Diplomatic Text
Mrs Hannah More[1]
Barley Wood[2]
Feb 14
1815
My dear Friends!
▼
I should have
written a line as soon as I saw a very
interesting and important event in the
public papers, had not the severe preʃsure
of bodily suffering, with the addition of
much depreʃsion of Spirits from the recent
loʃs, immediately one upon another of
three friends some of the brightest and
best Men of the age nearly disqualified me.
My grief for departed friends however, will
I trust, never leʃsen the affectionate interest
I take in those which remain. Accept
then tho late, my very cordial congratu
lations on the marriage of your dear
and very amiable daughter. May it please
God to bleʃs her, and the Man of her
choice (who I trust would not have been
so had he not been worthy of her) with
as much happineʃs as this world can
give to those who are looking forward
to a better; and which indeed is the
best way to promote happineʃs here. The
new Scene they are entering upon, as it
will enlarge their duties, and their
usefulneʃs, so I trust it will proportionally
increase their felicity. When I rejoyce with
my young friends on their marriage I am
generally more inclined to condole with the
parents than to congratulate them, because
in the most desirable union the personal
loʃs of a dear daughter, whose society
has long been their comfort, is a great
drawback on their share of the happineʃs,
but if I am not mistaken that is not
to be the case here. Pray tell me all
about it, for notwithstanding our long sepa
ration, my attachment to so old and kind
a friend still continues unabated.
The three friends to whom I alluded, and who
were called away within 3 weeks were Mr. H.
Thornton, Dr. Buchanan the great Orientalist
and Mr. John Bowdler.[3] The former has left
Nine children and a widow whose behaviour
is most angelic.[4] Bowdler the most accomplished
character I knew, was to have been married
next Month to a sweet friend of mine, the
daughter of Mr. Gisborne[5] whose admir ---
works you must have read. His piety ------
as exemplary, as his talents were elevated.
Do you see Mrs. Garrick sometimes? I
wish I could hear about her, sometimes
but I know it must be troublesome to her
to write. I now and then (which is more
than I deserve) get a delightful letter
from our agreeable friend Sir Wm. Pepys,
whom I saw once last Year for half an
hour, and who is just the same in mind
and person as he was fourty years ago. How
small are the remnants of that superior
Society in which we used to live! My own
health is very bad. The warnings of age and
sickneʃs will not I hope be thrown away upon
me. My best love to the bride, and pray tell
▼
[6]me the style and title of the caro Sposo.
Adieu my dear Mrs. Dickenson believe
me both of you your very faithful
and affectionate H. More
[7]
Mrs Dickenson
[8]Devonshire Place
London[9]
[10]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Moved annotation here from below salutation.
2. Barley Wood House in Wrington, near Cowslip Green, which Hannah More had built in 1801 on the Barley Wood estate, which she had owned since 1784. She moved in with her sisters and stayed there until 1828, after which she moved to Bristol.
3. Hannah More likely meant to write ‘Mr. John Bowdler’ here instead of ‘Mrs John Bowdler’, seeing, as she notes, that he was to have been married the next month to her friend Miss Gisborne.
4. Marianne Thornton died not long after in October 1815, causing all nine children to be adopted by Sir Robert Inglis.
5. This refers to either Mary Gisborne (later Evans) or Lydia Gisborne (later Robinson, Scott), the only daughters of Thomas Gisborne.
6. This passage is written below the address.
7. Remains of a stamp, indicating the date the letter went through the post (mirrored).
8. Remains of a stamp, with the date 16 February 1815.
9. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
10. Remains of a seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
Barley Wood
February 14
My dear Friends!
▼
I should have
written a line as soon as I saw a very
interesting and important event in the
public papers, had not the severe pressure
of bodily suffering, with the addition of
much depression of Spirits from the recent
loss, immediately one upon another of
three friends some of the brightest and
best Men of the age nearly disqualified me.
My grief for departed friends however, will
I trust, never lessen the affectionate interest
I take in those which remain. Accept
then though late, my very cordial congratulations
on the marriage of your dear
and very amiable daughter. May it please
God to bless her, and the Man of her
choice (who I trust would not have been
so had he not been worthy of her) with
as much happiness as this world can
give to those who are looking forward
to a better; and which indeed is the
best way to promote happiness here. The
new Scene they are entering upon, as it
will enlarge their duties, and their
usefulness, so I trust it will proportionally
increase their felicity. When I rejoice with
my young friends on their marriage I am
generally more inclined to condole with the
parents than to congratulate them, because
in the most desirable union the personal
loss of a dear daughter, whose society
has long been their comfort, is a great
drawback on their share of the happiness,
but if I am not mistaken that is not
to be the case here. Pray tell me all
about it, for notwithstanding our long separation
, my attachment to so old and kind
a friend still continues unabated.
The three friends to whom I alluded, and who
were called away within 3 weeks were Mr. Henry
Thornton, Dr. Buchanan the great Orientalist
and Mr. John Bowdler. The former has left
Nine children and a widow whose behaviour
is most angelic. Bowdler the most accomplished
character I knew, was to have been married
next Month to a sweet friend of mine, the
daughter of Mr. Gisborne whose admir ---
works you must have read. His piety ------
as exemplary, as his talents were elevated.
Do you see Mrs. Garrick sometimes? I
wish I could hear about her,
but I know it must be troublesome to her
to write. I now and then (which is more
than I deserve) get a delightful letter
from our agreeable friend Sir William Pepys,
whom I saw once last Year for half an
hour, and who is just the same in mind
and person as he was fourty years ago. How
small are the remnants of that superior
Society in which we used to live! My own
health is very bad. The warnings of age and
sickness will not I hope be thrown away upon
me. My best love to the bride, and pray tell
▼
me the style and title of the caro Sposo.
Adieu my dear Mrs. Dickenson believe
me both of you your very faithful
and affectionate Hannah More
Mrs Dickenson
Devonshire Place
London
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 Hannah More to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 198
Correspondence Details
Sender: Hannah More
Place sent: Wrington
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 14 February 1815
Letter Description
Summary: More, Hannah, 1745-1833. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Barley Wood, 1815 February 14.
Length: 1 sheet, 509 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First transcribed for the project 'The Collected Letters of Hannah More' (Kerri Andrews & others) and incorporated 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Kerri Andrews, Senior Lecturer, Edge Hill University (submitted 11 August 2020)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 1 November 2022