HAM/1/20/38
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Edinburgh 30th. Septr-
1780.
I should very readily have
obeyed your Orders with regard to your
books had your letter reached me
before my departure from Welwyn.
They are however safely locked up at
Tewin Water & shall be sent to my
Dear Sister as soon as I return to
Quarters, which will be about the
first of December. Mr- Farhill's
letter pleased me very much & I
expect You will summons him to
aʃsist me in devouring your hot
Rolls when I next pay my respects
to You. I cannot help admiring your
presumption in telling him that
You stood very high in my Esteem. Indeed
Miʃs I never recollect to have told you so.
Upon my arrival here I
found my Sisters in perfect health
Mrs- Hunter preparing Caps & Frocks
for a Young Gentleman or Young Lady
which is to make its appearance in
a few Months --
I have seen Miʃs L——. The
meeting was unexpected & for the tenth
part of a Minute I felt more ridiculo[us]
than ever I had done in my Life. Wheth[er]
she saw it or not I cannot tell, howev[er]
I was received with an appearance
of regard which I confeʃs pleased me
greatly. She is a most amiable Girl.
I wish you knew her, tho' there is no
probability of my being the person
to introduce you to her, if I ever am
it will be one of the happiest day[s]
in my Life. Adieu. My affectionate
Wishes ever attend You
N——
The D. of Atholl has declared himself a
Candidate at our Election which is to be
the 17th. of next Month -- Ld. Cathcart is talked
of as another, but I have not yet received
any application from his friends. If the
Duke makes a figure in Parliament, no
man need despair --
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 30th. September
1780.
I should very readily have
obeyed your Orders with regard to your
books had your letter reached me
before my departure from Welwyn.
They are however safely locked up at
Tewin Water & shall be sent to my
Dear Sister as soon as I return to
Quarters, which will be about the
first of December. Mr- Farhill's
letter pleased me very much & I
expect You will summons him to
assist me in devouring your hot
Rolls when I next pay my respects
to You. I cannot help admiring your
presumption in telling him that
You stood very high in my Esteem. Indeed
Miss I never recollect to have told you so.
Upon my arrival here I
found my Sisters in perfect health
Mrs- Hunter preparing Caps & Frocks
for a Young Gentleman or Young Lady
which is to make its appearance in
a few Months --
I have seen Miss Leslie. The
meeting was unexpected & for the tenth
part of a Minute I felt more ridiculous
than ever I had done in my Life. Whether
she saw it or not I cannot tell, however
I was received with an appearance
of regard which I confess pleased me
greatly. She is a most amiable Girl.
I wish you knew her, though there is no
probability of my being the person
to introduce you to her, if I ever am
it will be one of the happiest days
in my Life. Adieu. My affectionate
Wishes ever attend You
Napier
The Duke of Atholl has declared himself a
Candidate at our Election which is to be
the 17th. of next Month -- Lord Cathcart is talked
of as another, but I have not yet received
any application from his friends. If the
Duke makes a figure in Parliament, no
man need despair --
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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/1/20/38
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 30 September 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
books belonging to Hamilton. Napier is unable to return
the books that Hamilton has requested as he has left them locked up in Tewin
Water but will send them to her on his return from Quarters in December. He
reports that the Duke of Atholl has declared himself a candidate in the
Election and that Lord Cathcart may also stand. He notes that if the Duke
'makes a figure in Parliament, no man need despair'. Napier is pleased with
the letter he has received from Farhill and expects that Hamilton will
invite him to tea when he next visits. Napier can but admire Hamilton's
'presumption' in telling Farhill that Hamilton was highly esteemed by
Napier, he writes that he cannot remember having every told her so.
Napier writes of unexpectedly meeting 'Miss L' who he finds amiable and
wishes Hamilton knew her though there is no possibility that he will be able
to introduce Hamilton to her. If there was 'it will be one of the happiest
days' of his life.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 303 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 16 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