Diplomatic Text
35
1783
A thousand Thanks to you, my
dear Friend for your kind & most welcome
Information of the Amendment in dear
Lady Wake's Health about which I was
greatly anxious. I heartily rejoyce with
You & Lady Dartrey on the Comfort you
must feel in seeing her so much improved
by your Visit: & hope the happy pros-
spect of her Recovery will soon end in
it's Completion.
Though I regretted the not
getting another Sight of dear Lady Dartrey
& You, it really made me happy to think
of the Good Your Visit would do Lady Wake.
I wrote to Lady Dartrey last post. She
will give you an Account, what a very
poor Creature I have been since we
parted. I am, I thank God at present
returning to my usual State. My
Throat is quite well: my Head only it's
Common pain, & I have recovered my
Appetite. But my Spirits are very low
& my Eyes weak. I hope to grow
more alive when I can walk a little in
the Air: but there is no Air now to
walk in, but a cold black North East
Wind. I propose to drink Tea this
Afternoon with a Friend who is very
------ near. I have not yet been out,
nor able to see any Body but my own
Relations, & that only for a very short
Time.
Miʃs A. Clarke was so good to
transcribe the Account which you first
Sent her of Lady Wake, which made
me the more solicitous to hear again.
By some Means your Letter which was
dated the 22 did not reach London
till the 24th so that it did not arrive
here till last Night.
35[1]
pray aʃsure Lady Wake of my most
Cordial good Wishes. I am very glad
to hear Sr Wm. is better, & beg to be
kindly remembered to him. If it please
God we all live & prosper till next
Winter, I hope he will make us Amends
for the deficiencies of the last, by
coming in reasonable Time to Town.
My tenderest Love to dear Lady dartrey.
I am tired & confused with writing[2] so
Adieu my dear, most affectionately
ECarter
Deal May 26. 1783
26 May 1783 Mrs. Carter
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
A thousand Thanks to you, my
dear Friend for your kind & most welcome
Information of the Amendment in dear
Lady Wake's Health about which I was
greatly anxious. I heartily rejoice with
You & Lady Dartrey on the Comfort you
must feel in seeing her so much improved
by your Visit: & hope the happy prospect
of her Recovery will soon end in
it's Completion.
Though I regretted the not
getting another Sight of dear Lady Dartrey
& You, it really made me happy to think
of the Good Your Visit would do Lady Wake.
I wrote to Lady Dartrey last post. She
will give you an Account, what a very
poor Creature I have been since we
parted. I am, I thank God at present
returning to my usual State. My
Throat is quite well: my Head only it's
Common pain, & I have recovered my
Appetite. But my Spirits are very low
& my Eyes weak. I hope to grow
more alive when I can walk a little in
the Air: but there is no Air now to
walk in, but a cold black North East
Wind. I propose to drink Tea this
Afternoon with a Friend who is very
near. I have not yet been out,
nor able to see any Body but my own
Relations, & that only for a very short
Time.
Miss Anna Clarke was so good to
transcribe the Account which you first
Sent her of Lady Wake, which made
me the more solicitous to hear again.
By some Means your Letter which was
dated the 22 did not reach London
till the 24th so that it did not arrive
here till last Night.
pray assure Lady Wake of my most
Cordial good Wishes. I am very glad
to hear Sir William is better, & beg to be
kindly remembered to him. If it please
God we all live & prosper till next
Winter, I hope he will make us Amends
for the deficiencies of the last, by
coming in reasonable Time to Town.
My tenderest Love to dear Lady dartrey.
I am tired & confused with writing so
Adieu my dear, most affectionately
Elizabeth Carter
Deal May 26. 1783
Miss Hamilton
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 35
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Courteenhall, near Northampton (certainty: high)
Date sent: 26 May 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton about Lady Mary Wake's illness. Hamilton has been visiting Lady Wake.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1783 May 26.
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: 3 August 2026
