Single Letter

HAM/1/20/61

Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      An Elegy after the manner of Sternhold & Hopkins[1]



Maria writes -- “The Lizard's dead;”
An Elegy demands.
In vain I beat my empty head,
In vain I ink my hands.
The Muses when invoked reply
“Your Pen You may resign,
“Our aid to Thee we'll e'er deny
“The Sword is only thine.”
In strict Obedience to their Will
I'll paʃs my future Days,
And thirst to gain the Laurel still
But pine not for the Bays.[2]

                                                         Tewin Water 2 July
                                                         1782.

      This is the third sheet of
Paper sacrificed to the Manes[3] of my
Dear Sister
s Lizard. I received your
letter in one of those many idle Hours
which You say I am poʃseʃsed of. I
instantly scribbled down the above
Rhymes, and begun a Letter to You --
was interrupted, the Letter was thrown



aside -- begun again -- and a
second time thrown aside. Not for
want of Affection, but from absolute
downright Lazineʃs. This confeʃsion
you must at least allow to be honest.
The more busineʃs a person has to
attend to, the more time they find
for doing it. But a Man who has
nothing to do, loses an hour in the
morning and is employed the rest of
the Day looking for it. You may abuse
me if you please, but this has literally
been the case with me.
      The K. frenzy is now pretty
well over -- The pretty Face & hand
pleased for a Day -- was toasted for
a Week and now gives way to the
remembrance of one, who might have
made me happy
.
      I this morning received
a letter from Lord Cathcart informing
me of the Birth of his Son. I really re=
=joice
very much upon this Occasion,
He does not mention the Graham's; neither



have they wrote to the Old Lady. I do
not think she is exactly pleased with
this. She begs to return you her best
thanks for the Medallion in Paper. It
was exhibited to every Visitor 'till
one more favoured than the next
was permitted to take it to copy, since
which it has never been heard of. It
grieves me to say that she has not
been well lately. The influenza has
hurt her considerably. She complains
of swellings in her Face and a pain
in her Ear -- eats little -- sleeps ill
and her Legs swell. This is between
ourselves. Ly. C. would never forgive
me if she knew I had told you of
her being indisposed. I hope however,
the warm weather which we ought now
to expect (for we have not had above
five Summer Days this Season) will
be of service to Her. Adieu. Beleive
me ever Your very Affectionate
                             Friend & Brother
                                                         N——

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. For the effect of Hamilton's riposte to this verse, see HAM/1/20/82 p.2).
 2. ‘Usually in plural. Leaves or sprigs of this tree, esp. as woven into a wreath or garland to reward a conqueror or poet; hence figurative the fame and repute attained by these’ (OED s.v. bay n.1 3. Accessed 17-02-2022).
 3. ‘With plural agreement. The deified souls of dead ancestors [...]; (also, sometimes with singular agreement) the spirit or shade of a dead person, considered as an object of homage or reverence or as demanding to be propitiated’ (OED s.v. manes n. 1. Accessed 22-09-2021).

Normalised Text


     



Maria writes -- “The Lizard's dead;”
An Elegy demands.
In vain I beat my empty head,
In vain I ink my hands.
The Muses when invoked reply
“Your Pen You may resign,
“Our aid to Thee we'll e'er deny
“The Sword is only thine.”
In strict Obedience to their Will
I'll pass my future Days,
And thirst to gain the Laurel still
But pine not for the Bays.

                                                         Tewin Water 2 July
                                                         1782.

      This is the third sheet of
Paper sacrificed to the Manes of my
Dear Sisters Lizard. I received your
letter in one of those many idle Hours
which You say I am possessed of. I
instantly scribbled down the above
Rhymes, and began a Letter to You --
was interrupted, the Letter was thrown



aside -- begun again -- and a
second time thrown aside. Not for
want of Affection, but from absolute
downright Laziness. This confession
you must at least allow to be honest.
The more business a person has to
attend to, the more time they find
for doing it. But a Man who has
nothing to do, loses an hour in the
morning and is employed the rest of
the Day looking for it. You may abuse
me if you please, but this has literally
been the case with me.
      The K. frenzy is now pretty
well over -- The pretty Face & hand
pleased for a Day -- was toasted for
a Week and now gives way to the
remembrance of one, who might have
made me happy.
      I this morning received
a letter from Lord Cathcart informing
me of the Birth of his Son. I really rejoice
very much upon this Occasion,
He does not mention the Graham's; neither



have they written to the Old Lady. I do
not think she is exactly pleased with
this. She begs to return you her best
thanks for the Medallion in Paper. It
was exhibited to every Visitor till
one more favoured than the next
was permitted to take it to copy, since
which it has never been heard of. It
grieves me to say that she has not
been well lately. The influenza has
hurt her considerably. She complains
of swellings in her Face and a pain
in her Ear -- eats little -- sleeps ill
and her Legs swell. This is between
ourselves. Lady Cathcart would never forgive
me if she knew I had told you of
her being indisposed. I hope however,
the warm weather which we ought now
to expect (for we have not had above
five Summer Days this Season) will
be of service to Her. Adieu. Believe
me ever Your very Affectionate
                             Friend & Brother
                                                         Napier

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 1. For the effect of Hamilton's riposte to this verse, see HAM/1/20/82 p.2).
 2. ‘Usually in plural. Leaves or sprigs of this tree, esp. as woven into a wreath or garland to reward a conqueror or poet; hence figurative the fame and repute attained by these’ (OED s.v. bay n.1 3. Accessed 17-02-2022).
 3. ‘With plural agreement. The deified souls of dead ancestors [...]; (also, sometimes with singular agreement) the spirit or shade of a dead person, considered as an object of homage or reverence or as demanding to be propitiated’ (OED s.v. manes n. 1. Accessed 22-09-2021).

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/1/20/61

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Welwyn

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 2 July 1782

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to family news specifically the poor health of Lady Cathcart. Napier begins his letter with a ‘Eulogy after the manner of Sternhold & Hopkins’ which he composed immediately after reading a letter sent to him by Hamilton.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 439 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 22 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

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