The Mary Hamilton Papers : Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Napier, William, 7th Lord

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He has returned home from a 'Pilgrimage' around his fifteen friends which lasted about a month, as he never stayed long in one place. He is sorry that an earlier letter of his made her uneasy, but if she knew the anxiety he felt on her account, she would have pitied him. After reading her words, he could do nothing but write as he did. He could think of 'nothing less [...] than that you had certainly made a Marriage that you was ashamed of', and if such a thing were true, how this would have affected Hamilton's mother and friends. With an attempt at humour, Napier writes that, with such goodness and prudence that Hamilton has, for such a thing to happen 'where then could we have ever after put confidence in a Young Lady, for my part I freely tell you I never would have again trusted to the discretion of any of the Sex', and would have thought that education was useless to them 'further than what nature had given them'. Napier continues that Hamilton has the high opinion of all her friends and is an 'example to all the Young Ladies of her acquaintance'.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Moving on, Napier writes of Hamilton's continuation with riding and of the good effect that this has had on her health. Hamilton is to visit London soon and Napier notes that he does not expect her to 'run into all the dissipation of the to[w]n' and that he has less fear for her than for any other young woman of his acquaintance. He is glad that her mother will have an agreeable companion with her while Hamilton is away, though he does not believe that this 'will make up for the want of her Marys [sic] sauciness which she knows so well how to throw in when she wants to make good her point'.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dated at Edinburgh.</p>