Single Letter

HAM/1/20/227

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

Diplomatic Text


                             71, Queen Street
                             12th- Decr- 1808




My Dear Sister,
      Your puzzles remains
unravelled, and your paper uncut into four
equal parts. The former, I attempted; but,
after counfounding it, & myself, a little,
I threw it aside. Though descended from
a great Mathematician, I do not feel
myself equal to divide the Paper accord=
ing
to your directions, & therefore, shall
now deliver over both the Torments to
my Girls, to try their ingenuity. By
the bye, it occasioned no little Astonish=
ment
at my Breakfast Table, when
these puzzles were produced. “Dear Mamma,
“(said my Daughter Anne), how differently
Papa must behave in England, from
“what he does here, that it should ever
“enter into anybody's head to send him
“puzzles!!!.” What Idea she at that Mo=
ment
formed of the Liberty you had
taken with her Papa's Dignity, I leave You
to judge; but, her astonishment shews
You, in what good Discipline I keep my
Wife
& Brats. It would be well for some
folks, if they would follow my Example.



      My Boys were both well, when
I heard from them last. William
had rejoined his Ship (the Imperieuse) and
was just preparing to sail after the
Frigates, which had escaped from
Toulon, and were supposed to have
put into a Corsican Port. Francis, is at
present, at Portsmouth, where the Resist=
ance
is undergoing some repair, having
suffered from the Storms she met with,
in a six Weeks paʃsage from Lisbon.
My eldest daughter has been for these some
weeks past in Perthshire, endeavouring
to comfort Lady Eliz. MacGregor Murray, for
the loʃs of her husband, who lately went
to Spain, with the 15th. L. Dragoons. Lady
Elizabeth
is to paʃs her Christmas, at Dunkeld,
& Sir John M. Murray escorts my daughter
home tomorrow. My Carriage is just gone
to meet them halfway. The rest of Us, have
been stationary here, for some Months.
past. Of my own intended Motions, I
cannot yet speak, as they must be regu=
lated
by the neceʃsity there may be,
of my attending Parliament. If, I am able
to arrange my matters according to my
Wish, I shall not be desirous of quitting
my own fireside, till the end of February
next. I hate travelling in the dark, which
I must do, if I go to the Meeting of the



House in January. I anticipate much
Debating there. The defeat of Castanos, and
the consequent alterations which must
take place in the Operations of our Forces
in Spain, are much to be lamented. On
the Cintra Convention, I can only say, that
if Sir Hew is to blame, so is Sir Arthur, for
he appears to have been as desirous of
allowing Juniot to retire with the French
Troops, as Sir Hew was. Why, the Succeʃs at Vime=
ira
was not followed up, on the Evening of
the day the Action was fought, Sir Harry
Burrard
must explain. I do not pretend
to say, what might have been the con=
      sequence
of doing so; but, as
      an old Soldier, I am quite con=
      vinced
that our Troops ought
      to have advanced on the Enemy,
while the effect of the threshing[1] they ha[ve]
got, was fresh in their Memory. A Conven=
tion
[2] might, perhaps, even then have been
neceʃsary; but, I feel, that the Terms of it,
might have been different.
      I know nothing of Mrs- Grant,
or her Letters form the Mountains.[3] Pray,
dont suppose, that the smallest particle
of Indigo pollutes our little domestick Circle.
Lady Ramsay's Letter was sent to her. She too,
is unknown to Us.
      We have all read Faber.
Much have I yawned, much have I slept over
his Book, where I found it too deep for me
to follow him; but, much have I admired
in it. Being a firm Believer in the fulfilment
of Prophecy, I have for many Years conceived








that the very extraordinary Succeʃs of the
infamous Buonaparte, and the very asto=
nishing
Events which we have all witneʃsed,
could not be accounted for, on any other
Ground, than the literal accomplishment
of those predictions, which are to be found
in Daniel, the Apocalypse &c. This, does not
make me superstitious. It is the duty of Man[4]
to act according to the soundest dictates of
human Wisdom, and having done so, to leave
the Iʃsue to the Governor of the Universe.
The Inventor of the Logarithms, published a
Treatise on the Revelation of St. John, Anno 1593.
He conceived, that the World would not last longer
than to the Year 1786 -- All here join me in
Love & best Wishes to you, & yours. Ever My Dear
Sister
, Your Affecte- Brother & faithful Friend
                                                         Napier
Best wishes to my Countrywoman[5] [6]



Edinburgh, Twelfth December 1808


Mrs- Dickenson
      Leighton House [7]
          Leighton Buzzard
                             Beds
Napier.

[8] [9]

XX -a---[10]

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


Notes


 1. ‘The action or an act of hitting or beating a person or thing; beating or flogging, esp. as a punishment’, labelled as a now-rare variant of thrashing (OED s.v. threshing n. 1. Accessed 18-03-2022).
 2. Military. An agreement made between the commanders of opposing armies for the evacuation of some post or country, the suspension of hostilities, or the exchange of prisoners’ (OED s.v. convention n. 8.b. Accessed 18-03-2022).
 3. Anne Grant Letters form the Mountains (1806).
 4. This section (8 lines) appears at the bottom of the page, below the address, and is continued at the top.
 5. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.
 6. Moved section and postscript here from top of page.
 7. Round postmark in red ink, dated 12 December 1808.
 8. Seal, in red wax.
 9. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
 10. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin.

Normalised Text


                             71, Queen Street
                             12th- December 1808




My Dear Sister,
      Your puzzle remains
unravelled, and your paper uncut into four
equal parts. The former, I attempted; but,
after confounding it, & myself, a little,
I threw it aside. Though descended from
a great Mathematician, I do not feel
myself equal to divide the Paper according
to your directions, & therefore, shall
now deliver over both the Torments to
my Girls, to try their ingenuity. By
the bye, it occasioned no little Astonishment
at my Breakfast Table, when
these puzzles were produced. “Dear Mamma,
“(said my Daughter Anne), how differently
“Papa must behave in England, from
“what he does here, that it should ever
“enter into anybody's head to send him
“puzzles!!!.” What Idea she at that Moment
formed of the Liberty you had
taken with her Papa's Dignity, I leave You
to judge; but, her astonishment shows
You, in what good Discipline I keep my
Wife & Brats. It would be well for some
folks, if they would follow my Example.



      My Boys were both well, when
I heard from them last. William
had rejoined his Ship (the Imperieuse) and
was just preparing to sail after the
Frigates, which had escaped from
Toulon, and were supposed to have
put into a Corsican Port. Francis, is at
present, at Portsmouth, where the Resistance
is undergoing some repair, having
suffered from the Storms she met with,
in a six Weeks passage from Lisbon.
My eldest daughter has been for these some
weeks past in Perthshire, endeavouring
to comfort Lady Elizabeth MacGregor Murray, for
the loss of her husband, who lately went
to Spain, with the 15th. Light Dragoons. Lady
Elizabeth is to pass her Christmas, at Dunkeld,
& Sir John Macgregor Murray escorts my daughter
home tomorrow. My Carriage is just gone
to meet them halfway. The rest of Us, have
been stationary here, for some Months
past. Of my own intended Motions, I
cannot yet speak, as they must be regulated
by the necessity there may be,
of my attending Parliament. If, I am able
to arrange my matters according to my
Wish, I shall not be desirous of quitting
my own fireside, till the end of February
next. I hate travelling in the dark, which
I must do, if I go to the Meeting of the



House in January. I anticipate much
Debating there. The defeat of Castanos, and
the consequent alterations which must
take place in the Operations of our Forces
in Spain, are much to be lamented. On
the Cintra Convention, I can only say, that
if Sir Hew is to blame, so is Sir Arthur, for
he appears to have been as desirous of
allowing Juniot to retire with the French
Troops, as Sir Hew was. Why, the Success at Vimeira
was not followed up, on the Evening of
the day the Action was fought, Sir Harry
Burrard must explain. I do not pretend
to say, what might have been the consequence
     
of doing so; but, as
      an old Soldier, I am quite convinced
     
that our Troops ought
      to have advanced on the Enemy,
while the effect of the threshing they have
got, was fresh in their Memory. A Convention
might, perhaps, even then have been
necessary; but, I feel, that the Terms of it,
might have been different.
      I know nothing of Mrs- Grant,
or her Letters form the Mountains. Pray,
don't suppose, that the smallest particle
of Indigo pollutes our little domestic Circle.
Lady Ramsay's Letter was sent to her. She too,
is unknown to Us.
      We have all read Faber.
Much have I yawned, much have I slept over
his Book, where I found it too deep for me
to follow him; but, much have I admired
in it. Being a firm Believer in the fulfilment
of Prophecy, I have for many Years conceived








that the very extraordinary Success of the
infamous Buonaparte, and the very astonishing
Events which we have all witnessed,
could not be accounted for, on any other
Ground, than the literal accomplishment
of those predictions, which are to be found
in Daniel, the Apocalypse &c. This, does not
make me superstitious. It is the duty of Man
to act according to the soundest dictates of
human Wisdom, and having done so, to leave
the Issue to the Governor of the Universe.
The Inventor of the Logarithms, published a
Treatise on the Revelation of St. John, Anno 1593.
He conceived, that the World would not last longer
than to the Year 1786 -- All here join me in
Love & best Wishes to you, & yours. Ever My Dear
Sister, Your Affectionate Brother & faithful Friend
                                                         Napier
Best wishes to my Countrywoman



Edinburgh, Twelfth December 1808


Mrs- Dickenson
      Leighton House
          Leighton Buzzard
                             Bedfordshire
Napier.




(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. ‘The action or an act of hitting or beating a person or thing; beating or flogging, esp. as a punishment’, labelled as a now-rare variant of thrashing (OED s.v. threshing n. 1. Accessed 18-03-2022).
 2. Military. An agreement made between the commanders of opposing armies for the evacuation of some post or country, the suspension of hostilities, or the exchange of prisoners’ (OED s.v. convention n. 8.b. Accessed 18-03-2022).
 3. Anne Grant Letters form the Mountains (1806).
 4. This section (8 lines) appears at the bottom of the page, below the address, and is continued at the top.
 5. This postscript appears to the left of the signature.
 6. Moved section and postscript here from top of page.
 7. Round postmark in red ink, dated 12 December 1808.
 8. Seal, in red wax.
 9. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
 10. This annotation is written vertically in the left margin.

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/1/20/227

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Leighton Buzzard

Date sent: 12 December 1808

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, discussing the Peninsular War, Napier's family, including his two sons who are at sea, and news of his friends.
    Dated at Queen Street [Edinburgh].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 791 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 February 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: 18 March 2022

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