Single Letter

GEO/ADD/3/82/43

Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


43

                                                         23d- Septr. Thursday
                                                                                  Morng. --

                                                         1779[1]

My dearest, dearest, dearest, Sister, Friend,

      Yr. Letter which I received
Yesterday gave me if poʃsible more satisfacti=
=on
than any of yr. preceeding ones. I
am sure I am not worthy of ye kind
expreʃsions you are so good as to apply to
me, but it ʃhall be ye principal object of
my whole life to merit ym.. May I,
may I, may I, my Friend, if it is
not too much for you, ask one more
favor of you, that if we should ever be compelled to separate which Heaven forbid we
ever should (at least I hope our hearts
never will, mine I am sure will ever fond=



ly
doat upon you) you wld.. not make
my friendship my affection, or my Love for
you suffer any anxiety on yr. account,
either from ye. ignorance of ye. place
of yr. retreat, or of ye situation or state
of yr. health, or of ye. sort of life you lead, or
line of People among whom you live,
most of these circumstances which I
have mentioned are included in ye.
promise, by which you voluntarily
bound yrself to me, but I wished you to
make it more circumstantially, pardon
O my dearest, dearest, dearest Sister
if I have erred in requesting this



this of you, consider ye. motives of
this my behaviourconduct, thtey proceed totally
from ye. sensations I feel, yt.. ---my
comfort, repose & entire happineʃs thro'
life totally depends upon ye. continua=
=tion
of yr. friendship. O my Friend
I know ye. goodneʃs of yr. heart, that
now you are certain of my unalterable
affection for you, & that you have no more
doubts upon yt.. subject, you will
contribute as much as is in yr. power
to my future happineʃs, as Heaven
is my Witneʃs, I will endeavour
my beʃt to contribute to yrs.
      This Letter will perhaps appear



a little too serious to my dearest Sister,
consideringas I am now in so comfortable
a situation with regard to her, but O
my dearest Sister O for Heaven's sake
consider where O where I shall find
such another Friend as yrself, I
want no other, I wish to preserve
you youwho[2] are so really my friend. I take
yr. Meʃsenger this time with me to
W.—— when you come on T—— there bring
an answer with you, I hope I need not ask that it may be a favorable one[3] as you love me,
I entreat you so to do or if you like it better bring ------a verbal
one. I hope this little chit[4] will be well enough
to let you come, it will be an age to me until
you do. Let this Letter lay in yr. bosom, & be as it were
a companion to you in my absence, but let not melancholy
overshadow yr. gentle Spirits, you have promised me to look



Part of No 43

for ye future upon ye. better side of things, & to be
more chearful, think coolly, calmly, & deliberately
over this Letter, & remember what I must suffer
am I refused. I need not tell you what were
my heartfelt satisfactions upon hearing My
Lord Howe
yt. great Officer, expreʃs his good opinion & his thorough
satisfaction at my dearest William's conduct, he
almost brought tears in my eyes. My affection
for Frederick & him you are well acquainted
with, & so need not mention them. I have
not as yet mentioned my B——r. N——[5] to
you but I ʃhall take an opportunity as
soon as poʃsible so to do. I intended to have
done it in this Letter, but I own I was swaye[d]
by too interesting a subject at ye. Moment
I began, it is what is always uppermost
in my Soul. Adieu, Adieu, Adieu
dearest, dearest, dearest Sister Friend,



I again add, I hope we shall soon meet,
my joy then will be inconceivable, I hope
I need not entreat you to believe yt..
I am my dearest, dearest, dearest Sister
Friend
,
      Yr. ever sincerely affectionate
      Brother & Friend
                             Palemon toujours de
                             même.
P.S. Pray inform me of ye. State
of yr. health to day after yr. fatigues
of Yesterday. j'ai porté vos couleurs
hier, dont j'etais tout à fait mutin, tant
j'etais enchanté, car j'avais un habit verd auʃsi
bien que vous et exactement de la même couleur.
      Ad. Ad. Ad. toujours chére.

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


Notes


 1. The year has been added to the left of and slightly below ‘Morng’.
 2. Whether the final intention was to have or to delete a second occurrence of you remains unclear, as the y is not cancelled.
 3. The words ‘favorable one’ are written below the rest of the interlinear insertion. The transcription does not attempt to represent this.
 4. ‘Applied, more or less contemptuously, to a child, esp. a very young child’ (OED s.v. chit n. 1, 2a), presumably one of the princesses in Hamilton's charge.
 5. This appears to be a reference to Prince Edward, perhaps under the nickname 'Ned'. Edward's bad behaviour is discussed at length in GEO/ADD/3/82/56.

Normalised Text



                                                        
                                                        

My dearest, dearest, dearest, Sister, Friend,

      Your Letter which I received
Yesterday gave me if possible more satisfaction
than any of your preceding ones. I
am sure I am not worthy of the kind
expressions you are so good as to apply to
me, but it shall be the principal object of
my whole life to merit them May I,
may I, may I, my Friend, if it is
not too much for you, ask one more
favour of you, that if we should ever be compelled to separate which Heaven forbid we
ever should (at least I hope our hearts
never will, mine I am sure will ever fondly



dote upon you) you would not make
my friendship my affection, or my Love for
you suffer any anxiety on your account,
either from the ignorance of the place
of your retreat, or of the situation or state
of your health, or of the sort of life you lead, or
line of People among whom you live,
most of these circumstances which I
have mentioned are included in the
promise, by which you voluntarily
bound yourself to me, but I wished you to
make it more circumstantial, pardon
O my dearest, dearest, dearest Sister
if I have erred in requesting this



of you, consider the motives of
this my conduct, they proceed totally
from the sensations I feel, that my
comfort, repose & entire happiness through
life totally depend upon the continuation
of your friendship. O my Friend
I know the goodness of your heart, that
now you are certain of my unalterable
affection for you, & that you have no more
doubts upon that subject, you will
contribute as much as is in your power
to my future happiness, as Heaven
is my Witness, I will endeavour
my best to contribute to yours.
      This Letter will perhaps appear



a little too serious to my dearest Sister,
as I am now in so comfortable
a situation with regard to her, but O
my dearest Sister O for Heaven's sake
consider where O where I shall find
such another Friend as yourself, I
want no other, I wish to preserve
you who are so really my friend. I take
your Messenger this time with me to
Windsor when you come on Tuesday there bring
an answer with you, I hope I need not ask that it may be a favourable one as you love me,
I entreat you so to do or if you like it better bring a verbal
one. I hope this little chit will be well enough
to let you come, it will be an age to me until
you do. Let this Letter lay in your bosom, & be as it were
a companion to you in my absence, but let not melancholy
overshadow your gentle Spirits, you have promised me to look




for the future upon the better side of things, & to be
more cheerful, think coolly, calmly, & deliberately
over this Letter, & remember what I must suffer
am I refused. I need not tell you what were
my heartfelt satisfactions upon hearing My
Lord Howe that great Officer, express his good opinion & his thorough
satisfaction at my dearest William's conduct, he
almost brought tears in my eyes. My affection
for Frederick & him you are well acquainted
with, & so need not mention them. I have
not as yet mentioned my Brother N—— to
you but I shall take an opportunity as
soon as possible so to do. I intended to have
done it in this Letter, but I own I was swayed
by too interesting a subject at the Moment
I began, it is what is always uppermost
in my Soul. Adieu, Adieu, Adieu
dearest, dearest, dearest Sister Friend,



I again add, I hope we shall soon meet,
my joy then will be inconceivable, I hope
I need not entreat you to believe that
I am my dearest, dearest, dearest Sister
Friend,
      Your ever sincerely affectionate
      Brother & Friend
                             Palemon toujours de
                             même.
P.S. Pray inform me of the State
of your health to day after your fatigues
of Yesterday. j'ai porté vos couleurs
hier, dont j'etais tout à fait mutin, tant
j'etais enchanté, car j'avais un habit verd aussi
bien que vous et exactement de la même couleur.
      Adieu Adieu Adieu toujours chére.

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



 1. The year has been added to the left of and slightly below ‘Morng’.
 2. Whether the final intention was to have or to delete a second occurrence of you remains unclear, as the y is not cancelled.
 3. The words ‘favorable one’ are written below the rest of the interlinear insertion. The transcription does not attempt to represent this.
 4. ‘Applied, more or less contemptuously, to a child, esp. a very young child’ (OED s.v. chit n. 1, 2a), presumably one of the princesses in Hamilton's charge.
 5. This appears to be a reference to Prince Edward, perhaps under the nickname 'Ned'. Edward's bad behaviour is discussed at length in GEO/ADD/3/82/56.

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/3/82/43

Correspondence Details

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

Place sent: unknown

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: unknown

Date sent: c.23 September 1779
notBefore 22 September 1779 (precision: medium)
notAfter 23 September 1779 (precision: high)

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from George, Prince of Wales, to Mary Hamilton, requesting she promise to keep him informed of her location, health, and life, in the case of a separation.
    The Prince refers to Lord Howe's good opinion of Prince William, and the Prince's own affection for William and Frederick, and that he will discuss his 'B-r. N-' [?Brother Edward] with Hamilton as soon as possible.
    Written Thursday morning.
    Signed 'Palemon'.
   

Length: 2 sheets, 723 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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