Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/83/15

Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales

Diplomatic Text

[1]
                                                         15[2]

11 Octbr 1779[3]

                                                         Typed[4]

but remarks cruel remarks have been made by
some silent observer of ye. Windsor party --
-- a person whom I must ever look on as my
Friend after having told me what was said to me
had been said of me -- “I think if I am not
“deceived in you you would be very sorry to
“becom-e the Topic of common conversation
“when by your future conduct you may
“avoid it” -- After this you will not be surprised
if I say I hope I shall not go again to W——
I am & ever will be your friend, & as my friend
you must be tender of my fame & honor I
have repeatley told you it is dearer to me than
life -- no promise (I made of not going frm. this family)



                                                        
                            
no power on earth shall detain me in a situ-
ation
where the smallest speck is liable to be
thrown upon it -- I will not only be satisfied with
myself but the world must do me justice.
& I know a way to avoid its baneful censures
by retiring for ever from it -- To you who are
just entering on ye. pleasures of life this detir from a
young person may appear strange -- but believe me
ye. sacrifice wld. cost me little regret &c &c
&c I desire your will Meʃsenger will come only
wth. the ostensible reason on Thursday, with
the Nog Nosegay -- Adieu my Mind is
now tranquil & I am not at present unhappy
                             Adieu Toujours la même

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


Notes


 1. The top of the sheet is torn off through a line of writing, and the surviving text begins in mid-sentence; this is perhaps why the date had to be written on p.2. We have swapped the two pages in the image of this letter, as the original had the second page first. The image therefore differs from the one available from the Royal Archives.
 2. Moved annotation here from the top right of p.2.
 3. Moved date here from the top of p.2.
 4. Moved annotation here from the right margin, written vertically.

Normalised Text


                                                        

11 October 1779

                                                        

but remarks cruel remarks have been made by
some silent observer of the Windsor party --
-- a person whom I must ever look on as my
Friend after having told me what
had been said of me -- “I think if I am not
“deceived in you you would be very sorry to
“become the Topic of common conversation
“when by your future conduct you may
“avoid it” -- After this you will not be surprised
if I say I hope I shall not go again to Windsor
I am & ever will be your friend, & as my friend
you must be tender of my fame & honour I
have repeatedly told you it is dearer to me than
life -- no promise (I made of not going from this family)



                                                        
                            
no power on earth shall detain me in a situation
where the smallest speck is liable to be
thrown upon it -- I will not only be satisfied with
myself but the world must do me justice.
& I know a way to avoid its baneful censures
by retiring for ever from it -- To you who are
just entering on the pleasures of life this from a
young person may appear strange -- but believe me
the sacrifice would cost me little regret &c &c
&c I desire your Messenger will come only
with the ostensible reason on Thursday, with
the Nosegay -- Adieu my Mind is
now tranquil & I am not at present unhappy
                             Adieu Toujours la même

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



 1. The top of the sheet is torn off through a line of writing, and the surviving text begins in mid-sentence; this is perhaps why the date had to be written on p.2. We have swapped the two pages in the image of this letter, as the original had the second page first. The image therefore differs from the one available from the Royal Archives.
 2. Moved annotation here from the top right of p.2.
 3. Moved date here from the top of p.2.
 4. Moved annotation here from the right margin, written vertically.

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/3/83/15

Correspondence Details

Sender: Mary Hamilton

Place sent: unknown

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

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 11 October 1779

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on cruel comments made about her at Windsor; fear for her reputation; and her wish to avoid going to Windsor.
    [Draft.]
   

Length: 1 sheet, 248 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: 10 December 2021

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