HAM/1/20/40
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Edinburgh 13th: Novr- 1780.
On Monday next I propose
leaving this agreable City, but
have not the smallest intention
of paying my respects to You in
person 'till the next Birthday,[1]
so that you must at last suspend
your joy at the idea of seeing me
'till that distant period. You pretend
to be very much occupied with attend=
=ance on the P. R. I can aʃsure you
I am no leʃs so, in preparing for my
departure; and as I think it not impro=
=bable that I may visit the West
Indies before my return to Scotland,
I have given up my house and have
been and still am occupiedvery busy arrang=
=ing my Affairs. Upon my arrival at
Welwyn I shall write to you, but 'till
I do so shall not expect to hear from
you. This permiʃsion to be idle, will
I suspect be perfectly agreable to your
lazyneʃs.
Are the people south of
Tweed distracted? What did Ld. Beaulieu ------
mean by his behaviour to the D of Monta=
=gu. He ought to be forbid to appear in
the Royal presence -- Prince Fre=
=derick's military promotion & intended
journey pleases me. I hope both he
& the P. of W. will have sensible men
about them. Young ones will ruin
them both. Ld. & Lady Cathcart arrived here
a fortnight ago. They are at Shaw Park,
but I expect them in Edinr- tomorrow
in their way to London. Lady C. is by no
means a Beauty, but has something very
pleasing in her Countenance. They both
seem happy & contendted. The D. of A. proposes
to loiter away his time in the Country
till after Christmaʃs. I like your cha=
=racter of Mr- Farhill as much as I
formerly liked him, and really long
to meet with him. I had almost forgot
to tell you that J. Hope is at his fathers,
he enquired much about you & threatens to
write to you. He goes to England in a
few days. Adieu. Beleive me ever
yours very sincerely & affectionately
N——[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. It is probable that Napier is referring to the King's birthday (4 June), the birthday, without specification, being used for ‘the anniversary of the day the British sovereign was born, marked by public celebration and a formal dinner and ball at court’ (OED s.v. birthday 1b. Accessed 17-09-2021).
2. The rest of the sheet has been cut away.
Normalised Text
Edinburgh 13th: November 1780.
On Monday next I propose
leaving this agreeable City, but
have not the smallest intention
of paying my respects to You in
person till the next Birthday,
so that you must at last suspend
your joy at the idea of seeing me
till that distant period. You pretend
to be very much occupied with attendance
on the Princess Royal I can assure you
I am no less so, in preparing for my
departure; and as I think it not improbable
that I may visit the West
Indies before my return to Scotland,
I have given up my house and have
been and still am very busy arranging
my Affairs. Upon my arrival at
Welwyn I shall write to you, but till
I do so shall not expect to hear from
you. This permission to be idle, will
I suspect be perfectly agreeable to your
laziness.
Are the people south of
Tweed distracted? What did Lord Beaulieu ------
mean by his behaviour to the Duke of Montagu
. He ought to be forbidden to appear in
the Royal presence -- Prince Frederick
's military promotion & intended
journey pleases me. I hope both he
& the Prince of Wales will have sensible men
about them. Young ones will ruin
them both. Lord & Lady Cathcart arrived here
a fortnight ago. They are at Shaw Park,
but I expect them in Edinburgh tomorrow
in their way to London. Lady Cathcart is by no
means a Beauty, but has something very
pleasing in her Countenance. They both
seem happy & contented. The Duke of Atholl proposes
to loiter away his time in the Country
till after Christmas. I like your character
of Mr- Farhill as much as I
formerly liked him, and really long
to meet with him. I had almost forgotten
to tell you that John Hope is at his fathers,
he enquired much about you & threatens to
write to you. He goes to England in a
few days. Adieu. Believe me ever
yours very sincerely & affectionately
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/1/20/40
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 13 November 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
friends and acquaintances. Napier writes that he leaves Edinburgh soon but
that Hamilton 'should suspend [...] [her] joy' as he does not intend to wait
on her until her next birthday. He writes of Prince Frederick's military
promotion and of his hopes that he and the Prince of Wales have 'sensible
men about them' adding that young men 'will ruin them both'. Napier informs
Hamilton that John Hope [see HAM/1/6/8] is now at his father's and that he
asked very much about her and has 'threatened' to write to her.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 339 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 17 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