Diplomatic Text
32a
4th. Febry 1783
It is very mortifying to me my dear Friend
that your kind Invitation should come on a day
in which I have been Engaged Ever since Yesterday
Morning: So I must content my Self with Sincerely
Wishing you many happy Returns of it, & every
Comfort in your new Establishment. -- Suppose you
were to Breakfast with me to morrow Morning?[1] I go to the
Committee at 11. but we might have a comfortable Tete a Tête
before that. Or woiluld you rather come on Fryday? Let me know
I am wet through So must change my dreʃs. ever
yours. E Carter
[2]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. If Carter's note really had been sent on (Tuesday) 4 February, ‘to morrow’ would have been Hamilton's birthday, which fell on 5 February, so that rather than missing Hamilton's birthday altogether, as she at first feared, Carter might now be proposing her own lodgings rather than Hamilton's. Alternatively, by ‘to morrow’, Carter may actually mean Thursday, the day after the day of the invitation.
2. This page is blank.
Normalised Text
It is very mortifying to me my dear Friend
that your kind Invitation should come on a day
in which I have been Engaged Ever since Yesterday
Morning: So I must content my Self with Sincerely
Wishing you many happy Returns of it, & every
Comfort in your new Establishment. -- Suppose you
were to Breakfast with me to morrow Morning? I go to the
Committee at 11. but we might have a comfortable Tete a Tête
before that. Or would you rather come on Friday? Let me know
I am wet through So must change my dress. ever
yours. 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: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 32a
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 4 February 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Note from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter is unavailable to visit on Hamilton's birthday and makes alternative suggestions.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton, 1783 February 4.
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: 2 August 2026
