Diplomatic Text
40
answer'd 1783
Many Thanks to you my dear Friend
for your kind Letter which I am not willing
to delay answering, though my Spirits are
very low. You have probably heard
that my Brother in Berkshire had the
Misfortune to have all his Barns, Stables &c
burnt down in one of the late terrible
Thunder Storms. Yet this Accident was
accompanied by Circumstances of the greatest
Mercy as it pleased God to spare his
Children, his Servants & his dwelling House.
The Accounts of this Affair you will easily
believe must have greatly affected me: &
just as I was recovering from it I have
received the news of his Suffering a Still
heavier Loʃs by the Sudden Death of the
best Friend he had in the World
except in his own Family: one from
Whom he had long experienced the greatest
Kindneʃs, & on whom he had Reason to depend
for introducing his eldest Son into the world.
-- All these Misfortunes are Inflictions from
the Hand of Heaven to which I trust we
Shall be enabled to submit with Christian
Resignation: & to rely upon the divine
Goodneʃs for supplying our Loʃses in whatever
Manner it sees best.
Like you I was painfully struck
by the Appearance that the poor Creature
Who left so melancholy a Memorial of him
self[1] had put an End to his Sufferings in a
dreadfully Unwarrantable Manner. Yet Miʃs
Purdy tells me there were no Marks of a
Violent Death discoverable on him. She
leaves Deal to Day: but I hope we shall
Meet again in Town, & that you will be
of our quiet Breakfast party. very uncertain
are all the Expectations of a world like this:
Yet I think it is allowable to indulge cheerful
Hopes, provided the Mind is kept in a Temper
Of Submiʃsion & Resignation to that over
ruling Wisdom & Goodneʃs which alone is
qualified to determine whether it is for our
real Advantage, that they should Succeed.
I have been ever since Wednesday
with the penningtons at Eastry. It is a
Pretty Village & in a fine Country & I hoped
proposed to have amused my Spirits, which
have for some Time been very low, by some
pleasant walks: but neither my Sister or I
were well, so they must be deferred to some
more favorable Opportunity. We were all
up this Morning before 3 o'clock[2] in order
to set out on our several destination. My
Niece (elder Sister to Elizabeth) in her way
to Berkshire where it is neceʃsary for her
to return & aʃsist & Comfort her poor Father
& mother, otherwise she was to have spent
Some Time with me: The penningtons to
Tunstal where they are to remain from
for some weeks, & I to Deal, from whence
probably I shall not move till they return.
The Absence of Lady Dartrey, if I
live till the next Winter will indeed very sen
sibly, affect me, & I think of it as little as
I can. Ly Dartrey wrote me word she was to
be at dover to day, where to my great morti
fication I have no means of getting a Sight
of her. I have heard nothing of Mrs Vesey
since your Letter: but I have the Comfort of
being informed from all Quarters that the
Project of going to Ireland is laid aside
for this Year.
Will you be so good to procure
me a Frank for the inclosed Letter, & to send
it to the Post? The Conveyance of an Irish
Letter is so dear, that I cannot in Conscience
Put my Correspondent to the Charge of it.
When I was at Eastry, I visited the
Spot where once stood the Palace of a Saxon
King: but no Remains can be traced except
a few Arches of Windows supposed to belong to
the Chappel: which is the more to be regretted.
as there is a monkish Miracle belonging to it's
History, which perhaps you may have read so
I will not trouble you with it. Adieu my
dear I am low & uncomfortable but ever
affectionately your's
ECarter
Deal Augst 2. 1783
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. See MS Eng 1778 38 p.4.
2. On Carter's curious placement of certain kinds of apostrophe, see the note on MS Eng 1778 4a p.1.
Normalised Text
Many Thanks to you my dear Friend
for your kind Letter which I am not willing
to delay answering, though my Spirits are
very low. You have probably heard
that my Brother in Berkshire had the
Misfortune to have all his Barns, Stables &c
burnt down in one of the late terrible
Thunder Storms. Yet this Accident was
accompanied by Circumstances of the greatest
Mercy as it pleased God to spare his
Children, his Servants & his dwelling House.
The Accounts of this Affair you will easily
believe must have greatly affected me: &
just as I was recovering from it I have
received the news of his Suffering a Still
heavier Loss by the Sudden Death of the
best Friend he had in the World
except in his own Family: one from
Whom he had long experienced the greatest
Kindness, & on whom he had Reason to depend
for introducing his eldest Son into the world.
-- All these Misfortunes are Inflictions from
the Hand of Heaven to which I trust we
Shall be enabled to submit with Christian
Resignation: & to rely upon the divine
Goodness for supplying our Losses in whatever
Manner it sees best.
Like you I was painfully struck
by the Appearance that the poor Creature
Who left so melancholy a Memorial of him
self had put an End to his Sufferings in a
dreadfully Unwarrantable Manner. Yet Miss
Purdy tells me there were no Marks of a
Violent Death discoverable on him. She
leaves Deal to Day: but I hope we shall
Meet again in Town, & that you will be
of our quiet Breakfast party. very uncertain
are all the Expectations of a world like this:
Yet I think it is allowable to indulge cheerful
Hopes, provided the Mind is kept in a Temper
Of Submission & Resignation to that overruling
Wisdom & Goodness which alone is
qualified to determine whether it is for our
real Advantage, that they should Succeed.
I have been ever since Wednesday
with the penningtons at Eastry. It is a
Pretty Village & in a fine Country & I
proposed to have amused my Spirits, which
have for some Time been very low, by some
pleasant walks: but neither my Sister or I
were well, so they must be deferred to some
more favourable Opportunity. We were all
up this Morning before 3 o'clock in order
to set out on our several destination. My
Niece (elder Sister to Elizabeth) in her way
to Berkshire where it is necessary for her
to return & assist & Comfort her poor Father
& mother, otherwise she was to have spent
Some Time with me: The penningtons to
Tunstal where they are to remain
for some weeks, & I to Deal, from whence
probably I shall not move till they return.
The Absence of Lady Dartrey, if I
live till the next Winter will indeed very sensibly
affect me, & I think of it as little as
I can. Lady Dartrey wrote me word she was to
be at dover to day, where to my great mortification
I have no means of getting a Sight
of her. I have heard nothing of Mrs Vesey
since your Letter: but I have the Comfort of
being informed from all Quarters that the
Project of going to Ireland is laid aside
for this Year.
Will you be so good to procure
me a Frank for the enclosed Letter, & to send
it to the Post? The Conveyance of an Irish
Letter is so dear, that I cannot in Conscience
Put my Correspondent to the Charge of it.
When I was at Eastry, I visited the
Spot where once stood the Palace of a Saxon
King: but no Remains can be traced except
a few Arches of Windows supposed to belong to
the Chapel: which is the more to be regretted.
as there is a monkish Miracle belonging to it's
History, which perhaps you may have read so
I will not trouble you with it. Adieu my
dear I am low & uncomfortable but ever
affectionately your's
Elizabeth Carter
Deal August 2. 1783
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 40
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London (certainty: high)
Date sent: 2 August 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter's spirits have been low. She tells Hamilton of two misfortunes suffered by her [half-]brother [the clergyman Henry Carter (1739-1813)]. She has been staying with the Penningtons, her sister and brother-in-law, at Eastry, but her hopes of pleasant walks were dashed by her sister and herself being unwell. She mentions a ruined Saxon palace at Eastry. She asks Hamilton to acquire a frank and post an enclosed letter to Ireland, to spare herself and her Irish correspondent the expense.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1783 August 2.
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: 25 September 2026
