HAM/1/20/33
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Tewin Water 27th: April
1780
My Dear Sister,
Do not imagine that your
18 Pens have been unemployed, rather
conceive that they are almost wor'n to
the stumps writing to such of my Correspond=
=ents as vouchsafe to answer my Epistles.
Ungrateful Wretch, Naughty Brother &
suchlike Courtly Phrases are hardly
comprehensible to a Tewin Beau. But
to convince you that I am poʃseʃsed of
some good breeding and pay proper attention
to the Commands of the Ladies, I (now (with
the most profound Bow & in obedience to
your positive injunctions) wish you Joy,
and give you full power to say as many
pretty things in my name to Mrs-
Jackson, as in the heighth of your
condescension you may think neceʃsary.
Turn your Eyes to the Top
of the Page & you will discover in pretty
legible Characters the place where I now
reside and where I propose to remain,
and from whence you shall receive
my opinion fairly upon such questions
as you may chuse to ask.
The Dowager returns
you many thanks for your Stormont
information; but I who have more
curiosity desire to know when the 31st.
of April will be forthcoming, that being
a Day not to be found in my Almanack,
and the names of the Persons fixed upon
to represent the K & Q.
I have just been puz=
=zling my brains to discover what weighty
matters I am to be consulted upon and
after mature deliberation have resolved
that the little God Cupid has been
dealing about his Darts in the neigh=
=bourhood of St. James's. But who the
Adonis can be, is far beyond my dull
Genius to discover. Two or 3 personages have
however presented themselves to my
imagination viz. R——t G——v——le & J——k
H——e. Miranda can easily fill up the
Blanks. Had your Sylph been a Widower[1]
perhaps he might have been added to
the number.
Your Books have been
a prodigious consolation to me, & I consider
myself as really obliged to you for them.
Adieu. Value my condescension &
profit by the Example. I shall expect
a packet from you by Saturday Nights
Post, which I shall receive on Sunday
at Breakfast. Beleive me your Affece. Brother
N——
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Tewin Water 27th: April
1780
My Dear Sister,
Do not imagine that your
18 Pens have been unemployed, rather
conceive that they are almost worn to
the stumps writing to such of my Correspondents
as vouchsafe to answer my Epistles.
Ungrateful Wretch, Naughty Brother &
suchlike Courtly Phrases are hardly
comprehensible to a Tewin Beau. But
to convince you that I am possessed of
some good breeding and pay proper attention
to the Commands of the Ladies, I now (with
the most profound Bow & in obedience to
your positive injunctions) wish you Joy,
and give you full power to say as many
pretty things in my name to Mrs-
Jackson, as in the height of your
condescension you may think necessary.
Turn your Eyes to the Top
of the Page & you will discover in pretty
legible Characters the place where I now
reside and where I propose to remain,
and from whence you shall receive
my opinion fairly upon such questions
as you may choose to ask.
The Dowager returns
you many thanks for your Stormont
information; but I who have more
curiosity desire to know when the 31st.
of April will be forthcoming, that being
a Day not to be found in my Almanac,
and the names of the Persons fixed upon
to represent the King & Queen.
I have just been puzzling
my brains to discover what weighty
matters I am to be consulted upon and
after mature deliberation have resolved
that the little God Cupid has been
dealing about his Darts in the neighbourhood
of St. James's. But who the
Adonis can be, is far beyond my dull
Genius to discover. Two or 3 personages have
however presented themselves to my
imagination viz. Robert Greville & Jack
Hope. Miranda can easily fill up the
Blanks. Had your Sylph been a Widower
perhaps he might have been added to
the number.
Your Books have been
a prodigious consolation to me, & I consider
myself as really obliged to you for them.
Adieu. Value my condescension &
profit by the Example. I shall expect
a packet from you by Saturday Nights
Post, which I shall receive on Sunday
at Breakfast. Believe me your Affectionate Brother
Napier
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/1/20/33
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Welwyn
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 27 April 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He
light-heartedly admonishes Hamilton for her complaining about him not
writing and calling him an 'ungrateful wretch, naughty Brother & such
like', noting that such phrases are hardly proper for a 'Tewin Beau'.
[Napier was writing from the Tewin Water estate in Hertfordshire.] As a sign
of his good breeding he will submit to the commands of a lady and proposes
'the most profound Bow & in obedience to' Hamilton's commands he wishes
her joy and gives her permission to say as many 'pretty things' in his name
to Mrs Jackson [see HAM/1/10/2] as she thinks necessary.
The Dowager [Lady Cathcart] thanks Hamilton for her news on the Stormonts
but Napier asks from 'curiosity' when the '31st April will be forthcoming'
as he is unable to find such a day in his almanac. [Hamilton had mistakenly
given that date in a letter.]
Moving on to a new subject Napier mentions that he has heard that 'the
little God Cupid has been dealing about his Darts in the neighbourhood of St
James's. But who the Adonis can be, is far beyond my dull Genius to
discover'. Napier writes the initials of four possibilities. The letter ends
with Napier thanking Hamilton for the books that she had sent him and he
notes that he expects to receive a letter by Saturday evening's post that he
will receive by Sunday breakfast.
Dated at Tewin Water [Hertfordshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 369 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 14 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