing
another sheet but to show you upon
pardon being asked, it likeways can be
granted I beg my best respects to Mrs Hamilton
& My dearest Mary May believe me to be
her most unalterable friend William Napier

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Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from William Napier (later 7th Lord Napier) to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/19

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Canterbury

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: low)

Date sent: 5 September 1772

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier [later 7th Lord Napier] to Mary Hamilton. He is happy that Hamilton liked Mrs Carter's Poems, which he had sent her (HAM/1/19/18), and that it flatters his vanity that she agrees with his opinions, as he has a great respect for her judgements. He will say no more on the subject in case she should think it flattery, 'a Crime I never was accused off[sic] before'.
    Dated at Canterbury.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 481 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: Raafia Shazad, 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

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