HAM/1/20/82
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Merchiston Hall 3rd July
1783.
I have the satisfaction, my
Dear Sister, to acquaint You that the
24th. of last Month I was put on Half
Pay, by which agreable Circumstance
my Income from £417 pr.An. is reduced to
£285. How I am to manage, I know not, neither
have I fixed on a place of Residence. My
inclination sends me Abroad, but my
finances I fear are too slender to make
me comfortable in a Strange Land.
Now Madam, as to my letters
which you pretend have been contradictory
I have only to observe, That if Miʃses are
Galloping about the Country like Vaga=
=bonds it is no fault of mine if they do
not receive their letters properly. Neither
is there any Act of Parliament by which
A Man is prevented altering his Opinion --
When I wrote You my prudent letter I
had not acknowledged to myself that I
was in Love with a Miʃs without a large
Fortune -- but now that I have made the
discovery I have also learn't that Oat Cake
Potatoes & Milk with a Beef stake for Sunday's
dinner, is quite sufficient to support Nature.
And besides, as the Gout is Hereditary in
my family, nothing can be so proper as
living Abstemiously. As to the Lady, the
happineʃs She must feel from belonging
to me is sufficient to compensate for
any triffling inconveniencies she may
experience. Thus Madam have I brought
myself to reason, and doubt not of your
being perfectly convinced of the propriety
& justice of my Argument. If You are
not, You must impute it entirely to your
own want of Comprehension not to any
defect in my Theory -- I shall most
undoubtedly disobey your Commands about
my Neice, as I would not hold her in
my Arms Ten Minutes for as many hundred
Pounds[1] -- I would certainly have answered
your Verse in Verse, could I have suffered
myself to have been outSternholded.[2] I ever
prided myself on my Genius for that
kind of Versification and was therefore
not a little provoked that You had presumed
to invade my Province, and as I knew nothing
could be more mortifying to a fine Lady (like
You) than a certain kind of contemptu[ous] Silence
I determined to indulge the inveterate Rancour
so natural to me, and accordingly took no
kind of Notice of your Poetry.
Lord Napier presents his very best res=
=pects to Mr. Mrs- & Miʃs F. Hamilton, is Shock=
=ed inexpreʃsibly at having so long neglected
to enquire particularly after their health,
begs they will beleive they have ever oc=
=cupied a large Share of his Recollection
and presumes to add that his constant Prayers
will be for their Health, Wealth and Long
Life[3] --
Pray Miʃs will the above satisfy You?
A Town House & a Country
House!!! I suppose your next habitation
will be the Fleet or Kings Bench. Or
perhaps we shall read a Paragraph in the
News papers as follows “We hear that yesterday
a Lady who formerly occupied a Place of Dis=
=tinction in the Royal Nursery Absconded
from her House in Clarges Street to the
great Discomfiture of a Numerous Body of
Creditors. It is added that She has escaped into
the Wake of a certain Bedfords Northamptonshire
Baronet --
Adieu. But stop a little. It
is now neceʃsary to inform You that I
have for these last three Weeks been
on a Tour of Visits in Stirlingshire. I am
at present at my Uncle Captain Napiers. The
latter end of this Week I go to Lord Binnings
& the end of the Week following remove
myself to Edinburgh for the Races. Adieu
encore. Ever Your Affectionate Friend and
Brother
N——.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. In HAM/1/20/80 he had confessed that through ‘an unaccountably involuntary motion’ he had ‘condescended’ to give his newborn niece a kiss.
2. Hamilton had evidently made a riposte to Napier's ‘Elegy after the manner of Sternhold & Hopkins (see HAM/1/20/61).
3. These last words are written in larger size for emphasis.
Normalised Text
Merchiston Hall 3rd July
1783.
I have the satisfaction, my
Dear Sister, to acquaint You that the
24th. of last Month I was put on Half
Pay, by which agreeable Circumstance
my Income from £417 per Annum is reduced to
£285. How I am to manage, I know not, neither
have I fixed on a place of Residence. My
inclination sends me Abroad, but my
finances I fear are too slender to make
me comfortable in a Strange Land.
Now Madam, as to my letters
which you pretend have been contradictory
I have only to observe, That if Misses are
Galloping about the Country like Vagabonds
it is no fault of mine if they do
not receive their letters properly. Neither
is there any Act of Parliament by which
A Man is prevented altering his Opinion --
When I wrote You my prudent letter I
had not acknowledged to myself that I
was in Love with a Miss without a
Fortune -- but now that I have made the
discovery I have also learnt that Oat Cake
Potatoes & Milk with a Beef steak for Sunday's
dinner, is quite sufficient to support Nature.
And besides, as the Gout is Hereditary in
my family, nothing can be so proper as
living Abstemiously. As to the Lady, the
happiness She must feel from belonging
to me is sufficient to compensate for
any trifling inconveniencies she may
experience. Thus Madam have I brought
myself to reason, and doubt not of your
being perfectly convinced of the propriety
& justice of my Argument. If You are
not, You must impute it entirely to your
own want of Comprehension not to any
defect in my Theory -- I shall most
undoubtedly disobey your Commands about
my Niece, as I would not hold her in
my Arms Ten Minutes for as many hundred
Pounds -- I would certainly have answered
your Verse in Verse, could I have suffered
myself to have been outSternholded. I ever
prided myself on my Genius for that
kind of Versification and was therefore
not a little provoked that You had presumed
to invade my Province, and as I knew nothing
could be more mortifying to a fine Lady (like
You) than a certain kind of contemptuous Silence
I determined to indulge the inveterate Rancour
so natural to me, and accordingly took no
kind of Notice of your Poetry.
Lord Napier presents his very best respects
to Mr. Mrs- & Miss Frederick Hamilton, is Shocked
inexpressibly at having so long neglected
to enquire particularly after their health,
begs they will believe they have ever occupied
a large Share of his Recollection
and presumes to add that his constant Prayers
will be for their Health, Wealth and Long
Life --
Pray Miss will the above satisfy You?
A Town House & a Country
House!!! I suppose your next habitation
will be the Fleet or Kings Bench. Or
perhaps we shall read a Paragraph in the
News papers as follows “We hear that yesterday
a Lady who formerly occupied a Place of Distinction
in the Royal Nursery Absconded
from her House in Clarges Street to the
great Discomfiture of a Numerous Body of
Creditors. It is added that She has escaped into
the Wake of a certain Northamptonshire
Baronet --
Adieu. But stop a little. It
is now necessary to inform You that I
have for these last three Weeks been
on a Tour of Visits in Stirlingshire. I am
at present at my Uncle Captain Napiers. The
latter end of this Week I go to Lord Binnings
& the end of the Week following remove
myself to Edinburgh for the Races. Adieu
encore. Ever Your Affectionate Friend and
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/1/20/82
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Stirling
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 3 July 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
his being put on half pay by his regiment. Since the 24th of the previous
month Napier has been on half pay and notes that his income has now
decreased from £417 to £285. He does not know how he is to manage.
His inclination is to go abroad but he doubts that he will be able to afford
to live comfortably in a 'Strange Land'.
Referring back to an earlier letter he had sent (HAM/1/20/80) on the subject
of marriage and fortune, he writes that there is no act of Parliament 'by
which a man is prevented altering his opinion – when I wrote you my prudent
letter I had not acknowledged to myself that I was in Love with a Miss
without a fortune'. Now that he has met her he finds the ides of oat cakes,
milk and potatoes a sufficient meal.
Napier teases Hamilton on her staying part time in the country and part in
town and wonders if her next residence would be the debtors prison. Or will
he read in the newspapers that a certain lady of distinction had absconded
from Clarges Street leaving behind many creditors. He makes reference to William Wake's infatuation with Hamilton (see HAM/1/8/8) writing that the
newspaper will also report that 'She has escaped into the Wake of a certain
Northamptonshire Baronet'.
Dated at Merchiston Halls.
Length: 1 sheet, 611 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 24 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