Diplomatic Text
1
Conquest of Mexico by An
tonio de Solis
. translated un
der the Inspection of Hooke.[1]
Though this is a History,
yet as it is divided into Short
Chapters, it may be easily left
& resumed. It is extremely well
writ & highly interesting &
entertaining.
2. Chevaliers de Malthe
by Vertòt.[2] --- AThe History of
a very Singular order: &
full of such strange Incidents
as give it all the Amusement
of Fiction. There are 5
vols: in 12mo. but the 2 last
are only Rules of the order &c
3. Longsword Earl of Salisbury
a historical Romance: by
dr Leland Author of the
Life of Philip of Macedon.[3]
I wd. not venture to mention
this Book if it was a mere
idle Love Story: but the
Subject is chiefly a noble
Instance of Conjugal Fide
-lity & Affection.
4. Plutarch's Lives. There
is an English Translation
published not many Years
ago by dr. Langhorne [4]
5. Ramsay's Travels of
Cyrus.[5]
[6]
6) Miʃs Aikin's Works (Mrs. Barbauld.[7]
The poetry is admirable & ye. prose Eʃsays
have at least equal merit.
7) Lettres recreatives et Morales by Caraccioli[8]
not of a high stile of Genius but pleasing.
32
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The history of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, translated from the original Spanish of Don Antonio De Solis [...] by Thomas Townsend; the whole translation revised and corrected by Nathanael Hooke, 2 vols. London, 1738.
2. Abbé de Vertot (1655-1735), Histoire des chevaliers hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jerusalem: Appellez depuis chevaliers de Rhodes, et aujourd'hui chevaliers de Malthe. Paris: Rollin, 1726. Transl. London, 1728.
3. Thomas Leland (1722-1785), Longsword, Earl of Salisbury: An historical romance. London, 1762.
4. Plutarch's Lives, transl. [...] John Langhorne and William Langhorne, 6 vols. London, 1770.
5. Chevalier (Andrew Michael) Ramsay (1686-1743), The travels of Cyrus ... To which is annex'd, a discourse upon the theology and mythology of the ancients [Some other editions have ‘of the pagans’ -- DD], 2nd edn. London, 1727-1728.
6. Items 6 and 7 on the list, probably in Hamilton's hand, closely adapt Carter's comments on those works in her letter of 25 May 1782 (see MS Eng 1778 14 p.3).
7. If there was a closing bracket, it has been trimmed off.
8. Louis-Antoine Caraccioli(1719-1803), Lettres récréatives et morales sur les moeurs du temps, 4 vols. Paris, 1767-1768.
Normalised Text
1
Conquest of Mexico by Antonio
de Solis
. translated under
the Inspection of Hooke.
Though this is a History,
yet as it is divided into Short
Chapters, it may be easily left
& resumed. It is extremely well
written & highly interesting &
entertaining.
2. Chevaliers de Malthe
by Vertòt. The History of
a very Singular order: &
full of such strange Incidents
as give it all the Amusement
of Fiction. There are 5
volumes in duodecimo but the 2 last
are only Rules of the order &c
3. Longsword Earl of Salisbury
a historical Romance: by
dr Leland Author of the
Life of Philip of Macedon.
I would not venture to mention
this Book if it was a mere
idle Love Story: but the
Subject is chiefly a noble
Instance of Conjugal Fidelity
& Affection.
4. Plutarch's Lives. There
is an English Translation
published not many Years
ago by dr. Langhorne
5. Ramsay's Travels of
Cyrus.
6) Miss Aikin's Works (Mrs. Barbauld.
The poetry is admirable & the prose Essays
have at least equal merit.
7) Lettres recreatives et Morales by Caraccioli
not of a high style of Genius but pleasing.
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 32
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: n.d.
Letter Description
Summary: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton consisting of a list of recommended books. Hamilton has augmented the list by adding two items previously recommended for the Queen by Carter (in MS Eng 1778 14), reproducing parts of Carter's comments verbatim.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript notes 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: 13 October 2026
