HAM/1/20/17
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
The night before last an
immense packet arrived, directed to Miʃs
Napier. My Eldest Sister having taken
unto herself a helpmate & gone to Dumfries,
& Harriot being in the Country, I had the
presumption to break open the Seals, but
how great was my surprise when out
dropt a Lockit, a Book, a Note for Miʃs
Napier & a large paper directed for me?
I rung the Bell & the Servants aʃsured
me they did not know where the
packet came from, ------ as it was brought
by a Porter. I then made bold to open
the paper directed to myself, which
inclosed a most beautiful purse which
I suppose came from You, if not, I
have given you credit for a peice
of work universally admired & wait
with impatience till Mrs- Hunter in course
of Post writes me something Tendant ou
dénouëment. The Writing upon the
different covers, appears to be yours,
tho' I can hardly imagine you would
treat me so cavaleirly, when I consider
that this is the third letter I have
wrote to you without obtaining
an answer. If the purse is of your
fabricating, I return you a million
of thanks for it & shall preserve it
among the small collection of my
Valuables. The book I presume belongs
to Mrs- Hunter & shall send it to her
by the first opportunity; the Lockit I
have retained 'till she informs me
what is to be done with it.
I have given over all
thoughts of seeing you this Summer.
I before told you of my disappointment,
& people above are now almost as
little remembered by me as I seem to
be by them. My military Ideas have
for some time been at rest, and I
find myself happy in being well
received by some few friends whomwho
I esteem, & who profeʃs a regard for me.
This week brings about a Marriage
between two of those, for whom I en=
=tertain the most sincere freindship
Ly. Sophia Hope (a Cousin German of my
fathers tho' younger than myself) has
consented to give her hand & heart next
friday to Lord Binning, oldest Son to
Ld. Hadinton & a near relation of mine.
They are the most amiable pair I
ever knew & even the busy public appear
to be happy at the thoughts of their
future felicity.
Adieu. When you have
leisure, pray let me hear from you.
How does the good Lord Dartrey? Miʃs K. Clarke?
The little Baronet? & our Cousin of Stormont?
I approve of the Letter to the Ducheʃs of D.
and remain sincerely
Your Affect. Friend
N——.
[Miʃs H]amilton[1]
St. James's Palace[2]
London
[3]
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 26 April 1779
The night before last an
immense packet arrived, directed to Miss
Napier. My Eldest Sister having taken
unto herself a helpmate & gone to Dumfries,
& Harriot being in the Country, I had the
presumption to break open the Seals, but
how great was my surprise when out
dropped a Locket, a Book, a Note for Miss
Napier & a large paper directed for me?
I rang the Bell & the Servants assured
me they did not know where the
packet came from, as it was brought
by a Porter. I then made bold to open
the paper directed to myself, which
enclosed a most beautiful purse which
I suppose came from You, if not, I
have given you credit for a piece
of work universally admired & wait
with impatience till Mrs- Hunter in course
of Post writes me something Tendant ou
dénouëment. The Writing upon the
different covers, appears to be yours,
though I can hardly imagine you would
treat me so cavalierly, when I consider
that this is the third letter I have
written to you without obtaining
an answer. If the purse is of your
fabricating, I return you a million
of thanks for it & shall preserve it
among the small collection of my
Valuables. The book I presume belongs
to Mrs- Hunter & shall send it to her
by the first opportunity; the Locket I
have retained till she informs me
what is to be done with it.
I have given over all
thoughts of seeing you this Summer.
I before told you of my disappointment,
& people above are now almost as
little remembered by me as I seem to
be by them. My military Ideas have
for some time been at rest, and I
find myself happy in being well
received by some few friends who
I esteem, & who profess a regard for me.
This week brings about a Marriage
between two of those, for whom I entertain
the most sincere friendship
Lady Sophia Hope (a Cousin German of my
fathers though younger than myself) has
consented to give her hand & heart next
friday to Lord Binning, oldest Son to
Lord Hadinton & a near relation of mine.
They are the most amiable pair I
ever knew & even the busy public appear
to be happy at the thoughts of their
future felicity.
Adieu. When you have
leisure, pray let me hear from you.
How does the good Lord Dartrey? Miss Katerina Clarke?
The little Baronet? & our Cousin of Stormont?
I approve of the Letter to the Duchess of Devonshire
and remain sincerely
Your Affectionate Friend
Napier
Miss Hamilton
St. James's Palace
London
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 Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/17
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 26 April 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, thanking her
for a purse that she had made for him and conveying news of the marriages of
a number of his friends.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 448 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: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 10 September 2021)
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: 3 December 2021