HAM/1/20/114
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Wilton Lodge
8th. Septr- 1790.
How dare, my Dear Sister, pre=
=sume to find fault with my Pride? I hourly
commend myself for having called it forth
to convince the High & Mighty, that I care not
for them. True, my election is not secure. But
what then? I much prefer Trotter down hill,
& my Lady's Walk, to the Mall or St. James's
Street, & I care not three Sixpences whether
ever I take my seat in the hospital of
Incurables. My Chinese Sow on the Eve of
Pigging, interests me more, than all the
intelligence of the Fleets of Spain or France,
& the failure of my Carrot crop is a more
serious vexation, than the double Return.
Politics are vile things. The more I see
of them, the more I dislike them. Friend=
=ship, Relationship, honour & gratitude must
be sacrificed to keep well with a Party, who
only court You, because they find it their
interest, & who will be just as ready to
drop You, as they were alert in taking
you up. So says farmer Francis, & You
cannot contradict him. You may think
what You will of my opinions, but would
they present Me with a genteel sinecure
to enable me to spend a couple of Months
now & then in the South, they might make
Senators of their Horses if they pleased; I
should not be envious. The prorogation
of Parliament will keep us in suspence
a long time, as the House will probably
not meet for busineʃs before Christmas. If
they enter into the Merits of our Election,
it may poʃsibly be a twelvemonth, before
the matter is decided. Were they to consult
me, I should advise them theto find the
Election informal,[1] & order a new one for
Sixteen. Many discoveries have been made
since the 24th July, some of them ludicrous
enough, but neither party like to talk of
what they know, for fear of putting mischief
in the heads of their adversaries. As to Lord
Hopetoun, he pleases to call himself an Inde=
=pendant Peer. The word wants explanation.
Because he voted with Ministry, he expected
they would give him all their support, but
because he was a Gig,[2] he refused voting
for everyone of their friends, countenanced
the opposition Candidates, was supported by
them, & calls this conduct Independence.
The friends of the Minister, refused to vote
for Ld. Hopetoun, unleʃs on the footing of
reciprocity; he therefore abuses the Minister
& toasts His R—l H—s before his father
after dinner. As my near Relation & quondam
Guardian, his refusing to vote for Me, shocked
& mortified Me, but his behaviour has almost
determined Me to be callous to every kind
of feeling in future. I have not seen him
since the Election.
We have had a visit from
the Pechell's this Summer. You may believe
we were not a little vain in shewing off
our place, & on finding they approved of the
situation. We likewise expect Lady Warren.
She is now at Tynemouth with her unfor=
=tunate Child, for the purpose of bathing
him, to correct (if poʃsible) the
tendency to deformity. It would
do You, Mr. Dickenson & Miʃs,
a vast deal of good, to explore
these Northern Regions. I wish
You would all come, that I might have
the satisfaction of abusing You face to face.
You promised to send me a plan of your House,
& like all other Court bred Miʃses, you have
neglected to sendperform your promise. Adieu.
Maria joins me in sincere good wishes
to You & Yours. Ever my Dear Sister,
Your faithful & affectionate Brother
Napier.
Hawick, Tenth Septr= 1790
Mrs= Dickenson[3]
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derby
by Carlisle
Napier.
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. On senses of informal see HAM/1/20/115 p.2.
2. The apparent sense falls somewhere between the OED senses ‘[a] flighty, giddy girl’ (last attested 1780) and ‘[a]n eccentric person; a person whose appearance is peculiar or ridiculous; dialect a fool. Chiefly Eton College slang (first attested 1777) (OED s.v. gig n.1, 4, 5. Accessed 08-03-2024).’
3. Postmark ‘HAWICK’ in brown ink.
4. Seal, in red wax, divided by unfolding.
Normalised Text
Wilton Lodge
8th. September 1790.
How dare, my Dear Sister, presume
to find fault with my Pride? I hourly
commend myself for having called it forth
to convince the High & Mighty, that I care not
for them. True, my election is not secure. But
what then? I much prefer Trotter down hill,
& my Lady's Walk, to the Mall or St. James's
Street, & I care not three Sixpences whether
ever I take my seat in the hospital of
Incurables. My Chinese Sow on the Eve of
Pigging, interests me more, than all the
intelligence of the Fleets of Spain or France,
& the failure of my Carrot crop is a more
serious vexation, than the double Return.
Politics are vile things. The more I see
of them, the more I dislike them. Friendship
, Relationship, honour & gratitude must
be sacrificed to keep well with a Party, who
only court You, because they find it their
interest, & who will be just as ready to
drop You, as they were alert in taking
you up. So says farmer Francis, & You
cannot contradict him. You may think
what You will of my opinions, but would
they present Me with a genteel sinecure
to enable me to spend a couple of Months
now & then in the South, they might make
Senators of their Horses if they pleased; I
should not be envious. The prorogation
of Parliament will keep us in suspense
a long time, as the House will probably
not meet for business before Christmas. If
they enter into the Merits of our Election,
it may possibly be a twelvemonth, before
the matter is decided. Were they to consult
me, I should advise them to find the
Election informal, & order a new one for
Sixteen. Many discoveries have been made
since the 24th July, some of them ludicrous
enough, but neither party like to talk of
what they know, for fear of putting mischief
in the heads of their adversaries. As to Lord
Hopetoun, he pleases to call himself an Independent
Peer. The word wants explanation.
Because he voted with Ministry, he expected
they would give him all their support, but
because he was a Gig, he refused voting
for everyone of their friends, countenanced
the opposition Candidates, was supported by
them, & calls this conduct Independence.
The friends of the Minister, refused to vote
for Lord Hopetoun, unless on the footing of
reciprocity; he therefore abuses the Minister
& toasts His Royal Highness before his father
after dinner. As my near Relation & quondam
Guardian, his refusing to vote for Me, shocked
& mortified Me, but his behaviour has almost
determined Me to be callous to every kind
of feeling in future. I have not seen him
since the Election.
We have had a visit from
the Pechell's this Summer. You may believe
we were not a little vain in showing off
our place, & on finding they approved of the
situation. We likewise expect Lady Warren.
She is now at Tynemouth with her unfortunate
Child, for the purpose of bathing
him, to correct (if possible) the
tendency to deformity. It would
do You, Mr. Dickenson & Miss,
a vast deal of good, to explore
these Northern Regions. I wish
You would all come, that I might have
the satisfaction of abusing You face to face.
You promised to send me a plan of your House,
& like all other Court bred Misses, you have
neglected to perform your promise. Adieu.
Maria joins me in sincere good wishes
to You & Yours. Ever my Dear Sister,
Your faithful & affectionate Brother
Napier.
Hawick, Tenth September 1790
Mrs= Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derby
by Carlisle
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/1/20/114
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Roxburghshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 8 September 1790
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, asking why
she 'presumes to find fault' with his pride. He commends himself for it in
order to convince the 'High & Mighty, that I care not for them'. His
election is not secure. He does not care 'three sixpence whether [...] I
take my seat in the hospital of Incurables'. The party will court you when
they need you but will just as soon drop you. The letter continues on
politics and on Napier's relations.
Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 619 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 18 January 2022)
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: 8 March 2024