The Mary Hamilton Papers : Letter from Jane Holman to Mary Hamilton

Holman (née Hamilton), Jane

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter from Mrs Jane Holman née Hamilton to Mary Hamilton, containing news on family and society. Frederick Hamilton is well but has been 'much affected' by the death of his relation, Mr Greville [Charles Francis Greville, mineralogist (1749-1809), Mary Hamilton's cousin]. Jane Holman would prefer it if he would live in London, but she writes that he will not leave Bath although he does not like it there. He sees moving as being 'a serious operation'.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The letter also relates to literature and society. She notes that she has translated into 'English blank verse' one of the tragedies of Count Alifieri [an Italian dramatist]. Mary Hamilton had suggested that Jane Holman read Miss Hamilton's Cottages of Glenburnie [Elizabeth Hamilton, author (1756?-1816)]; Holman has already read her Memoirs of Modern Philosophers. She believes that Elizabeth Hamilton is 'no relation, though of Scotland'.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Holman reports that she has not heard anything from Mrs Garrick [Eva Maria Garrick (née Veigel), dancer, (1724-1822), married the actor David Garrick], and has attended two concerts while in Bath, a private one and one in the Rooms, where she heard Madame Catalani sing. She has been to see only one play since her return to London, which was on the occasion of the actor Mr Lewis retiring from the theatre after thirty-six years. She notes that he and his friends were 'much agitated'. The Covent Garden theatre is to open on the 11th September, but she reports that she does not know what is to be done about the rebuilding of the Drury Lane Theatre.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The letter ends with a report from the newspapers of the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte on the banks of the Danube [in the Battle of Aspern-Essling].</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dated at 50 Mortimer Street [London].</p>