Diplomatic Text
14
My friend is going again to ——[1] ▼
for his sake I have but one reason to
regret it -- at that place he contracts
intimacies with people of vulgar man-
ners -- they have no recommendation
even to himself but that servility
of servileyy flattering him -- & my
friend has vanity -- therefore he listens
with too much complacency -- why
would you expose the weak side of
your character to young +[2] by
forcing him to tell you what had
been said in your favor -- such a
question, & such information from
any real, sincere, & approved friend,
would have no impropriety -- let
me intreat my friend that you will
/ except to such -- neither boast to --
nor search for compts. from.
[3]
I have been made very unhappy since
we met, but it is in your power to make
it paʃs away as the transient cloud
shew me no more particular attention
destroy my letters immediately if
you real feel for me as a Brother
for my sake destroy immediately all
I write I do not doubt yr honor
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The place is Windsor (see GEO/ADD/3/82/49).
2. Hamilton employs a cross for William Ramus, for whom see GEO/ADD/3/82/26 p.1 n.2. In GEO/ADD/3/82/58, the Prince refers to Ramus as 'the Little Liar'.
3. The text on p.2 is written vertically on the left-hand side of the page.
Normalised Text
My friend is going again to Windsor ▼
for his sake I have but one reason to
regret it -- at that place he contracts
intimacies with people of vulgar manners
-- they have no recommendation
even to himself but that
of servilely flattering him -- & my
friend has vanity -- therefore he listens
with too much complacency -- why
would you expose the weak side of
your character to young + by
forcing him to tell you what had
been said in your favour -- such a
question, & such information from
any real, sincere, & approved friend,
would have no impropriety -- let
me entreat my friend that you will
/ except to such -- neither boast to --
nor search for compliments from.
I have been made very unhappy since
we met, but it is in your power to make
it pass away as the transient cloud
show me no more particular attention
destroy my letters immediately if
you real feel for me as a Brother
for my sake destroy immediately all
I write I do not doubt your honour
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 Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales
Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/83/14
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 10 October 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on the Prince's 'intimacies with people of vulgar manners'; and on seeking compliments.
Hamilton requests that the Prince burn all her letters.
[Draft.]
Length: 1 sheet, 176 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: 10 December 2021