Diplomatic Text
56
1784
It gave me great pleasure, my dear
Friend to receive a Testimony under your own
Hand, that you have perfectly recovered the
Use of your Eyes. I heartily congratulate you on
this Bleʃsing, of which, like that of all others, we
feel the Value in a very distinguished & affecting
Manner, whenever we are threatened with it's
Loʃs: a warning which the wisest & best of
poor inconsiderate[1] mortals, often find admirably
useful to keep awake that Sense of dependence
on the Author of all we Enioy, which is so neceʃ
sary to our Virtue, & to our Happineʃs.
It grieves my Heart to hear of
the Situation of poor dear Lady Wake: & I must
intreat you to be so good to give me an Account
of the State of her Family as soon as you
can. Do not wait for a Frank, for I am very
solicitous to know her Situation. Be so good when
you write to her, to aʃsure her of my most
Cordial good wishes. -- Let me know too
how Mr Dickenson[2] does. you do not mention
what his Illneʃs is: but I hope it is not of
any alarming Nature. Very bad Colds I hear
are Epidemical in London, & Coughs & sore
Throats are pretty frequent here, but not
fatal. I have hitherto escaped, & have only
my usual constitutional Disorders, which I
ought to bear cheerfully, & be thankful they are
no worse.
I have had the pleasure of seeing
Mrs Douglas here. Her Visit is shorter than
I could wish, but I thank God, I have the
Comfort of seeing her in better Health than
for some years. She is to return to Town on
Fryday, & I had rather give up her making
a longer Stay, than that she should miʃs
the opportunity of travelling very commodiously
& pleasantly with some Friends who have
been here sometime for Sea Bathing.
/ I shall be happy to hear that
Your delightful Situation at Bullstrode, no longer
receives any allay from the uncomfortable State
of your distant Friends. I rejoyce that the
Dutcheʃs of portland & Mrs Delany are in such
prosperous Health, & beg my most respectful &
affectionate Compliments to them.
I have not read Coxe's
Travels,[3] but hope to get a Sight of them
when in London. I have still greater Curiosity
for your Description of the dutcheʃs of p[ortlan]d'[s]
Museum.
I had a L In a Letter which I ------ [4]
long since from Miʃs More, she regrets not
having heard from you for a long Time. In my
Answer, I informed her of the disorder in your
Eyes.
Adieu my dear Friend. I must repeat
my Request of hearing from you soon, & am
your most obliged & affectionate
ECarter.
Deal Oct 20. 1784
[5]
Miʃs Hamilton[6]
Clarges Street
at Her Grace the Dutcheʃs of Portlands
Bulstrode London
near Gerrards Croʃs
Bucks
Monday Morng
Hampton[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This sense of inconsiderate, ‘acting without forethought or deliberation; thoughtless; imprudent’ is no longer the primary one (OED s.v., adj., A.2.a. Accessed 26-08-2026).
2. We assume the reference is to Hamilton's fiancé, John Dickenson, as in Carter's next letter, MS Eng 1778 57 p.1. However, it is worth noting that Hamilton's diary for 9 October 1784 suggests that she had (also?) been concerned about his father, John Dickenson Senior: ‘my Mind being in too uncomfortable a State wth. respect to my D & his Fathers Heal[th] &c &c.’ (see HAM/2/14 p.95).
3. William Coxe, Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark (London: T. Cadell, 1784).. Hamilton mentions them around this time in HAM/2/10 p.100, HAM/1/15/2/31 p.1 and p.41.
4. Probably ‘received’ or similar.
5. Triangular stamp reading ‘POST PAID PD’, with figures inside.
6. A large figure ‘3’ has been written to the right of the address, denoting postage due, and then a neater ‘4d’ in a different hand.
7. This word appears upside down with the envelope unfolded.
Normalised Text
It gave me great pleasure, my dear
Friend to receive a Testimony under your own
Hand, that you have perfectly recovered the
Use of your Eyes. I heartily congratulate you on
this Blessing, of which, like that of all others, we
feel the Value in a very distinguished & affecting
Manner, whenever we are threatened with it's
Loss: a warning which the wisest & best of
poor inconsiderate mortals, often find admirably
useful to keep awake that Sense of dependence
on the Author of all we Enioy, which is so necessary
to our Virtue, & to our Happiness.
It grieves my Heart to hear of
the Situation of poor dear Lady Wake: & I must
entreat you to be so good to give me an Account
of the State of her Family as soon as you
can. Do not wait for a Frank, for I am very
solicitous to know her Situation. Be so good when
you write to her, to assure her of my most
Cordial good wishes. -- Let me know too
how Mr Dickenson does. you do not mention
what his Illness is: but I hope it is not of
any alarming Nature. Very bad Colds I hear
are Epidemical in London, & Coughs & sore
Throats are pretty frequent here, but not
fatal. I have hitherto escaped, & have only
my usual constitutional Disorders, which I
ought to bear cheerfully, & be thankful they are
no worse.
I have had the pleasure of seeing
Mrs Douglas here. Her Visit is shorter than
I could wish, but I thank God, I have the
Comfort of seeing her in better Health than
for some years. She is to return to Town on
Friday, & I had rather give up her making
a longer Stay, than that she should miss
the opportunity of travelling very commodiously
& pleasantly with some Friends who have
been here sometime for Sea Bathing.
I shall be happy to hear that
Your delightful Situation at Bullstrode, no longer
receives any allay from the uncomfortable State
of your distant Friends. I rejoice that the
Duchess of portland & Mrs Delany are in such
prosperous Health, & beg my most respectful &
affectionate Compliments to them.
I have not read Coxe's
Travels, but hope to get a Sight of them
in London. I have still greater Curiosity
for your Description of the duchess of portland's
Museum.
In a Letter which I ------
long since from Miss More, she regrets not
having heard from you for a long Time. In my
Answer, I informed her of the disorder in your
Eyes.
Adieu my dear Friend. I must repeat
my Request of hearing from you soon, & am
your most obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter.
Deal October 20. 1784
Miss Hamilton
at Her Grace the Duchess of Portlands
Bulstrode
near Gerrards Cross
Buckinghamshire
Monday Morning
Hampton
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 56
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Bulstrode, near Gerrards Cross
Date sent: 20 October 1784
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter is pleased that Hamilton has recovered from her eye disorder and has meanwhile explained to Hannah More why Hamilton had not written for some time, but Carter is very worried about Lady Wake and her family and is concerned about John Dickenson's health. Hamilton has evidently asked her [as she had also asked Charlotte Gunning] whether she has read [William] Coxe's Travels; Carter has not but will look out for it in London.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1784 October 20.
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: 4 October 2026
