Diplomatic Text
3c
I have at last procured the Abridgement my
dear Miʃs Hamilton, but it is so very scarce a Book
that it could only be got at Second Hand, which I beg
you will represent to the Q. as I am really ashamed
of its'[1] Shabby Appearance. I send you the Cap.[2] my
Head will only allow me to subscribe yours affectionately
ECarter
May 12th 1780[3]
Miʃs Hamilton
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Carter's way of writing possessive its is odd, often involving an apostrophe to the left of the word or replacing the usual dot over the i, as well as the more common apostrophe before or after the s.
2. If the reading is indeed ‘Cap.’, it may be short for Capitulum ‘chapter’.
3. The date (which is Hamilton's annotation) is written to the left of the signature.
Normalised Text
I have at last procured the Abridgement my
dear Miss Hamilton, but it is so very scarce a Book
that it could only be got at Second Hand, which I beg
you will represent to the Queen as I am really ashamed
of its Shabby Appearance. I send you the Cap. my
Head will only allow me to subscribe yours affectionately
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 3c
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 12 May 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton with apologies to the Queen that a shabby-looking secondhand copy of a book was all that could be procured.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton, 1780 May 12.
Length: 1 sheet, 65 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
