Diplomatic Text
Bath.
May 13.. 1781
The desire you so kindly expreʃsed to hear
from me my dear Miʃs Hamilton, has made
me wish for an earlier opportunity of thanking
you. This has however not been in my power till
now. Mrs Carter & I arrived safe here last
Wednesday, after a very pleasant journey of
three days. The poor thing is as usual. she
desires her love to you. I can not my dear
help reflecting with much pleasure on
our conversation last time we met. perhaps
this is very selfish as it had its rise in
your having suffered some painfull sensations
but the certainty it has given me of my
my poʃseʃsing a place in your affection, is so
truly valuable to me, that it swallows up the
regret I ought to feel at having occasioned you
any uneasineʃs. From any thing of the like
nature your kind aʃsurances have entirely freed you
in future. I am too happy in thinking my self
beloved by you, ever now to part with the idea.
I know you wish to hear something of my
health; it can not you know be improved by Bath
yet. I begun the waters the day before yesterday.
and am at present much as usual. When I
have drank them a little time you shall hear
from me again. Adieu my dear for the present.
May every good attend you, is the earnest wish
of one who truly loves you & is most unfeignedly
Yr sincerely Attached Friend
M. Sharpe.
I have a very pleasant
Lodging on the South Parade.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Bath.
May 13.. 1781
The desire you so kindly expressed to hear
from me my dear Miss Hamilton, has made
me wish for an earlier opportunity of thanking
you. This has however not been in my power till
now. Mrs Carter & I arrived safe here last
Wednesday, after a very pleasant journey of
three days. The poor thing is as usual. she
desires her love to you. I can not my dear
help reflecting with much pleasure on
our conversation last time we met. perhaps
this is very selfish as it had its rise in
your having suffered some painful sensations
but the certainty it has given me of
my possessing a place in your affection, is so
truly valuable to me, that it swallows up the
regret I ought to feel at having occasioned you
any uneasiness. From any thing of the like
nature your kind assurances have entirely freed you
in future. I am too happy in thinking my self
beloved by you, ever now to part with the idea.
I know you wish to hear something of my
health; it can not you know be improved by Bath
yet. I began the waters the day before yesterday.
and am at present much as usual. When I
have drunk them a little time you shall hear
from me again. Adieu my dear for the present.
May every good attend you, is the earnest wish
of one who truly loves you & is most unfeignedly
Your sincerely Attached Friend
Mary Sharpe.
I have a very pleasant
Lodging on the South Parade.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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/1/22/34
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Beauvoir (née Sharpe, later Douglas)
Place sent: Bath
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: to be determined
Date sent: 13 May 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Sharpe to Mary Hamilton. Sharpe writes that after a pleasant journey she and Mrs Carter arrived safely in Bath. She recalls the conversation she had with Hamilton at their last meeting and acknowledges that she was being selfish in causing Hamilton 'some painful sensations' for the benefit of her own mind. The value 'certainty it has given me of my [...] possessing a place in your affection' is strong. Now she knows that she is loved by Hamilton, she will never 'part with the idea'. The letter continues on Sharpe's health and of her taking the waters in Bath.
Dated at Bath.
Length: 1 sheet, 263 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
