Single Letter

HAM/1/19/42

Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]
      23d-                                                   taking exercise
                    Blackheath May 11th- 1773           X
Yours My dearest Mary came ʃafe to hand, but
how very unreaʃonable are you to deʃire long
letter from me at this time when I am
absolutely hurried out of my ʃences with field
days & other things which dont leave me
time to do any thing but prepair for our
reviews which are to be on the 18th & 22d instant
the first by Major General Pitt, the last by
His Majesty & I hope to get away on ye 24th on
which day or the next I hope to be in the
Square at Northampton but I shall let you
know my motions & the exact day that I'll
be with you -- It gives me great pleaʃure
that Cloe[2] is already so great a favorite I
dont know the Lady that ʃhe belonged too
otherwise I should tell her all abt. her, but
since you are fond of her thats quite
sufficient for my purpose & she is so good
natured I make no doubt but she will
take care to make friends among the



Servants which will likeways show her good
sense in making them her friends as a dog not
liked by them always paʃses but a miserable
life tho the Miʃstriʃs be fond of it if they
dislike it. You must be contented with a
few lines at present & indeed till we meet
as this most certainly will be the longest you
will get till I see you, but you shall get lon=
ger
ones from Buxton if you & Mrs- Hamilton
do not go there, which I am not quite con=
vinced
off as yet as I still think it would
do her good & likewise yourself as you
would not live so very sedentary a Life there
as you do at Northampton which must hurt
your health in time tho at present not vi=
:sible
, this I know by experience as I
owe all my illneʃs's to that way of Life ʃome
Years ago thank God I take rather more
exercise now tho I am ʃenʃible not
enough yet however I hope I'll mend
every day as I verrily believe its the only



way to preʃerve heath, exercise of the mind is
I'll allow very beneficial but the body must
likeways be exercised otherwise that whimsical
frame of ours would ʃoon be out of order &
Doctors are the dearest Petts I know off made
use off by any body in this Island for which
reason I hope not to be so very intimate
with them as I have been for ʃome years
past Adieu My dearest Ward believe me
yours most Affctly- --           Napier
remember me in the best Manner poʃsible
to Mrs- Hamilton

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Notes


 1. A short edited extract from the first long sentence appears in Anson & Anson (1925: 23).
 2. The dog that Napier got for Mary (see HAM/1/19/41).

Normalised Text


                     
               Blackheath May 11th- 1773           
Yours My dearest Mary came safe to hand, but
how very unreasonable are you to desire long
letter from me at this time when I am
absolutely hurried out of my senses with field
days & other things which don't leave me
time to do any thing but prepare for our
reviews which are to be on the 18th & 22d instant
the first by Major General Pitt, the last by
His Majesty & I hope to get away on the 24th on
which day or the next I hope to be in the
Square at Northampton but I shall let you
know my motions & the exact day that I'll
be with you -- It gives me great pleasure
that Cloe is already so great a favourite I
don't know the Lady that she belonged to
otherwise I should tell her all about her, but
since you are fond of her that's quite
sufficient for my purpose & she is so good
natured I make no doubt but she will
take care to make friends among the



Servants which will likeways show her good
sense in making them her friends as a dog not
liked by them always passes but a miserable
life though the Mistress be fond of it if they
dislike it. You must be contented with a
few lines at present & indeed till we meet
as this most certainly will be the longest you
will get till I see you, but you shall get longer
ones from Buxton if you & Mrs- Hamilton
do not go there, which I am not quite convinced
of as yet as I still think it would
do her good & likewise yourself as you
would not live so very sedentary a Life there
as you do at Northampton which must hurt
your health in time though at present not visible
, this I know by experience as I
owe all my illness's to that way of Life some
Years ago thank God I take rather more
exercise now though I am sensible not
enough yet however I hope I'll mend
every day as I verily believe it's the only



way to preserve health, exercise of the mind is
I'll allow very beneficial but the body must
likeways be exercised otherwise that whimsical
frame of ours would soon be out of order &
Doctors are the dearest Pets I know of made
use of by any body in this Island for which
reason I hope not to be so very intimate
with them as I have been for some years
past Adieu My dearest Ward believe me
yours most Affectionately --           Napier
remember me in the best Manner possible
to Mrs- Hamilton

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 1. A short edited extract from the first long sentence appears in Anson & Anson (1925: 23).
 2. The dog that Napier got for Mary (see HAM/1/19/41).

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/42

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Blackheath

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 11 May 1773

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He writes that he has little time for anything but preparing for his regimental reviews, which are to be on the 18th and 22nd. The first one is to be by General Pitt and the second one by the King. He hopes to leave Blackheath by the 24th. Napier writes that he is glad that Hamilton has made friends with the dog he had sent her, and notes that it will be a good thing for the dog if it also makes friends with the servants.
    Dated at Blackheath.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 453 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: Kayleigh Ryan, 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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