The Mary Hamilton Papers : Incomplete letter from Julia Henrietta de Salis (née Blosset) to John Dickenson

De Salis (née Blosset), Julia Henrietta

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Incomplete letter from Harriet de Salis to John Dickenson.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>De Salis begins to her letter to Dickenson in answer to his last letter 'I should not have been so tardy in answering [...] [his letter] but that really I was on the account of the weather been perfectly shut up'. She had nothing at all to say that was worth him reading and that even now she still has little to say. Though she has recently heard from a number of people that Hamilton is unwell and she wants to hear from Dickenson just how she is. 'I am willing to flatter myself that people exaggerate a little in their accounts of her looks as they somewhat differ all say she is not well'. De Salis continues on the subject of Hamilton's health and of the views she has heard from various friends.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The letter continues with gossip relating to various members of the aristocracy, including Lord and Lady Byron and the Duchess of St Albans, the situation on France and with news that the English are returning from France, as they are being 'ill used there'.</p>