HAM/1/20/179
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Ld= N's age X
38, St. James's Street
22d. Febry- 1803
Most unreasonable Sister,
Do you really think
that I have nothing to do, but to en=
quire about old Frumps?[1] Your Harpur's,
& your Garrick's, are alive. As I know
neither the one, nor the other, You
must not suppose, that I asked a
second question about them.
You do Ly. Cathcart in=
justice, for really she has said no=
thing to Me, either about You, or Yours
but what was perfectly right, and
proper. She says, the Queen & Princeʃses
often talk of You. As to Counteʃs of Mans=
field (in her own right) I have not
seen her. When I do, it is more
than probable, that I shall never
think of your Meʃsage, about replying
to her acknowledgment &c. &c. &c. Your
Uncle Sir William is hobbling about
like an old Gander. He affected not
to know exactly where You lived, when
I told him, that I had visited You, but
the conversation concluded with his
saying, that he did believe he would
go to Leighton House. Lady Mansfield
(Kenwood) is with Child. I hope she
will produce an Heir. Lady Charlotte
Drummond is in the same state, and
near her time, Charles Greville looks
as like an old Woman, as ever, and
Robert Greville is grown very fat.
Your Sentiments and
mine, about Town Residences, exactly
agree. Had I remained with My
Mamma, we should have been
mutual torments to one another,
and by the time I had paid her
for my Board, Coals, Candles, and grati=
fied her Servants, I suspect, I should
not have found that there was much
œconomy in the Plan. Here, I follow my
own whims -- in Somerset Street, I
must have given way a little to
Hers.[2]
Tomorrow, I shall enter into the
Forty Sixth Year of my Age. As it is the
first day of Lent, the more proper
will the opportunity be of bewailing
my Iniquities; and resolving to amend.
As you are Ten years older than Me,[3]
it is high time that You should set
about your Reformation too. Pray
don't delay it.
Give my Love to your Hus=
band & Louisa. Mr. D.s Boots, I presume,
have hardly been dry, for these last
ten days, as the Ground is sufficiently
soft, for his favourite amusement.
I wish him good Sport, and good
health. Ever My Dear Sister,
Your's very Affectionately
Napier
I hope my Countrywoman
has had some good Apples,
since I saw her. By the
bye, you was to have
given me a Comiʃsion
about Wedgewood's Ware; what was i[it?]
Rib & Brats at Wilton Lodge, well, by
the last Letters.
London, Twenty Third Febry-
1803
Mrs. Dickenson[4]
Leighton House
Beds.
Napier.
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This is a notably early use of frump in the sense ‘[a] cross, old-fashioned, dowdily-dressed woman’ (OED s.v., n. 3a, recorded from 1817. Accessed 08-03-2022).
2. Tax records for 1802 show Lady Clavering as living in Somerset Street.
3. This is, of course, teasing nonsense.
4. Smudged FREE frank in red ink, date illegible.
5. Seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
38, St. James's Street
22d. February 1803
Most unreasonable Sister,
Do you really think
that I have nothing to do, but to enquire
about old Frumps? Your Harpur's,
& your Garrick's, are alive. As I know
neither the one, nor the other, You
must not suppose, that I asked a
second question about them.
You do Lady Cathcart injustice
, for really she has said nothing
to Me, either about You, or Yours
but what was perfectly right, and
proper. She says, the Queen & Princesses
often talk of You. As to Countess of Mansfield
(in her own right) I have not
seen her. When I do, it is more
than probable, that I shall never
think of your Message, about replying
to her acknowledgement &c. &c. &c. Your
Uncle Sir William is hobbling about
like an old Gander. He affected not
to know exactly where You lived, when
I told him, that I had visited You, but
the conversation concluded with his
saying, that he did believe he would
go to Leighton House. Lady Mansfield
(Kenwood) is with Child. I hope she
will produce an Heir. Lady Charlotte
Drummond is in the same state, and
near her time, Charles Greville looks
as like an old Woman, as ever, and
Robert Greville is grown very fat.
Your Sentiments and
mine, about Town Residences, exactly
agree. Had I remained with My
Mamma, we should have been
mutual torments to one another,
and by the time I had paid her
for my Board, Coals, Candles, and gratified
her Servants, I suspect, I should
not have found that there was much
œconomy in the Plan. Here, I follow my
own whims -- in Somerset Street, I
must have given way a little to
Hers.
Tomorrow, I shall enter into the
Forty Sixth Year of my Age. As it is the
first day of Lent, the more proper
will the opportunity be of bewailing
my Iniquities; and resolving to amend.
As you are Ten years older than Me,
it is high time that You should set
about your Reformation too. Pray
don't delay it.
Give my Love to your Husband
& Louisa. Mr. Dickensons Boots, I presume,
have hardly been dry, for these last
ten days, as the Ground is sufficiently
soft, for his favourite amusement.
I wish him good Sport, and good
health. Ever My Dear Sister,
Your's very Affectionately
Napier
I hope my Countrywoman
has had some good Apples,
since I saw her. By the
bye, you was to have
given me a Comission
about Wedgewood's Ware; what was iit?
Rib & Brats at Wilton Lodge, well, by
the last Letters.
London, Twenty Third February
1803
Mrs. Dickenson
Leighton House
Bedfordshire
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/1/20/179
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 23 February 1803
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, conveying
news on friends and family. Lady Cathcart reports that the Queen and
princesses often speak of Hamilton. Sir William Hamilton is ‘hobbling about
like an old Gander’. Napier writes that Sir William pretended not to know
where exactly Hamilton lived. When Napier told him that he had visited
Hamilton, Sir William said he would visit Leighton House. He continues with
news that Lady Mansfield and Lady Drummond are both pregnant and that her
cousins, Charles Greville ‘looks as like an old woman, as ever, and Robert
Greville is grown very fat’. It is Napier's birthday tomorrow and he will be
46 years old. He notes that Hamilton is ten years older than him and it is
about time she begins to reform.
Dated at St James's Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 448 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 2 December 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: 8 March 2022