Diplomatic Text
85
It was not till this Morning, my
dear Friend, that I received your kind
present, & it is not an aching Head that
shall prevent me from returning you my
immediate Thanks. I think the Ruffles very
pretty, & shall wear them with much the
greater pleasure for being your Work, & a
proof of your friendly Remembrance.
I am very glad Mr Dickenson is
gone to Bath before his Disorder has
made any such considerable Advances as
might have encreased your Anxiety, &
rendered his Cure the more difficult &
tedious. I hope the Bath Waters will soon
restore him to perfect Health, which will
amply repay you for his Absence.[1] I sup
pose he has informed you that dr Beauvoir
is dead poor man his Sufferings for some
Time had been very great, & if he had lived
longer there was no prospect of his acquir
ing any Degree of Comfortable Health. The
last Stroke was a very merciful one, for
he died without pain, in an Instant.
I had a Letter a few days ago
from dear Lady Cremorne, which gave me
the delightful information, that she thought
her self a good deal better for change of
Air &c at Courteen Hall, notwithstanding
the damp cold weather. I am glad she is
to return, & remain there, while Ld C. is
in Ireland: & more favourable Weather it
is to be hope may produce still more ad
-vantageous Effects on her Health.
Poor Lady Herries went be
fore I left London into Devonshire to see
her Sister, & very Melancholy has been
her visit, as Miʃs Foote has been growing
every Day worse, & indeed quite in a hope
leʃs State. I was informed to day, by a
Letter from Town, that she is dead: but as
it was not from any of the Family, I am not sure
it is true: but it is too probable. Lady H. was
extremely fond of this poor Girl, whom, being so
much younger than her self, she always considered
as her child. She has great Piety, & that I
trust will gain her a sure Support under this
Affliction.
I heartily congratulate
You on the Improvements of
your little Louisa. pray give
her a Kiʃs a mon Intention.
Adieu my Head takes it very
ill that I should write so
strongly against it's Counsel.
so I will only subscribe your
obliged & affectionate
ECarter
Deal July 7. 1789
[2]
[3]
London eight July 1789
Mrs. Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derbyshire
Free WPulteney
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Dickenson was in Bath from 18 June to 17 August 1789 (see DDX 274/19 pp.150-159).
2. The address is in the hand of Sir William Pulteney, MP for Shrewsbury, provider of the frank.
3. There is a hole where a seal has been cut away, through which a couple of words from p.2 can be seen. No text is lost.
4. Postal stamp reading ‘JY 8 89’.
Normalised Text
It was not till this Morning, my
dear Friend, that I received your kind
present, & it is not an aching Head that
shall prevent me from returning you my
immediate Thanks. I think the Ruffles very
pretty, & shall wear them with much the
greater pleasure for being your Work, & a
proof of your friendly Remembrance.
I am very glad Mr Dickenson is
gone to Bath before his Disorder has
made any such considerable Advances as
might have increased your Anxiety, &
rendered his Cure the more difficult &
tedious. I hope the Bath Waters will soon
restore him to perfect Health, which will
amply repay you for his Absence. I suppose
he has informed you that dr Beauvoir
is dead poor man his Sufferings for some
Time had been very great, & if he had lived
longer there was no prospect of his acquiring
any Degree of Comfortable Health. The
last Stroke was a very merciful one, for
he died without pain, in an Instant.
I had a Letter a few days ago
from dear Lady Cremorne, which gave me
the delightful information, that she thought
her self a good deal better for change of
Air &c at Courteen Hall, notwithstanding
the damp cold weather. I am glad she is
to return, & remain there, while Lord Cremorne is
in Ireland: & more favourable Weather it
is to be hoped may produce still more advantageous
Effects on her Health.
Poor Lady Herries went before
I left London into Devonshire to see
her Sister, & very Melancholy has been
her visit, as Miss Foote has been growing
every Day worse, & indeed quite in a hopeless
State. I was informed to day, by a
Letter from Town, that she is dead: but as
it was not from any of the Family, I am not sure
it is true: but it is too probable. Lady Herries was
extremely fond of this poor Girl, whom, being so
much younger than her self, she always considered
as her child. She has great Piety, & that I
trust will gain her a sure Support under this
Affliction.
I heartily congratulate
You on the Improvements of
your little Louisa. pray give
her a Kiss a mon Intention.
Adieu my Head takes it very
ill that I should write so
strongly against it's Counsel.
so I will only subscribe your
obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
Deal July 7. 1789
London eight July 1789
Mrs. Dickenson
Taxal
Chapel le Frith
Derbyshire
Free William Pulteney
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 85
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter and William Pulteney
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: c.8 July 1789
notBefore 8 July 1789 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter thanks Hamilton for a gift of [lace] ruffles. She notes that John Dickenson has gone to Bath for his health and supposes that he will have told her that Dr Beauvoir [husband of Mary Sharpe] has died. Lady Cremorne has benefitted from a change of air at Courteenhall while her husband is in Ireland. Lady Herries has lost her beloved sister [Mary] Foote [1772-1789], who she treated as a daughter.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1789 July 7.
Elizabeth Carter wrote this letter in Deal (see p.3), after which it was given to William Pulteney, who sent it to Mary Hamilton from London the day after (see p.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: 16 October 2026
