Diplomatic Text
Mrs Dickenson
née Miʃs Hamilton --
great friend of Mrs Delany.[1]
Welsburn near Stratford
upon Avon June 22d 1786
Though I have been for sometime
a little angry with You my sweet Friend on acct
of your perverse silence, I cannot resist complying
with ye. dictates of my affection, wch. has within this
hour been called forth by Mr. Dewes informing
me that her Majesty had chosen you to supply
Mrs. Hagerdorns place -- the choice does honor to
the Queens judgment & penetration; from my
heart I fervently hope you will be happy in ye-
situation You are going to enter into -- Many of
Your friends will sigh -- but may those sighs never
have any other foundation but what proceeds from
the selfish motives of being deprived of enjoying
as much as they have been accustomed to of your
valuable society. One thing I am confidant will
contribute to render a Court life palatable to you
wch. is the character of, & kindneʃs You will
receive from Your Royal Mistreʃs. How our beloved
Mrs: Delany must rejoice on this occasion -- dear
Woman! what delight one receives from every thing
that affords her satisfaction -- Your having been so
much with her has been a matter of great consolation
to me -- I was severely disappointed lately in not
seeing this most excellent of Women but I trust
I shall once more have ye. happineʃs of ------ receiving
a bleʃsing from her lips before she is taken from
us -- I will not at present trouble her wth. a
letter as my worthy friend Mr. Dewes writes to
her weekly & will convey my meʃsages, My Dr-
Husband & I came here on ye. 19th. & I believe we
shall remain abt. a fortnight longer under this
hospitable roof.[2] I beg You will remember
me most kindly to Docr. Burney & present my
congratulations to him on the honor you have
recd., in wch. I aʃsure You Mr. Dewes & Mr. Dickenson both
desired me to say they most cordially united wth-
every friendly wish for your happineʃs.
I recd. a letter to day from Sr. Wm. Hamilton &
I know it will give Dr Burney pleasure to hear
that his old friend is perfectly well -- he tells
me that he --- has got a new & very rational em-
ployment -- the Queen of Naples haven given
him ye. whole direction of a Garden in ye. English
Stile at Caserta, & he has got from England a
capital english Gardiner for her Majesty;[3] in
that climate & fine soil he has no doubt of
succeʃs, & the spot he has chosen is beautiful in
every respect. My Uncle warmly invites Mr-
D. & me to come to him in every letter, but
I do not think we shall have it in our
power to comply with his wishes -- at
least for some time to come; tell our beloved
Mrs: Delany that Sr. Wm. mentions her in this,
& indeed every letter. I receive, with ye. greatest affection
& respect. Adieu my Dearest Miʃs Burney
& believe me ever ye. same &
most Affly. Yours
Mary Dickenson
June —86 -- [4]
Miʃs Burney
at Mrs: Delanys
Windsor
Single Sheet Berks
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This annotation appears to the left of the dateline. Context suggests it might have been added by Burney later in life. There has not been an opportunity to confirm the hand as hers.
2. Wellesbourne Hall in Warwickshire was owned by the Dewes family.
3. The passage from ‘he has got’ to ‘her Majesty’ shows evidence of erasure and rewriting.
4. This annotation is written vertically in the right margin of the address panel.
5. Postmark ‘26 IU’ below address when unfolded, indicating the letter went through the post on 26 June 1786.
Normalised Text
Welsburn near Stratford
upon Avon June 22d 1786
Though I have been for sometime
a little angry with You my sweet Friend on account
of your perverse silence, I cannot resist complying
with the dictates of my affection, which has within this
hour been called forth by Mr. Dewes informing
me that her Majesty had chosen you to supply
Mrs. Hagerdorns place -- the choice does honour to
the Queens judgement & penetration; from my
heart I fervently hope you will be happy in the
situation You are going to enter into -- Many of
Your friends will sigh -- but may those sighs never
have any other foundation but what proceeds from
the selfish motives of being deprived of enjoying
as much as they have been accustomed to of your
valuable society. One thing I am confident will
contribute to render a Court life palatable to you
which is the character of, & kindness You will
receive from Your Royal Mistress. How our beloved
Mrs: Delany must rejoice on this occasion -- dear
Woman! what delight one receives from every thing
that affords her satisfaction -- Your having been so
much with her has been a matter of great consolation
to me -- I was severely disappointed lately in not
seeing this most excellent of Women but I trust
I shall once more have the happiness of receiving
a blessing from her lips before she is taken from
us -- I will not at present trouble her with a
letter as my worthy friend Mr. Dewes writes to
her weekly & will convey my messages, My Dear
Husband & I came here on the 19th. & I believe we
shall remain about a fortnight longer under this
hospitable roof. I beg You will remember
me most kindly to Doctor Burney & present my
congratulations to him on the honour you have
received, in which I assure You Mr. Dewes & Mr. Dickenson both
desired me to say they most cordially united with
every friendly wish for your happiness.
I received a letter to day from Sir William Hamilton &
I know it will give Dr Burney pleasure to hear
that his old friend is perfectly well -- he tells
me that he has got a new & very rational employment
-- the Queen of Naples having given
him the whole direction of a Garden in the English
Style at Caserta, & he has got from England a
capital english Gardener for her Majesty; in
that climate & fine soil he has no doubt of
success, & the spot he has chosen is beautiful in
every respect. My Uncle warmly invites Mr-
Dickenson & me to come to him in every letter, but
I do not think we shall have it in our
power to comply with his wishes -- at
least for some time to come; tell our beloved
Mrs: Delany that Sir William mentions her in this,
& indeed every letter. I receive, with the greatest affection
& respect. Adieu my Dearest Miss Burney
& believe me ever the same &
most Affectionately Yours
Mary Dickenson
Miss Burney
at Mrs: Delanys
Windsor
Single Sheet Berkshire
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries, Vassar College
Archive: Fanny Burney Papers
Item title: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Frances Burney
Shelfmark: FBP Folder 2
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: Wellesbourne
Addressee: Frances D'Arblay (née Burney)
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: 22 June 1786
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Frances Burney, 22 June 1786.
Length: 1 sheet, 517 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited 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 first created without transcription as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1. Transcription added after the funded period under the supervision of David Denison and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza.
Transliterator: Sophie Coulombeau (submitted 5 October 2022)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 5 January 2026
