Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/82/11

Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]
                                                         11
     
                                                         9th. July 1779 Friday morng-

      My dearest dearest dearest Friend,

      How happy should I have been if we had
had the pleasure of yr. Company at Windsor. I think
then the Quizz's[2] would have ʃtood no chance of escaping
notice, there were but two during the whole of our ʃtay
that attracted the attention of ye. whole of our Company
the one was a little Original[3] of a French Painter
about as high as my Elbow
, and the other was Mrs..
Bludworth
,[4] a more disagreeable, prim, ʃtiff Creature
I never saw. I look upon myself as very unfortunate
for I underʃtand that you go either tomorrow Evening
or Sunday Evening, with Adolphus, Mary, & Sophia,
& return with their Majesties on the usual day. I



mean Wednesday, & (I tell you this as a grand secret)
that a little Bird has whispered me, that the two parts
of the Family are to travel, thus alternately Week
and Week about during the whole Summer, except
when the whole will be reunited for ye Birthdays.
By this means I ʃhall not have so frequently as
I could desire, that heartfelt satisfaction of
seeing you and conversing with you, of telling you
all that paʃses in my mind, and in ʃhort of
disburdening my whole Soul before you.
      I am sorry that I am obliged to break
off so abruptly in my Letter, but I have really
not an instant of time more, I am very much
grieved that I so far hurt yr. delicacy in offering
you that little Smelling Bottle, which I thought
when I sent it you upon the footing of a nosegay
you would have accepted of, as each of ye other
Ladies
had had one, but I give you my honor it
never shall happen again. Adieu & believe me ever to be
                             yr. sincere admirer & affectionate
                                                         Friend.

      P.S.
      pray be quite secret concerning every thing I write
      about Windsor. Adieu.[5]

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. The image displayed here differs from the one available from the Royal Archives, which has the order of pages reversed.
 2. This occurrence of quiz slightly predates the first citations in the OED, which carry the sense ‘[a]n odd or eccentric person; a person whose appearance is peculiar or ridiculous’ (OED s.v. quiz n. 1.a).
 3. In the sense ‘a singular, odd, or eccentric person’ (OED s.v. original n. B.7a).
 4. A Bedchamber Woman to Her Majesty at the time of her death in 1786.
 5. Moved postscript here from the top of p.1.

Normalised Text


                                                        
     
                                                        

      My dearest dearest dearest Friend,

      How happy should I have been if we had
had the pleasure of your Company at Windsor. I think
then the Quizz's would have stood no chance of escaping
notice, there were but two during the whole of our stay
that attracted the attention of the whole of our Company
the one was a little Original of a French Painter
about as high as my Elbow, and the other was Mrs..
Bludworth, a more disagreeable, prim, stiff Creature
I never saw. I look upon myself as very unfortunate
for I understand that you go either tomorrow Evening
or Sunday Evening, with Adolphus, Mary, & Sophia,
& return with their Majesties on the usual day. I



mean Wednesday, & (I tell you this as a grand secret)
that a little Bird has whispered me, that the two parts
of the Family are to travel, thus alternately Week
and Week about during the whole Summer, except
when the whole will be reunited for the Birthdays.
By this means I shall not have so frequently as
I could desire, that heartfelt satisfaction of
seeing you and conversing with you, of telling you
all that passes in my mind, and in short of
disburdening my whole Soul before you.
      I am sorry that I am obliged to break
off so abruptly in my Letter, but I have really
not an instant of time more, I am very much
grieved that I so far hurt your delicacy in offering
you that little Smelling Bottle, which I thought
when I sent it you upon the footing of a nosegay
you would have accepted of, as each of the other
Ladies had had one, but I give you my honour it
never shall happen again. Adieu & believe me ever to be
                             your sincere admirer & affectionate
                                                         Friend.

      P.S.
      pray be quite secret concerning every thing I write
      about Windsor. Adieu.

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quotations,
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 1. The image displayed here differs from the one available from the Royal Archives, which has the order of pages reversed.
 2. This occurrence of quiz slightly predates the first citations in the OED, which carry the sense ‘[a]n odd or eccentric person; a person whose appearance is peculiar or ridiculous’ (OED s.v. quiz n. 1.a).
 3. In the sense ‘a singular, odd, or eccentric person’ (OED s.v. original n. B.7a).
 4. A Bedchamber Woman to Her Majesty at the time of her death in 1786.
 5. Moved postscript here from the top of p.1.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: Windsor Castle, The Royal Archives

Archive: GEO/ADD/3 Additional papers of George IV, as Prince, Regent, and King

Item title: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/82/11

Correspondence Details

Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)

Place sent: Windsor

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: c.9 July 1779
notBefore 8 July 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 9 July 1779 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on events at Windsor, and Hamilton's departure with Prince Adolphus, and Princesses Mary and Sophia.
    The Prince refers to a 'little Original of a French Painter, about as high as my Elbow, and Mrs Bludworth, a more disagreeable prim, stiff creature I never saw' attracting attention at Windsor. He states his disappointment that the travel arrangements during the summer mean that he will see Hamilton less frequently, and refers to having hurt her delicacy by offering her a 'little Smelling Bottle'. In postscript the Prince requests that Hamilton be 'quite secret concerning everything I write about Windsor'.
    Written Friday morning.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 319 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now 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: XML version: Transcription and Research Assistant funding in 2018/19 provided by the Student Experience Internship programme of the University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Emma Donington Kiey, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Emma Donington Kiey (submitted June 2019)

Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors

Revision date: 2 November 2021

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