Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/82/60

Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


60

12th. Novbr- recd- 1779[1]
Recd. 12th. Novbr. 1779
Friday Morg.ng 9 o'clock


My Dearest dearest, dearest Miranda, my Sister, my Friend,

      The éclairciʃsement you wished for paʃsed
to day between my ##[2] & me, I merely related ye. plain
state of ye. case, without defending myself in ye least,
justice shewed herself so clearly on my side yt. nothing
more cld.. be said upon ye. subject, & ## has again aʃsumed
her## engaging manners with me. O my Miranda I am
delighted with Julia[3] as far as I am come & I love
her ye. more as I represent her to myʃelf as my Miranda,
she cost me many tears last Night about ye. death
of her Mother, as you did my friend in ye. commencement
of this Summer, bu enough upon yt. subject, let
me never think any thing more about it as you
have set my mind quite at rest about it.



How cld.. my dearest friend ask as a favor of me to read
any thing which she recommends, is not it doing me
a favor to recommend any thing of yt. sort or of any
sort to me, but such sentences are synonimous with
ye. term gracious wh.. my darling Sister knows I have
a mortal aversion to, but all this proceeds from
a little spice of méchanceté. I am unfortunate
enough not to have Dodsley's Collection of Poems
with me here, nor do I know any body also here
from whom I cld.. borrow ym.- I must therefore
delay for a Week reading yt. Poem until I
arrive in Town where I have ye. whole set. Again
how cld.. you suppose I meant it as a reproach
when I said yt. you had marked every beautiful
paʃsage my[4] ʃelf & yt. therefore my marking



was needleʃs, continue my Miranda to do so, & by
doing so you will teach me to remark many
beautiful paʃsages wh.. else in my inattentive
manner of reading I shd.. easily let slip. Pardon
my dearest friend my complaining of these
little infractions upon our treaty of friendship
I can not so much call ym- infractions as
deviations from it. As to what you saymention in
yr. Letter my Miranda yt. I never shall lose
a friend in you, believe me when I say yt.
there is nobody upon Earth for whom you are
dearer, or so dear as to me, yt. my whole
existence is in you, & yt. as long as life remains
in my fragil frame, you never shall want a
sincere Friend & an aff tender Brother
, in
                             Yr. ever sincerely affectionate Palemon
toujours de même




P.S.[5] Pray pardon ye. briefneʃs of this Letter, as
I have had but one of my Gentlemen at home ye
whole Day & it wld.. have been ill breeding to
have left him alone, as my figetting dear B——
is seldom in ye. Room. Pray also pardon ye in=
=accuracies
of this Letter as it is past 12
& my eyes are almost closed with sleep. You
shall have a longer tho' I can not promise
very entertaining Letter on Su——y.[6] I suppose
you mean to begin to shew me how well you
intend to keep yr. promise of banishing
all melancholy ideas as well as is in yr.
power out of yr. mind, by sealing yr. Letters
with black Wax.[7] (A remark from ye. tips of ye. ears)
Ad. Ad. Ad. trés trés trés chére Amie, soyez
persuadée que vous m'êtes toujours chere.
Hey ho!
                                                         Votre P.

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


Notes


 1. This annotation is written vertically at the top left of the page.
 2. The Prince appears to use a cross-hatched symbol (represented in this transcription by ##) for Mother, i.e. his mother, Queen Charlotte. It does not look like a normal alphabetic abbreviation that has been cancelled or censored.
 3. Julia refers to the title character in the novel Julia de Roubigné by Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831).
 4. Probably a slip for your (self).
 5. The label P.S. is preceded by a cross above the line.
 6. The reading Su-y 'Sunday' is more probable than Sa-y, and indeed the next letter, GEO/ADD/3/82/61, was received on the Sunday.
 7. Hamilton's mother, Mary Catherine, died in 1778 (exact date uncertain; see GEO/ADD/3/83/22 p.1 n.4). It is possible that Mary Hamilton was still in official mourning at this time, which would account for the black wax seal, but if a year had passed, this may explain George's frequent exhortations that she 'banish melancholy ideas'.

Normalised Text






My Dearest dearest, dearest Miranda, my Sister, my Friend,

      The éclaircissement you wished for passed
to day between my ## & me, I merely related the plain
state of the case, without defending myself in the least,
justice showed herself so clearly on my side that nothing
more could be said upon the subject, & ## has again assumed
## engaging manners with me. O my Miranda I am
delighted with Julia as far as I am come & I love
her the more as I represent her to myself as my Miranda,
she cost me many tears last Night about the death
of her Mother, as you did my friend in the commencement
of this Summer, but enough upon that subject, let
me never think any thing more about it as you
have set my mind quite at rest about it.



How could my dearest friend ask as a favour of me to read
any thing which she recommends, is not it doing me
a favour to recommend any thing of that sort or of any
sort to me, but such sentences are synonymous with
the term gracious which my darling Sister knows I have
a mortal aversion to, but all this proceeds from
a little spice of méchanceté. I am unfortunate
enough not to have Dodsley's Collection of Poems
with me here, nor do I know any body also here
from whom I could borrow them I must therefore
delay for a Week reading that Poem until I
arrive in Town where I have the whole set. Again
how could you suppose I meant it as a reproach
when I said that you had marked every beautiful
passage my self & that therefore my marking



was needless, continue my Miranda to do so, & by
doing so you will teach me to remark many
beautiful passages which else in my inattentive
manner of reading I should easily let slip. Pardon
my dearest friend my complaining of these
little infractions upon our treaty of friendship
I can not so much call them infractions as
deviations from it. As to what you mention in
your Letter my Miranda that I never shall lose
a friend in you, believe me when I say that
there is nobody upon Earth for whom you are
dearer, or so dear as to me, that my whole
existence is in you, & that as long as life remains
in my fragile frame, you never shall want a
sincere Friend & a tender Brother, in
                             Your ever sincerely affectionate Palemon
toujours de même




P.S. Pray pardon the briefness of this Letter, as
I have had but one of my Gentlemen at home the
whole Day & it would have been ill breeding to
have left him alone, as my fidgeting dear Brother
is seldom in the Room. Pray also pardon the inaccuracies
of this Letter as it is past 12
& my eyes are almost closed with sleep. You
shall have a longer though I can not promise
very entertaining Letter on Sunday. I suppose
you mean to begin to show me how well you
intend to keep your promise of banishing
all melancholy ideas as well as is in your
power out of your mind, by sealing your Letters
with black Wax. (A remark from the tips of the ears)
Adieu Adieu Adieu trés trés trés chére Amie, soyez
persuadée que vous m'êtes toujours chere.
Hey ho!
                                                         Votre Palemon

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



 1. This annotation is written vertically at the top left of the page.
 2. The Prince appears to use a cross-hatched symbol (represented in this transcription by ##) for Mother, i.e. his mother, Queen Charlotte. It does not look like a normal alphabetic abbreviation that has been cancelled or censored.
 3. Julia refers to the title character in the novel Julia de Roubigné by Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831).
 4. Probably a slip for your (self).
 5. The label P.S. is preceded by a cross above the line.
 6. The reading Su-y 'Sunday' is more probable than Sa-y, and indeed the next letter, GEO/ADD/3/82/61, was received on the Sunday.
 7. Hamilton's mother, Mary Catherine, died in 1778 (exact date uncertain; see GEO/ADD/3/83/22 p.1 n.4). It is possible that Mary Hamilton was still in official mourning at this time, which would account for the black wax seal, but if a year had passed, this may explain George's frequent exhortations that she 'banish melancholy ideas'.

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/3/82/60

Correspondence Details

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

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 12 November 1779
notBefore 12 November 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 12 November 1779 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on a discussion with [Queen Charlotte]; reading [Julia de Roubigné]; and on not having Dodsley's Collection of Poems with him.
    Written Friday morning at 9 o'clock.
    [Date given is the date received.]
    Signed 'Palemon'.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 574 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 July 2019)

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

Revision date: 2 November 2021

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