Diplomatic Text
54
1784
My dear Friend
For some Time before I received
Your kind Letter, I had wished to enquire
the Reason of your long Silence: But a
Feverish Complaint so aggravated my Head ach,
& rendered me so languid, that I had not power
to set about any Thing, but what was absolute
ly neceʃsary. It grieves me to find you had
been prevented from giving me the pleasure
of hearing from you, by so uncomfortable
a Complaint.[1] You have so much prudence,
that it is I am sure, quite unneceʃsary to
Caution you, not to Use your Eyes either
in Reading, or Work, till they have perfectly
regained their Strength.
I am much obliged to you for
telling me your plan of operations. you cannot
think how I Enjoy the Invitation[2] given to
the Futur;[3] both as an Instance of the Friend
ship of the Dʃs. for you, & as it gives a
kind of Eclat, which though by no means ne
-ceʃsary to the Happineʃs of the Heart, is
however a pretty external ornament with
Regard to the World. -- I am very glad
to find that your Situation is to be so
accommodated as not to deprive your
Friends of your Society. It will be much
more pleasant for us to see than only to hear,
that you are happy
Lady Herries mentioned to
me with great Pleasure her having begun
an Acquaintance with you. I congratulate
you both on this Acquisition. Lady Herries
has so much good Sense, so highly improved,
& is guided by such very serious christian
principles, that you will find her a very
agreeable & valuable Acquaintance.
I like Mde Genlis upon the whole
Extremely. I was the least pleased with the
Story -- of which by a happy memory I have
forgot the Title -- but it[4] founded on the
Heathen mythology. The power of the Heathen
deities is so exploded, that it is impoʃsible for
any delusion of Fancy to make one believe
there can be any Reality, wherever they are
introduced.
A thousand Thanks for your
kindly wishing it was in your power to
make me a visit. How gladly should I
receive you! -- But neither you have
a post chaise to convey you to me, nor I
one to fetch you. Well: we must both be
contented to wait till the winter brings
us together, & be thankful for the prospect
of meeting then.
I have had great pleasure
in the Society of Lady Holderneʃse who
has been most part of the Summer at
Deal Castle, & has been so good to give
me very frequent Opportunities of convers
-ing with her, which is always very delight
ful to me. The manner in which she has
conducted her self under her severe
Tryals, is renders her Character respectable
& amiable to a high degree. Nothing
but those strong principles of Religion
which she poʃseʃses, could have enabled
her to act under such overwhelming
misfortunes, in the manner which she
has done.[5] -- I have just been taking leave of
her. Adieu my dear Friend. I beg
you not to write till you can do it
with perfect Safety & Ease. As I shall
know the Reason of your Silence, I
Shall not be alarmed. your's most
affectionately ECarter
Deal Sept 24. 1784
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Hamilton first mentions ‘a Cold in [her] Eyes’ in a diary entry for 19 August 1784 (see HAM/2/14 p.6), and intermittently thereafter.
2. Hamilton notes the Duchess's invitation of John Dickenson in her diary (see HAM/2/14 p.36).
3. This seems to be French futur ‘husband-to-be, fiancé’, which is not recorded by OED in English until 1829 (OED s.v., n. Accessed 24-08-2026), although the female equivalent was known earlier.
4. A missing is is needed here.
5. Lady Holderness broke off relations with her daughter Amelia in early 1777 after Amelia and her then husband ‘gave shelter to Richard Glover (son of the poet) [...] when he eloped with one of the daughters of Solomon Dayrolles’ (Wikipedia). The following year, Amelia herself eloped scandalously with Captain John Byron. And in January 1784 Amelia, now mother of one surviving child, had died, after which Lady Holderness had largely brought the infant up.
Normalised Text
My dear Friend
For some Time before I received
Your kind Letter, I had wished to enquire
the Reason of your long Silence: But a
Feverish Complaint so aggravated my Head ache,
& rendered me so languid, that I had not power
to set about any Thing, but what was absolutely
necessary. It grieves me to find you had
been prevented from giving me the pleasure
of hearing from you, by so uncomfortable
a Complaint. You have so much prudence,
that it is I am sure, quite unnecessary to
Caution you, not to Use your Eyes either
in Reading, or Work, till they have perfectly
regained their Strength.
I am much obliged to you for
telling me your plan of operations. you cannot
think how I Enjoy the Invitation given to
the Futur; both as an Instance of the Friendship
of the Duchess for you, & as it gives a
kind of Eclat, which though by no means necessary
to the Happiness of the Heart, is
however a pretty external ornament with
Regard to the World. -- I am very glad
to find that your Situation is to be so
accommodated as not to deprive your
Friends of your Society. It will be much
more pleasant for us to see than only to hear,
that you are happy
Lady Herries mentioned to
me with great Pleasure her having begun
an Acquaintance with you. I congratulate
you both on this Acquisition. Lady Herries
has so much good Sense, so highly improved,
& is guided by such very serious christian
principles, that you will find her a very
agreeable & valuable Acquaintance.
I like Madame Genlis upon the whole
Extremely. I was the least pleased with the
Story -- of which by a happy memory I have
forgotten the Title -- but it founded on the
Heathen mythology. The power of the Heathen
deities is so exploded, that it is impossible for
any delusion of Fancy to make one believe
there can be any Reality, wherever they are
introduced.
A thousand Thanks for your
kindly wishing it was in your power to
make me a visit. How gladly should I
receive you! -- But neither you have
a post chaise to convey you to me, nor I
one to fetch you. Well: we must both be
contented to wait till the winter brings
us together, & be thankful for the prospect
of meeting then.
I have had great pleasure
in the Society of Lady Holdernesse who
has been most part of the Summer at
Deal Castle, & has been so good to give
me very frequent Opportunities of conversing
with her, which is always very delightful
to me. The manner in which she has
conducted her self under her severe
Trials, renders her Character respectable
& amiable to a high degree. Nothing
but those strong principles of Religion
which she possesses, could have enabled
her to act under such overwhelming
misfortunes, in the manner which she
has done. -- I have just been taking leave of
her. Adieu my dear Friend. I beg
you not to write till you can do it
with perfect Safety & Ease. As I shall
know the Reason of your Silence, I
Shall not be alarmed. your's most
affectionately Elizabeth Carter
Deal September 24. 1784
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 54
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Wandsworth
Date sent: 24 September 1784
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter commiserates with Hamilton on her eye problem. She delights in the Dowager Duchess of Portland's invitation to Hamilton's husband-to-be, and in Hamilton's new acquaintance with Lady Herries. For her own part, she is disappointed by the heathen mythology in the work by Madame de Genlis that she was reading, but delighted by her conversations in Deal with Lady Holderness.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1784 September 24.
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 October 2026
