Diplomatic Text
43
1783
Indeed my dear, I perfectly agree
with you in rejoycing that we are
not separated from our dear & Excellent
Friends by the impracticable Ocean.
I grieve to think of what poor
dear Lady Wake must have suffered
from Sr William's new Attack of the Gout.
I hope by your Account it is not likely
to prove a Severe Fit: It might even
be a lucky Circumstance if it would
frighten him to Buxton: but as you do
not mention a word of that Journey,
I fear he has entirely laid it aside.
What a Tryal must the affectio
nate Heart of Miʃs H. more have felt
from the Scenes in which she has been
Engaged! I heartily wish that the
Hope of dr Kennicot's Recovery may have been
confirmed. Do you know much of his
Excellent wife? She has an admirable under
standing at once solid & lively: & her prin
-ciples seem to be of the noblest kind: &
indeed I believe her whole Character is
highly respectable & amiable.
The Vesey Family gave me the
pleasure of spending a Day with me late
ly. Mr Vesey looks amazingly healthy
Mrs Vesey & Mrs Handcock much as when
I left Town. They all seem pleased with
Margate: & Mr Vesey's Health is so much
improved that I hope they will stay
there till it is too late for him even
to think of Lucan:[1] It is in this view
that I enjoy their being in Kent. For
otherwise it is quite teizing to think of
their being as much out of my Reach,
as if they were in Clarges Street, seeing
I have neither Wings to fly to them through
the Air, nor a Post Chaise to convey me upon
the Surface of the Earth.
I forgot to mention to you in my
last that I have had the pleasure of see
ing our Friend's Excellent description of
Mrs Vesey's delightful parties.[2]
Did you see any Thing of the strange
phenomenon in the Air, some little Time
ago?[3] By all description it must have been
very beautiful. I was so unlucky to be
Sent to my pillow by the Head ach some
Hours before, & saw nothing of it.
While you are in Eʃsex, I hope you
will Employ your pencil in Copying some
of the charming Views by which you are
Surrounded. Every Landscape is in it's highest
Beauty in this most picturesque Season.
Since I begun my Letter, An Article
which I have just seen in the papers, has an
nihilated every Hope of poor Dr Kennicot's Re
-covery. I heartily grieve for Mrs Kennicot. I
trust that with her Principles she cannot fai[l]
of a Support equal to her Tryals: but in
the most resigned disposition of Soul, the
Heart must feel it's Sufferings: & the best
People, wherever the most natural Affect
-ions are concerned, feel the most.
I beg my Love, & best Thank[s]
to dear Lady Wake for her kind postscrip[t]
Be so good to procure a Frank for me
& dispatch the inclosed to Miʃs H. more
I must not omit to answer your kind
Enquiries about my Brother. The Bp of
Salisbury his Diocesan, was so good to send him a 30£
Bill, when he heard of his Loʃs[4] with a kind
Intention of raising his Spirits. Nothing
else has been done for him except by his
own Family who, you will readily believe,
would contribute what they could to alleviate
his Misfortunes. I thank God he has born
them with that Submission & Resignations[5] whic[h]
becomes a Christian, & a Clergyman.
Adieu my dear Friend. Most affectionately
yours
ECarter
Deal
Augst 23.
1783.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Lucan, County Dublin, where they had a mansion, Lucan House.
2. The ‘Excellent description of Mrs Vesey's delightful parties’ is from Hannah More's poem Bas Bleu, as confirmed three weeks later when Carter again praises it and refers to ‘that Copy I saw before’ (see MS Eng 1778 44 p.2).
3. The 1783 Great Meteor, on 18 August.
4. Namely, the burning down of his barn, stables, etc. during a thunderstorm; see MS Eng 1778 40 p.1.
5. The plural in ‘Resignations’ is unexpected.
Normalised Text
Indeed my dear, I perfectly agree
with you in rejoicing that we are
not separated from our dear & Excellent
Friends by the impracticable Ocean.
I grieve to think of what poor
dear Lady Wake must have suffered
from Sir William's new Attack of the Gout.
I hope by your Account it is not likely
to prove a Severe Fit: It might even
be a lucky Circumstance if it would
frighten him to Buxton: but as you do
not mention a word of that Journey,
I fear he has entirely laid it aside.
What a Trial must the affectionate
Heart of Miss Hannah more have felt
from the Scenes in which she has been
Engaged! I heartily wish that the
Hope of dr Kennicot's Recovery may have been
confirmed. Do you know much of his
Excellent wife? She has an admirable understanding
at once solid & lively: & her principles
seem to be of the noblest kind: &
indeed I believe her whole Character is
highly respectable & amiable.
The Vesey Family gave me the
pleasure of spending a Day with me lately. Mr Vesey looks amazingly healthy
Mrs Vesey & Mrs Handcock much as when
I left Town. They all seem pleased with
Margate: & Mr Vesey's Health is so much
improved that I hope they will stay
there till it is too late for him even
to think of Lucan: It is in this view
that I enjoy their being in Kent. For
otherwise it is quite teasing to think of
their being as much out of my Reach,
as if they were in Clarges Street, seeing
I have neither Wings to fly to them through
the Air, nor a Post Chaise to convey me upon
the Surface of the Earth.
I forgot to mention to you in my
last that I have had the pleasure of seeing
our Friend's Excellent description of
Mrs Vesey's delightful parties.
Did you see any Thing of the strange
phenomenon in the Air, some little Time
ago? By all description it must have been
very beautiful. I was so unlucky to be
Sent to my pillow by the Head ache some
Hours before, & saw nothing of it.
While you are in Essex, I hope you
will Employ your pencil in Copying some
of the charming Views by which you are
Surrounded. Every Landscape is in it's highest
Beauty in this most picturesque Season.
Since I began my Letter, An Article
which I have just seen in the papers, has annihilated
every Hope of poor Dr Kennicot's Recovery
. I heartily grieve for Mrs Kennicot. I
trust that with her Principles she cannot fail
of a Support equal to her Trials: but in
the most resigned disposition of Soul, the
Heart must feel it's Sufferings: & the best
People, wherever the most natural Affections
are concerned, feel the most.
I beg my Love, & best Thanks
to dear Lady Wake for her kind postscript
Be so good to procure a Frank for me
& dispatch the enclosed to Miss Hannah more
I must not omit to answer your kind
Enquiries about my Brother. The Bishop of
Salisbury his Diocesan, was so good to send him a 30£
Bill, when he heard of his Loss with a kind
Intention of raising his Spirits. Nothing
else has been done for him except by his
own Family who, you will readily believe,
would contribute what they could to alleviate
his Misfortunes. I thank God he has borne
them with that Submission & Resignations which
becomes a Christian, & a Clergyman.
Adieu my dear Friend. Most affectionately
yours
Elizabeth Carter
Deal
August 23.
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 43
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Upshire, near Waltham Abbey (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 23 August 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter reacts to news of Sir William Wake's gout and to the illness of Dr Kennicott. She praises his wife Ann(e) and later laments a report in a newspaper suggesting that there is no hope of his recovery. [Dr Kennicott died on 18 September.] Carter reports a pleasant day that the Veseys spent with her. She is glad they are in Kent rather than going to Ireland, but Margate is as inaccessible to her as London. Carter has ‘had the pleasure of seeing our Friend's Excellent description of Mrs Vesey's delightful parties’, a reference to Hannah More's poem Bas Bleu. In bed with a headache, she missed the comet widely reported over England. She closes with news of her [half-]brother Henry in the aftermath of the disastrous fire at his property.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1783 August 23.
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: 2 October 2026
