Single Letter

HAM/1/15/1/25

Letter from Charlotte Margaret Gunning to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


12[1]

31st. March 1788
St James's

My dear Friend!

So you did not come last night?
indeed I hardly expected you from
what Mr D. said -- I am very
impatient & anxious to see you in
comfort, when shall I have this
pleasure -- shall I come to you
this Evening at 9 o clock for an
hour -- or will you come to me
tomorrow Evening between 8 and
9 -- or shall I call on you at any
hour tomorrow morning, or will
you come here at any hour --
consider of all these proposals &
let me know which you accept of
that I may arrange things
accordingly -- I am going to dine
out with my Friend Mrs Milbank
in my great cap, & shall do much
the same thing tomorrow -- I am
rather better tho' last night my
fever was very high -- I have been
unwell for these some weeks past



and having now grown worse I
shall probably get well -- I shall
keep quiet till Wednesday when
I wish to be quite stout & well for
my Brother's Ball -- I am sure
you will stare at this, but he
has been so amiable & good naturd
as to give us a little Dance whils[t]
my Father is out of Town -- just
ten couple which is as much
as the room will hold; It will
probably be very pleasant, at leas[t]
a small thing has always a bette[r]
chance of being so -- & I should be
sorry as well for George as myself
were I unable to enjoy it --
my Father is very well thank
God & is enjoying this heavenly
weather at Horton where he has
been since Thursday & where
he stays till the House is aired
& cleaned after the Ball -- I hope
you & Mr Dickenson will come
& dine with us when he return[s]
which will be on Friday or Saturday



he will be very glad to see you in
Saville Row, as well as at Horton
where we all reckon on your prom[ise]
of coming next summer -- & bringin[g]
the little rosy Louisa --
I did not tell you this, as I ought
to have done in answer to your
letter because what with hurry
& what with indolence I have
never had the power or resolution
to write, tho' I have constantly had
the idea & the inclination --
But my dear Friend you must
not be angry with me for my
silence or judge by it of my regard
but believe that I am as much
interested about you as ever --
adieu send me an answer
& believe me most affecly yours
                             C. M. Gunning




12[2]

To Mrs Dickenson
No 5 George Street
      Hanover Square

24[3]

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Notes


 1. This number is written vertically below the dateline.
 2. This number is written vertically.
 3. This number is written vertically.

Normalised Text




My dear Friend!

So you did not come last night?
indeed I hardly expected you from
what Mr Dickenson said -- I am very
impatient & anxious to see you in
comfort, when shall I have this
pleasure -- shall I come to you
this Evening at 9 o'clock for an
hour -- or will you come to me
tomorrow Evening between 8 and
9 -- or shall I call on you at any
hour tomorrow morning, or will
you come here at any hour --
consider of all these proposals &
let me know which you accept of
that I may arrange things
accordingly -- I am going to dine
out with my Friend Mrs Milbank
in my great cap, & shall do much
the same thing tomorrow -- I am
rather better though last night my
fever was very high -- I have been
unwell for these some weeks past



and having now grown worse I
shall probably get well -- I shall
keep quiet till Wednesday when
I wish to be quite stout & well for
my Brother's Ball -- I am sure
you will stare at this, but he
has been so amiable & good natured
as to give us a little Dance whilst
my Father is out of Town -- just
ten couple which is as much
as the room will hold; It will
probably be very pleasant, at least
a small thing has always a better
chance of being so -- & I should be
sorry as well for George as myself
were I unable to enjoy it --
my Father is very well thank
God & is enjoying this heavenly
weather at Horton where he has
been since Thursday & where
he stays till the House is aired
& cleaned after the Ball -- I hope
you & Mr Dickenson will come
& dine with us when he returns
which will be on Friday or Saturday



he will be very glad to see you in
Savile Row, as well as at Horton
where we all reckon on your promise
of coming next summer -- & bringing
the little rosy Louisa --
I did not tell you this, as I ought
to have done in answer to your
letter because what with hurry
& what with indolence I have
never had the power or resolution
to write, though I have constantly had
the idea & the inclination --
But my dear Friend you must
not be angry with me for my
silence or judge by it of my regard
but believe that I am as much
interested about you as ever --
adieu send me an answer
& believe me most affectionately yours
                             Charlotte Margaret Gunning





To Mrs Dickenson
Number 5 George Street
      Hanover Square

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. This number is written vertically below the dateline.
 2. This number is written vertically.
 3. This number is written vertically.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Charlotte Margaret Gunning to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/15/1/25

Correspondence Details

Sender: Charlotte Margaret Digby (née Gunning)

Place sent: London

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: London

Date sent: 31 March 1788

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Charlotte Gunning to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to Gunning arranging to meet Hamilton and to general news. Her brother is to have a ball. She writes that he has been 'so amiable & good natur[e]d as to give us a little Dance whilst my Father is out of Town'. There is just enough room to hold ten couple[s].
    Dated at St James's [London].
    Original reference No. 12.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 443 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 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Razia Sultana, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2016)

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

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