Diplomatic Text
98
1799
Many Thanks to you, my dear Friend
for your kind letter. It grieved me not to get
a Sight of you before you left Town;[1] but chiefly
on Account of the Cause that prevented it: for Leave
Taking is an unpleasant Ceremony,
You kindly enquire about the
Consequences of my Fall. They are, I thank God, so
Completely vanished, internally, & externally, that
there are not the least Remains of Blackneʃs & my
Head feels nothing more than it's usual Aching.
I had quite recovered the Fatigue of my Journey
which was tiresome enough from its extreme Slow-
neʃs, & was beginning to set all my little domestic
Affairs in order, when the terrible Tempest of Wind
& Rain, quite overset all my schemes, & rendered
me fit for nothing but a pillow. This outrageous
Weather lasted 2 or 3 Days, & the Elements are still
very unsettled: & till they grow more favourable
I do not expect to recover my usual State of
Health.
To my great Mortification, I did not get a
Glimpse of my Friend Mrs H. More. The Absence of
the Bp. of London, & Mrs Porteus prevented our usual
annual meeting at Fulham: her Health prevented
her Coming to Town, & I had no means of con-
veying my self to Clapham.
With my Love to Louisa pray
tell her I congratulate her on her Return to her
former useful, & healthy Occupations. I hope
She found her numerous Family in the Poultry
Yard in a prosperous State: & her Garden in more
flourishing circumstances than mine. I left con-
siderably more than 100 pots of Geraniums &c
& there are only 5 or 6 remaining, & those in
a very unsightly ragged Condition. I have done
all I can to repair my Loʃs, by a new Plantation
from Ly Cremorne's Green house, & from another
[2]Benefactor: but how they will prosper I know
not. The weather however, that is so mischievous
to my animal Frame, is very favourable to
Vegetation, so I have tolerable Hopes.
I rejoyce in the good Account you
give of the Fruits of the Earth. Whenever the
Farmers are contented, one may be sure that the
Prospect must be very promising. Our provision is
sufficiently dear, but leʃs so than your Mutton &
Beef 7d. & veal 7d½. I have not enquired about
pork because I fancy, that like Oysters, it is not whole
-some, except it is medicated by an R in the month.
Indeed one might suppose by the Air, that all the
Rs in the year were in a Conspiracy against June,
for it is exceʃsively Cold.
Ly J. Penn, when I left Town, was
growing gradually better. She is an example of
Resignation & Patience, as well as Miʃs Feilding.[3]
Adieu my dear Friend: pray remember me
kindly to Mr Dickenson. If I am permitted
to live another Year, I will hope to meet
you all again in Town. I am your
very obliged & affectionate
ECarter
deal June 7. 1799
[4]
[5]
[6]
London June eighth 99
Mrs Dickenson[7]
Leighton House
Bedfordshire
free
IHBrowne
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Hamilton's family left London for Leighton House on 17 May 1799 (see DDX 274/21 p.132).
2. Remains of a wafer.
3. On Matilda Feilding's illness, see further MS Eng 1778 100 p.3.
4. Remains of a wafer.
5. The address is in the hand of the provider of the free frank, Isaac Hawkins Browne, an MP for Bridgnorth 1784-1812.
6. Stamp in black ink reading ‘A Ju 8 99’.
7. Stamp in red ink reading ‘F[R]EE Ju 8 99’.
Normalised Text
Many Thanks to you, my dear Friend
for your kind letter. It grieved me not to get
a Sight of you before you left Town; but chiefly
on Account of the Cause that prevented it: for Leave
Taking is an unpleasant Ceremony,
You kindly enquire about the
Consequences of my Fall. They are, I thank God, so
Completely vanished, internally, & externally, that
there are not the least Remains of Blackness & my
Head feels nothing more than it's usual Aching.
I had quite recovered the Fatigue of my Journey
which was tiresome enough from its extreme Slowness
, & was beginning to set all my little domestic
Affairs in order, when the terrible Tempest of Wind
& Rain, quite overset all my schemes, & rendered
me fit for nothing but a pillow. This outrageous
Weather lasted 2 or 3 Days, & the Elements are still
very unsettled: & till they grow more favourable
I do not expect to recover my usual State of
Health.
To my great Mortification, I did not get a
Glimpse of my Friend Mrs Hannah More. The Absence of
the Bishop of London, & Mrs Porteus prevented our usual
annual meeting at Fulham: her Health prevented
her Coming to Town, & I had no means of conveying
my self to Clapham.
With my Love to Louisa pray
tell her I congratulate her on her Return to her
former useful, & healthy Occupations. I hope
She found her numerous Family in the Poultry
Yard in a prosperous State: & her Garden in more
flourishing circumstances than mine. I left considerably
more than 100 pots of Geraniums &c
& there are only 5 or 6 remaining, & those in
a very unsightly ragged Condition. I have done
all I can to repair my Loss, by a new Plantation
from Ly Cremorne's Green house, & from another
Benefactor: but how they will prosper I know
not. The weather however, that is so mischievous
to my animal Frame, is very favourable to
Vegetation, so I have tolerable Hopes.
I rejoice in the good Account you
give of the Fruits of the Earth. Whenever the
Farmers are contented, one may be sure that the
Prospect must be very promising. Our provision is
sufficiently dear, but less so than your Mutton &
Beef 7d. & veal 7d½. I have not enquired about
pork because I fancy, that like Oysters, it is not wholesome, except it is medicated by an R in the month.
Indeed one might suppose by the Air, that all the
Rs in the year were in a Conspiracy against June,
for it is excessively Cold.
Ly Juliana Penn, when I left Town, was
growing gradually better. She is an example of
Resignation & Patience, as well as Miss Feilding.
Adieu my dear Friend: pray remember me
kindly to Mr Dickenson. If I am permitted
to live another Year, I will hope to meet
you all again in Town. I am your
very obliged & affectionate
Elizabeth Carter
deal June 7. 1799
London June eighth 1799
Mrs Dickenson
Leighton House
Bedfordshire
free
IHBrowne
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 98
Correspondence Details
Author(s): Elizabeth Carter
Date of creation: 7 June 1799
Date sent: 8 June 1799
Place sent: London
Recipient(s): Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Elizabeth Carter to Mary Hamilton. Carter was sorry not to have seen Hamilton before Hamilton left London, though leave-taking is unpleasant; she had had a fall but was now fully recovered. She did not see H[annah] More, as the absence of the Bishop of London and his wife ‘prevented our usual annual meeting at Fulham’. On her arrival home in Deal, two or three days of storms had wrecked her garden and sent her to her bed. She replaced the destroyed plant pots with donations by Lady Cremorne and another benefactor. She writes about agriculture and the prices of different meats. She closes with news of Lady J[uliana] Penn.
The letter is franked in London by Isaac Hawkins Browne, MP.
Original entry in Houghton Library catalogue: Carter, Elizabeth, 1717-1806. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Deal, 1799 June 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: 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: 1 November 2026
