Diplomatic Text
82
Many thanks Dear Madam
for your obliging note. I am very
Sorry you have been an Invalide
but it is the general case. I have
indeed been very ill ever since
I met you at Mrs. Ord's. I felt a
beginning Cold about an hour before
her Coach came to fetch me; & by
the time I reach'd her house was
much ill & cough'd the whole Eveng
so that I was quite ashamed. I had
a pretty strong fever all that Night
and have ever since been under
discipline & unable to stir with
violent Cough & Asthma &c I am now
I thank God much better but have not
yet ventured even to attend my sick
Brother & Sister.[1] I shall be happy to
see you when you can venture hither with
Safety. I have been & still am very
unhappy about a beloved Nephew,
Captn Mulso, whose Ship has been
Miʃsing many weeks & cannot be
heard of.[2] the suspense is wretched &
every day grows more painful.
I am Dear Madam
your obliged
and obedt Sert
H. Chapone
Francis St.[3] Tottenhm Ct road
Tuesday M. 21. 1797 --
83
[4]
[5]
[6]
Mrs. Dickenson
58 Lower Brook Street
Tuesday
[7]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Thomas Mulso was at this point the only living brother of Hester Chapone. As for her sister, this likely refers to Mary Mulso (née Prescott), Thomas Mulso's wife and as such Hester Chapone's sister-in-law, as Hester did not have any sisters herself.
2. Commander William Mulso's ship the HMS Hermes disappeared during a storm in January 1797. Everyone on board was later presumed to have died.
3. Present-day Torrington Place, London.
4. This page is blank, except for the archival note.
5. Imprint of a seal, in red wax.
6. Various lines have been drawn above the address in a symmetrical manner, but they do not seem to represent anything specific nor convey any meaning.
7. Remains of a stamp, which reads '4 o'Clock 21 MR 97 EVEN'.
Normalised Text
Many thanks Dear Madam
for your obliging note. I am very
Sorry you have been an Invalide
but it is the general case. I have
indeed been very ill ever since
I met you at Mrs. Ord's. I felt a
beginning Cold about an hour before
her Coach came to fetch me; & by
the time I reached her house was
much ill & coughed the whole Evening
so that I was quite ashamed. I had
a pretty strong fever all that Night
and have ever since been under
discipline & unable to stir with
violent Cough & Asthma &c I am now
I thank God much better but have not
yet ventured even to attend my sick
Brother & Sister. I shall be happy to
see you when you can venture hither with
Safety. I have been & still am very
unhappy about a beloved Nephew,
Captain Mulso, whose Ship has been
Missing many weeks & cannot be
heard of. the suspense is wretched &
every day grows more painful.
I am Dear Madam
your obliged
and obedient Servant
Hester Chapone
Francis St. Tottenham Court road
Tuesday March 21. 1797 --
Mrs. Dickenson
58 Lower Brook Street
Tuesday
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 Hester Chapone to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: LWL Mss Vol. 75(86)
Correspondence Details
Sender: Hester Chapone (née Mulso)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 21 March 1797
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Hester Chapone to Mary Hamilton, thanking her for her "obliging note", as well as commenting on how both Hamilton and herself have been ill since meeting at Mrs. Ord's. Chapone also mentions being "very unhappy" about her nephew Captain Mulso, whose Ship had been missing for several weeks by the time of writing.
Length: 1 sheet, 198 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: Tino Oudesluijs, editorial team (completed 12 April 2021)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021