Diplomatic Text
[1]
46
1783
My dear Friend
Indeed I thought it very
long before I heard from you, but I was glad
to find at last that you had not been pre
vented by any unpleasant Reason. I make
no Doubt but that your Time past very
agreeably at Bulstrode. you were perfectly
right however I think in resisting the
Temptation of a long Stay, from a motive of
Attention to Sr W. H. It gave me great pleasure
to be informed that he behaves to you with
that Kindneʃs to which you are so well in-
titled; & that he did not, as some Relations
might have done, blame you for quitting
an Establishment, which you could not hold
but at the Expence of your Health & Spirits.
I have lately been engaged in
a most melancholy Scene, which has closed
by the Death of a Friend whose Loʃs to
me is irreparable, as I was intimately con
nected with her from my earliest youth
without the least Interruption during
a long Life. She was older than my self
& always of a delicate Constitution, but as she
had no Symptoms of decrepitude, nor any Fai
lure inof her Senses or Understanding, I had
flattered my self that with this beloved
Friend of my youth, I might have past a
few more Years of declining Life. But it
has pleased the supreme disposer of all
Events to determine it otherwise: & to his
will I resign. It is with infinite Thank
fullneʃs that I reflect on her exemplary Life
which fills me with transporting Hopes of
her Happineʃs, which is the greatest Comfort
I can feel under the Affliction of such a
Loʃs to my self, & indeed to all my Family,
to whom She had the most constant &
affectionate Attachment.
I am heartily sorry that
poor Lady Wake's Tenderneʃs has been a
gain alarmed. By this Time I hope her
Fears are removed on the Account of
Miʃs Wake. I beg to be affectionately re
membered to her, when you have an oppor
tunity.
I have not been able to obtain
any Solution of the difficulty of Firmin
& Calixtus.[2] I can find no such names in
any Chronicle which I have consulted, at
that period.
I hope to have the pleasure of
meeting you very Early in the next year.
The pennington Family very happily for me
particularly at this Time, are with me &
I hope will Stay till a very short Time
within my coming to Town. I beg to be
kindly remembered to Miʃs A. Clarke &
am
my dear,
affectionately yours
E Carter
Deal Dec 4. 1783
For
Miʃs Hamilton[3]
Return this
because
it is not
Answer'd
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The ‘84’ visible above the top of the sheet belongs to the support of the next item numerically, though chronologically next but one, note MS Eng 1778 46a p.2.
2. According to Wikipedia, both Fermin or Firmin and Callixtus were early Christian martyrs.
3. The direction is written vertically.
Normalised Text
My dear Friend
Indeed I thought it very
long before I heard from you, but I was glad
to find at last that you had not been prevented
by any unpleasant Reason. I make
no Doubt but that your Time passed very
agreeably at Bulstrode. you were perfectly
right however I think in resisting the
Temptation of a long Stay, from a motive of
Attention to Sir William Hamilton It gave me great pleasure
to be informed that he behaves to you with
that Kindness to which you are so well entitled
; & that he did not, as some Relations
might have done, blame you for quitting
an Establishment, which you could not hold
but at the Expense of your Health & Spirits.
I have lately been engaged in
a most melancholy Scene, which has closed
by the Death of a Friend whose Loss to
me is irreparable, as I was intimately connected
with her from my earliest youth
without the least Interruption during
a long Life. She was older than my self
& always of a delicate Constitution, but as she
had no Symptoms of decrepitude, nor any Failure
in her Senses or Understanding, I had
flattered my self that with this beloved
Friend of my youth, I might have passed a
few more Years of declining Life. But it
has pleased the supreme disposer of all
Events to determine it otherwise: & to his
will I resign. It is with infinite Thankfulness
that I reflect on her exemplary Life
which fills me with transporting Hopes of
her Happiness, which is the greatest Comfort
I can feel under the Affliction of such a
Loss to my self, & indeed to all my Family,
to whom She had the most constant &
affectionate Attachment.
I am heartily sorry that
poor Lady Wake's Tenderness has been again
alarmed. By this Time I hope her
Fears are removed on the Account of
Miss Wake. I beg to be affectionately remembered
to her, when you have an opportunity
.
I have not been able to obtain
any Solution of the difficulty of Firmin
& Calixtus. I can find no such names in
any Chronicle which I have consulted, at
that period.
I hope to have the pleasure of
meeting you very Early in the next year.
The pennington Family very happily for me
particularly at this Time, are with me &
I hope will Stay till a very short Time
within my coming to Town. I beg to be
kindly remembered to Miss Anna Clarke &
am
my dear,
affectionately yours
Elizabeth Carter
Deal December 4. 1783
For
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 46
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Bulstrode, near Gerrards Cross (certainty: low)
Date sent: 4 December 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, in which Carter assumes (wrongly) that Hamilton will have left Bulstrode after her stay there in order to be available for Sir William Hamilton. Carter has recently suffered the loss of an unnamed, very dear and lifelong friend. The remainder of the letter hopes that fears for Marianne Wake are now abated, reports that Carter cannot find the names in the epitaph of the extract on King Harold previously sent by Hamilton, and says that the Pennington family are staying with her.
Dated at Deal.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1783 December 4.
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
