Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/19/31

Notes from Mary Anne Napier and Ann Litchfield[?] to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]
 ------------------------------ indeed that my
pleasing her will depend, totally on my Health
& spirits. which you know I cannot command
nor can at present bragg of, as to being in
their suite I shall leave it to the Chapter
of Accidents., nor lay out for it at all.[2]
      Mrs Napier is indeed a very sensible
woman I thank you for her Character which
however I had had from a Lady who knew
her from her Youth. She seems much diʃsappointed
at not meeting you here. Coll- Napier (but dont tell
Him) I love & whenever I have spirits flirt with.

[3]
      Yours my Dear Miʃs Hamilton gave us the greatest
Pleasure in one respect (that of knowing you had
setled evry thing to yr mind:) but regreate infinatly
you have so good a reason for not comeing here
the more so; as it wont be in my power to come
to Northampton as I must return by the shortest
road to Edr: whenever Mr Napier is able
to leave this place he will see you at Northampton
in paʃsing heartily do I wish you could have come
here or that you lived so near the road that I


could have had it in my power to have made you
a Visitt be asured nothing could have given me
greater Pleasure. Yours of the 1st of June was sent
me from Edr: where yr young friends are all well
Mr Napier would have wrote you a poscript instead
of me to testiffie our Regreate at yr not comeing here
but his fingers are so much crampt by drinking the
Watters he is not able to hold the Pen -- I cannot
boast much yet. of Miʃs Litchfields recovery e[ith]er of
Health or Spiritts: but as the Dr has just given her
a new System -- I hope she'll still return to yr Wish
Mr Napier seems to get better daily we heartily
join in best compts & good wishes to you & Mrs Hamilton
excuse this Scrawle there are two Cards tables talking
by me so for fear of writing Spadile Manille & Basto[4]
I shall conclude by asureing you that I ever am
my Dear Miʃs Hamilton's most Affect: &c &c &c
                                                         M A N[apier]
 ------------------------------ [5]

[6]

Hamilton

Northampton
[7]
[8]

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


Notes


 1. The author of this fragment is almost certainly Ann Litchfield. Mrs Napier had indicated in HAM/1/19/16 that ‘Miss Litchfield’ was to write with news of Buxton. Circumstantial evidence for Litchfield's authorship is Col. Napier's frequent references to ‘the Kitten’ in letters written after the Buxton encounter, where, as seen below, her manner towards him had sometimes been flirtatious. This personage is evidently a Northampton friend of Hamilton's in delicate health, which fits well with Ann Litchfield. Furthermore, two of those references occur in close proximity to mentions of Mrs Litchfield (HAM/1/19/21), presumably her mother, and Col. Litchfield (HAM/1/19/48), probably her uncle: ‘The Kitten nor her Uncle has not as yet made their appearance’ (HAM/1/19/46). As for the hand, it is compatible with Litchfield's HAM/1/9/60 (written some ten years later), though not demonstrably identical; it is less cursive than her HAM/1/9/84, and quite different from the copperplate of HAM/1/9/53. Finally, the notes can be dated with reasonable plausibility to Mrs Napier's only known visit to Buxton. She was there by 14 June 1782 (HAM/1/19/16) and was back in Edinburgh by 2 August (HAM/1/19/17/1).
 2. This is probably lay out for ‘take measures to win or get’ (OED s.v. lay v. 1 Phrasal verbs lay out 6. Accessed 22-06-2021). As to suite, it is probably used here in the sense ‘retinue’ (OED s.v. suite 1).
 3. The following sheet is in the hand of Mrs Napier.
 4. These are terms for trump cards in the fashionable eighteenth-century card game ‘Ombre’, which takes many of its terms from Spanish, Spadille being the ace of spades, Manille black 2 or red 7, and Basto the ace of clubs.
 5. At least one line of writing is missing due to the page being cut off. Presumably it concerned a postscript.
 6. The address appears to be written in the hand of the unknown writer of the first page.
 7. A stamp reading ‘BUXTON’.
 8. Remains of a seal, in red wax, in the bottom-left corner of the page.

Normalised Text


 ------------------------------ indeed that my
pleasing her will depend, totally on my Health
& spirits. which you know I cannot command
nor can at present brag of, as to being in
their suite I shall leave it to the Chapter
of Accidents., nor lay out for it at all.
      Mrs Napier is indeed a very sensible
woman I thank you for her Character which
however I had had from a Lady who knew
her from her Youth. She seems much disappointed
at not meeting you here. Colonel Napier (but don't tell
Him) I love & whenever I have spirits flirt with.


      Yours my Dear Miss Hamilton gave us the greatest
Pleasure in one respect (that of knowing you had
settled every thing to your mind:) but regret infinitely
you have so good a reason for not coming here
the more so; as it won't be in my power to come
to Northampton as I must return by the shortest
road to Edinburgh whenever Mr Napier is able
to leave this place he will see you at Northampton
in passing heartily do I wish you could have come
here or that you lived so near the road that I


could have had it in my power to have made you
a Visit be assured nothing could have given me
greater Pleasure. Yours of the 1st of June was sent
me from Edinburgh where your young friends are all well
Mr Napier would have written you a postscript instead
of me to testify our Regret at your not coming here
but his fingers are so much cramped by drinking the
Waters he is not able to hold the Pen -- I cannot
boast much yet. of Miss Litchfields recovery either of
Health or Spirits: but as the Doctor has just given her
a new System -- I hope she'll still return to your Wish
Mr Napier seems to get better daily we heartily
join in best compliments & good wishes to you & Mrs Hamilton
excuse this Scrawl there are two Cards tables talking
by me so for fear of writing Spadille Manille & Basto
I shall conclude by assuring you that I ever am
my Dear Miss Hamilton's most Affectionate &c &c &c
                                                         Mary Anne Napier
 ------------------------------ 



Hamilton

Northampton

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 1. The author of this fragment is almost certainly Ann Litchfield. Mrs Napier had indicated in HAM/1/19/16 that ‘Miss Litchfield’ was to write with news of Buxton. Circumstantial evidence for Litchfield's authorship is Col. Napier's frequent references to ‘the Kitten’ in letters written after the Buxton encounter, where, as seen below, her manner towards him had sometimes been flirtatious. This personage is evidently a Northampton friend of Hamilton's in delicate health, which fits well with Ann Litchfield. Furthermore, two of those references occur in close proximity to mentions of Mrs Litchfield (HAM/1/19/21), presumably her mother, and Col. Litchfield (HAM/1/19/48), probably her uncle: ‘The Kitten nor her Uncle has not as yet made their appearance’ (HAM/1/19/46). As for the hand, it is compatible with Litchfield's HAM/1/9/60 (written some ten years later), though not demonstrably identical; it is less cursive than her HAM/1/9/84, and quite different from the copperplate of HAM/1/9/53. Finally, the notes can be dated with reasonable plausibility to Mrs Napier's only known visit to Buxton. She was there by 14 June 1782 (HAM/1/19/16) and was back in Edinburgh by 2 August (HAM/1/19/17/1).
 2. This is probably lay out for ‘take measures to win or get’ (OED s.v. lay v. 1 Phrasal verbs lay out 6. Accessed 22-06-2021). As to suite, it is probably used here in the sense ‘retinue’ (OED s.v. suite 1).
 3. The following sheet is in the hand of Mrs Napier.
 4. These are terms for trump cards in the fashionable eighteenth-century card game ‘Ombre’, which takes many of its terms from Spanish, Spadille being the ace of spades, Manille black 2 or red 7, and Basto the ace of clubs.
 5. At least one line of writing is missing due to the page being cut off. Presumably it concerned a postscript.
 6. The address appears to be written in the hand of the unknown writer of the first page.
 7. A stamp reading ‘BUXTON’.
 8. Remains of a seal, in red wax, in the bottom-left corner of the page.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Notes from Mary Anne Napier and Ann Litchfield[?] to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/31

Correspondence Details

Sender: Lady Mary Anne Napier (née Cathcart) and Ann Litchfield

Place sent: Buxton (certainty: high)

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton

Date sent: between ?13 June and August 1772
notBefore 13 June 1772 (precision: low)
notAfter August 1772 (precision: low)

Letter Description

Summary: Notes from Mary Anne Napier [later Lady Napier] and Ann Litchfield [unnamed, but identification near-certain] to Mary Hamilton, sent from Buxton. The fragmentary note by Litchfield concerns her relationship with the Napiers at Buxton and whether she will please Mrs Napier. She confides that 'Col[one]l Napier (but dont tell Him) I love & whenever I have spirits flirt with'. Mrs Napier writes that she is unable to visit Northampton and wishes that Hamilton had come to Buxton. She reports that her husband has been drinking the waters and seems to be getting better every day, apart from cramp in his fingers.
   

Length: 2 sheets, 373 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 21 August 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: 2 November 2021

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