HAM/1/19/61
Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
[1]
39th- 39th
both going to
London X
Edinburgh March 9th- 1774
The morning after I was favored with My Dear
Wards letter I saw Mr Brown who I scolded
not a little but he has been so buʃy in election
matters & indeed so has all the men of buʃineʃs
in Scotland that we who have no buʃineʃs
that way can get not one word of them, but
he promised me to write you this week &
satisfy all your demands so I hope by the
time you get this, you'll be packing up
for the great City where reigns nonʃenʃe
noise hurry & impertinance in absolute
Authority & without the least controle as
long as Money holds out. Apropos to Money
I am happy you are so flush. Patch Cloe &
Fairry, quite a family peice[2] Fanshon
should most certainly have been included
to have made the peice complete together
with the Birds in the back parlour wh-
would have made a Capital painting just
arrived from Rome done by the best hand
in that best of poʃsible City's. So My dear Mary
thought I had forgot her too, no there is no
fear of that when you act up to that good
sense I know you Mistriʃs off & if that
should ever fail I shall be more angry
with myself than with you to be so taken
in & disappointed in my opinion of you.
So Mr Brown disappointed your Mama
and not in the least her Daughter, no, no,
it was Mrs Hamilton that wanted to go to
London not Miʃs Hamilton. do you re=
=member the picture in the Corner
yea or nay. But be aʃsured you need not make
any Apology for any thing in my power to
serve either You or Your Mama. I
am glad that your Health is so much
better long may it continue so is our
sincere Wish -- I am just wishing you was with
us as I am ʃure you would than be in Your
element only think of being surrounded
with about ten thousand volumes of Books
sorting them & puting them in order with a
book binder geting ʃome of them to bind
thus have I been employed for above a
week & it will cost me ʃome few more be=
-fore I have done, dont your teeth water?
as the ʃaying is to be here setting aside all ye
other fine things that may be ʃaid on ʃuch
an opening -- you never say a word of Mrs-
Rogers to me but pray remember me
to her in the very best & most respectfull
manner poʃsible. Is the divine Miʃs Thursby
married yet or when is she to be noosed
News My dear Girl I want news from the
good town of Northampton what is become
of Mr Hope is he still with you as I hear
not one word of him in this Country.
We have nothing to trouble you with when
in town otherwise we should most certainly
have employ'd you without apology but
we both beg nay command you to take
care of your self in every respect of the
word and will be happy to hear of your safe
return, to the calm delights of Northampton
News you cannot nay must not expect
from me as you dont know any of the
people here but in General We have
miffs, misfortunes, divorces, Love adventures,
marriages, disappointments, Balls, Plays,
routs, concerts and Aʃsemblys as in other places in
this good Island of Great Britain, & yet
stupid as I am I have not been at any of
them ʃince I saw you excepting a dancing
School Ball to see ʃome of my Young
Folks[3] dance and Lady Napier so very good
a Wife that she stays at home with me
every night so you ʃee our party's are
entirely domesstick without the least
vanity of vanity's so wishing you & your
good Mama all health & Happiness believe
me to be My dear Mary's most Affct-
& most ʃincere friend -- N——
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Extracts from this letter appear in Anson & Anson (1925: 25-26).
2. In the sense ‘painting, picture’ (OED s.v. piece n. 14a). It is unclear whether Hamilton has sent Napier a sketch of her pets or merely described a new picture at Northampton.
3. Napier does not specify which of his children were at dancing school; their ages at this date range from 17 or 18 years old down to just 5.
Normalised Text
Edinburgh March 9th- 1774
The morning after I was favoured with My Dear
Wards letter I saw Mr Brown who I scolded
not a little but he has been so busy in election
matters & indeed so has all the men of business
in Scotland that we who have no business
that way can get not one word of them, but
he promised me to write you this week &
satisfy all your demands so I hope by the
time you get this, you'll be packing up
for the great City where reigns nonsense
noise hurry & impertinence in absolute
Authority & without the least control as
long as Money holds out. Apropos to Money
I am happy you are so flush. Patch Cloe &
Fairry, quite a family piece Fanshon
should most certainly have been included
to have made the piece complete together
with the Birds in the back parlour which
would have made a Capital painting just
arrived from Rome done by the best hand
in that best of possible City's. So My dear Mary
thought I had forgotten her too, no there is no
fear of that when you act up to that good
sense I know you Mistress of & if that
should ever fail I shall be more angry
with myself than with you to be so taken
in & disappointed in my opinion of you.
So Mr Brown disappointed your Mama
and not in the least her Daughter, no, no,
it was Mrs Hamilton that wanted to go to
London not Miss Hamilton. do you remember
the picture in the Corner
yea or nay. But be assured you need not make
any Apology for any thing in my power to
serve either You or Your Mama. I
am glad that your Health is so much
better long may it continue so is our
sincere Wish -- I am just wishing you was with
us as I am sure you would then be in Your
element only think of being surrounded
with about ten thousand volumes of Books
sorting them & putting them in order with a
book binder getting some of them to bind
thus have I been employed for above a
week & it will cost me some few more before
I have done, don't your teeth water?
as the saying is to be here setting aside all the
other fine things that may be said on such
an opening -- you never say a word of Mrs-
Rogers to me but pray remember me
to her in the very best & most respectful
manner possible. Is the divine Miss Thursby
married yet or when is she to be noosed
News My dear Girl I want news from the
good town of Northampton what is become
of Mr Hope is he still with you as I hear
not one word of him in this Country.
We have nothing to trouble you with when
in town otherwise we should most certainly
have employed you without apology but
we both beg nay command you to take
care of your self in every respect of the
word and will be happy to hear of your safe
return, to the calm delights of Northampton
News you cannot nay must not expect
from me as you don't know any of the
people here but in General We have
miffs, misfortunes, divorces, Love adventures,
marriages, disappointments, Balls, Plays,
routs, concerts and Assemblies as in other places in
this good Island of Great Britain, & yet
stupid as I am I have not been at any of
them since I saw you excepting a dancing
School Ball to see some of my Young
Folks dance and Lady Napier so very good
a Wife that she stays at home with me
every night so you see our party's are
entirely domestic without the least
vanity of vanity's so wishing you & your
good Mama all health & Happiness believe
me to be My dear Mary's most Affectionate
& most sincere friend -- 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/1/19/61
Correspondence Details
Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)
Date sent: 9 March 1774
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He writes that he has seen Mr Brown [spelt Browne in earlier letters. He looks after Hamilton's business interests in Scotland], and that he 'scolded [him] not a little but he has been so busy in election matters & indeed so has all the men of business in Scotland that we who have no business that way can get not one word of them'. Nevertheless, Brown has promised him that he will write to Hamilton that week and satisfy all her demands.
Napier hopes that by the time Hamilton receives this letter, she will be preparing for her visit to London, 'where reigns nonsense noise hurry & impertinance [sic] in absolute Authority & without the least controle [sic] as long as Money holds out'. He wishes she was with him and his family, as he is sure that she would be in her element: 'only think of being surrounded with about ten thousand volumes of Books, sorting them & puting [sic] them in order with a book binder geting [sic] some of them to bind'. Napier writes that this is how he has been employed for over a week and it will carry on so for much longer. He asks Hamilton for news of Northampton and of what has become of John Hope and if he is still with them, as he has heard nothing about him in Scotland. He has no news for Hamilton, as she knows no one in Edinburgh, although in general the news is of 'miffs, misfortunes, divorces, Love adventures, marriages, disappointments, Balls, Plays, concerts routs, and Assemblys as in other places in this good Island of Great Britain'. He has not attended any since he saw Hamilton last, excepting a school ball, where he went to see his children dance.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 669 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: Asim Ramzan, 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