Diplomatic Text
7
1781
By a Letter which I lately
received from Lady Dartrey, I fear my dear
Miʃs Hamilton, that you have had a Return
of your Illneʃs since the Account which I
had from your Self of your being better.
The Rest of your Friends here, join with me
in their Solicitude about your Health, &
we all intreat that you will by some Means
give us a particular Relation how you do.
If writing is uneasy to your Self, perhaps
Mrs Goodyar will be so kind, as to write a
few Lines to relieve our Anxiety.
We set out from South Lodge
on the 17 of July, & travelled 150 miles
through the best Roads, & the dullest
Country I ever beheld. The Towns however
throughout this dreary Tract are well built,
& the Churches extremely handsome: but we
found a miserable deficiency of Farm Houses
& Cottages. Miʃs Sharpe's Health did not seem
at all the worse for some days whilst we were
travelling upon flat Ground, but her side
was a good deal affected when we had some
Hills to ascend, which leʃsened the pleasure
We found in the Improvement of the Country,
& the Beauty of the prospects, when we en
tered Yorkshire. We rested at York all Sunday,
& the Tuesday following, got to Staindrop
a Small Town in the Bishopric of Durham,
where we spent a Week with Mrs. Raby Vane:[1]
If you are at all acquainted with her, you will
easily imagine how charmingly it must have
been spent. She inhabits a very elegant
RetreatVilla, formed by her own Taste: & She
has converteimproved a boggy Spot into beauti
ful Lawn, & wood walks, which are al-
ready very forward & in a year or two
will form a complete Shade. In some Situa
tions she has a fine romantic view
of Raby Castle, which is about a
Mile distant from her House. Lord Darlington
lives most part of the year at the Castle, in
all the --- magnificence, & useful Greatneʃs of
an old English Baron, improving the Country,
& benefiting all the people round him. As
Miʃs Sharpe's Health rendered quiet very
neceʃsary, we could make no Excursions
while we were at Staindrop: & we have
taken but one Airing during the
Week that we have past with our
Excellent Friends at Langton. This House
is the most completely convenient, & cheer[ful]
of almost any I ever saw, & the Stile of
Building appears to me singularly pleasing.
The River Swale winds round the Lawn, &
runs along the Side of a very pretty Wood, &
is seen in different directions from almost every
wind. The distantnear prospect is pasture &
Animals grazing, Some Trees & Farm
Houses interspersed: The Lontananza[2] is
bounded by a Range of very high Hills.
Mr & Mrs Smelt, Miʃs S. & Elizabeth[3]
send you their Love & best Wishes, in which I
heartily concur with them. Do pray my dear
Let us know very soon how you do, & believe [me][4]
your very obliged & affectionate
E. Carter
Langton Augst 7. 1781
[5]
Miʃs Hamilton
At
The Queen's Lodge
Windsor[6]
[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Raby Vane (1736-1769) was third son of Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington (Wikipedia). He married Elizabeth Sayer in 1768 but died the following year without leaving children. His widow was a landowner who donated a peal of bells to Staindrop Parish Church in 1788. Her blameless life and sudden death in May 1789 are noted by Carter in a letter of 13 June 1789 to Mrs Montagu (Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, ed. Montagu Pennington, London, 1817, 3 vols, III.309).
2. An Italian (and also Spanish) term for the distant prospect, e.g. in a painting.
3. Candidates for ‘Elizabeth’ include the niece under Carter's care but later drawn away from Carter by Sharpe, the cause of a rift between them. It could be the eldest daughter of Osmond Beauvoir, by now aged 26 (on whom see Letters from Mrs. Elizabeth Carter to Mrs. Montagu, ed. Montagu Pennington, London, 1817, 3 vols, III.45) -- not the same person (contra Pullin 2021: 101-102 in Further reading). A third possibility, if she has the right forename, is mentioned in a letter by Carter to Mrs Montagu of 20 September 1781 (Letter CCXXXIV, Pennington ed. III.154): ‘On our way home we dined with an acquaintance of Miss Sharpe's at Pomfret [Pontefract]’, to which the editor adds ‘With whom Mrs. Carter went this journey’. Least likely candidate to be referred to just by her forename is Leonard Smelt's sister Elizabeth (1727-1807).
4. The ‘me’ covered by pasting the sheet to the support can be read from the image of p.3 in Mirador by enhancing and flipping the image.
5. Remains of a stamp in black ink.
6. The address is written vertically.
7. Stamp reading ‘10 AV’, indicating that the letter went through the post on 10 August.
Normalised Text
By a Letter which I lately
received from Lady Dartrey, I fear my dear
Miss Hamilton, that you have had a Return
of your Illness since the Account which I
had from your Self of your being better.
The Rest of your Friends here, join with me
in their Solicitude about your Health, &
we all entreat that you will by some Means
give us a particular Relation how you do.
If writing is uneasy to your Self, perhaps
Mrs Goodyar will be so kind, as to write a
few Lines to relieve our Anxiety.
We set out from South Lodge
on the 17 of July, & travelled 150 miles
through the best Roads, & the dullest
Country I ever beheld. The Towns however
throughout this dreary Tract are well built,
& the Churches extremely handsome: but we
found a miserable deficiency of Farm Houses
& Cottages. Miss Sharpe's Health did not seem
at all the worse for some days whilst we were
travelling upon flat Ground, but her side
was a good deal affected when we had some
Hills to ascend, which lessened the pleasure
We found in the Improvement of the Country,
& the Beauty of the prospects, when we entered
Yorkshire. We rested at York all Sunday,
& the Tuesday following, got to Staindrop
a Small Town in the Bishopric of Durham,
where we spent a Week with Mrs. Raby Vane:
If you are at all acquainted with her, you will
easily imagine how charmingly it must have
been spent. She inhabits a very elegant
Villa, formed by her own Taste: & She
has improved a boggy Spot into beautiful Lawn, & wood walks, which are already
very forward & in a year or two
will form a complete Shade. In some Situations
she has a fine romantic view
of Raby Castle, which is about a
Mile distant from her House. Lord Darlington
lives most part of the year at the Castle, in
all the magnificence, & useful Greatness of
an old English Baron, improving the Country,
& benefiting all the people round him. As
Miss Sharpe's Health rendered quiet very
necessary, we could make no Excursions
while we were at Staindrop: & we have
taken but one Airing during the
Week that we have passed with our
Excellent Friends at Langton. This House
is the most completely convenient, & cheerful
of almost any I ever saw, & the Style of
Building appears to me singularly pleasing.
The River Swale winds round the Lawn, &
runs along the Side of a very pretty Wood, &
is seen in different directions from almost every
wind. The near prospect is pasture &
Animals grazing, Some Trees & Farm
Houses interspersed: The Lontananza is
bounded by a Range of very high Hills.
Mr & Mrs Smelt, Miss Sharpe & Elizabeth
send you their Love & best Wishes, in which I
heartily concur with them. Do pray my dear
Let us know very soon how you do, & believe me
your very obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
Langton August 7. 1781
Miss Hamilton
At
The Queen's Lodge
Windsor
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 7
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Langton, County Durham
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: 7 August 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, reporting on Carter and Mary Sharpe's trip to the north-east. They travelled from Enfield Chase through dull countryside as far as Yorkshire, rested briefly at York, stayed for a week with Mrs (Elizabeth) Raby Vane in Staindrop before moving on to the Smelts' villa in Langton, both in County Durham. Carter suspects that Hamilton is again ill and asks that she or her maidservant Mrs Goodyar reassure them with an account of her health.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Langton, 1781 August 7.
Length: 2 sheets, 000 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 26 February 2026)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 27 July 2026
