HAM/1/19/45
Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
26th- Books routed[1]
London Monday night 31st. May 177[3]
You See My dearest Mary that its as impoʃsible
for me to be content without writing you, as
its impoʃsible for you to refrain being ʃome
times ʃaucy so allowing both to be true and
just I'll shall begin to tell you the news.
The Dutcheʃs of Gloucester brought to Bed
of a daughter, Mrs- Hamiltons Snuff in my
poʃseʃsion, Cloe's Collar ordered & I am in
hopes to bring it down with me in a few
days, Miʃs Thursby sups abroad but her
letter is at Mr Warwick's (almost next door to
me) I shall call on her before I leave town
which I hope will be on Wednesday evening
or Thursday morning at furthest tho I can
not be sure as I have seen no body as
yet, I likeways call'd abt your two odd Vol. of
Les vie de Peintres which Mrs- Dunoyer has
not as yet got tho she has been ʃeeking
them all over town but has promised me
to send abroard for them but gives me
but little encouragement to expect to get them
but My dearest Ward will find that every
thing in my power to be done, shall be,
to please her & I make no doubt of her
being so good as to take the Will for the
Deed should Madame Danoyer not suc=
ceed. I din'd at the white Hart St Albans
where ye Landlady enquired greatly after Mrs- Keynes (apropos
my best respects to her) Mrs- Hamilton and
her dear amiable sweet Miʃs Hamilton (her very
words upon Honor)[2] she did not at first
know me but took me for an Uncle of
yours by my likeneʃs to the Hamiltons
(what a flattering Speech for me) & was
so fond of me that I began to think
the Kitten was quite wrong when she
said I had one fault however we agreed
so very well about you, that I did not
know but I might have been with her
still had not John acquainted me
the Chaise was ready at ye door how=
=ever we'll have the other converʃation
about you in coming down, especially
as My dear Wards praises is an entertainment
I am never weary of hearing, tho never so
much fatigued with the tongue of a
talkative landlady, so mine Good Hostess at
the White Hart may prate as long as she
pleaʃes providing her converʃation runs
of a Miʃs Hamilton who does me the honor
of calling her Guardian how that flatters me
is not to be expreʃs'd every body, Man --
Woman & Child is fond of my dear Ward
even the bowels of an overgrown fatt Land=
=Lady of St Albans yearns for her, til she finds
that she is well, O what powers goodneʃs and
Amiableneʃs has can only be known where
My dear Ward makes her appearance
but let me drop the subject for fear she
may think I have taken up Col. Blands
way of Complimenting which if ever she
thinks of me I shall bring Mr T --- in
with his abʃurd, ridiculous, Nonʃenʃical
Stuff pho[3] Miʃs Hamilton wt a stamp of ye Foot
on the floor how can you think so, upon my honor
seriously I never paid you a Compt in my
Life nor never deʃigns to do, & I hope you'll
at least allow me one virtue (sincerity) to
counterballence my many fold vices, if
its poʃsible many can be lodged where I
flatter myself you regard with a little
friendʃhip Adieu my Dearest Girl my best
Compts to Mrs- Hamilton & return her
my thanks for the many Civilities she
is so good as shew me which I never
can repay so properly as I should I
dont know whither you may think this
letter a Compt or not but I can aʃsure
you that conʃidering the journey and
my running about for four hours
constantly on my feet since being in
town that I am quite fatigued, but I
neither expect or deʃire an Anʃwer to this. not
expect one because I dont give you my
derection, not deʃire one as I hope to
be wt you before it could come so believe
me my dearest Mary yours most affctly.
N——r
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This annotation about the subject-matter appears to read Books routed, meaning ‘Books sought’ (‘To seek or search out; [...] to find or retrieve (a thing) by rummaging’ (OED s.v. rout v. 9, 2.b. Accessed 29-04-2021).
2. The landlady evidently still remembered Hamilton in her ‘White frock’ some ten years later (HAM/2/4).
3. ‘Expressing contemptuous rejection or dismissal’ (OED s.v. pho int. Accessed 07-07-2021).
Normalised Text
London Monday night 31st. May 1773
You See My dearest Mary that it's as impossible
for me to be content without writing you, as
it's impossible for you to refrain being some
times saucy so allowing both to be true and
just I' shall begin to tell you the news.
The Duchess of Gloucester brought to Bed
of a daughter, Mrs- Hamiltons Snuff in my
possession, Cloe's Collar ordered & I am in
hopes to bring it down with me in a few
days, Miss Thursby sups abroad but her
letter is at Mr Warwick's (almost next door to
me) I shall call on her before I leave town
which I hope will be on Wednesday evening
or Thursday morning at furthest though I can
not be sure as I have seen no body as
yet, I likeways called about your two odd Volumes of
Les vie de Peintres which Mrs- Dunoyer has
not as yet got though she has been seeking
them all over town but has promised me
to send abroad for them but gives me
but little encouragement to expect to get them
but My dearest Ward will find that every
thing in my power to be done, shall be,
to please her & I make no doubt of her
being so good as to take the Will for the
Deed should Madame Danoyer not succeed
. I dined at the white Hart St Albans
where the Landlady enquired greatly after Mrs- Keynes (apropos
my best respects to her) Mrs- Hamilton and
her dear amiable sweet Miss Hamilton (her very
words upon Honour) she did not at first
know me but took me for an Uncle of
yours by my likeness to the Hamiltons
(what a flattering Speech for me) & was
so fond of me that I began to think
the Kitten was quite wrong when she
said I had one fault however we agreed
so very well about you, that I did not
know but I might have been with her
still had not John acquainted me
the Chaise was ready at the door however
we'll have the other conversation
about you in coming down, especially
as My dear Wards praises is an entertainment
I am never weary of hearing, though never so
much fatigued with the tongue of a
talkative landlady, so mine Good Hostess at
the White Hart may prate as long as she
pleases providing her conversation runs
of a Miss Hamilton who does me the honour
of calling her Guardian how that flatters me
is not to be expressed every body, Man --
Woman & Child is fond of my dear Ward
even the bowels of an overgrown fat LandLady
of St Albans yearns for her, til she finds
that she is well, O what powers goodness and
Amiableness has can only be known where
My dear Ward makes her appearance
but let me drop the subject for fear she
may think I have taken up Colonel Blands
way of Complimenting which if ever she
thinks of me I shall bring Mr T --- in
with his absurd, ridiculous, Nonsensical
Stuff pho Miss Hamilton with a stamp of the Foot
on the floor how can you think so, upon my honour
seriously I never paid you a Compliment in my
Life nor never designs to do, & I hope you'll
at least allow me one virtue (sincerity) to
counterbalance my manifold vices, if
it's possible many can be lodged where I
flatter myself you regard with a little
friendship Adieu my Dearest Girl my best
Compliments to Mrs- Hamilton & return her
my thanks for the many Civilities she
is so good as show me which I never
can repay so properly as I should I
don't know whether you may think this
letter a Compliment or not but I can assure
you that considering the journey and
my running about for four hours
constantly on my feet since being in
town that I am quite fatigued, but I
neither expect or desire an Answer to this. not
expect one because I don't give you my
direction, not desire one as I hope to
be with you before it could come so believe
me my dearest Mary yours most affectionately.
Napier
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 William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/45
Correspondence Details
Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 31 May 1773
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, providing general news of friends and acquaintances. He writes that it is as impossible for him 'to be content without writing you' as for her to refrain from sometimes being 'Saucy'. Napier informs Hamilton of the birth of a daughter to the Duchess of Gloucester. On a visit to St Albans Napier dined at the White Horse, where the talkative landlady enquired after Hamilton and her mother, having mistaken Napier for one of Hamilton's uncles 'by my likeness to the Hamiltons'. She talked of Hamilton with such enthusiasm that it might have 'fatigued' him, except that she 'may prate as long as she pleases providing her conversation runs of a Miss Hamilton who does me the honor of calling her Guardian'. Napier writes that everyone seems to be fond of Hamilton but that he will drop the subject in case she thinks that he has 'taken up' Colonel Bland's form of complimenting (see HAM/1/19/36).
Dated at London.
Length: 1 sheet, 707 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 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Ella Lowson, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)
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