Diplomatic Text
95
1798
You would sooner have received my
Thanks, my dear Friend, for your very kind
Letter, if I had received it according to it's
date, the 22d. of April: but it did not reach me
till the 3d. of may. Pray be so good before I pro
ceed any further, to present my love, & best Thanks
to my dear young Friend Louisa for her pretty present,
which I receive with particular pleasure as the
ingenious Work of her Fingers, & of her very oblig
-ing Remembrance of me. The Reason she gave for
not making the work Bag of a grave Hue, was
very polite & considerate. It's gay Appearance
however will not I hope, tempt however inconsist
ent it may be with my Age, tempt me to forget
it's Duties: but afford an important Lesson, that
the further we are removed from the Bustle &
Perplexities of Life, the more soft & cheerful ought
to be the Colour of our Temper, & our Thoughts
& bear an honourable Testimony to our grateful
Sense of the Bleʃsings we have Enjoyed, & the
still higher Bleʃsings for which we are permitted
to hope.
Though It was a great disappointment to
my Hopes, that you did not come to Town, I
greatly honour the motive that prevented your
Coming.[1] The Virtue of our Friends ought to
be dearer to us, than our selfish Gratification.
& the Inconveniences, & sometimes wrong Pro
ceedings that are incurred even by small de
viations from strict Œconomy, very greatly
outweigh, to every right turned Mind, any
present Indulgence of our Wishes. If it please
God to prolong my Life to another year, I
will hope, that the difficulties of the last
may be mitigated, & allow of the pleasure of
our meeting again in this World. If not, may
we at least meet happily in a better.
I am much obliged to
you for your kind mention of my Nephew
Montagu Pennington who always mentions you &
Mr Dickenson with great Regard. It is not He,
but his elder Brother to whom the Bp. of London,
in whose diocese he was a Curate, has been so
good to give a very desirable preferment, --- &
I hope & believe he will not dishonour his Lordship's
patronage, for he is a very worthy Character. I should
be completely happy if poor M. was as well provided
for. He has long been promised, by another great Pre
late, who I am persuaded will keep his word: but Candi
dates for Preferment are many, & Preferments in
Comparison of their Number, few. The best Comfort
to his Friends, under his disappointments, is in his
exemplary good Conduct, & conscientious discharge of
the duties of his profeʃsion.
Our dear Friends have indeed suf
fered extremely by the late most unhappy Event in
their Family. The wretched young Man, is to leave
the Army. Before the Tryal, he strongly protested
his Innocence. I have not heard whether he persists
[in] it since. In Consideration of his having behav'd
very bravely in the Service, in which he wa[s] [wou]nd
-ed, he is allowed to sell out.[2] [3]
Dear Ly Cremorne is at pre[sent i]n
great Concern for her good Friend Mrs Walker, who is in deep
Affliction for the death of her excellent daughter in law, who
was removed to Brumpton for the Air. -- Ly Wake shares in the
Concern for poor Mrs W. She has likewise been alarmed by
an Illneʃs of dear little Charles since he left her.[4] He is now
happy recovering. Indeed he is a sweet little Boy.
I rejoyce in your well founded Hopes of your dear
Louisa. God grant they may be fully accomplished. Pray remem
ber me kindly to Mr Dickenson. I was sorry to find by Ly W.
that he is likely to meet with some vexation from his Brother in
Law.[5] Adieu my dear Friend, I am going to beg Mrs Bloʃset's
interest for a Frank.
Ever your most obliged & affectionate
E. Carter
May 5. 1798
For
Mrs Dickenson[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Probably a reference to Hamilton's need to live within her limited means, on which see a letter by Lady Herries in January 1798 (HAM/1/17/226 p.2).
2. Family and young officer not yet identified.
3. Remains of a seal or wafer.
4. See also MS Eng 1778 96.
5. This concerns a legal action against Dickenson's father by the Chevalier Palombi, who is married to John Dickenson's sister Elizabeth, living in Naples and short of money. Carter's next letter, in October that year (MS Eng 1778 96 p.1), suggests that the ‘vexatious Transactions with the Palombis’ were on the way to being settled; see too the allusions to this topic by Lady Herries (HAM/1/17/232-HAM/1/17/235 p.2).
6. The direction is written vertically.
Normalised Text
You would sooner have received my
Thanks, my dear Friend, for your very kind
Letter, if I had received it according to it's
date, the 22d. of April: but it did not reach me
till the 3d. of may. Pray be so good before I proceed
any further, to present my love, & best Thanks
to my dear young Friend Louisa for her pretty present,
which I receive with particular pleasure as the
ingenious Work of her Fingers, & of her very obliging
Remembrance of me. The Reason she gave for
not making the work Bag of a grave Hue, was
very polite & considerate. It's gay Appearance
however will not I hope, however inconsistent
it may be with my Age, tempt me to forget
it's Duties: but afford an important Lesson, that
the further we are removed from the Bustle &
Perplexities of Life, the more soft & cheerful ought
to be the Colour of our Temper, & our Thoughts
& bear an honourable Testimony to our grateful
Sense of the Blessings we have Enjoyed, & the
still higher Blessings for which we are permitted
to hope.
Though It was a great disappointment to
my Hopes, that you did not come to Town, I
greatly honour the motive that prevented your
Coming. The Virtue of our Friends ought to
be dearer to us, than our selfish Gratification.
& the Inconveniences, & sometimes wrong Proceedings
that are incurred even by small deviations
from strict Economy, very greatly
outweigh, to every right turned Mind, any
present Indulgence of our Wishes. If it please
God to prolong my Life to another year, I
will hope, that the difficulties of the last
may be mitigated, & allow of the pleasure of
our meeting again in this World. If not, may
we at least meet happily in a better.
I am much obliged to
you for your kind mention of my Nephew
Montagu Pennington who always mentions you &
Mr Dickenson with great Regard. It is not He,
but his elder Brother to whom the Bishop of London,
in whose diocese he was a Curate, has been so
good to give a very desirable preferment, &
I hope & believe he will not dishonour his Lordship's
patronage, for he is a very worthy Character. I should
be completely happy if poor Montagu was as well provided
for. He has long been promised, by another great Prelate
, who I am persuaded will keep his word: but Candidates
for Preferment are many, & Preferments in
Comparison of their Number, few. The best Comfort
to his Friends, under his disappointments, is in his
exemplary good Conduct, & conscientious discharge of
the duties of his profession.
Our dear Friends have indeed suffered
extremely by the late most unhappy Event in
their Family. The wretched young Man, is to leave
the Army. Before the Trial, he strongly protested
his Innocence. I have not heard whether he persists
in it since. In Consideration of his having behav'd
very bravely in the Service, in which he was wounded
, he is allowed to sell out.
Dear Lady Cremorne is at present in
great Concern for her good Friend Mrs Walker, who is in deep
Affliction for the death of her excellent daughter in law, who
was removed to Brumpton for the Air. -- Lady Wake shares in the
Concern for poor Mrs Walker. She has likewise been alarmed by
an Illness of dear little Charles since he left her. He is now
happy recovering. Indeed he is a sweet little Boy.
I rejoice in your well founded Hopes of your dear
Louisa. God grant they may be fully accomplished. Pray remember
me kindly to Mr Dickenson. I was sorry to find by Lady Wake
that he is likely to meet with some vexation from his Brother in
Law. Adieu my dear Friend, I am going to beg Mrs Blosset's
interest for a Frank.
Ever your most obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
May 5. 1798
For
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 95
Correspondence Details
Author(s): Elizabeth Carter
Date of creation: 5 May 1798
Date sent: 5 May 1798
Place sent: unknown
Recipient(s): Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard (certainty: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter thanks Louisa Dickenson for the present of a brightly-coloured work bag she had made. She was sorry that Hamilton did not come to Town that year but respects the reason for the decision [the need for economy]. She corrects Hamilton's mention of Montagu Pennington, saying that it is his elder brother who has been given ‘a very desirable preferment’ by the Bishop of London. She mentions ‘dear Friends’ whose young son was allowed to buy himself out of the army, his bravery in service counting against some charge he was accused of. Lady Cremorne and Lady Wake have been concerned about their friend Mrs Walker, badly afflicted by the death of her daughter-in-law. Finally, Carter adverts to the ‘vexation’ that John Dickenson was likely to get from his brother-in-law [namely a legal claim by the Palombis for money].
The letter was to be sent in a frank obtained from Mrs Blosset.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton, 1798 May 5.
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: 31 October 2026
