Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, describing a potential wife. Napier light-heartedly informs Hamilton that he will be in her part of the country shortly to be introduced to the seventeen-year-old Miss H. who he describes as having a fortune of £70,000, a house and park and a ‘face better than one in three you meet with’. He proposes to ‘make a very brisk attack’ and he believes that he will be successful as he writes the lady ‘wants a Title, Master wants her Cash’. He asks Hamilton, as a poet, to forward him some of her compositions that he can ‘warble’ to his ‘mate’ with a ‘proper portion of flame, Darts, Loves, Graces, cupids, sighs [...]’ and so on. Napier continues with examples of the types of poetry he has in mind. He intends to sing the verses to his prospective wife and as long as ‘her heart is not made of Marble’ he thinks she will ‘surrender’.
Editing supervised by David Denison and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza.
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).
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Editing supervised by David Denison and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza.