Single Letter

HAM/1/20/18

Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


                                                         Edinr- 5th- May 1779





      At last I have been honored
with a letter from you & as I find your
excuses are good, grant you a free
pardon for your late supposed offences.
I hardly know whether I walk upon my
head or my heels, having just returned
from Binning's Marriage, where every
thing & every body looked & spoke the
happineʃs they felt. Ly- Sophia was beautiful,
affectionate, & overcome with the sincere
congratulations she received and this day
paʃsed thro' Edinr- in her way to Tynning=
=home
Lord Hadinton's Seat. I shall
follow her next week --
      I don't like your
nervous fevers -- are you apt to be
Melancholy or Maggoty[1] -- I wish
I could have half an hour's conversation
with you, I should not fail of making
you laugh at least. The Locket shall
be sent to Mrs- Hunter accompany'd by



a letter from me containing the
Quinteʃsence of your good Wishes --
      My Nonchalance is not
affected I aʃsure you. I have other crotchets
in my brain at present. A sincere attach=
=ment
, even unto Marriage occupies my
thoughts. This is a secret unknown to
any of my family, but I trust to your
Prudence that it may remain so,
at least 'till I tell you that I find myself
agreable to the Fair One. She is of Noble
Alliance, handsome fortune, Amiable temper,
& such a person as my friends would wish
me to be connected with. To be plain
with you, I intend to make proposals
but not for some time yet. I likewise
confeʃs Mrs- Hunter's Marriage may
have an effect in hastening Mine. I
should be sorry to think that Dr Hs. Child
should ever inherit my Titles, at the
same time I sincerely wish my
Sister
every good that can poʃsibly
happen to her.
      Your Affair I delight in,
Was Mr- Stanhope a Widower, I should



have pitched upon him as your
humble Admirer --
      Ly- Stormonts pride
will be lowered. Lord Cathcart is
married in America to a Miʃs Elliot
aged 16 -- a Girl -- of a Scotch
family -- Neice to the late Sir
Gilbert Elliot
-- without a sixpence
& her father has Nine Children --
Ld- C—— appears to have been crazy. In
himself he will find little to comfort
him, having loaded his Estate with
Debt of his own contracting & by his
marriage perhaps entailed beggary
upon his Posterity -- It is a disagreable
Idea & I shall therefore drop it --
May heavenly Angels their wide wings display,
And guard thy Steps in ev'ry dangerous Way,
May all thy future days be blest with peace
And every hour, fresh springs of Joy increase,
In every state may you most happy be,
And when far distant off, pray think of me
                             Yours sincerely
                                                         Napier.
P.S. You see I have taken the hint about
the frank --



      Miʃs Hamilton
                             St. James's

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


Notes


 1. ‘Full of whims and foolish fancies; freakish’ (OED s.v. maggoty adj. 1a. Accessed 16-09-2021).

Normalised Text


                                                         Edinburgh 5th- May 1779





      At last I have been honoured
with a letter from you & as I find your
excuses are good, grant you a free
pardon for your late supposed offences.
I hardly know whether I walk upon my
head or my heels, having just returned
from Binning's Marriage, where every
thing & every body looked & spoke the
happiness they felt. Lady Sophia was beautiful,
affectionate, & overcome with the sincere
congratulations she received and this day
passed through Edinburgh in her way to Tynninghome
Lord Hadinton's Seat. I shall
follow her next week --
      I don't like your
nervous fevers -- are you apt to be
Melancholy or Maggoty -- I wish
I could have half an hour's conversation
with you, I should not fail of making
you laugh at least. The Locket shall
be sent to Mrs- Hunter accompanied by



a letter from me containing the
Quintessence of your good Wishes --
      My Nonchalance is not
affected I assure you. I have other crotchets
in my brain at present. A sincere attachment
, even unto Marriage occupies my
thoughts. This is a secret unknown to
any of my family, but I trust to your
Prudence that it may remain so,
at least till I tell you that I find myself
agreeable to the Fair One. She is of Noble
Alliance, handsome fortune, Amiable temper,
& such a person as my friends would wish
me to be connected with. To be plain
with you, I intend to make proposals
but not for some time yet. I likewise
confess Mrs- Hunter's Marriage may
have an effect in hastening Mine. I
should be sorry to think that Dr Hunters. Child
should ever inherit my Titles, at the
same time I sincerely wish my
Sister every good that can possibly
happen to her.
      Your Affair I delight in,
Was Mr- a Widower, I should



have pitched upon him as your
humble Admirer --
      Lady Stormonts pride
will be lowered. Lord Cathcart is
married in America to a Miss Elliot
aged 16 -- a Girl -- of a Scotch
family -- Niece to the late Sir
Gilbert Elliot -- without a sixpence
& her father has Nine Children --
Lord Cathcart appears to have been crazy. In
himself he will find little to comfort
him, having loaded his Estate with
Debt of his own contracting & by his
marriage perhaps entailed beggary
upon his Posterity -- It is a disagreeable
Idea & I shall therefore drop it --
May heavenly Angels their wide wings display,
And guard thy Steps in ev'ry dangerous Way,
May all thy future days be blessed with peace
And every hour, fresh springs of Joy increase,
In every state may you most happy be,
And when far distant off, pray think of me
                             Yours sincerely
                                                         Napier.
P.S. You see I have taken the hint about
the frank --



      Miss Hamilton
                             St. James's

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



 1. ‘Full of whims and foolish fancies; freakish’ (OED s.v. maggoty adj. 1a. Accessed 16-09-2021).

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/18

Correspondence Details

Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: London

Date sent: 5 May 1779

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He discusses general news including a wedding he attended, Hamilton's health, and thoughts of marriage. He writes that he has a ‘sincere attachment’ but that it is a secret from his family for the moment. The woman in question is of noble birth and has a good fortune. He means to propose to her but wishes to wait for some time before he does so.
    Dated at Edinburgh.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 472 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited 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: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.

Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 13 September 2021)

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: 3 December 2021

Document Image (pdf)