Single Letter

MSS Misc 1635

Letter from Frances Burney to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


                                                         Norbury Park,[1] July 10th.
                                                         1784

      I can by no means bear to wait so long as till
next Winter, before I entreat my Dear Miʃs Hamilton's
pardon for my apparent neglect of all her kindneʃs
during the laʃt month of my stay in Town: but as
She knew the uneasineʃs which dampt all my pleaʃure
even in the charming party at Hampton, I hope
when she hears that the fatal termination of
that suspence, made me wish for nothing but to
haʃten into the Country, to recruit both my Health &
Spirits, she will forgive my silence, omiʃsions, & various
misdemeanours, & receive next Winter, with her wonted
good humour, & “agreeable smiles,”
                             her obliged humble servant
                                                         F: Burney
      If Mrs. Vesey is still in Town,
may I beg you to present my best Respects to her?
And may I entreat you to have the goodneʃs to tell
both Her & Mr. & Mrs. Pepys,[2] when you see them, that nothing
but a string of the moʃt uncomfortable circumstances
should have prevented my waiting upon them before I left
Town?



Miʃs Burney
July 1784[3]

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Notes


 1. Burney was friends with Frederica and William Lock (or Locke), whose new manor house in Norbury Park was constructed in the 1770s.
 2. In fact, Mr Pepys collects Hamilton on 10 July for ‘a pleasant airing to Thames Ditton’ (diary entry HAM/2/11 p.59).
 3. On her return from Thames Ditton on 12 July 1784, she writes: ‘Received letters from the Ducheſs Dowgr of Portland & Miſs Burney (ye authoreſs of Cecilia &c. ..)’ (HAM/2/11 p.80).

Normalised Text


                                                         Norbury Park, July 10th.
                                                        

      I can by no means bear to wait so long as till
next Winter, before I entreat my Dear Miss Hamilton's
pardon for my apparent neglect of all her kindness
during the last month of my stay in Town: but as
She knew the uneasiness which damped all my pleasure
even in the charming party at Hampton, I hope
when she hears that the fatal termination of
that suspense, made me wish for nothing but to
hasten into the Country, to recruit both my Health &
Spirits, she will forgive my silence, omissions, & various
misdemeanours, & receive next Winter, with her wonted
good humour, & “agreeable smiles,”
                             her obliged humble servant
                                                         Frances Burney
      If Mrs. Vesey is still in Town,
may I beg you to present my best Respects to her?
And may I entreat you to have the goodness to tell
both Her & Mr. & Mrs. Pepys, when you see them, that nothing
but a string of the most uncomfortable circumstances
should have prevented my waiting upon them before I left
Town?



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quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. Burney was friends with Frederica and William Lock (or Locke), whose new manor house in Norbury Park was constructed in the 1770s.
 2. In fact, Mr Pepys collects Hamilton on 10 July for ‘a pleasant airing to Thames Ditton’ (diary entry HAM/2/11 p.59).
 3. On her return from Thames Ditton on 12 July 1784, she writes: ‘Received letters from the Ducheſs Dowgr of Portland & Miſs Burney (ye authoreſs of Cecilia &c. ..)’ (HAM/2/11 p.80).

Metadata

Library References

Repository: Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford University

Archive: Miscellaneous manuscripts

Item title: Letter from Frances Burney to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: MSS Misc 1635

Correspondence Details

Sender: Frances D'Arblay (née Burney)

Place sent: Mickleham

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: London (certainty: high)

Date sent: 10 July 1784

Letter Description

Summary: Fanny Burney refers to her visit with Mary Hamilton in London and mentions ‘...the uneasiness which dampt all my pleasure even in the charming party at Hampton. I hope when she [Mary] hears that the fatal termination of that suspense, made me wish for nothing but to hasten into the country to recruit both my health & spirits...’. This was, perhaps, referring to a disappointment in love, when the ambiguous attentions of a young clergyman came to nothing. In a postscript she mentions ‘a string of the most uncomfortable circumstances’ and asks to be remembered to Mrs. Vesey and Mr. and Mrs. Pepys.
   

Length: 1 sheet, 179 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: Research Assistant funding in 2018/19 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Chenming Gao, undergraduate student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Chenming Gao (submitted June 2019)

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

Revision date: 2 November 2021

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