Diplomatic Text
Stanhope Street
Feb: 5= 1780.
As it is impoʃsible for you my
dear, to peep into my heart, I reproach my- self
for not telling you the sensations which this
particular day[1] occasioned therein. The truth is,
that when I feel most, the weakneʃs of my heart
and nerves, forbids me trusting my voice for
expreʃsion. Permit my pen as a more steady
interpretor of my thoughts, to tell you how
earnestly I form wishes for every real bleʃsing
to be your portion. The day calls these
wishes to light, but they at all times actuate
the heart of Yr
ever sincerely Affect
M. Sharpe.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Stanhope Street
February 5= 1780.
As it is impossible for you my
dear, to peep into my heart, I reproach my- self
for not telling you the sensations which this
particular day occasioned therein. The truth is,
that when I feel most, the weakness of my heart
and nerves, forbids me trusting my voice for
expression. Permit my pen as a more steady
interpreter of my thoughts, to tell you how
earnestly I form wishes for every real blessing
to be your portion. The day calls these
wishes to light, but they at all times actuate
the heart of Your
ever sincerely 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: Letter from Mary Sharpe (later Beauvoir) to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/22/16
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: to be determined
Date sent: 5 February 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Sharpe to Mary Hamilton. Sharpe writes that, as Hamilton is unable to 'peep' into her heart, she wishes to tell her of the 'sensations which this particular day [Hamilton's birthday] occasioned'.
Dated at Stanhope Street, [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 105 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: 7 April 2026
