Diplomatic Text
88
1790
Though your not coming
to Town this Spring, my dear Friend has
been a disappointment to our Hopes, yet
all reasonable people must approve the
prudential Motives, which prevented your
Journey.[1] Never will those who can have
Resolution enough to sacrifice pleasure
to Convenience & Comfort, find any per-
plexity in their Affairs And a perfect
Exemption from difficulty in this point,
is such an unspeakable Advantage, as very
few Things can ever Compensate.
I was glad to see Mr Dickenson
looking so well. I saw but little of him, &
indeed much leʃs of all my Friends than
usual for the whole Winter, as my Time
& Attention has been so much engaged with
my poor Sister, that I have been obliged to be
the leʃs with my other Friends: I mean in a
Morning which I usually paʃs with her from
between 10 & 11 till I go Home to dreʃs for
Dinner. She is still in much the same state: with
the Addition of a Cough to which she is subject
every Spring: & which there is little Hope can
mend while the Wind remains in this cold
Quarter. You are very kind in what you pro
pose about Buxton: but her present Complaints
seem rather bilious than rheumatic.
I did not know till you mentioned it
that our sweet Friend met with any vexati
-ons from her Sisters. Her disposition seems
So very benevolent & gentle, that one would
wonder how they could contrive to torment
her. You do not say what is the particular
Subject of the disagreement. I have con-
trived to breakfast there 2 or 3 times
before my Hour of going to Mrs Douglas.
Pray give me Love to Louisa, & thank her
for so kindly remembering me. I hope if we
meet again next Spring, we shall improve
our Acquaintance.
Poor dear Mrs Vesey is much in
the same State as when I wrote last. Mr Ire
monger mends a little: but very slowly. Mrs
Iremonger's Eyes the worse for this east
Wind. Miʃs H. More upon the whole alas
very indifferent. Lady Cremorne God be thanked
delightfully well: & Ly Wake better. She is got
to the House, which she has hired in Eʃsex;
but has not yet been in Town. Poor
Mrs Walsingham is still in a very deplora
ble State: & by what I hear, without any
prospect of Recovery.
Adieu my dear F[riend I][2]
write with difficulty from 2 days of uncom
monly severe Head ach: but I was not
willing to lose my Frank. I beg to be kindly
remembered to Mr Dickenson, & am, with
every good Wish, affectionately yours
ECarter
Chapel Street Ap: 9th 1790[3]
To
Mrs Dickenson[4]
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. It is uncertain what ‘prudential Motives’ are being invoked here, possibly a fragile pregnancy (see HAM/1/8/2/14 p.1n.).
2. There is a hole where a seal or wafer has been torn away.
3. The dateline is written to the left of the signature, starting in the left margin.
4. The direction is written vertically.
5. There is a tear from a seal or wafer, through which a couple of words from p.2 can be seen. No text is lost on this side.
Normalised Text
Though your not coming
to Town this Spring, my dear Friend has
been a disappointment to our Hopes, yet
all reasonable people must approve the
prudential Motives, which prevented your
Journey. Never will those who can have
Resolution enough to sacrifice pleasure
to Convenience & Comfort, find any perplexity
in their Affairs And a perfect
Exemption from difficulty in this point,
is such an unspeakable Advantage, as very
few Things can ever Compensate.
I was glad to see Mr Dickenson
looking so well. I saw but little of him, &
indeed much less of all my Friends than
usual for the whole Winter, as my Time
& Attention has been so much engaged with
my poor Sister, that I have been obliged to be
the less with my other Friends: I mean in a
Morning which I usually pass with her from
between 10 & 11 till I go Home to dress for
Dinner. She is still in much the same state: with
the Addition of a Cough to which she is subject
every Spring: & which there is little Hope can
mend while the Wind remains in this cold
Quarter. You are very kind in what you propose
about Buxton: but her present Complaints
seem rather bilious than rheumatic.
I did not know till you mentioned it
that our sweet Friend met with any vexations
from her Sisters. Her disposition seems
So very benevolent & gentle, that one would
wonder how they could contrive to torment
her. You do not say what is the particular
Subject of the disagreement. I have contrived
to breakfast there 2 or 3 times
before my Hour of going to Mrs Douglas.
Pray give me Love to Louisa, & thank her
for so kindly remembering me. I hope if we
meet again next Spring, we shall improve
our Acquaintance.
Poor dear Mrs Vesey is much in
the same State as when I wrote last. Iremonger
mends a little: but very slowly. Mrs
Iremonger's Eyes the worse for this east
Wind. Miss Hannah More upon the whole alas
very indifferent. Lady Cremorne God be thanked
delightfully well: & Ly Wake better. She is got
to the House, which she has hired in Essex;
but has not yet been in Town. Poor
Mrs Walsingham is still in a very deplorable
State: & by what I hear, without any
prospect of Recovery.
Adieu my dear Friend I
write with difficulty from 2 days of uncommonly
severe Head ache: but I was not
willing to lose my Frank. I beg to be kindly
remembered to Mr Dickenson, & am, with
every good Wish, affectionately yours
Elizabeth Carter
Chapel Street April 9th 1790
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 88
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 20 April 1790
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton, praising her prudence in not coming to London that spring, and summarising the health of many mutual friends.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Chapel Street, 1790 April 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: 20 October 2026
