Diplomatic Text
X
---
59
1785
My dear Friend.
You will probably
have heard by my Letter to Mrs Vesey
that I arrived I thank God, very safely
to the End of my Journey. A cloudy
Day which rendered it sufficiently dull,
prevented it's being fatiguing, & I was
leʃs tired than could have been expected
after travelling so many miles in so
Short a Time, for I got to Canterbury by
two o' Clock.
I hope soon to hear that there
is no longer any Delay to the Completion
of your Union with Mr Dickenson. Give me
Leave par Avance to aʃsure you of my
most cordial wishes that it may be attend
-ed with every Happineʃs of which the State
& Life into which you are entering, is
capable & that, I believe, is a great deal
to those, who like you, have too much
Sense to form any extravagant and ro-
mantic Expectations, of such a Life of
Rapture, as is inconsistent with the condi
tion of the world, & the Constitution of
human Nature. The sober & steady Satis
faction arising from mutual Esteem &
Affection, & from a plan of Life regulated
upon principles of Duty, will be yours: &
may God add to them every Bleʃsing, that
can give Comfort & Cheerfullneʃs to your
Whole Establishment.
I long to know some
thing about dear Mrs Vesey & Mrs Handcock.
I have begg'd[1] Mrs Vesey to write to me:
Do pray remind her of it. I shall be
Satisfied with only a few Lines. My
Compliments to Miʃs Clarke, & remember me
affectionately to Miʃs Nanny. my best Wishes
[2]
- [3]to Mr Dickenson. I am
my dear Friend
Your obliged & affectionate
ECarter
Deal June 11. 1785
[4]
For.[5]
Miʃs Hamilton
Clarges Street[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. On Carter's odd placement of non-possessive apostrophes, see the note on MS Eng 1778 4a p.1.
2. The same annotation on the support as appears above p.1 is visible on this image as well.
3. There is a marginal mark at the top left of the sheet.
4. Remains of gummed wafer.
5. The use of ‘For’ would be consistent with this item being included with other letters in a frank.
6. The address is written vertically as displayed.
Normalised Text
My dear Friend.
You will probably
have heard by my Letter to Mrs Vesey
that I arrived I thank God, very safely
to the End of my Journey. A cloudy
Day which rendered it sufficiently dull,
prevented it's being fatiguing, & I was
less tired than could have been expected
after travelling so many miles in so
Short a Time, for I got to Canterbury by
two o'Clock.
I hope soon to hear that there
is no longer any Delay to the Completion
of your Union with Mr Dickenson. Give me
Leave par Avance to assure you of my
most cordial wishes that it may be attended
with every Happiness of which the State
& Life into which you are entering, is
capable & that, I believe, is a great deal
to those, who like you, have too much
Sense to form any extravagant and romantic
Expectations, of such a Life of
Rapture, as is inconsistent with the condition
of the world, & the Constitution of
human Nature. The sober & steady Satisfaction
arising from mutual Esteem &
Affection, & from a plan of Life regulated
upon principles of Duty, will be yours: &
may God add to them every Blessing, that
can give Comfort & Cheerfulness to your
Whole Establishment.
I long to know some
thing about dear Mrs Vesey & Mrs Handcock.
I have begged Mrs Vesey to write to me:
Do pray remind her of it. I shall be
Satisfied with only a few Lines. My
Compliments to Miss Clarke, & remember me
affectionately to Miss Nanny. my best Wishes
to Mr Dickenson. I am
my dear Friend
Your obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
Deal June 11. 1785
For.
Miss Hamilton
Clarges Street
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 59
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: Deal
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 11 June 1785
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. She hopes that Hamilton's marriage can finally go ahead and wishes ‘every Happiness’ to one who has ‘too much Sense to form any extravagant and romantic Expectations’. In the remainder of the letter, Carter reports her own safe arrival home, and she asks Hamilton to remind Mrs Vesey of her desire for news from her.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1785 June 11.
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: 6 October 2026
