Diplomatic Text
3
d
Deal, June18th- 1780
My dear Miʃs Hamilton
Through many a dreary Field
& over many a flinty Road, did we paʃs
ion our pilgrimage to Fairford Church,
& I find our dear Miʃs Sharpe is so fa
tigued with leading you along, that she
has fallen fast asleep, before she got you
into the west door. The Entrance into
the Church is wonderfully solemn & fine, &
one feels all the Effect of the “dim religious
Light” admitted through 28 large windows
of painted Glaʃs of the deepest Colouring.
They contain a History of the most remarka
ble paʃsages of human Existence, in a Series
from its' first Act in the Garden of Eden,
to its' awful Catastrophe at the last day.
These Windows have besides the
Richneʃs of colouring common to other pain
ancient painted Glaʃs, in some of the
Figures, a Justneʃs of design, which is
very unusual. The History of them is singular.
They were taken in a prize ship bound to
Rome, by an English merchant in 1493, who
when he brought them Home procured a
Grant of the manor of Fairford, & built
the Church, which is very handsome, to the
Windows. You will, I am sure, honour this
noble Use of commercial opulence, & you
will respect the Elevated Taste of an English
Merchant, who instead of consuming his Riches
in vain & selfish Luxury, has immortalised
his name, by raising a structure so sublime
& beautiful to the service of Religion. -- If
ever I take a prize ship, I will give an organ
to Fairford Church, which is all wanting to it's
Completion.
Adieu my dear Miʃs Hamilton. I
hope we may have a chance of meeting this
Summer: If not, that we shall at least renew
our delightful Trios at Breakfast next
Winter. I am most faithfully & affectionately
Your's E Carter
I beg my most respectful & Affectionate Compliments
to dear Lady Charlotte Finch.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Deal, June18th- 1780
My dear Miss Hamilton
Through many a dreary Field
& over many a flinty Road, did we pass
on our pilgrimage to Fairford Church,
& I find our dear Miss Sharpe is so fatigued
with leading you along, that she
has fallen fast asleep, before she got you
into the west door. The Entrance into
the Church is wonderfully solemn & fine, &
one feels all the Effect of the “dim religious
Light” admitted through 28 large windows
of painted Glass of the deepest Colouring.
They contain a History of the most remarkable
passages of human Existence, in a Series
from its first Act in the Garden of Eden,
to its awful Catastrophe at the last day.
These Windows have besides the
Richness of colouring common to other
ancient painted Glass, in some of the
Figures, a Justness of design, which is
very unusual. The History of them is singular.
They were taken in a prize ship bound to
Rome, by an English merchant in 1493, who
when he brought them Home procured a
Grant of the manor of Fairford, & built
the Church, which is very handsome, to the
Windows. You will, I am sure, honour this
noble Use of commercial opulence, & you
will respect the Elevated Taste of an English
Merchant, who instead of consuming his Riches
in vain & selfish Luxury, has immortalised
his name, by raising a structure so sublime
& beautiful to the service of Religion. -- If
ever I take a prize ship, I will give an organ
to Fairford Church, which is all wanting to it's
Completion.
Adieu my dear Miss Hamilton. I
hope we may have a chance of meeting this
Summer: If not, that we shall at least renew
our delightful Trios at Breakfast next
Winter. I am most faithfully & affectionately
Your's Elizabeth Carter
I beg my most respectful & Affectionate Compliments
to dear Lady Charlotte Finch.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
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 3d
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Eastbourne (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 18 June 1780
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton with a description of Fairford Church, especially its famous stained-glass windows and its history.
Carter closes by looking forward to their next meeting. She sends compliments to Lady Charlotte Finch (who is in charge of the party summering at Eastbourne).
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1780 June 18.
Length: 1 sheet, 320 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 25 February 2026)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 22 July 2026
