“No criticism or remarks & pray burn it as fast as you read it”

Abstract

Building on what has been written about copy letters and copying practices in Late Modern English correspondence, this paper explores the copying behaviour of a highly cultured and well-connected woman in eighteenth-century British polite society, Mary Hamilton (1756–1816), by closely scrutinising a selection of her writings containing material copied from various other letters. Close attention is paid to what linguistic features were changed in the copying process, which is contextualised and subsequently discussed in the appropriate socio-historical context. The case studies reveal that various linguistic elements were changed in the copying process, part of which can be attributed to changes in addressee, Hamilton’s expectations of who else might read her writings, and how her letters would have been delivered.