Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/82/22

Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]

22

August 5th. 1779
Thursday

      My dearest, dearest, dearest Sister, Friend,

      I am infinitely obliged to you
for yr. last kind Note, it calmed my
mind, which yr. former had greatly dis=
=turbed
, yr. calling my[2] friend was suffi=
=cient
to shew me that you was not really
offended with me. Let me never I conjure
you, hear you mention again yr. impru=
=dence
in accepting, it is now irremediable;
therefore I conjure you never mention it
again. As to supposing, that you
wld.. reproach me at any time with
being ye. cause of yr. future unhappineʃs
which Heaven avert, supposing I
was ever to be so, I am too well acquainted



with yr. truly angelick disposition, to
suppose you wld.. probablybe capable of so doing;
were you or were you not to reproach
me, if I supposed my self the Author
of the smallest misfortune that can
befall you, I should be the most
miserable object upon Earth. AdieuThere
are Letters arrived from my dearest
B—— W—— and as I am sure, my
sweetest Sister
takes a pleasure in
every little joy that befalls me, she
will be happy to hear that the accounts
are exceeding good, I know not as yet
ye contents of that, which he has written



to his Father. Pardonnez moi si ma
Lettre est bien courte, mais c'est que
j'aurai bientot le bonheur, de vous aʃsurer
de mes sentiments en propre personne
Adieu Adieu, Adieu trés chere, ai=
=mable
, et charmante Sœur
, et soyez
persuadée que vous m'êtes plus chère
que la vie même,
                             Je suis vôtre trés affectionné
                                                         Ami
P.S.
      Nous n'attendons pas nôtre Ami M. de -S——
de si bonheur cette année, sa femme aiant èté
fort malade chemin faisant, il a étè obligé
de s'arréter, et ne sait pas quand il pourra
repartir.[3] I shall now soon have ye.



happineʃs of seeing you & conversing with
you again. Notwithstanding yr. good
advice concerning ridicule, (which I
entreat you to continue not only upon
that subject, but upon every other where
IYou think youI want it) I think we
may encroach so far, as to have a laugh
at the Quizzs[4] & Babylonians,[5] seulement
entre vous et moi cependant. Adieu
Adieu, Adieu, once more ever dearest
friend
, May Heaven shower down
its choicest bleʃsings, may it at
last conduct you to that everlasting
and only true felicity which none
other can grant, where I hope we
shall meet, never to separate.
                             yr. sincerely attached Friend.

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


Notes


 1. On the order of letters from the beginning of August 1779, see GEO/ADD/3/82/21 p.1 n.1.
 2. Probably my written in error for me.
 3. There is a particularly haphazard application of accents in these French passages.
 4. Slightly predates the earliest sense of the noun quiz, ‘[a]n odd or eccentric person; a person whose appearance is peculiar or ridiculous’ (OED s.v. quiz 1.a).
 5. The noun Babylonian is a mocking or derogatory term here, as also used by Lady Mary Napier of Hamilton's neighbours in Northampton (HAM/1/19/1, 2, /4, /5, /6) and by William Napier (HAM/1/19/48). Unless it means ‘Roman Catholic’ (OED s.v. Babylonian n. and adj. A.2), which seems unlikely, this may be an unrecorded nominal use of the adjectival sense defined by OED as ‘[c]haracteristic of Babylon or its inhabitants; spec. (a) huge, gigantic; (b) decadent, indulgent’ (OED s.v. Babylonian B.1.b).

Normalised Text




      My dearest, dearest, dearest Sister, Friend,

      I am infinitely obliged to you
for your last kind Note, it calmed my
mind, which your former had greatly disturbed
, your calling my friend was sufficient
to show me that you was not really
offended with me. Let me never I conjure
you, hear you mention again your imprudence
in accepting, it is now irremediable;
therefore I conjure you never mention it
again. As to supposing, that you
would reproach me at any time with
being the cause of your future unhappiness
which Heaven avert, supposing I
was ever to be so, I am too well acquainted



with your truly angelic disposition, to
suppose you would be capable of so doing;
were you or were you not to reproach
me, if I supposed my self the Author
of the smallest misfortune that can
befall you, I should be the most
miserable object upon Earth. There
are Letters arrived from my dearest
Brother William and as I am sure, my
sweetest Sister takes a pleasure in
every little joy that befalls me, she
will be happy to hear that the accounts
are exceeding good, I know not as yet
the contents of that, which he has written



to his Father. Pardonnez moi si ma
Lettre est bien courte, mais c'est que
j'aurai bientot le bonheur, de vous assurer
de mes sentiments en propre personne
Adieu Adieu, Adieu trés chere, aimable
, et charmante Sœur, et soyez
persuadée que vous m'êtes plus chère
que la vie même,
                             Je suis vôtre trés affectionné
                                                         Ami
P.S.
      Nous n'attendons pas nôtre Ami M. de Salgas
de si bonheur cette année, sa femme aiant èté
fort malade chemin faisant, il a étè obligé
de s'arréter, et ne sait pas quand il pourra
repartir. I shall now soon have the



happiness of seeing you & conversing with
you again. Notwithstanding your good
advice concerning ridicule, (which I
entreat you to continue not only upon
that subject, but upon every other where
You think I want it) I think we
may encroach so far, as to have a laugh
at the Quizzs & Babylonians, seulement
entre vous et moi cependant. Adieu
Adieu, Adieu, once more ever dearest
friend, May Heaven shower down
its choicest blessings, may it at
last conduct you to that everlasting
and only true felicity which none
other can grant, where I hope we
shall meet, never to separate.
                             your sincerely attached Friend.

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. On the order of letters from the beginning of August 1779, see GEO/ADD/3/82/21 p.1 n.1.
 2. Probably my written in error for me.
 3. There is a particularly haphazard application of accents in these French passages.
 4. Slightly predates the earliest sense of the noun quiz, ‘[a]n odd or eccentric person; a person whose appearance is peculiar or ridiculous’ (OED s.v. quiz 1.a).
 5. The noun Babylonian is a mocking or derogatory term here, as also used by Lady Mary Napier of Hamilton's neighbours in Northampton (HAM/1/19/1, 2, /4, /5, /6) and by William Napier (HAM/1/19/48). Unless it means ‘Roman Catholic’ (OED s.v. Babylonian n. and adj. A.2), which seems unlikely, this may be an unrecorded nominal use of the adjectival sense defined by OED as ‘[c]haracteristic of Babylon or its inhabitants; spec. (a) huge, gigantic; (b) decadent, indulgent’ (OED s.v. Babylonian B.1.b).

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/3/82/22

Correspondence Details

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

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: c.5 August 1779
notBefore 4 August 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 5 August 1779 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on his being the cause of future unhappiness; and on being able to see Hamilton soon.
    The Prince refers to a letter received from [Prince William].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 404 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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