Diplomatic Text
I have told you repeatedly
that I never would accept
presents of any kind from
you -- therefore I have a
right to be affronted that
you contrived the Q—— should
command me to accept the
one you gave me the other
Night tho' it was but a trifle -- My proud heart
will not submit to these
sort of things therefore you
put me to an expence rather
inconvenient to my finances
as I will never accept any
thing from you without
returning something of equal
value -- There
fore a truce.[2]
I am no
vile mercenary
servile Friend,
I want nothing
from you but
truth & sincerity
& that you should
in every action
prove yourself worthy of
the distinguished situation
Providence has thought
fit to place you in
Adieu I am truly your
Friend & Sister
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. This undated letter appears in Anson & Anson (1925: 78), where it is placed between letters dated July and August 1779. If, however, the retaliatory gift of equal value was a ring set with brilliants (see GEO/ADD/3/82/73 of 4 December), that would justify the dating ‘[?c. November 1779]’ in the Georgian Papers Online catalogue.
2. The bottom right-hand corner of the page has been cut away, apparently before the paper was used for a draft, as no text is missing.
Normalised Text
I have told you repeatedly
that I never would accept
presents of any kind from
you -- therefore I have a
right to be affronted that
you contrived the Queen should
command me to accept the
one you gave me the other
Night though it was but a trifle -- My proud heart
will not submit to these
sort of things therefore you
put me to an expense rather
inconvenient to my finances
as I will never accept any
thing from you without
returning something of equal
value -- Therefore
a truce.
I am no
vile mercenary
servile Friend,
I want nothing
from you but
truth & sincerity
& that you should
in every action
prove yourself worthy of
the distinguished situation
Providence has thought
fit to place you in
Adieu I am truly your
Friend & Sister
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/3/83/52
Correspondence Details
Sender: Mary Hamilton
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: George, Prince of Wales (later George IV)
Place received: unknown
Date sent: c.November 1779
when November 1779 (precision: low)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Hamilton to George, Prince of Wales, on the Queen insisting that she accept a present from the Prince.
Hamilton states that she will not accept 'presents of any kind' from the Prince, and explains that she would feel required to return something of equal value.
Length: 1 sheet, 135 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 January 2020)
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 10 December 2021