Unlocking the Mary Hamilton papers

Single Letter

HAM/1/20/84

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

Diplomatic Text


                             From the Living to the Dead.
                                  No. 1

                                                         Edinr- 16 Decr- 1783

My Dear Sister,
      I have for these last
four Months been in constant expecta-
=tion of receiving a packet from the Domi=
=nions of Pluto whither I presume You
have for some time taken up your abode,
but on recollecting that it is customary (as
Poets tell) for those who inhabit the Infernal
Regions to drink large draughts of the Water
of Lethe, there may be a poʃsibility that
Your plentiful potations of that water
have entirely obliterated any faint remem=
=brance of your once having had a Brother.
I have more than once debated with myself
on the propriety of recalling that idea to
your recollection, & have at last determined
to do so, as it will only be putting You to
the trouble of swallowing one extraordinary
Cup, to drown whatever thoughts may be
unpleasing to You --
      Last September I dispatched


a letter to You dated Balgowan,[1] since
which time I have neither heard from
or of You. I have daily examined the
List of Marriages & Deaths but have been
unsucceʃsfull in every attempt to account
for your Silence. Peace be with You.
May your Repose be undisturbed. Best
respects to all your Brother & Sister Devils.
      Ever your sincere friend and
                             Affectionate Brother
                                                         Napier.

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

Normalised Text


                            

                                                         Edinburgh 16 December 1783

My Dear Sister,
      I have for these last
four Months been in constant expectation
 of receiving a packet from the Dominions
 of Pluto whither I presume You
have for some time taken up your abode,
but on recollecting that it is customary (as
Poets tell) for those who inhabit the Infernal
Regions to drink large draughts of the Water
of Lethe, there may be a possibility that
Your plentiful potations of that water
have entirely obliterated any faint remembrance
 of your once having had a Brother.
I have more than once debated with myself
on the propriety of recalling that idea to
your recollection, & have at last determined
to do so, as it will only be putting You to
the trouble of swallowing one extraordinary
Cup, to drown whatever thoughts may be
unpleasing to You --
      Last September I dispatched


a letter to You dated Balgowan, since
which time I have neither heard from
or of You. I have daily examined the
List of Marriages & Deaths but have been
unsuccessful in every attempt to account
for your Silence. Peace be with You.
May your Repose be undisturbed. Best
respects to all your Brother & Sister Devils.
      Ever your sincere friend and
                             Affectionate Brother
                                                         Napier.

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
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/1/20/84

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 16 December 1783

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. At the top of the sheet Napier has written 'From the Living to the Dead. No. 1'. He complains that he has been expecting for a number of months a letter from the underworld, where he assumes Hamilton has taken up residence. He continues in the same vein, claiming that he daily examines the list of marriages and deaths but is still unsuccessful in accounting for Hamilton's silence.
    Dated at Edinburgh.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 209 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

Document Image (pdf)