Diplomatic Text
[1]
1b
1780
Ever since I saw you last, my
dear Miʃs Hamilton, I have been so very
unwell, that I have been prevented from
returning Siegwart[2] so soon, as I wished.
I depend upon you for conveying, in the
properest, & most respectful manner to
the Queen, my grateful Sense of the Honour
her Majesty has condescended to do dome,
by permitting me the Reading of a Book,
from which I have received so much
pleasure.
Siegwart seems to me the Work of
a very masterly Writer. The Scenery,
whether --- in the Sublime, or beautiful Stile,
is painted with exquisite Colouring. The
pathetic Subjects are exceedingly touching,
& the gentle & tender Spirit of devotion,
which is diffused through the whole, is
singularly affecting. Besides the higher
Excellencies, which I have mentioned, the
Author seems to have a peculiar Art of
of rendering the most trifling Incidents, in
teresting to his Readers. One might go
on for an Hour in enumerating the Beau
ties of this Book, but one ought not to
omit a leʃs pleasant Subject, which is
saying something of its' Faults; which
seem to me to be such as might render
it rather dangerous, to young people at
least, without a Proper Degree of Cau
-tion. The great objection to Siegwart
is, its' being too Sentimental. The Cha
racters in which the Reader is most inte
-rested, do not act from principle, but
from their Hearts: & alas my dearest
Miʃs Hamilton, it cannot be too early,
nor too strongly inculcated, that this poor
frail Thing, the human Heart, will ever
prove a miserable Rule of Action, un
leʃs, even in its best Intentions, it is
under the superiour direction of those
sober principles of Duty, which alone
can prevent it from running into
Wildneʃs & Extravagance. The Love of
[3]
Siegwart & Mariane however innocent in
itself, is a dangerous Example. It hurries
them into an Engagement, without consult
-ing their parents, & produces clandestine
meetings, which & other Instances of
Artfullneʃs & deceit, which are absolutely
unjustifiable in real Life. It is true,
that all this ends unsucceʃsfully: but then,
this Event,[4] is hindered from every use, as
a Leʃson, by the Conduct of the Story, which
is so contrived as to turn off the Attention
from the Imprudence of the Lovers, & to
fix it on the Cruelty of the Father &
Relations.
I met with only one paʃsage
marked with a pencil, which is in a
very pretty Sonnet. It has been impoʃsible
for me to attempt giving you any Idea of
it in English, for not to mention the difficulty
in other Respects, my Head has been so
very bad, that I was often incapable even
of Reading.
Will you be so good to tell
Miʃs Gunning, that I have not been
able to get Siegwart, for I promised if I
could find it in England, to get one for
her as well as my self. perhaps you could
procure it, by the same means that you
have been so good to promise me.
I long to see you, & will cer
tainly take the first opportunity in my
power. Perhaps our dear Miʃs Sharpe may
fix some Time with you. Adieu. My tire
some Head is very angry at this long Scribble
& will only allow me to subscribe your
most obliged & affectionate
E. Carter
Clarges Street
Feb: 19. 1780
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Four lines from MS Eng 1778 3a are visible behind the sheet at the top of the image, and one word from MS Eng 1778 3 at the bottom.
2. This is presumably the novel by the Swiss theologian and writer Johann Martin Miller, Siegwart, eine Klostergeschichte (1776), published in German and only translated into English rather later as Sigevart, a tale. Translated from the German, by H.L. (G. Polidori, Chelsea, 1799) and as Siegwart: a monastic tale. Translated from the German ... By L. M. Hawkins (London, 1806).
3. Once again, four lines from MS Eng 1778 3a are visible behind the sheet at the top of the image, and one word from MS Eng 1778 3 at the bottom.
4. The now rare sense ‘outcome of an action or occurrence; a result, a consequence’ (OED s.v. event n., I.1.1. Accessed 26-02-2026).
Normalised Text
Ever since I saw you last, my
dear Miss Hamilton, I have been so very
unwell, that I have been prevented from
returning Siegwart so soon, as I wished.
I depend upon you for conveying, in the
properest, & most respectful manner to
the Queen, my grateful Sense of the Honour
her Majesty has condescended to do me,
by permitting me the Reading of a Book,
from which I have received so much
pleasure.
Siegwart seems to me the Work of
a very masterly Writer. The Scenery,
whether in the Sublime, or beautiful Style,
is painted with exquisite Colouring. The
pathetic Subjects are exceedingly touching,
& the gentle & tender Spirit of devotion,
which is diffused through the whole, is
singularly affecting. Besides the higher
Excellencies, which I have mentioned, the
Author seems to have a peculiar Art of
of rendering the most trifling Incidents, interesting
to his Readers. One might go
on for an Hour in enumerating the Beauties
of this Book, but one ought not to
omit a less pleasant Subject, which is
saying something of its Faults; which
seem to me to be such as might render
it rather dangerous, to young people at
least, without a Proper Degree of Caution
. The great objection to Siegwart
is, its being too Sentimental. The Characters
in which the Reader is most interested
, do not act from principle, but
from their Hearts: & alas my dearest
Miss Hamilton, it cannot be too early,
nor too strongly inculcated, that this poor
frail Thing, the human Heart, will ever
prove a miserable Rule of Action, unless
, even in its best Intentions, it is
under the superior direction of those
sober principles of Duty, which alone
can prevent it from running into
Wildness & Extravagance. The Love of
Siegwart & Mariane however innocent in
itself, is a dangerous Example. It hurries
them into an Engagement, without consulting
their parents, & produces clandestine
meetings, & other Instances of
Artfulness & deceit, which are absolutely
unjustifiable in real Life. It is true,
that all this ends unsuccessfully: but then,
this Event, is hindered from every use, as
a Lesson, by the Conduct of the Story, which
is so contrived as to turn off the Attention
from the Imprudence of the Lovers, & to
fix it on the Cruelty of the Father &
Relations.
I met with only one passage
marked with a pencil, which is in a
very pretty Sonnet. It has been impossible
for me to attempt giving you any Idea of
it in English, for not to mention the difficulty
in other Respects, my Head has been so
very bad, that I was often incapable even
of Reading.
Will you be so good to tell
Miss Gunning, that I have not been
able to get Siegwart, for I promised if I
could find it in England, to get one for
her as well as my self. perhaps you could
procure it, by the same means that you
have been so good to promise me.
I long to see you, & will certainly
take the first opportunity in my
power. Perhaps our dear Miss Sharpe may
fix some Time with you. Adieu. My tiresome
Head is very angry at this long Scribble
& will only allow me to subscribe your
most obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
Clarges Street
February 19. 1780
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: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 1b
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: London (certainty: medium)
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 14 February 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, giving her assessment of the German novel Siegwart, eine Klostergeschichte (1776), written by Johann Martin Miller (1750-1814), which had been lent to her by Queen Charlotte. She asks Hamilton to thank the Queen. She admires the writing greatly but finds that excessive sentimentality makes it potentially dangerous for young readers.
Carter had been unable to find copies of the book in England for Charlotte Gunning or herself, and she asks Hamilton if she can help. She blames her later-than-intended return of the Queen's copy, as well as her inability to explain in English ‘a very pretty Sonnet’, on her bad headaches.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Clarges Street, 1780 February 14.
Length: 1 sheet, 557 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: 26 September 2026
