HAM/1/22/9
Journal-letter from Mary Sharpe (later Beauvoir) to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Henley.
May 17: 1779
I was grieved my dear Miʃs
Hamilton to find when I called at St
James's last Friday morning, that I shou'd
not be able to see you again before I
left London. I dare say in your heart
you accuse me for not calling again
on Saturday morning: but if you have
been guilty of this piece of wickedneʃs,
I condemn you by way of pennance to
write me word very soon that you are
convinced of my innocence, when I tell you
I had no coach, as mine was all day
on Saturday at the coach makers,
undergoing repairs for this journey,
& I was under the neceʃsity of borrowing
a coach to fullfill an indispensable
engagement. And now what becomes of
all your accusations of neglect, unkindneʃs,
unfriendlineʃs & so forth; they must all
all fall to the ground my dear Miʃs Hamilton
before the face of a truth I think pretty
certain, viz that they and I shall not easily
be connected where you are in question.
And now perhaps you wou'd rather hear
something about my journey than my justification
Patience I pray. I have seen nothing yet.
& all I can say is that I now write from
Henley, in a room close to the windows of
which runs the Thames, on the opposite side
of which is a range of hills finely wooded
at the top; with the London road winding
up a pretty steep hill to the right. My dear
Mama (you know who I mean) is gone to enjoy
this prospect in the open air; I, who do not
love wind, of which there is plenty abroad,
am content to admire it from the windows.
We are to be at Oxford to= morrow, when
I have seen that place I will conclude
my letter till when Adieu.
Oxford May 18
We arrived here to dinner. After dinner we
went to Christ Church. Here we saw a very
fine library which was particularly
interesting to me, as it every where brought
the image of my Father to my mind;
that being the college at which he studied &
& of which he always spoke as the scene
of his happiest days. At this College is
a collection of pictures left to it be General
Guys.[1] a head of St John by Guido Reni
a dead Magdelene & agangels by Dominichino, & 2
heads by Holbein, were those I cou'd most
have wished you to have seen, were I disposed
to indulge fruitleʃs wishes. Of the 2 latter
I must mention the very fine effect of
their being painted on a green ground. I
wou'd counsel you to dtry the experiment
some day. from hence we went to the Hall
it is gothic very large & handsome, hung round with
portraits of famous persons who have studied
thereat this college. We now left Christ Church
and went to aAll Souls. Here we saw a good
library & the Chapel. I did not see any thing
to attract particular attention here, no more
than at the Ratcliff library, which seems
to have only the name of library as there
are very few books a defect which I
am told will however be supplied in time,
by the sum of money left for that purpose.
This is all we have seen at present I
will add a few lines to= morrow before this
goes to the Post.
May 19:
How to describe all I have seen to day I know
not. indeed I am too much tired to attempt it
it, nor shall I in this letter, as I wish it
to go soon, to convince you how happy I am
to obey your ------------ kind injunctions. In a future
letter I will tell you more of Oxford, at present
I can only mention having had a delightful
treat of musick by hearing a very fine anthem
performed this evening at new College Chapel,
where there is an excellent organ. The Chapel
is entirely gothic The windows are all painted
glaʃs, & occasioned a fine gloom, only interruptted
now & then by the declining sun causing a
beautifull faint coloured light reflected from the
colours of the windows, to gleam along the
walls, & on the pavement. You will easily suppose
my beloved friend & I enjoyed this scenery so
well calculated for the solemn sounds of the
organ & Anthem. I am sure you will be glad
to know that our dear Mrs Carter has been
purely[2] all this journey: She desires her love
to you. If you think this scrawl can entitle
me to hear from you pray (as at present I
am a wandering being) direct to me Mill
Hill Hendon, where I shall be next week
for two days. If you don't love long letters you will
never forgive
Yr Affect
M Sharpe.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. General John Guise, described on the British Museum website as ‘Soldier and collector (Old Master paintings and drawings and contemporary copies); his bequest forms the greater part of the collection at Christ Church, Oxford’.
2. The ‘chiefly regional’ adjective purely has the sense ‘well, in good health’ (OED s.v., adj. Accessed 13-05-2025).
Normalised Text
Henley.
May 17: 1779
I was grieved my dear Miss
Hamilton to find when I called at St
James's last Friday morning, that I should
not be able to see you again before I
left London. I dare say in your heart
you accuse me for not calling again
on Saturday morning: but if you have
been guilty of this piece of wickedness,
I condemn you by way of penance to
write me word very soon that you are
convinced of my innocence, when I tell you
I had no coach, as mine was all day
on Saturday at the coach makers,
undergoing repairs for this journey,
& I was under the necessity of borrowing
a coach to fullfill an indispensable
engagement. And now what becomes of
all your accusations of neglect, unkindness,
unfriendliness & so forth; they must
all fall to the ground my dear Miss Hamilton
before the face of a truth I think pretty
certain, viz that they and I shall not easily
be connected where you are in question.
And now perhaps you would rather hear
something about my journey than my justification
Patience I pray. I have seen nothing yet.
& all I can say is that I now write from
Henley, in a room close to the windows of
which runs the Thames, on the opposite side
of which is a range of hills finely wooded
at the top; with the London road winding
up a pretty steep hill to the right. My dear
Mama (you know who I mean) is gone to enjoy
this prospect in the open air; I, who do not
love wind, of which there is plenty abroad,
am content to admire it from the windows.
We are to be at Oxford to= morrow, when
I have seen that place I will conclude
my letter till when Adieu.
Oxford May 18
We arrived here to dinner. After dinner we
went to Christ Church. Here we saw a very
fine library which was particularly
interesting to me, as it every where brought
the image of my Father to my mind;
that being the college at which he studied
& of which he always spoke as the scene
of his happiest days. At this College is
a collection of pictures left to it by General
Guys. a head of St John by Guido Reni
a dead Magdelene & angels by Dominichino, & 2
heads by Holbein, were those I could most
have wished you to have seen, were I disposed
to indulge fruitless wishes. Of the 2 latter
I must mention the very fine effect of
their being painted on a green ground. I
would counsel you to try the experiment
some day. from hence we went to the Hall
it is gothic very large & handsome, hung round with
portraits of famous persons who have studied
at this college. We now left Christ Church
and went to All Souls. Here we saw a good
library & the Chapel. I did not see any thing
to attract particular attention here, no more
than at the Ratcliff library, which seems
to have only the name of library as there
are very few books a defect which I
am told will however be supplied in time,
by the sum of money left for that purpose.
This is all we have seen at present I
will add a few lines to= morrow before this
goes to the Post.
May 19:
How to describe all I have seen to day I know
not. indeed I am too much tired to attempt
it, nor shall I in this letter, as I wish it
to go soon, to convince you how happy I am
to obey your kind injunctions. In a future
letter I will tell you more of Oxford, at present
I can only mention having had a delightful
treat of music by hearing a very fine anthem
performed this evening at new College Chapel,
where there is an excellent organ. The Chapel
is entirely gothic The windows are all painted
glass, & occasioned a fine gloom, only interrupted
now & then by the declining sun causing a
beautiful faint coloured light reflected from the
colours of the windows, to gleam along the
walls, & on the pavement. You will easily suppose
my beloved friend & I enjoyed this scenery so
well calculated for the solemn sounds of the
organ & Anthem. I am sure you will be glad
to know that our dear Mrs Carter has been
purely all this journey: She desires her love
to you. If you think this scrawl can entitle
me to hear from you pray (as at present I
am a wandering being) direct to me Mill
Hill Hendon, where I shall be next week
for two days. If you don't love long letters you will
never forgive
Your Affectionate
Mary Sharpe.
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: Journal-letter from Mary Sharpe (later Beauvoir) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/22/9
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas)
Place sent: Oxford
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: to be determined
Date sent: 19 May 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Journal-letter from Mary Sharpe to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to a visit Sharpe undertook to Oxford. Sharpe begins her letter noting that was sorry she was unable to see Hamilton before she left London. She had called on her at St James's but Hamilton was not there and she complains that she had no coach available to visit on the Saturday. Sharpe has nothing to write about her journey as she has seen nothing as yet, and writes this letter from a room in Henley looking out at the Thames. She writes that her 'dear Mama (you know who I mean)' is outside enjoying the prospect [Sharpe does not name this woman but she is referring to Elizabeth Carter, who is with her on the journey. Sharpe in later letters refers again to 'mama' as she writes from Deal (HAM/1/22/10), the home of Carter.] Sharpe continues her letter the following day after a visit to Oxford. Whilst there she visited Christ Church and saw a very fine library which she found of great interest, as it 'every where brought the image of my Father to my mind'; he had studied at Christ Church and often spoke of it. Sharpe lists a number of paintings that had been left to the College, which included works by Holbein. At the Radcliffe Library she found little to interest her. It seems to her to 'have only the name of library as there are very few books a defect which [...] [she] is told will however be supplied in time, by the sum of money left for that purpose'. She visited New College Chapel and listened to some 'very fine' music there. Sharpe writes that Mrs Carter sends her love to Hamilton.
Dated at Henley.
Length: 1 sheet, 812 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: XML version first created without transcription as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1. Transcription added after the funded period under the supervision of David Denison and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza.
Transliterator: Pete Morris, Artificial Intelligence and Ideas Adoption (AIIA), The University of Manchester Library (Plain text transliteration submitted 22 May 2025)
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: 2 July 2026
