The Mary Hamilton Papers : Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to John Dickenson

Montagu (née Robinson), Elizabeth

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter from Elizabeth Montagu to John Dickenson, congratulating him and Mary Hamilton on the birth of their daughter. Montagu notes that she would have written sooner but for an eye-complaint that prevented her writing. She notes that Dickenson wishes his daughter to have the 'virtues & talents of its Mother'. She suggests that this is a 'presumpt[u]ous expectation', that such valuable traits are 'rarely hereditary', but that the 'instructions and example' that the baby will receive from her parents – rather than from 'the dullness of a Swiss [...] or the levities of a French Governess' – will provide her with the qualities they wish. Montagu asks Dickenson to send her congratulations to Hamilton and to tell her that she is sorry that she had not been able earlier to be introduced to the 'dear little Stranger'.</p>


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