Diplomatic Text
1.
Do not impute it to any neglect
of mine My Dear Miʃs Hamilton your
not having heared from me; I never
received your note till this day when I
came to the Adelphi[1] where it Lay ever
since; and where I have not been
before this six weeks.
I was again with Mrs: Montagu, and
very happy I was indeed; for she is a
charming Mistreʃs of her house. will
You believe when I tell you that I
Danced at two Balls at Sandleford?
Yes I did and performed my part very
well. My partner was the Master of
the feast at the Harvest-home, a
jolly old framer, who never Danced
before in his life. Think of my Bold
undertaking; but it afforded a most mirth-
ful Scene to the Company, and to my poor
hands plenty of blue spots.
Miʃs More was not at Sandleford,
the Primate of Ireland was expected,
and there were no Spare rooms left.
Since my return to Hampton, I have
dined twice with Mrs: Walsingham,
who asked much after you; but par=
ticularly if you were married: I told
her that it would not be till after
Christms-. have I said right? will
not that be the time? is your dear
mind at rest? I hope all goes on as
You could wish. I love you most
Sincerely, Your welfare is therefore
nearest at my heart! and that, which must
make you happy, I most devoutly wish may
be soon accomplished. I had almost forgot to talk
to You about, that abominable book Les sent
Nouvelles[2] &c -- I give you my word and honor
that I never looked into them when they were
sent to you; but when I saw your note, I had
the curiosity to see what offended you in them.
I was shocked to Death with seeing the pictures
only, without reading the Stories. you must
have thought me rude to let such a book
go out of my house; but I am sorry they
are in it, as such books would make me rather
sick then merry if I were obliged to read
them. Adieu! and believe me to be
Your most
faithful
M: Garrick
Adelphi Novr. the 2d: 1784
I will send this to your house as I do not know where you
may be by this time.
[3]
[5]
[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Adelphi is a district of Westminster. The Garricks lived at No. 5 Adelphi Terrace (originally known as Royal Terrace), which was demolished in 1936. Hannah More frequently stayed at the Garricks during her visits to town from 1776 onwards. Dr. Turton (Mary Hamilton's doctor) lived at No. 1a. (See also 'Adelphi Terrace', in Survey of London: Volume 18, St Martin-in-The-Fields II: the Strand, ed. G. H. Gater and E. P. Wheeler (London, 1937), pp.103-108. British History Online. Accessed 19-08-2020).
2. Presumably a French edition of Les cent nouvelles.
3. The first line of the address is preceded by a large ‘4d’, indicating postage due.
4. The rest of the address appears to be written in a different, unknown hand.
5. Remains of a Bishop mark, ‘2 NO’, indicating the date 2 November.
6. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
Do not impute it to any neglect
of mine My Dear Miss Hamilton your
not having heard from me; I never
received your note till this day when I
came to the Adelphi where it Lay ever
since; and where I have not been
before this six weeks.
I was again with Mrs: Montagu, and
very happy I was indeed; for she is a
charming Mistress of her house. will
You believe when I tell you that I
Danced at two Balls at Sandleford?
Yes I did and performed my part very
well. My partner was the Master of
the feast at the Harvest-home, a
jolly old farmer, who never Danced
before in his life. Think of my Bold
undertaking; but it afforded a most mirthful
Scene to the Company, and to my poor
hands plenty of blue spots.
Miss More was not at Sandleford,
the Primate of Ireland was expected,
and there were no Spare rooms left.
Since my return to Hampton, I have
dined twice with Mrs: Walsingham,
who asked much after you; but particularly
if you were married: I told
her that it would not be till after
Christmas. have I said right? will
not that be the time? is your dear
mind at rest? I hope all goes on as
You could wish. I love you most
Sincerely, Your welfare is therefore
nearest at my heart! and that, which must
make you happy, I most devoutly wish may
be soon accomplished. I had almost forgotten to talk
to You about, that abominable book Les sent
Nouvelles &c -- I give you my word and honour
that I never looked into them when they were
sent to you; but when I saw your note, I had
the curiosity to see what offended you in them.
I was shocked to Death with seeing the pictures
only, without reading the Stories. you must
have thought me rude to let such a book
go out of my house; but I am sorry they
are in it, as such books would make me rather
sick than merry if I were obliged to read
them. Adieu! and believe me to be
Your most
faithful
Maria Garrick
Adelphi November the 2d: 1784
I will send this to your house as I do not know where you
may be by this time.
Miss Hamilton
at her Grace the Duchess
of Portlands Bulstrode
Near Gerrards Cross
Buckinghamshire
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Eva Maria Garrick to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/6/6/1
Correspondence Details
Sender: Eva Maria Garrick (née Veigel)
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Gerrards Cross
Date sent: 2 November 1784
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Eva Maria Garrick to Mary Hamilton. She writes that Hamilton's last note was addressed to the Adelphi, where she has not been for six weeks. She had visited Mrs Montagu and asks Hamilton: 'will You believe when I tell you that I Danced at two Balls at Sandleford? Yes I did and performed my part very well'. Her partner was a 'jolly old [farmer]' who had never danced before. She continues that it was a 'bold undertaking', but that the company found it amusing. The letter continues on mutual acquaintances. Hannah Harper More was not visiting Sandleford at that time. On Garrick's return to Hampton, Mrs [Charlotte] Walsingham asked after Hamilton, wishing to know if she was yet married. Garrick also refers to a book Les Cent Nouvelles that was sent to Hamilton and which is described as 'abominable'. After seeing Hamilton's note about the book offending her, Garrick was curious. 'I was shocked to Death with seeing the pictures only, without reading the Stories'. She continues that such books would make her 'rather sick th[a]n merry'.
Length: 1 sheet, 402 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: Research Assistant funding in 2016/17 provided by The John Rylands Research Institute.
Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Andrew Gott, dissertation student, University of Manchester (submitted June 2012)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021