OSB MSS 3 Series I (Box 9 Fol. 658)
Letter from Mary Hamilton to Frances Burney
Diplomatic Text
My Dearest Miʃs Burney
I delay'd telling you how
sensibly I felt your kind recollection of me
as I wish'd to write you more than a few
hasty written lines, I have a thousand things
to say to you, but I must content myself
at present with aʃsuring you that I shall
ever be most deeply interested in whatever
concerns you for I love you with a very
sincere affection. As I shall be detain'd
in Town for some time pray inform me
if you could not give me a day. I hear
you are at Thames Ditton, perhaps you
may come to London for a few days before
I quit it. Mrs Vesey was delighted wth
your sending her a meʃsage & charged me
to give her kind love to you. let me know
as soon as poʃsible if I may hope to see
you & tell me if you have lost your
Cough
I write in haste but cannot
Conclude without desiring to be very
kindly remembered to Dr. Burney &
aʃsuring You that I esteem
& love you very much
Mary Hamilton
Clarges Street
July 26th. 1784[1]
Mrs. Delany dear Mrs. Delany has been
in Town for two or three days, she is very
well & gone to Mrs. Boscowans. we talk'd
of You, -- did not your cheeks burn?
The Veseys are still in Town.
[2]
[3]
Surry
Miʃs Burney
St. Martins Street
[4]
Leicester Square
To Miʃs Burney
at William Locke's Esqr:
Norbury Park
near Leatherhead[5]
[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The dateline appears to the left of the signature.
2. The right-hand column is blank, apart from the faint remains of a seal.
3. A large figure ‘2’ has been written to the left of ‘Surry’, denoting postage due, presumably for the forwarding of the letter on to Mickleham in Surrey.
4. Postmark, reading ‘27 IY’, indicating that the letter went through the post on 27 July.
5. The forwarding address (including ‘Surry’ at the top of the page) is probably in the hand of an unknown member of the Burney household.
6. Remains of a seal in red wax.
Normalised Text
My Dearest Miss Burney
I delayed telling you how
sensibly I felt your kind recollection of me
as I wished to write you more than a few
hasty written lines, I have a thousand things
to say to you, but I must content myself
at present with assuring you that I shall
ever be most deeply interested in whatever
concerns you for I love you with a very
sincere affection. As I shall be detained
in Town for some time pray inform me
if you could not give me a day. I hear
you are at Thames Ditton, perhaps you
may come to London for a few days before
I quit it. Mrs Vesey was delighted with
your sending her a message & charged me
to give her kind love to you. let me know
as soon as possible if I may hope to see
you & tell me if you have lost your
Cough
I write in haste but cannot
Conclude without desiring to be very
kindly remembered to Dr. Burney &
assuring You that I esteem
& love you very much
Mary Hamilton
Clarges Street
July 26th. 1784
Mrs. Delany dear Mrs. Delany has been
in Town for two or three days, she is very
well & gone to Mrs. Boscowans. we talked
of You, -- did not your cheeks burn?
The Veseys are still in Town.
Surry
To Miss Burney
at William Locke's Esqr:
Norbury Park
near Leatherhead
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Archive: Burney family collection
Item title: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Frances Burney
Shelfmark: OSB MSS 3 Series I (Box 9 Fol. 658)
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: London
Addressee: Frances D'Arblay (née Burney)
Place received: Mickleham
Date sent: 26 July 1784
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to Frances Burney d'Arblay, July 26 1784.
Length: 1 sheet, 240 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: 26 December 2025
