Diplomatic Text
72
1787
It is a great pleasure to me
my dear Friend that I can now addreʃs a
Letter to your Self, & expreʃs my sincere
Congratulations on your perfect Recovery,
& the Addition which I am persuaded you
& Mr Dickenson find to your Happineʃs in
your little Girl. By this Time probably
you have both discovered that she is not
only very beautiful, but as witty, learned
& ingenious, as if she had been gifted by
the Fairies.
I should have writ to you soon
-er - but our Friend Miʃs A. Clarke can tell
you what a poor Animal I have been
for the whole winter. The warm damp
Weather has render my Head & stomach
Worse, for a long Continuance, than I almost
Ever remember. At Mrs Vesey's I have
often been obliged in the Afternoon to sit
like a Log, dozing in my Chair. The Weather
is now become dry. I feel some good Effect
from the change, & hope to find more.
Our dear Mrs Vesey is in pretty much
the same state as when I wrote last. Mrs Handcock
tolerably well. Sweet Julia I hope does not
grow worse. Dr Warren has been ill, & dr
Turton has attended her, & does not see to
despair of her Recovery. Ld Cremorne has
had a very bad Cold, but is better: & dear
Lady Cremorne with all her constant Fatigues
& Anxieties, is preserved in wonderful
Health.
Lady Wake I think looks better
& more Cheerful since she came to Town.
Miʃs Wake is tolerably well: but her Heath
is delicate, & seems to need the careful
Attention of so good & prudent a Mother
as happily is fallen to her Lot. The young
man is improved in his person. He is going
to the university. I heartily wish dear
Lady W. may find the Comfort from him which
She deserves. I fear he has given her a
good deal of vexation by a matrimonial
Fancy which he took into his Head. He paid his
Addreʃses in form to the Lady & was encouraged
but it has been prevented. Perhaps you have
heard this before: if not, do not mention it. I
have never heard Ly W. name it, but I believe
it is true. I hope he will early be fixed in
a proper Choice which seems the best[1]
Means of sobering him, or indeed any
young man, who by the Licentiousneʃs
of the Times is so constantly exposed
to the miseries of a diʃsolute Life.
My kind Compliments to
Mr Dickenson, & Thanks for his
Letter. Adieu my dear Friend.
your obliged & Affectionate
ECarter
Ps. Mrs Newton is
Come to Town in very
indifferent Health, & looks
Sadly: which is no wonder poor Soul, with
her constant vexations
Chapel Street March 20. 1787
[2]
To
Mrs Dickenson[3]
Mrs. Carter March
20 1787[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This and the next seven or so lines are shortened to leave generous room for a seal or wafer. There is a hole where it has been torn away, but no text is lost.
2. The ‘lt’ of ‘Health’ on p.2 is visible through the hole where a seal or wafer has been torn away.
3. The direction is written vertically.
4. The annotation is written vertically.
Normalised Text
It is a great pleasure to me
my dear Friend that I can now address a
Letter to your Self, & express my sincere
Congratulations on your perfect Recovery,
& the Addition which I am persuaded you
& Mr Dickenson find to your Happiness in
your little Girl. By this Time probably
you have both discovered that she is not
only very beautiful, but as witty, learned
& ingenious, as if she had been gifted by
the Fairies.
I should have written to you sooner
but our Friend Miss Anna Clarke can tell
you what a poor Animal I have been
for the whole winter. The warm damp
Weather has rendered my Head & stomach
Worse, for a long Continuance, than I almost
Ever remember. At Mrs Vesey's I have
often been obliged in the Afternoon to sit
like a Log, dozing in my Chair. The Weather
is now become dry. I feel some good Effect
from the change, & hope to find more.
Our dear Mrs Vesey is in pretty much
the same state as when I wrote last. Mrs Handcock
tolerably well. Sweet Julia I hope does not
grow worse. Dr Warren has been ill, & dr
Turton has attended her, & does not see to
despair of her Recovery. Ld Cremorne has
had a very bad Cold, but is better: & dear
Lady Cremorne with all her constant Fatigues
& Anxieties, is preserved in wonderful
Health.
Lady Wake I think looks better
& more Cheerful since she came to Town.
Miss Wake is tolerably well: but her Health
is delicate, & seems to need the careful
Attention of so good & prudent a Mother
as happily is fallen to her Lot. The young
man is improved in his person. He is going
to the university. I heartily wish dear
Lady Wake may find the Comfort from him which
She deserves. I fear he has given her a
good deal of vexation by a matrimonial
Fancy which he took into his Head. He paid his
Addresses in form to the Lady & was encouraged
but it has been prevented. Perhaps you have
heard this before: if not, do not mention it. I
have never heard Lady Wake name it, but I believe
it is true. I hope he will early be fixed in
a proper Choice which seems the best
Means of sobering him, or indeed any
young man, who by the Licentiousness
of the Times is so constantly exposed
to the miseries of a dissolute Life.
My kind Compliments to
Mr Dickenson, & Thanks for his
Letter. Adieu my dear Friend.
your obliged & Affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
Ps. Mrs Newton is
Come to Town in very
indifferent Health, & looks
Sadly: which is no wonder poor Soul, with
her constant vexations
Chapel Street March 20. 1787
To
Mrs Dickenson
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 72
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Bath (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 20 March 1787
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. The weather had made Carter ill for longer than she remembers, but she can now felicitate Hamilton on her ‘perfect Recovery’ and gently tease her and her husband on their likely estimates of their baby daughter's qualities. The remainder of the letter concerns the health of their friends in London and includes mention of ‘a matrimonial Fancy’ that the young Sir William Wake took into his head, but which his mother prevented. In a postscript, Carter mentions that Mrs Newton has come to town ‘in very indifferent Health, & looks Sadly’.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Chapel Street, 1787 March 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: 8 October 2026
