Single Letter

HAM/1/19/55

Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      33d-             Edinburgh Sepr, 15th- 1773    X    33d-
                                                                        to Margate

I recieved My Dear Ward letter from Margate
last post & am greatly obliged to her not only
for writing it but also at the joy you expreʃs
at my recovery which thank God goes on as
well as I could wish and barring not having
come to my strength yet am far better
than I have been these six years past
& am in greater spirits than you ever ʃaw
me in; but am kept in a regimen as to
diet & am in bed every night before nine o'
clock
, not allowed to read or write but very
little at a time, so you must be content wt
short letters for ʃome time. By this time
I hope you have got home & Mrs Hamilton
quite well believe me it gave both Lady
Napier
& I great concern to hear that
she was not well but I hope home will do
great things for her I know she dont like
much being from home & when she gets
out of the bustle of Margate her Headachs
will leave her I hope -- you ʃay nothing about



yourself whither the bathing has removed
your complaints or not but I hope it has
as you dont complain. your House is
most extravagant but at all publick places
now they suck the blood from those that
are oblig'd to come especially in this
family way but its lucky people are not
in a neceʃsity to stay above a few Weeks
otherwise no fortune could support the
expence of it -- I am extremely glad you
have diverted yourself so well tho you
know I do not approve of reading books
of controverʃy I think its a very bad study
for any body but more especially for
young Lady's, if I ever read any I certainly
would read Beattie[1] on your recommendation
but the Bible guides my faith entirely and
I am reʃolved to read nothing of that
kind but itself as I am ʃure there is
more there then ever I shall be able
to practise in my life & all kind of Controverʃy
in my opinion tends to hurts minds especially



young ones & tho Beattie may be on the right
side yet if a more ʃenʃible Man happens
to anʃwer him, he may do much more
harm than the other does good for
which reaʃon I am of opinion its best not
to read those books at all -- So you
think that you have a right to be ʃaucy be=
-cause
you have taken it in to your very wise
noddle that I brought my last illneʃs on my
self by flying from Buxton, but for all your
obstinacy know by these Preʃents that I was
ill before I left Buxton & that the Phiʃicians
says that it was the crisis of my Complaints
for many years past and as I could not
go to bed for the Asthmatic complaints it was
just as good to go on, especially as I could
sleep in the Chaise & that it was the only
place I was easy in & had I stayed on ye road or
taken more time I might have been & would
certainly have been laid up in ʃome place --
where advice would have been difficult to
have been got & I not here to have told you



now this history so upon the whole, I believe
its just as well as it is, & I so far from repenting
of it, I should do the ʃame again was I in the
same condition so pray Miʃs no more Saucineʃs
on that account espicially as I make no doubt
but you'll find other opportunity's of being
so without giving yourself much trouble
      You are My dear Ward quite mistaken in
supposing the young people dont remember
you, the three eldest does extremely well
often inquires after you and now joins
Lady Napier in best Compts- to you
as I do to Mrs- Hamilton with them
so pray write ʃoon all abt yourselves and
believe me My dearest Mary      most
Affctly Yours

I should be happy to know the Wakes from
your character of them
Remember my respects to good Mrs Rogers
who I hope is well How does ye Kitten? my
Compts- there once more adieu God bliʃs you

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth In Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism (1770).

Normalised Text


                  Edinburgh September 15th- 1773        
                                                                        

I received My Dear Ward letter from Margate
last post & am greatly obliged to her not only
for writing it but also at the joy you express
at my recovery which thank God goes on as
well as I could wish and barring not having
come to my strength yet am far better
than I have been these six years past
& am in greater spirits than you ever saw
me in; but am kept in a regimen as to
diet & am in bed every night before nine o'clock
, not allowed to read or write but very
little at a time, so you must be content with
short letters for some time. By this time
I hope you have got home & Mrs Hamilton
quite well believe me it gave both Lady
Napier & I great concern to hear that
she was not well but I hope home will do
great things for her I know she doesn't like
much being from home & when she gets
out of the bustle of Margate her Headaches
will leave her I hope -- you say nothing about



yourself whether the bathing has removed
your complaints or not but I hope it has
as you don't complain. your House is
most extravagant but at all public places
now they suck the blood from those that
are obliged to come especially in this
family way but it's lucky people are not
in a necessity to stay above a few Weeks
otherwise no fortune could support the
expense of it -- I am extremely glad you
have diverted yourself so well though you
know I do not approve of reading books
of controversy I think it's a very bad study
for any body but more especially for
young Lady's, if I ever read any I certainly
would read Beattie on your recommendation
but the Bible guides my faith entirely and
I am resolved to read nothing of that
kind but itself as I am sure there is
more there than ever I shall be able
to practise in my life & all kind of Controversy
in my opinion tends to hurt minds especially



young ones & though Beattie may be on the right
side yet if a more sensible Man happens
to answer him, he may do much more
harm than the other does good for
which reason I am of opinion it's best not
to read those books at all -- So you
think that you have a right to be saucy because
you have taken it in to your very wise
noddle that I brought my last illness on my
self by flying from Buxton, but for all your
obstinacy know by these Presents that I was
ill before I left Buxton & that the Physicians
says that it was the crisis of my Complaints
for many years past and as I could not
go to bed for the Asthmatic complaints it was
just as good to go on, especially as I could
sleep in the Chaise & that it was the only
place I was easy in & had I stayed on the road or
taken more time I might have been & would
certainly have been laid up in some place --
where advice would have been difficult to
have been got & I not here to have told you



now this history so upon the whole, I believe
it's just as well as it is, & I so far from repenting
of it, I should do the same again was I in the
same condition so pray Miss no more Sauciness
on that account especially as I make no doubt
but you'll find other opportunity's of being
so without giving yourself much trouble
      You are My dear Ward quite mistaken in
supposing the young people don't remember
you, the three eldest does extremely well
often inquires after you and now joins
Lady Napier in best Compliments to you
as I do to Mrs- Hamilton with them
so pray write soon all about yourselves and
believe me My dearest Mary      most
Affectionately Yours

I should be happy to know the Wakes from
your character of them
Remember my respects to good Mrs Rogers
who I hope is well How does the Kitten? my
Compliments there once more adieu God bless you

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



 1. An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth In Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism (1770).

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/1/19/55

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 15 September 1773

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, concerning his health, Hamilton's visit to Margate, and the types of books that she has been reading. Napier is happy to hear that Hamilton has been reading, but warns her against books of controversy, which hurt minds, especially young ones: 'you know I do not approve of reading books of controversy[.] I think its a very bad study for any body but more especially for young Lady's'. He adds that the Bible guides his faith entirely.
    Dated at Edinburgh.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 722 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: Emily Morgan, 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

Document Image (pdf)