Diplomatic Text
[1]
Bernard
[L]t Govr- of Hull.[2]
--- Sir Martin We[stcombe][3]
X
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Several questions attach to this and 7 or 8 similar items (MS Eng 1778 20a, MS Eng 1778 24a, MS Eng 1778 52a, MS Eng 1778 59a, MS Eng 1778 62a [2 hearts], MS Eng 1778 159a), all with an arrow shape carefully drawn along the central axis; one is actually cut out in that arrow shape (MS Eng 1778 56a). All are catalogued as bookmarks, but in this edition we assume provisionally that they were Mary Delany's templates for tissue paper, the straight lines to be used, for instance, as fold lines, slits or further cut-outs when creating ‘petals’ or ‘leaves’ for her botanical ‘mosaics’. We are grateful to Elizabeth Price and Juliet Mills for suggestions and practical experimentation as to their purpose; further research is needed. Each template is cut from a sheet written by Mary Delany that contains part of her family tree, leaving a few fragmentary words visible that are incidental to Delany's purpose. It is not currently known how Mary Hamilton acquired the templates (perhaps during her many sessions copying out Delany's letters), nor why they are now associated with a series of letters sent by Elizabeth Carter, Hannah More and others to Hamilton.
2. Col. Bernard Granville was Mary Delany's father, an MP and Lieutenant-Governor of Hull.
3. Sir Martin Westcombe was Mary Delany's maternal grandfather.
Normalised Text
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Houghton Library Repository, Harvard University
Archive: Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More letters to Mary Hamilton
Item title: Paper template in the shape of a heart
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 1aa
Document Details
Author: Mary Delany (née Granville, formerly Pendarves)
Date: n.d.
Summary: Paper template in the shape of a heart. Originally catalogued as a bookmark, together with MS Eng 1778 1a.
The template is cut from a sheet written by Mary Delany that contains part of her family tree, just like a whole series of templates in the archive. Most are heart-shaped but have an arrow shape drawn on them in pencil (MS Eng 1778 20a, MS Eng 1778 24a, MS Eng 1778 52a, MS Eng 1778 59a, MS Eng 1778 62a [2 hearts], MS Eng 1778 159a); one is actually cut out in that arrow shape (MS Eng 1778 56a). It is unknown how they became part of the Mary Hamilton Papers.
Original note in Houghton Library catalogue for item 1a: Includes a paper bookmark in the shape of a heart. Found loose, removed to folder.
Length: 1 sheet, 8 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 13 January 2026)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 24 August 2026
