Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/82/5

Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


+

5

      Tuesday
      Eveg.
1st June
      1779


      Forget[1] you! O Heavens forbid. You must
have formed a very bad opinion of him whom you honor with
the sacred name of Friend
, if you could suppose, I ever should
be capable of forgetting her, whom I not only looked upon
as my best and dearest friend, but with whom I ʃhould have
been happy to have paʃsed my whole life. As to the
paʃsion I have conceived for you, I aʃsure you it is of
the most honorable kind, and I do reaʃsure you, that never
any thought that could be injurious to yr. reputation ever
entered into my mind. My love for you, for I can not
give it any other name, is of the purest kind, totally
formed upon the knowledge of yr. distinguished merit
and excellent heart. But as you say you can not consis-
tently
with yr. honor listen to such proposals, I take
heaven itself to Witneʃs that I will not intentionally



do anything which I think will displease you, and
therefore I will as seldom as poʃsible touch upon a subject
which is painful to you on account of yr. strict regard
to ------yr. honor wh: I declare to you is as dear to me on yr.
account, as it is to yourself. I thank you ʃincerely my
dear & amiable friend
for yr. kind wishes in my behalf, and
I esteem them more from you than I doʃhould from anyone else
as I know they ariose oufrom[2] the most disinterested and pure
friendship that ever existed in the bosom of any mortal.
May the Almighty pour down his choicest bleʃsings
on you, and may you continue to live in all manner
of prosperity & happineʃs, long to enjoy that health which
I am afraidyou[3] have not had of late to so great a degree
as I could wish, this is the dayly Prayer of him whose
greatest happineʃs it is to sign himself
                             yr. ever affectionate, and attached
                             Friend, as well as I hope hereafter
                             future. H——d
                                                         GP.
P.S.
According to my promise
I have burnt that dear &
admirable Letter which
has cost me many a tearsighs
& tears. -- Adieu.[4]

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


Notes


 1. For the flourish on F, see GEO/ADD/3/82/4.
 2. The intention is not clear. It looks as if arise was altered to arose (though the converse cannot be ruled out) and ou[t of] overwritten by of, which was in turn replaced by from without itself being deleted.
 3. The cancellation of I am afraid is faint.
 4. This postscript appears to the left of the closing salutation and signature.

Normalised Text




     

      Forget you! O Heavens forbid. You must
have formed a very bad opinion of him whom you honour with
the sacred name of Friend, if you could suppose, I ever should
be capable of forgetting her, whom I not only looked upon
as my best and dearest friend, but with whom I should have
been happy to have passed my whole life. As to the
passion I have conceived for you, I assure you it is of
the most honourable kind, and I do reassure you, that never
any thought that could be injurious to your reputation ever
entered into my mind. My love for you, for I can not
give it any other name, is of the purest kind, totally
formed upon the knowledge of your distinguished merit
and excellent heart. But as you say you can not consistently
with your honour listen to such proposals, I take
heaven itself to Witness that I will not intentionally



do anything which I think will displease you, and
therefore I will as seldom as possible touch upon a subject
which is painful to you on account of your strict regard
to your honour which I declare to you is as dear to me on your
account, as it is to yourself. I thank you sincerely my
dear & amiable friend for your kind wishes in my behalf, and
I esteem them more from you than I should from anyone else
as I know they arose from the most disinterested and pure
friendship that ever existed in the bosom of any mortal.
May the Almighty pour down his choicest blessings
on you, and may you continue to live in all manner
of prosperity & happiness, long to enjoy that health which
you have not had of late to so great a degree
as I could wish, this is the daily Prayer of him whose
greatest happiness it is to sign himself
                             your ever affectionate, and attached
                             Friend, as well as I hope hereafter
                             future. Husband
                                                         George Princeps
P.S.
According to my promise
I have burnt that dear &
admirable Letter which
has cost me many sighs
& tears. -- Adieu.

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



 1. For the flourish on F, see GEO/ADD/3/82/4.
 2. The intention is not clear. It looks as if arise was altered to arose (though the converse cannot be ruled out) and ou[t of] overwritten by of, which was in turn replaced by from without itself being deleted.
 3. The cancellation of I am afraid is faint.
 4. This postscript appears to the left of the closing salutation and signature.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: Windsor Castle, The Royal Archives

Archive: GEO/ADD/3 Additional papers of George IV, as Prince, Regent, and King

Item title: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/82/5

Correspondence Details

Sender: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: 1 June 1779
notBefore 1 June 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 1 June 1779 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, on being unable to forget her, and on his respect for her reputation.
    In postscript the Prince writes that 'according to my promise I have burnt the dear & admirable letter which has cost me many sighs & tears'.
    Written Tuesday Eve.
    Signed.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 357 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: Transcription and Research Assistant funding in 2018/19 provided by the Student Experience Internship programme of the University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Emma Donington Kiey, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Emma Donington Kiey (submitted June 2019)

Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors

Revision date: 2 November 2021

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