Diplomatic Text
Have you ever read the Tableau de Paris?[1] I run through it while I was there.[2] It is
in some parts amusing, but pert, flippant, evidently a good deal exaggerated, & I suspect in
some particulars false. But the Author by some paʃsages, appears to be a french philosopher
& french philosophy & lying go mighty well together.
[3]
27b
Miʃs Hamilton[4]
Queen's Lodge
Free
Wake
Windsor
[5] [6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Tableau de Paris was published in 2 vols., 1781, in 12 vols., 1782–1789.
2. Carter had got back home from Paris on 30 October 1782 (see MS Eng 1778 25 p.1), and this note was probably written soon afterwards.
3. The address is in the hand of Sir William Wake, 8th Baronet, provider of the free frank.
4. Stamp in faded red ink reading ‘FREE’.
5. Remains of a stamp reading ‘DEAL’.
6. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
Have you ever read the Tableau de Paris? I ran through it while I was there. It is
in some parts amusing, but pert, flippant, evidently a good deal exaggerated, & I suspect in
some particulars false. But the Author by some passages, appears to be a french philosopher
& french philosophy & lying go mighty well together.
Miss Hamilton
Queen's Lodge
Free
Wake
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: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 27b
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: c.November 1782
notBefore 30 October 1782 (precision: high)
notAfter November 1782 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton on Tableau de Paris, which she had read during her recent visit there, whose author ‘appears to be a french philosopher & french philosophy & Lying go mighty well together’.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton, undated.
Length: 1 sheet, 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: 1 August 2026
