Diplomatic Text
3a
Saturday morning
It would rejoyce me my dear Miʃs Hamilton to
get another Sight of you but I fear it will not be
in my power, as I dine neither with Lady Dartrey to
▼ morrow,[1] nor in her neighbourhood, or I would certainly
call on you there. So after all I fear I must content
my self with aʃsuring you of my kindest wishes for the
perfect Recovery of your Health, & every other Circumstance
that can render the Summer pleasant to you. I am
my dear Miʃs Hamilton
Your most oblged & affectionate
E. Carter
May 1778
Miʃs Hamilton
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Late on 13 May 1778, Hamilton had been invited to dine with Lady Dartrey on Saturday 16 May, or if that did not suit, on Sunday 17 May (see HAM/1/7/5/4). It is possible that Hamilton suggested that Carter meet her there on the Sunday.
Normalised Text
Saturday morning
It would rejoice me my dear Miss Hamilton to
get another Sight of you but I fear it will not be
in my power, as I dine neither with Lady Dartrey to
▼ morrow, nor in her neighbourhood, or I would certainly
call on you there. So after all I fear I must content
my self with assuring you of my kindest wishes for the
perfect Recovery of your Health, & every other Circumstance
that can render the Summer pleasant to you. I am
my dear Miss Hamilton
Your most obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
Miss Hamilton
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: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 3a
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 16 May 1778
when 16 May 1778 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton regretting that she cannot see Hamilton at Lady Dartrey's because she is dining somewhere distant from Dartrey's neighbourhood. Hamilton dates receipt of the note to May 1778. Comparison with (HAM/1/7/5/4, which passes on an invitation to Hamilton to dine at Lady Dartrey's, suggests that the ‘Saturday morning’ of Carter's note is most likely to be 16 May 1778.
Carter closes by wishing Hamilton a return to perfect health for the summer.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton, 1778? May.
Length: 1 sheet, 98 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: 7 April 2026
