Diplomatic Text
91
1791
I heartily congratulate you, my
dear Friend on your Recovery to a more comfortable
State of Health, & hope as you have recovered
discovered the Cause of your Illness, all remain
-ing disagreeable Effects will soon be removed.
I cannot help mentioning to you a Remedy, which
Miʃs Bloʃset. whose Stomach was in a State
which greatly resembles the description you give
of yours, has tried with the utmost succeʃs, af-
ter have long been teized by swallowing medecines
to no purpose. It was only drinking a glass
of Water as hot as she could bear it, every
Morning: & another between Breakfast & dinner.
She mentioned several others of her Acquaint-
ance, who had received equal Benefit from this
Prescription: which was given her by Mr John
Hunter. Mrs Hunter was among the Number
of those[1] Stomach had been cured by it. Miʃs
Bloʃset continued it for a long Time. And if
ever she finds any Symptom of the disorder
returning, She has immediately recourse to it
again.
You have probably heard, that our poor
dear Mrs Vesey is released from her comfortleʃs
Situation in this World. Ever since I have
been in Town, she scarcely ever spoke, & her
Life was scarcely animal.[2] God be thanked, she
never seemd to suffer any Pain or Uneasi-
neʃs: & she slept away her gentle Soul, with
out a struggle: I trust to wake in a happier
State of Being. Never I believe was a hu-
man Heart more free from every Tincture of
ill Design. She wished to make every one she
saw happy. Her Faults were those of a
playfull Child: & her Singularities were mere
-ly amusing, never offensive. “Take her for all
in all we shall not look upon her like again.”[3]
I enjoy the Society of my Friends
as well as an aching Head will let me. I
Scarcely ever remember it so almost inceʃsant
bad as this Winter. Perhaps the damp
Weather may have Contributed to make it
Worse.
I very much like the description
of your Room. God grant you & Mr Dickenson
& your little Louisa Health to enjoy it. Pray re-
member me kindly to them both. -- I shall be much
obliged to you for the plan, which you are so
good to promise me.
dear Lady Cremorne looks, & I hope is
better, than for many years: & Ld Cremore upon
the whole very tolerable. Ly Wake is in Town, &
pretty well. Miʃs Wake much improved in her
Health, & in every other Respect. Charlotte
the same sweet affectionate Thing as ever.
Poor Lady Herries is still unable to walk:
in other Respects her Health not worse than
usual. Mrs Newton is in Town, & much better
than she was. She has lost the use of her
Limbs, but looks well & lively: & the
disorder on her nerves is greatly abated.
Mr Iremonger mends though but slowly.
Mrs Iremonger's Eyes are much better.
Mr Walpole has had a very
tedious Confinement of 12 weeks with the
Gout. He is now better & got out. Miʃs H
More is at Bath where she was detained by
the Illneʃs of one of her Sisters. She is universally
supposed to be the Writer of a most
excellent little Book called “an Estimate of the
Religion of the fashionable World”.[4] It is
just published: & most deservedly approved
& admired. pray read it the first Opportunity
in your power. I have not seen Mrs Garrick.
She is at Hampton, & comes but seldom to
Town. I hear but a very indifferent Account
of her Health, which I fear is in a very
uncomfortable & precarious State.
Adieu my dear Friend. My
Head will only allow me to add my kindest
Wishes & affectionately Yours
ECarter
I wish it may be true that Sr. W. H. is coming
to England, if it will have the Consequence
of giving your Friends a sight of you
Chapel Street March 7 1791
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Presumably an intended ‘those whose’, with the second word accidentally omitted.
2. A historical sense of the adjective animal: ‘dependent upon consciousness or will; voluntary’ (OED s.v., adj., 1.a. Accessed 19-10-2026).
3. Hamlet's words about his father are adapted to a woman.
4. Hannah More (1791), An estimate of the religion of the fashionable world: By one of the laity. T. Cadell, London.
Normalised Text
I heartily congratulate you, my
dear Friend on your Recovery to a more comfortable
State of Health, & hope as you have
discovered the Cause of your Illness, all remaining
disagreeable Effects will soon be removed.
I cannot help mentioning to you a Remedy, which
Miss Blosset. whose Stomach was in a State
which greatly resembles the description you give
of yours, has tried with the utmost success, after
having long been teased by swallowing medicines
to no purpose. It was only drinking a glass
of Water as hot as she could bear it, every
Morning: & another between Breakfast & dinner.
She mentioned several others of her Acquaintance
, who had received equal Benefit from this
Prescription: which was given her by Mr John
Hunter. Mrs Hunter was among the Number
of those Stomach had been cured by it. Miss
Blosset continued it for a long Time. And if
ever she finds any Symptom of the disorder
returning, She has immediately recourse to it
again.
You have probably heard, that our poor
dear Mrs Vesey is released from her comfortless
Situation in this World. Ever since I have
been in Town, she scarcely ever spoke, & her
Life was scarcely animal. God be thanked, she
never seemed to suffer any Pain or Uneasiness
: & she slept away her gentle Soul, without
a struggle: I trust to wake in a happier
State of Being. Never I believe was a human
Heart more free from every Tincture of
ill Design. She wished to make every one she
saw happy. Her Faults were those of a
playful Child: & her Singularities were merely
amusing, never offensive. “Take her for all
in all we shall not look upon her like again.”
I enjoy the Society of my Friends
as well as an aching Head will let me. I
Scarcely ever remember it so almost incessant
bad as this Winter. Perhaps the damp
Weather may have Contributed to make it
Worse.
I very much like the description
of your Room. God grant you & Mr Dickenson
& your little Louisa Health to enjoy it. Pray remember
me kindly to them both. -- I shall be much
obliged to you for the plan, which you are so
good to promise me.
dear Lady Cremorne looks, & I hope is
better, than for many years: & Lord Cremore upon
the whole very tolerable. Lady Wake is in Town, &
pretty well. Miss Wake much improved in her
Health, & in every other Respect. Charlotte
the same sweet affectionate Thing as ever.
Poor Lady Herries is still unable to walk:
in other Respects her Health not worse than
usual. Mrs Newton is in Town, & much better
than she was. She has lost the use of her
Limbs, but looks well & lively: & the
disorder on her nerves is greatly abated.
Mr Iremonger mends though but slowly.
Mrs Iremonger's Eyes are much better.
Mr Walpole has had a very
tedious Confinement of 12 weeks with the
Gout. He is now better & got out. Miss Hannah
More is at Bath where she was detained by
the Illness of one of her Sisters. She is universally
supposed to be the Writer of a most
excellent little Book called “an Estimate of the
Religion of the fashionable World”. It is
just published: & most deservedly approved
& admired. pray read it the first Opportunity
in your power. I have not seen Mrs Garrick.
She is at Hampton, & comes but seldom to
Town. I hear but a very indifferent Account
of her Health, which I fear is in a very
uncomfortable & precarious State.
Adieu my dear Friend. My
Head will only allow me to add my kindest
Wishes & affectionately Yours
Elizabeth Carter
I wish it may be true that Sir William Hamilton is coming
to England, if it will have the Consequence
of giving your Friends a sight of you
Chapel Street March 7 1791
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 91
Correspondence Details
Sender: Elizabeth Carter
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 7 March 1791
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter congratulates Hamilton on her recovery from a stomach complaint and promotes a simple remedy, namely a glass of very hot water, advocated by Miss Blosset. She turns to the death of Mrs Vesey, who ‘slept away her gentle Soul, without a struggle’: ‘Never I believe was a human Heart more free from every Tincture of ill Design’. Carter is enjoying the company of her friends in London, despite a partyicularly incessant headache. She reports on the condition of mutual friends, including Mrs Garrick, whose health, she fears, ‘is in a very uncomfortable & precarious State’. She recommends Hamilton to read Hannah More's newly published book, An Estimate of the Religion of the fashionable World. She looks forward to receiving from Hamilton a promised plan [of their renovated home at Taxal].
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Chapel Street, 1791 March 7.
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: David Denison (submitted 19 October 2026)
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: 19 October 2026
