Diplomatic Text
[2]
Strawberry hill
Oct. 7th. 1783.
Printed
I have just received, Madam, the very obliging favour of
your letter & the two melancholy narratives, & do not let paʃs a
moment without thanking you. Surely, Madam, you had no cause
for making an apology. I ought to make one to you for the trouble
I have occasioned to you, if your excellent & compaʃsionate heart
coud think it a trouble to serve the unfortunate, or to oblige Those
who respect you
Two paʃsages in your letter struck me, Madam, & I fear will create
a little more exertion of your obliging disposition. You say, the poor
Louisa is confined, from neceʃsity, to a cell[3] -- If by neceʃsity is meant
the want of money, I will most gladly contribute towards removing that
neceʃsity; but as she found so much humanity, I rather imagine that
the deplorable state of her mind neceʃsarily occasions her confinement
to a Cell destined to Lunatics -- but if the former sense is implied, I
beg to know it, & how I may most speedily relieve her.
The other paʃsage, Madam, is, “what satisfaction Sr, will it afford you
if through your means she is at length restored to her relations & friends!”
Satisfaction it woud be a high one indeed -- but ah! Madam, by what
means can that felicity fall to my Lot! If you can point out any
method, I woud joyfully pursue it -- tho I doubt your Tenderneʃs woud have
suggested that method if you had conceived it. One question I will take
the liberty to ask you, as by contracting the sphere of Inquiry, one might
be led nearer to a discovery. Has Louisa dropped any hint whether she
is a Catholic, a Lutheran, or a Calvinist? Germany is so wide a Field,
that without some clue, it woud be a wild search, especially for me who
have not a correspondent in all Germany, to commence the pursuit.
I am not acquainted with the Austrian Minister, but know a Person not
yet in town who coud apply to him; & I coud as indirectly get queries pro=
=posed to other foreign Ministers, & to some of our own in Germany, or
to have advertisements conveyed to them. In short, Madam, I woud do any
thing in my power, not only from the duty of humanity, & to please you
& Miʃs More, who have shown such engaging benevolence, but from having
too intimate acquaintance with the misfortune of Lunacy, having, besides
an instance I will not mention, two families dependent on myself afflicted
with that calamity,[4] which I know alas! is almost hopeleʃs! For poor
Louisa, dreadfull as her case is to those who attend to it, she perhaps is no longer
sensible to her misery. For her Parents, if still living, They, if they can be
discovered, may but have an affliction, probably skinned over by time, opened
again, not comforted, by finding their Child in so wretched a State -- That
however is not a reason for relaxing Inquiry. We are not to act on hypotheses
of our own Imagination, & shun investigation, when positive good may be
done, & activity, not speculation & refinement, is demanded of us. We are too
apt to numb that activity, & indulge our own lazineʃs & want of feeling by specious
arguments, which we call common Sense. They may be common Sense,
but if it ever is justifiable to good Sense to act romantically, it is by being
the Knights errant of the Distreʃsed. Louisa shall be my Dulcinea, Madam;
& you shall be the Ducheʃs who countenances me;[5] & who will not like that
insolent great Woman make sport with the Visionary whom she encoura
=ges to expose himself -- a Character I think it very immoral in Cervan
=tes to have exhibited: there iswas no occasion to teach wealth & grandeur
to laugh at misfortunes which they ought to pity.
I have the honour to be with the truest regard, Madam,
your much obliged
& most obed. humble Sert
HorWalpole
Walpole
(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The first image is of an archival note with basic metadata, the location in the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's correspondence, and the provenance of the document.
2. This letter appears in Lewis (1937-83: XXXI, 206-209).
3. Louisa, ‘the maid of the haystack’ was a madwoman found living in haystacks near Bristol in 1776. She was supported in part by funds raised amongst Hannah More's friends. See The Correspondence of Horace Walpole vol 31, p.207 n.1. A pamphlet about her is mentioned in HAM/1/18/136 p.3.
4. According to the editors of the Yale Correspondence, Walpole could be referring here to his nephew, Lord Orford, and to the families of his half-sister Catherine Daye, and a 'Mary Newton' who he had supported from infancy. See LWL edition p.208 n.5-6.
5. Walpole is alluding here to characters in Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes.
Normalised Text
Strawberry hill
October. 7th. 1783.
I have just received, Madam, the very obliging favour of
your letter & the two melancholy narratives, & do not let pass a
moment without thanking you. Surely, Madam, you had no cause
for making an apology. I ought to make one to you for the trouble
I have occasioned to you, if your excellent & compassionate heart
could think it a trouble to serve the unfortunate, or to oblige Those
who respect you
Two passages in your letter struck me, Madam, & I fear will create
a little more exertion of your obliging disposition. You say, the poor
Louisa is confined, from necessity, to a cell -- If by necessity is meant
the want of money, I will most gladly contribute towards removing that
necessity; but as she found so much humanity, I rather imagine that
the deplorable state of her mind necessarily occasions her confinement
to a Cell destined to Lunatics -- but if the former sense is implied, I
beg to know it, & how I may most speedily relieve her.
The other passage, Madam, is, “what satisfaction Sir, will it afford you
if through your means she is at length restored to her relations & friends!”
Satisfaction it would be a high one indeed -- but ah! Madam, by what
means can that felicity fall to my Lot! If you can point out any
method, I would joyfully pursue it -- though I doubt your Tenderness would have
suggested that method if you had conceived it. One question I will take
the liberty to ask you, as by contracting the sphere of Inquiry, one might
be led nearer to a discovery. Has Louisa dropped any hint whether she
is a Catholic, a Lutheran, or a Calvinist? Germany is so wide a Field,
that without some clue, it would be a wild search, especially for me who
have not a correspondent in all Germany, to commence the pursuit.
I am not acquainted with the Austrian Minister, but know a Person not
yet in town who could apply to him; & I could as indirectly get queries proposed
to other foreign Ministers, & to some of our own in Germany, or
have advertisements conveyed to them. In short, Madam, I would do any
thing in my power, not only from the duty of humanity, & to please you
& Miss More, who have shown such engaging benevolence, but from having
too intimate acquaintance with the misfortune of Lunacy, having, besides
an instance I will not mention, two families dependent on myself afflicted
with that calamity, which I know alas! is almost hopeless! For poor
Louisa, dreadful as her case is to those who attend to it, she perhaps is no longer
sensible to her misery. For her Parents, if still living, They, if they can be
discovered, may but have an affliction, probably skinned over by time, opened
again, not comforted, by finding their Child in so wretched a State -- That
however is not a reason for relaxing Inquiry. We are not to act on hypotheses
of our own Imagination, & shun investigation, when positive good may be
done, & activity, not speculation & refinement, is demanded of us. We are too
apt to numb that activity, & indulge our own laziness & want of feeling by specious
arguments, which we call common Sense. They may be common Sense,
but if it ever is justifiable to good Sense to act romantically, it is by being
the Knights errant of the Distressed. Louisa shall be my Dulcinea, Madam;
& you shall be the Duchess who countenances me; & who will not like that
insolent great Woman make sport with the Visionary whom she encourages
to expose himself -- a Character I think it very immoral in Cervantes
to have exhibited: there was no occasion to teach wealth & grandeur
to laugh at misfortunes which they ought to pity.
I have the honour to be with the truest regard, Madam,
your much obliged
& most obedient humble Servant
Horace Walpole
(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
Archive: Horace Walpole's Correspondence
Item title: Letter from Horace Walpole to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MSS1 b.12 f.39
Correspondence Details
Sender: Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford
Place sent: Twickenham
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 7 October 1783
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Horace Walpole to Mary Hamilton, October 1783.
Length: 1 sheet, 670 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 17 February 2021)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 December 2021