Diplomatic Text
9
South Lodge Sept 18. 1781
It was not till last night my
dear Miʃs Hamilton, that I received your
two delightful packets, which I now re
turn with a thousand Thanks. I long to hear
that dear Mrs F. is safely arrived in England.
Her Situation has been very distreʃsing. When
all is happily over, as I trust in the same
providence which has hitherto protected her,
it will be, the Remembrance of uncommon
Events will be a subject of very agreea
ble contemplation.
It rejoices us to receive so
comfortable an Account of your Health both
from your Letter to dear Miʃs S. which she
received at Langton, & to my Self. We hope
however your present unusual degree of
Fatigue will not be lasting. There are
Some parts of your Letter, which I defer
answering, till we can talk over the Subject
at the Tea Table in your dear little Ap
partment at St James's, where I hope it will
please God we may meet next Winter.
We arrived very safely, I thank God,
to the End of our long Journey, yester
day Evening. In our way from Lang
ton to Howsham,[1] We saw Studley
Park, which is indeed very fine, &
very Singular, but in a Stile very diffe
rent from the description which you
give of your Mode of Life, for it
looks like the Abode of Solitude &
Silence: & if one had a Mind to
turn Chartreuse,[2] in the most elegant
Manner, Studley park would be the
Spot for which such a Retirement.
Indeed the whole Scenery is admira
bly well adapted to the noble
Ruins of Fountains Abbey which
terminate the Grounds. -- We spent
a Fortnight at Howsham whither our
Excellent Langton Friends accompanied
us. Mr Cholmley's House was built
in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth. The Appear
ance without is very respectable:
The Rooms very noble, & yet very
airy & cheerful. The mode of
Living hospitable, elegant, & easy
There was a large Company when
we were there, & all were at per
fect Liberty. The Environs of the
House are exceedingly pleasant.
There is a most beautiful navigable
River close to the windows, & one
sees it winding for a long way
through very romantic Ground.
The cultivated woods are charming,
& the distant prospects various
& picturesque. There is a little village
very near the House, inhabited by
Mr Cholmley's dependants, who are
happy in the patronage of such a
Master. Mrs. Cholmley has set up
a School for reading, & useful works
The parish Church is at some distan[ce]
to which the Family goes ion a
Morning: but as all the servants cann[ot]
be there, on Sunday Evening a Clergym[an]
performs the Service, & preaches a Ser
mon at the House: & it is a most
respectable & affecting Sight to
see the Whole Family aʃsembled to
gether. Our Congregation I believe was
above 50.
Miʃs S. desires me to send you
her Love & to let you know that She
will Soon thank you for your Letter.
We hope to set out for Deal on Thu[rs]
day next, where She will stay about
10 days.
Adieu my dear Miʃs Hamilto[n]
I am ever Your obliged &
affectionate
E Carter
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Howsham Hall, near York, had recently come into the possession of Nathaniel Cholmley's family. He had house and grounds remodelled (Wikipedia).
2. If the reading turn Chartreuse is correct, Carter's intended meaning is not certain, but probably something like ‘adopt the quiet, contemplative life of a Carthusian nun’.
Normalised Text
South Lodge September 18. 1781
It was not till last night my
dear Miss Hamilton, that I received your
two delightful packets, which I now return
with a thousand Thanks. I long to hear
that dear Mrs Feilding is safely arrived in England.
Her Situation has been very distressing. When
all is happily over, as I trust in the same
providence which has hitherto protected her,
it will be, the Remembrance of uncommon
Events will be a subject of very agreeable
contemplation.
It rejoices us to receive so
comfortable an Account of your Health both
from your Letter to dear Miss Sharpe which she
received at Langton, & to my Self. We hope
however your present unusual degree of
Fatigue will not be lasting. There are
Some parts of your Letter, which I defer
answering, till we can talk over the Subject
at the Tea Table in your dear little Apartment
at St James's, where I hope it will
please God we may meet next Winter.
We arrived very safely, I thank God,
to the End of our long Journey, yesterday
Evening. In our way from Langton
to Howsham, We saw Studley
Park, which is indeed very fine, &
very Singular, but in a Style very different
from the description which you
give of your Mode of Life, for it
looks like the Abode of Solitude &
Silence: & if one had a Mind to
turn Chartreuse, in the most elegant
Manner, Studley park would be the
Spot for such a Retirement.
Indeed the whole Scenery is admirably
well adapted to the noble
Ruins of Fountains Abbey which
terminate the Grounds. -- We spent
a Fortnight at Howsham whither our
Excellent Langton Friends accompanied
us. Mr Cholmley's House was built
in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. The Appearance
without is very respectable:
The Rooms very noble, & yet very
airy & cheerful. The mode of
Living hospitable, elegant, & easy
There was a large Company when
we were there, & all were at perfect
Liberty. The Environs of the
House are exceedingly pleasant.
There is a most beautiful navigable
River close to the windows, & one
sees it winding for a long way
through very romantic Ground.
The cultivated woods are charming,
& the distant prospects various
& picturesque. There is a little village
very near the House, inhabited by
Mr Cholmley's dependants, who are
happy in the patronage of such a
Master. Mrs. Cholmley has set up
a School for reading, & useful works
The parish Church is at some distance
to which the Family goes on a
Morning: but as all the servants cannot
be there, on Sunday Evening a Clergyman
performs the Service, & preaches a Sermon
at the House: & it is a most
respectable & affecting Sight to
see the Whole Family assembled together
. Our Congregation I believe was
above 50.
Miss Sharpe desires me to send you
her Love & to let you know that She
will Soon thank you for your Letter.
We hope to set out for Deal on Thursday
next, where She will stay about
10 days.
Adieu my dear Miss Hamilton
I am ever Your obliged &
affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
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 9
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Enfield Chase
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 10 September 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, reporting on Carter and Mary Sharpe's return from the Smelts via Studley Park and Howsham, residence of Nathaniel Cholmley, to South Lodge. The Cholmley residence is described in glowing terms. Carter and Sharpe plan to set out for Carter's home in Deal, where Sharpe will stay for ten days.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; South Lodge, 1781 September 10.
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
