HAM/1/20/21
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
My poor little Jane continues
still in the most melancholy si=
=tuation, so much so as to make us
almost wish for her diʃsolution.
I had hopes of hearing
from you before this, but as
you did not think proper to
gratify my wish & as I had procured
some franks from Genl- Skene
I determined to be Gracious and
to favor you with a Mark of my
Condescencion -- In fact, it is
raining as hard as it can pour,
& I am left by myself (Harriot
remaining constantly with Jane
at Gayfield) & very much
inclined to be idle, I e'en begun
to dirty my paper to fill up the
time 'till Supper.
I have been meditating
upon the State of the Nation for
some hours past and am perfectly
satisfied that matters will not
mend till his M—y fixes upon
Men of merit tel que moi, & employs
them, not suffering them to loiter
in idleneʃs & disregard -- I am
out of all patience & if I could
afford it, would resign my Com=
=miʃsion to have the satisfaction
of thrashing Ld. Am—st, who while
he aʃsures me in writing, of the
happineʃs he should feel from
having an opportunity of serving
me, takes not the least Notice
of me when there is no leʃs than
Thirteen new Regts- to be raised
in England -- nay further, one of the
Youngest Ensigns in the same Regt-
with me is to have a Lieutenancy
for three days merely to entitle
him to a Captain Lieuty- in one of
the new Corps. I wish I was with
You to receive a little comfort &
consolation. It is a happy thing
to be independant, but as it is
not my Lot to be so, I must
e'er jog on the best way I can.
Pray how docan you conceive
it poʃsible for me to paʃs two
Years of probation, particularly
as the liberty of Speech is not
granted me. You miʃses are
strange creatures & fully more
unreasonable than we Masters.
In your last letter forsooth, you
approve of my choice but blame
my impatience -- I fancy you
have been reading Pembrokes
Arcadia[1] lately & dream of nothing
but the wonderful atcheivements
& dreadful exploits performed by
the Heroe's to entitle them to
the regard of a Coy Damsel who
rides upon a white palfrey.
However I intend to behave as
well as I can. Pray what do you
think of Cathcarts marriage? Beauty
the Lady certainly has, not ------ on both
sides there seems to be a prodigious
scarcity of the one thing needfull.
That Money is a confounded thing,
& still there is no doing without
it. I wish him happy and he
may be so if he will but begin
to think, a faculty he had made
little use of for some time
past. Do you ever see his brother
Charles? what is he about? he never
writes to me. There is no accounting
for many of the actions in my
life, nor can I discover butby what
means I contrived to make a
Confidante of your Ladyship. Some
people would be apt to say like
draws to like, but that would be
paying you too high a Compliment.
Adieu for Supper is ready.
Yours Sincerely
N—
After Supper.
I have just taken the trouble to
read over the pretty Scrawl contained
upon this page & another full Sheet.
If you have patience to read it,
'twill be a proof of your perseverance
at least; but you must excuse my
flights -- A man must some
times give vent to his folly, and
upon those occasions a friend
(if he has one) is doomed to bear with
his impertinence. I now find
myself inclined to be serious, and
could write a Sheet or two more,
but having sufficiently exercised
your patience already, I shall
conclude by aʃsuring You that
I am & ever shall be Sincerely
Your Affectionate friend
Napier.
I sent Mrs- Hunter the Lockit
long ago & am astonished at her
having neglected to thank you for
it --
Miʃs Hamilton
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 29th: July 1779
My poor little Jane continues
still in the most melancholy situation
, so much so as to make us
almost wish for her dissolution.
I had hopes of hearing
from you before this, but as
you did not think proper to
gratify my wish & as I had procured
some franks from General Skene
I determined to be Gracious and
to favour you with a Mark of my
Condescension -- In fact, it is
raining as hard as it can pour,
& I am left by myself (Harriot
remaining constantly with Jane
at Gayfield) & very much
inclined to be idle, I even began
to dirty my paper to fill up the
time 'till Supper.
I have been meditating
upon the State of the Nation for
some hours past and am perfectly
satisfied that matters will not
mend till his Majesty fixes upon
Men of merit tel que moi, & employ
them, not suffering them to loiter
in idleness & disregard -- I am
out of all patience & if I could
afford it, would resign my Commission
to have the satisfaction
of thrashing Lord Amherst, who while
he assures me in writing, of the
happiness he should feel from
having an opportunity of serving
me, takes not the least Notice
of me when there is no less than
Thirteen new Regiments to be raised
in England -- nay further, one of the
Youngest Ensigns in the same Regiment
with me is to have a Lieutenancy
for three days merely to entitle
him to a Captain Lieutenancy in one of
the new Corps. I wish I was with
You to receive a little comfort &
consolation. It is a happy thing
to be independent, but as it is
not my Lot to be so, I must
ever jog on the best way I can.
Pray how can you conceive
it possible for me to pass two
Years of probation, particularly
as the liberty of Speech is not
granted me. You misses are
strange creatures & fully more
unreasonable than we Masters.
In your last letter forsooth, you
approve of my choice but blame
my impatience -- I fancy you
have been reading Pembrokes
Arcadia lately & dream of nothing
but the wonderful achievements
& dreadful exploits performed by
the Heroes to entitle them to
the regard of a Coy Damsel who
rides upon a white palfrey.
However I intend to behave as
well as I can. Pray what do you
think of Cathcarts marriage? Beauty
the Lady certainly has, not on both
sides there seems to be a prodigious
scarcity of the one thing needful.
That Money is a confounded thing,
& still there is no doing without
it. I wish him happy and he
may be so if he will but begin
to think, a faculty he had made
little use of for some time
past. Do you ever see his brother
Charles? what is he about? he never
writes to me. There is no accounting
for many of the actions in my
life, nor can I discover by what
means I contrived to make a
Confidante of your Ladyship. Some
people would be apt to say like
draws to like, but that would be
paying you too high a Compliment.
Adieu for Supper is ready.
Yours Sincerely
Napier
After Supper.
I have just taken the trouble to
read over the pretty Scrawl contained
upon this page & another full Sheet.
If you have patience to read it,
it will be a proof of your perseverance
at least; but you must excuse my
flights -- A man must some
times give vent to his folly, and
upon those occasions a friend
(if he has one) is doomed to bear with
his impertinence. I now find
myself inclined to be serious, and
could write a Sheet or two more,
but having sufficiently exercised
your patience already, I shall
conclude by assuring You that
I am & ever shall be Sincerely
Your Affectionate friend
Napier.
I sent Mrs- Hunter the Locket
long ago & am astonished at her
having neglected to thank you for
it --
Miss Hamilton
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/1/20/21
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 29 July 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He writes on
the ‘state of the nation’ and concludes that nothing will improve until the
King employs men of merit and not allow them to be idle. Napier notes that
he is ‘out of all patience’ and that if he could afford to he would resign
from his ‘commission to have the satisfaction of thrashing L[or]d Amherst’
who assures him that he wishes to serve him but takes no notice of him when
there are thirteen regiments that are to be raised. Even the youngest ensign
in his own regiment ‘is to have a Lieutenancy for three days merely to
entitle him to a Captain Lieut[anc]y in one of the new Corps’.
The letter continues on news of family and friends.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 2 sheets, 684 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 13 January 2022)
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: 16 March 2022