Diplomatic Text
x
17
St. James's Place Wednesday
18th. April
1781
My Dear Madam
your obliging request of hearing from youme
is too agreable not to be complied with and I do it
with double pleasure as I can aʃsure you that the
Dʃs Dowr of Portland's inveterate Cough is much
abated and last night I was happy in seeing her
here better than when you went out of Town;
The softneʃs and cheerfulneʃs of the present weather
I hope will contribute to make her quite well: what
need I say any thing of my own health? she is my
Barometer -- & yesterday I had the courage to go
to Sr. Ashton Levers and Sr. Joshua Reynolds,
& not too much fatigued. how, you at this moment,
pity us poor Londoners? Well you may, who
enjoy such superiour pleasures, and I shou'd
truly envy you were I not so well acquainted
with you & so sincerely
My Dear Miʃs Hamns. affectionate & most
Obliged humble Sert
MDelany
My little Girl is in raptures
with yr. kind notice & I no leʃs
flatter'd. Mrs Chapone dines wth me to day yr cheeks must glow.
[1]
[2]
18
[3]
To
Miʃs Hamilton[4]
at the Queens Lodge
Windsor
[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This page is blank.
2. The corners of this page are damaged and some sections of the subsequent letter are therefore visible in this image, but have not been transcribed here.
3. Bishop Mark in black ink remains partially visible, including the year '81'.
4. A charge mark '2' in black ink denotes postage due.
5. A seal in red wax remains intact.
Normalised Text
St. James's Place Wednesday
My Dear Madam
your obliging request of hearing from me
is too agreeable not to be complied with and I do it
with double pleasure as I can assure you that the
Duchess Dowager of Portland's inveterate Cough is much
abated and last night I was happy in seeing her
here better than when you went out of Town;
The softness and cheerfulness of the present weather
I hope will contribute to make her quite well: what
need I say any thing of my own health? she is my
Barometer -- & yesterday I had the courage to go
to Sir Ashton Levers and Sir Joshua Reynolds,
& not too much fatigued. how, you at this moment,
pity us poor Londoners? Well you may, who
enjoy such superior pleasures, and I should
truly envy you were I not so well acquainted
with you & so sincerely
My Dear Miss Hamiltons affectionate & most
Obliged humble Servant
Mary Delany
My little Girl is in raptures
with your kind notice & I no less
flattered. Mrs Chapone dines with me to day your cheeks must glow.
To
Miss Hamilton
at the Queens Lodge
Windsor
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
Archive: Mrs. Delany correspondence
Item title: Letter from Mary Delany to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: LWL Mss Vol. 75(17)
Correspondence Details
Sender: formerly Pendarves), Mary Delany (née Granville
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Windsor
Date sent: 18 April 1781
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Delany to Mary Hamilton, informing her about the Duchess Dowager of Portland's health and a visit to Sir Ashton Levers as well as Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Length: 1 sheet, 195 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Cassandra Ulph, editorial team (completed 14 January 2021)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021