Diplomatic Text
6th. Monday Morng.[1] --
My ever dearest, dearest, dearest Sister, Friend,[2]
Must I am afraid have been struck I am afraid
that when I wrote this Morning I was a little hurt at her
behaviour last Night, it is true I am I rather will say, was,
very much so, you have taken but very little notice of me
late, if I have been at ye. Window you have pretended not
to have seen me, however yr: kind, friendly, & informing
Letter this Morning has almost set my mind quite at
rest. How little must you know me if you think that
I should hate you for shewing me my faults in the true lights
which they deserve. no by Heavens I esteem you, I admire
you, I love you ten thousand times more on that account.
I never thought of making a laughing stock of misery tho' it
appeared so to you by what I said ye. other Evening, but it
was merely to try if I cld.. rouse you by any means, for you
appeared so exceʃsively low, and so cold to me, & shewed it so
publickly, that I cld.. not imagine what I had done to cause
yt.. alteration in yr. behaviour, but now I hope I may attribute
it to ye.. presence of M.—— F.—— You say you do not think you
say that what she said about you was her own private opinion,
but that she thought it neceʃsary to conform herself to ye.
opinion of ye. Ton.[3] sometimes that Bouffoon A——d[4] says
a tolerable thing amongst a wonderful number of low, vulgar
things, & quite unbecoming his Character of a C—— & this
is one of the tolerable one's, that he never believes people have
more sense that what they apparently make use of, so
I say, that I can not believe but that these must be her
sentiments, as ʃhe chuses to adopt them, in leu - not only of more
humane, generous, & true one's. As for ye. Character & Portrait you
was so good as to send themto me I do not think that they are
a favorable likeneʃses, however upon ye whole I think they
are rather characatured, but not quite in ye high style of M. F.
I will ye. first moment I have a little time send you
ye. Portrait & character of rather a tall, broad shouldered, manly looking
man who has a consummate share of impudence, who is attached beyond what words can expreʃs to ye.
young Lady - whose Portrait you sent me yeʃterday. Tell
me in yr. next if you are not satisfied with ye. frankneʃs
and openeʃs with which I not only lay open my whole
heart to you but my whole Soul & with ye. true confidence
& friendship which I place & ever will do so in you, continue to treat me in return
in ye like manner, & believe O my dearest, dearest,
dearest Friend, that I shall be unto my
last moments
Yr. Palemon
P.S.[5]
I send you Myrtles to day
& Umberellas[6] tomorrow -
Adieu, Adieu, Adieu, toujours chère.
[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. There are some odd features to this date. The letter S appears to have been started twice, and an earlier Sepr. may have been altered to Septr., though the t is uncertain.
2. Unusually in the Prince's letters to Hamilton (and in defiance of layout, punctuation and the initial capital of Must), this salutation serves as subject of the opening sentence.
3. ‘People of fashion; fashionable society; the fashionable world’ (OED s.v. ton n. 3, b).
4. William Arnald, Canon of Windsor (see GEO/ADD/3/82/26).
5. This postscript appears to the left of the closing salutation and signature.
6. Possibly ‘[a] part of a plant resembling an outspread umbrella’ (OED s.v. umbrella n. 7a).
7. The last page is blank.
Normalised Text
My ever dearest, dearest, dearest Sister, Friend,
Must I am afraid have been struck
that when I wrote this Morning I was a little hurt at her
behaviour last Night, it is true I am I rather will say, was,
very much so, you have taken but very little notice of me
late, if I have been at the Window you have pretended not
to see me, however your kind, friendly, & informing
Letter this Morning has almost set my mind quite at
rest. How little must you know me if you think that
I should hate you for showing me my faults in the true lights
which they deserve. no by Heavens I esteem you, I admire
you, I love you ten thousand times more on that account.
I never thought of making a laughing stock of misery though it
appeared so to you by what I said the other Evening, but it
was merely to try if I could rouse you by any means, for you
appeared so excessively low, and so cold to me, & showed it so
publicly, that I could not imagine what I had done to cause
that alteration in your behaviour, but now I hope I may attribute
it to the presence of Miss Finch You say you do not think
that what she said about you was her own private opinion,
but that she thought it necessary to conform herself to the
opinion of the Ton. sometimes that Buffoon Arnald says
a tolerable thing amongst a wonderful number of low, vulgar
things, & quite unbecoming his Character of a Canon & this
is one of the tolerable one's, that he never believes people have
more sense that what they apparently make use of, so
I say, that I can not believe but that these must be her
sentiments, as she chooses to adopt them, in lieu not only of more
humane, generous, & true one's. As for the Character & Portrait you
was so good as to send to me I do not think that they are
favourable likenesses, however upon the whole I think they
are rather caricatured, but not quite in the high style of Miss Finch
I will the first moment I have a little time send you
the Portrait & character of rather a tall, broad shouldered, manly looking
man who has a consummate share of impudence, who is attached beyond what words can express to the
young Lady whose Portrait you sent me yesterday. Tell
me in your next if you are not satisfied with the frankness
and openness with which I not only lay open my whole
heart to you but my whole Soul & with the true confidence
& friendship which I place & ever will do so in you, continue to treat me in return
in the like manner, & believe O my dearest, dearest,
dearest Friend, that I shall be unto my
last moments
Your Palemon
P.S.
I send you Myrtles to day
& Umbrellas tomorrow
Adieu, Adieu, Adieu, toujours chère.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
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/3/82/32
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.6 September 1779
notBefore 5 September 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 6 September 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on the comments of 'M F' regarding Hamilton and the Prince; and on sending each other portraits and characters.
The Prince refers to Hamilton's behaviour being caused by the presence of 'M F', and her belief that [M F's] comments about her were not her 'own private opinion' but 'that she thought it necessary to conform herself to the opinion of the Ton'. The Prince disagrees.
Signed 'Palemon'.
Length: 1 sheet, 511 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