Diplomatic Text
Recd. Monday Morng.
8 oClock 15th Novbr- 1779
62
God forbid my dearest, dearest,
dearest Miranda, yt. I shd.. suppose
yt. I was ye. only person upon earth
to whom you was dear, I never meant
to insinuate any such thing, I know
you have many very dear friends, & to
whom you are as dear, I only meant
to say, & will repeat it, & will maintain
it unto my last breath, yt. there is
not one to whom you are dearer than
you are to me, do you think yt.
yt. is compliment, a fine Speech,
do not you think it proceeds from
ye. heart, my Miranda. Oh it is
very, very, very cruel, after such
a friendship & founded upon such dis=
=interested grounds, to doubt ye veracity
of my expreʃsions, however Heaven
is witneʃs to ym-. I am sure my Mida.
did not consider when she wrote yt.
Sentence what pain it wld.. cause
me, & I am sure she wld.. never
have written it had she thought it
wld.. have given me so much, I
am happy my ##[1] has shewed you
so much attention, I wish she was
to see more of you, for nothing cld..
delight me more than ye. perfect
harmony, of ye two persons yt. are
dearest to me in ye World. I have
long seen & perceived with regret,
ye. little sensibility ofr tenderneʃs in
ye. disposition of my ## & will
you then say yt. ## is at all like
me. I am delighted not only upon
yr. account, but upon mine, & upon
every body else's at ye. good accounts
there are of M. G.[2] I have contracted
a particular esteem & affection for her
especially as she is ye. Friend of
my Miranda. As you told me &
promised me fairly & honestly
my dearest Sister to answer me every
question you cld: which I put to
you concerning yrself, you must
allow me to make use of yt. liberty
in my next, but you may answer
it or not just as you think proper.
I perceive I am not ye. only one of
yr. real friends who advises you to
guard against yr. melancholy
to in wh.. you are too apt to indulge
yrself, however I will not mention
yt. subject again for some time,
however my dearest dearest dearest
Miranda, I wld.. alwaysever have you
believe yt. in whatever humor you
are, you are always, ye. beloved
Sister & Friend, of
Yr.. sincerely affectionate Brother
Palemon toujours de même
P.S
I have finished Julia, & adore her, & have
shed a friendly Tear over her shrine I cld.. not
as yet find a Motto to suit it, if you can pray
communicate it to me, I was delighted with ye answer to ye trope of
ye. ------ ,[3] spare ye. rod spoil ye. Child. God bleʃs you. Ad. Ad. Ad. toujours chere.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. 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.
2. Miss (Charlotte) Gunning, the initial of the surname partially erased by Hamilton, just as in her own letter GEO/ADD/3/83/23.
3. Perhaps saw.
Normalised Text
God forbid my dearest, dearest,
dearest Miranda, that I should suppose
that I was the only person upon earth
to whom you was dear, I never meant
to insinuate any such thing, I know
you have many very dear friends, & to
whom you are as dear, I only meant
to say, & will repeat it, & will maintain
it unto my last breath, that there is
not one to whom you are dearer than
you are to me, do you think that
that is compliment, a fine Speech,
do not you think it proceeds from
the heart, my Miranda. Oh it is
very, very, very cruel, after such
a friendship & founded upon such disinterested
grounds, to doubt the veracity
of my expressions, however Heaven
is witness to them. I am sure my Miranda
did not consider when she wrote that
Sentence what pain it would cause
me, & I am sure she would never
have written it had she thought it
would have given me so much, I
am happy my ## has showed you
so much attention, I wish she was
to see more of you, for nothing could
delight me more than the perfect
harmony, of the two persons that are
dearest to me in the World. I have
long seen & perceived with regret,
the little sensibility or tenderness in
the disposition of my ## & will
you then say that ## is at all like
me. I am delighted not only upon
your account, but upon mine, & upon
every body else's at the good accounts
there are of Miss I have contracted
a particular esteem & affection for her
especially as she is the Friend of
my Miranda. As you told me &
promised me fairly & honestly
my dearest Sister to answer me every
question you could which I put to
you concerning yourself, you must
allow me to make use of that liberty
in my next, but you may answer
it or not just as you think proper.
I perceive I am not the only one of
your real friends who advises you to
guard against your melancholy
in which you are too apt to indulge
yourself, however I will not mention
that subject again for some time,
however my dearest dearest dearest
Miranda, I would ever have you
believe that in whatever humour you
are, you are always, the beloved
Sister & Friend, of
Your sincerely affectionate Brother
Palemon toujours de même
P.S
I have finished Julia, & adore her, & have
shed a friendly Tear over her shrine I could not
as yet find a Motto to suit it, if you can pray
communicate it to me, I was delighted with the answer to the trope of
the ------ , spare the rod spoil the Child. God bless you. Adieu Adieu Adieu toujours chere.
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/3/82/62
Correspondence Details
Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 15 November 1779
notBefore 15 November 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 15 November 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton on [?Queen Charlotte] showing her attention; and on his esteem for her friend 'M G'.
The Prince writes that he did not wish to insinuate that Hamilton was not dear to anyone else but him. He states that 'I have long seen, & perceived with regret, the little sensibility of tenderness in the disposition of my [?mother]'.
Received Monday morning at 8 o'clock.
Signed 'Palemon'.
Length: 1 sheet, 473 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 August 2019)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021