Diplomatic Text
[1]
8
Sepbr. -- permit me after this little preface[3] to point out to you
that your expreʃsions in return were much warmer than the
Subject required deserved, & made me feel for a few moments
that I had done wrong -- as ye. first wish of my heart at present
is that you should labour under no mistake respecting me,
know I never will encourage you to expreʃs any other term
than friend -- nay more if my friendship is any satisfaction to you,
know that by so doing you hazard the discontinuance of the
appearance in every shape of it from me -- I never,
Never, Never will have any thing to reproach my ▼
self with on your account -- you are young, a few Years
hence you will upon retrospection acknowledge
that
that I asked not only a just but friendly part -- I shall ever
preserve your friendship -- I never will accept or listen to
more -- The friendship I profeʃs is not a mere Miʃses[4] friendship
-- flattery & compliment on your side will ever be displeasing,
because I am so perfectly well acquainted wth. myself -- I boast
not of this merit -- because I owe to Parents who early taught
me to feel & know ye. defects both of my person & mind --
The former, between real friends is of no consequence & can have
little no influence -- but I own it hurts me when any one
attempts to impose upon me by unmeaning & un-
just compliment on either
I have endeavoured to execute your little commiʃsion what
ever faults there are excuse them it is ye. first I have done
I do not promise ye. Purse soon -- as I have a great deal of
work on my hands for ye. Queen &c &c
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This letter must postdate by several days the requests for a chain and a purse in GEO/ADD/3/82/36 of 10 September (contra the Georgian Papers Online catalogue) and must precede acknowledgement of the chain and indulgence about the purse in GEO/ADD/3/82/38, of uncertain date but no earlier than 16 September.
2. Moved annotation here from the right margin near the bottom right of p.1 (written vertically).
3. The 'preface' referred to is not included in this fragmentary copy.
4. This sense of miss, ‘[...] used contemptuously [...] with implication of silliness or sentimentality’ (OED s.v. miss n. 2, 4a), is also used by Hamilton's guardian in a letter of 1773 (see HAM/1/19/34).
Normalised Text
September -- permit me after this little preface to point out to you
that your expressions in return were much warmer than the
Subject deserved, & made me feel for a few moments
that I had done wrong -- as the first wish of my heart at present
is that you should labour under no mistake respecting me,
know I never will encourage you to express any other term
than friend -- nay more if my friendship is any satisfaction to you,
know that by so doing you hazard the discontinuance of the
appearance in every shape of it from me -- I never,
Never, Never will have any thing to reproach my ▼
self with on your account -- you are young, a few Years
hence you will upon retrospection acknowledge
that I asked not only a just but friendly part -- I shall ever
preserve your friendship -- I never will accept or listen to
more -- The friendship I profess is not a mere Misses friendship
-- flattery & compliment on your side will ever be displeasing,
because I am so perfectly well acquainted with myself -- I boast
not of this merit -- because I owe to Parents who early taught
me to feel & know the defects both of my person & mind --
The former, between real friends is of no consequence & can have
no influence -- but I own it hurts me when any one
attempts to impose upon me by unmeaning & unjust
compliment on either
I have endeavoured to execute your little commission what
ever faults there are excuse them it is the first I have done
I do not promise the Purse soon -- as I have a great deal of
work on my hands for the Queen &c &c
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
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 Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales
Shelfmark: GEO/ADD/3/83/8
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.15 September 1779
notBefore 10 September 1779 (precision: high)
notAfter 17 September 1779 (precision: high)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on the nature of their friendship; and her dislike for compliments.
Hamilton states that her wish is 'that you should labour under no mistake respecting me, know I never will encourage you to express any other term than friend'.
[Draft.]
Length: 1 sheet, 286 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 July 2019)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 10 December 2021