Saturday April First
At home--went violetting in Mr. Body's Fields &
our own--got a great many--Read Mill's History of
the Crusades very good.
Apr 1820
Sunday April Second
At home--went with dear Drum to Farley
Hill--came home to
dinner--probably my last ride in the dear old dog cart--read the Edinburgh Review & began the Monastery.
Monday April 3rd
At home--heard from Mrs. Jolliffe--a great deal of packing &
moving going forward--General Cockle came
to look at the house--went firtopping I suppose for the
last time--got a good many dear loves--petted Molly--read the Monastery not
very good.
Tuesday 4th
At home--my last day I suppose at that
dear home!--Mr. Haydon sent me the New Times
with the Critique on his picture
The review appeared in the 27 March 1820 issue.
--went about
very disconsolate--firtopped a little--drew a plan of
the place--read the Monastery--a very uncomfortable melancholy
day.Wednesday 5th
Heard from Sir William--went firtopping--left Bertram
House & went to live at Mr. Body's Cottage at the Cross--very sorry to go--in a great
skirmish all day long--very uncomfortable indeed.
Thursday 6th
At home--went to Bertram House to fetch some things we left
there--went violetting there & in Mr. Body's
Fields--never got half so many in my life--lost poor Selim--in a great fright--but found him again--read
the Monastery--not so good as some of his
Novels.
Friday 7th
At home--went violetting to Bertram
House--planted out flowers in our
garden here--Mr. Green called while I was out--read the Monastery--pretty good too.
Saturday 8th
At home--walked with dear Granny to James
Smith's--got very wet--wrote to Sir
William--read Walsingham old &
bad.
Sunday 9th
Monday 10th
At home--wrote to Eliza Webb, Miss
James, Mr. Haydon & Dr. Harness--read the Eclectic & British Critic
Reviews & King Coal's Levée--a pretty little
thing.
Tuesday 11th
At home--heard from Mr. Haydon & Mrs.
Hofland--finished my letter to Mr.
Haydon & Miss James &
wrote to Mrs. Hofland--signed a bond to
Dr. Harness--walked with Drum.
Wednesday 12th
At home--read the New Monthly Magazine--transcribed the compliment
of myself in it--dear Drum & Granny went to London--went violetting with Lucy to Mr. Body's Fields &
Bertram house--wrote to Mrs. Dickinson to go back with the Magazine.
Thursday 13th
At home Dear Drum & dear Gran in London--answered
a note to Mama from Mr. Stewart & wrote him a letter of
recommendation to Mr. Woodburn. Mr. Dickinson called & dined with
me--read Madame de
Genlis' Knights of the Swan--so so.
Friday 14th
Saturday 15th
At home--went violetting about our old fields
& Mr.
Body's--read Baldwin's
London & Blackwood's Edinburgh
Magazines--Mr. Hill took away one of
Molly's puppies--poor Molly & the other pup cried very much.
Sunday 16th
At home--heard from Mary & Eliza Webb & Mrs.
Hayward (Mrs. H's letter
was to Papa) & Mr. Dickinson--dear Drum went to Town--Mrs. Dickinson
called with the baby--went violetting--found a new bank in a field by the hill--wrote to Mrs. Voules &Mr. Dickinson.
Monday 17th
At home--went to Pinge wood with Lucy, got a great deal of woodsorrel
& some white violets in Davies's
meadow--heard from Mrs.
Voules (to whom I sent Molly's
other pup)--had a delightful morning--read Blackwood's Magazine.
Tuesday 18th
At home--heard from Drum--wrote to Dr.
Harness--went to Reading
in the Cart--called on the Brookes (to condole
on Mr. Brooke's death)--Marsh's--Newberys--Tuppens & the Valpy's--came
home to dinner--read the London Magazine--Mr. Dickinson & Mr.
Liebensrood called & saw Granny.
Wednesday 19th
At home--went violetting
sic
to Mr. Body's
fields & our old
Place--got some lovely coloured & white primroses & yellow ones & heard a most beautiful nightingale in Mr. Body's lane from our Cottage--read the
Mystery.Thursday 20th
At home--heard from Mr. Haydon--went to Mr.
Webb's with Drum in the Cart
& got Wasp
for Mr. Haydon--dined at Wokingham & met Mr. Morris & Mrs.
Talmage--came home at
night--a pleasant day--took dear Molly who
was much admired--wrote to Mr. Haydon.
Friday 21st
At home--went to Pinge wood in the Cart with dear Drum & Luce & the pets--got a great many pansies & wood sorrel--Mr. Dickinson & the Tuppens called whilst we were
out--had a delightful morning indeed.
Saturday 22nd
Sunday 23rd
At home--went with Drum to our field by the Brook--Mr.
Green called while we were out--heard from Mr. Dickinson--read the Mystery--a new novel--not very good.
Monday 24th
At home--went with dear Drum, Lucy
& the pets to Pinge wood--got a
quantity of cowslips, wood
sorrel & pansies--a delightful
morning--Mr. Dickinson
called.
Tuesday 25th
At home--walked with dear Granny to Bertram
House & got primroses & cowslips--made a Cowslip
ball for Drum--read Hodgkin's travels in Germany Good
politics but middling writing.
Wednesday 26th
At home--went cowslipping with Luce & the
pets in Mr.
Bridgwater's meadows by the brook--very pleasant
morning--read Hodgkin's Travels--good politics.
Thursday 27th
At home--went walking with dear
Granny & the pets up a lane leading
to Spencer's wood--found a field with a quantity of wild periwinkle in the hedge--very beautiful. Read
Southey's Life
of Wesley--very good.
Friday 28th
At home--went to Pinge wood with Drum, Lucy & the
pets--went likewise to Burghfield &
got some field Tulips--met Mr. Liebenrood & his son--Mr.
Body called--heard from Mr.
Haydon--wrote to Eliza Webb.
Read Southey's Life of Wesley--very amusing.
Saturday 29th
At home--went cowslipping with Granny & the
Pets in Bridgwater's meadows--Mr. Dickinson called--read Hogg's Winter Evening's
Tales--famous.
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
violet
- genus: Viola
- species: Viola riviniana
- family: Violaceae
One of Mitford’s favorite flowers (as it was of many of her contemporaries). Native to Eurasia,
including the UK, it blooms from April to June in Berkshire. he terms viola and violet are used for small-flowered annuals or perennials, including the species. Mentioned
in the 1811 Poems as well as in Our Village. Mitford likely refers to wild forms of the Viola such as the common dog-violet. Field pansies
(Viola arvensis) are also native to the UK and are wild relatives of the multi-coloured,
large-flowered cultivars used as bedding plants. T
fir
- species: Abies alba
- genus: Abies
- family: Pinaceae
Evergreen coniferous trees found through much of North and Central America, Europe,
Asia, and North Africa. Unlike other conifers, firs bear erect cones that are raised
above the branches like candles; at maturity, the cones disintegrate to release winged
seeds. One of Mitford’s favorite foraging trees; she calls her collecting activity fir topping. Mitford would likely have been familiar with the European silver fir, which was
brought to England in the 17th century. Other types of firs such as Douglas firs and
noble firs, native to North America and used as Christmas trees, were introduced to
the UK in the nineteenth century.
flower
Flowering plants, whether domesticated or wild.
wood sorrel
- genus: Oxalis
- species: Oxalis acetosella
- family: Oxalidaceae
Mitford likely refers to common wood sorrel, a member of the oxalis family, native
to the Northern Hemisphere, including the UK. It grows in mixed woodlands and is a
low-growing plant with heart-shaped trilobal leaves that bears white flowers in April
and May. The plant is not related to sorrel proper (Rumex acetosa), although the two
plants share an acidic taste that may have led to the similar name.
primrose
- genus: Primula
- species: Primula vulgaris
- family: Primulaceae
One of Mitford’s favorite
flowers, can bloom with creamy yellow flowers from late December through May in Berkshire. Native to western and southern Europe. It is not to be confused with evening primrose
(Oenothera), a genus of 100+
species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. Mitford also mentions
the evening primroses, which have been cultivated in
Eurasia since the early seventeenth century and are now naturalized in some areas.
nightingale
- species: Luscinia megarhynchos
- genus: Luscinia
- family: Muscicapidae
A medium-sized migratory songbird, brown above and beige or whitish below, native
to Eurasia and overwintering in sub-saharan Africa. Best known for its beautiful and
powerful song. Prefers habitats of coppiced woods and scrubland. Great Britain represents
the nothernmost extent of its range. Became proverbial for a person with a melodious
speaking voice or with an extraordinary singing voice.
cowslip
- genus: Primula
- species: Primula veris
- family: Primulaceae
Mitford likely refers to Primula veris (also called cowslip, common cowslip, cowslip primrose),
a plant bearing yellow flowers in spring, found in woods and meadows, native throughout
most of temperate Eurasia, although absent from more northerly areas. May hybridize
with English or common primroses.
periwinkle
- species: Vinca major
- genus: Vinca
- family: Apocynaceae
Spring-blooming trailing groundcover with dark green leaves and purple, blue, or white
flowers, any of several members of the Vinca family. Native to the northern Mediterranean
and naturalized in the UK.
tulip
- genus: Tulipa
- family: Lilieae
Large family of spring-blooming bulbs native to southern Europe and central Asia but
cultivated as a garden plant and cut flower worldwide since the seventeenth century.
Some varieties naturalized in Europe and parts of the UK, particulatly in eastern
England and Scotland. After the so-called tulip mania in Europe in the 17th century, tulips became associated with the Netherlands and
Dutch Golden Age painters, who included them in their still-life paintings. In her
Journal, Mitford refers to field tulips, presumably a naturalized population in Berkshire.
Places
Publications
The History of the Crusades
- Author: #Mills_Chas
- Date:
Full title: The History of the Crusades, for the recovery and possession of the Holy Land. Mitford rated it very good.
Edinburgh Review, second series
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Quarterly political and literary review founded by Francis Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, Henry Brougham, and Francis Horner in 1802 and published by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh. It supported Whig and reformist politics and opposed its Tory and conservative rival, The Quarterly Review. Ceased publication in 1929.
- Author: No author listed.
- Date: No date listed.
The Times
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1785 1 January 1788
Newspaper issued daily, begun in London in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, and titled The Times from 1 January 1788.
Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem
- Author: #Haydon
- Date:
One of Haydon’s three enormous paintings of biblical scenes, together with The Judgment of Solomon and The Resurrection of Lazarus. The ODNB notes the dimensions of Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem as 12 ft 6 in. × 15 ft 1 in., with a frame weighing 600 lb. Exhibited at Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London. Wiliam Wordsworth’s head appears in the picture. Now housed in the Athenaeum of Ohio Art Collection of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. Source: ODNB.
Walsingham
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: Walsingham, or the Pupil of Nature: A Domestic Story. Reprinted in 1805 by William Lane for Minerva Press. Mitford, who was not in the habit of reading pre-1800 fiction, rated it old & bad.
The Eclectic Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Monthly periodical published between 1805 and 1868. Focusesd on long and short reviews and topical review essays. Founded by Dissenters and operated as a non-profit; all profits were donated to the British and Foreign Bible Society. Followed a nonsectarian editorial policy with an intellectual tone modeled on 18th-century periodicals but advanced reviewing toward critical analysis and away from quotation and summary. Coverage included American as well as British literature, and other subjects and titles of general interest. Influential editors included co-founder Daniel Parken (until 1813), Josiah Conder (1813-1836), Thomas Price (1837-1855).
British Critic, A New Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Conservative periodical with High Church editorial views. Published monthly between 1792 and 1825 and then quarterly until 1843. Succeeded by the English Review in 1853. Edited until 1811 by Thomas Fanshaw Middleton. Also edited by William R. Lyall (1816-17); Archibald M. Campbell (about 1823-1833); James S. Boone (1833-1837); Samuel R. Maitland (1837-38); John Henry Newman (1838-1841); and Thomas Mozley (1841-43).
King Coal's Levée
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: King Coal's Levee, Or Geological Etiquette, With Explanatory Notes; And The Council Of The Metals. Mitford called it a pretty little thing.
New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1821 to 1830
Periodical edited by Thomas Campbell and Cyrus Redding from 1821 to 1830, after it was restyled with a more literary and less political focus than it had had at its founding in 1814 as a Tory competitor to the Whig Monthly Magazine. Talfourd and Mitford were contributors.
Knights of the Swan
- Author:
- Date:
2 volumes. Full title: The Knights of the Swan: or, the court of Charlemagne: a romance, written by the Countess of Genlis, in continuation of The tales of the castle.
The London Magazine
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1820 to 1829 1732 to 1785 1820 1829 27 February 1821 April 1821
An 18th-century periodical of this title (The London Magazine, or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer) ran from 1732 to 1785 . In 1820, John Scott launched a new series of The London Magazine emulating the style of Blackwood’s Magazine, though the two magazines soon came into heated contention. This series ran until 1829, and this is the series to which Mitford and her correspondents frequently refer in their letters. Scott’s editorship lasted until his death by duel on 27 February 1821 resulting form bitter personal conflict with the editors of Blackwood’s Magazine connected with their insulting characterization of a London Cockney School. After Scott’s death, William Hazlitt took up editing the magazine with the April 1821 issue.
Blackwood’s Magazine
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
Founded as a Tory magazine in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review.
Mystery, or Forty Years Ago: A Novel
- Author: #GaspeyT
- Date:
1820
3 vols. Mitford considered it not very good.
Travels in the North of Germany
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: Travels in the North of Germany: Describing the Present State of the Social and Political Institutions [. . . ] Particularly in the Kingdom of Hanover. Mitford rates it as good politics but middling writing.
The Life of Wesley
- Author:
- Date:
2 volumes. Full title: The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism. Mitford rated it very good.
Winter Evening's Tales
- Author: #Hogg_J
- Date:
2 vols. Full title: Winter Evening's Tales, collected among the cottagers in the South of Scotland.
Persons, Personas, and Characters
Richard Body
- Body Richard
- Arborfield, Berkshire, England
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
George Mitford
- George Mitford Esq.
- George Midford
- Hexham, Northumberland, England
- Three Mile Cross, Shinfield, Berkshire, England
Father of Mary Rusell Mitford, George Mitford was the son of Francis Midford, surgeon, and Jane Graham. The family name is sometimes recorded as Midford. Immediate family called him by nicknames including Drum, Tod, and Dodo. He was a member of a minor branch of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle in Northumberland.
Although later sources would suggest that he was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh
medical school, there is no evidence that he obtained a medical degree and he did
not generally refer to himself as Dr. Mitford, preferring to style himself Esq.. In 1784, he is listed in a Hampshire directory as surgeon (medicine) of Alresford. His father and grandfather worked as apothecary-surgeons and it seems likely that
he served a medical apprenticeship with family members.
He married Mary Russell on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford, Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their addresses as Old Alresford; they later came to live
at Broad Street in New Alresford. Their only child to live to adulthood,
Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years
later on December 16, 1787 at New
Alresford, Hampshire. He assisted Mitford's literary career by representing her interests in London and elsewhere with theater
owners and publishers. He was active in Whig politics and later served as a local
magistrate. He coursed greyhounds with his friend James Webb.
General Cockle
- Cockle General
Comes to view Bertram House while it is for sale in 1819. May be Brigadier General Cockle. forename unknown.
Dates uncertain.
Molly
Mitford's dog, whom she describes in a letter of 1820-11-27 as a pretty little Spaniel with long curling hair--so white & delicate & ladylike.
Haydon Benjamin Robert
- Plymouth, England
- London
Benjamin Robert Haydon was a painter educated at the
Royal Academy, who was famous for contemporary,
historical, classical, biblical, and mythological scenes, though tormented by
financial difficulties and incarceration. He painted William Wordsworth's portrait in 1842 and
painted a cameo of Keats in his epic canvas
Christ's Entry into Jerusalem(1814-20). MRM was introduced to him at his London studio in the spring of
1817, and Sir William Elford was a
mutual friend, and Haydon’s own acquaintances included several prominent
British Romantic literary figures. He completed
The Raising of Lazarus in
1823
. He wrote a diary and an autobiography, both of
which were published only posthumously, and he committed suicide in 1846.
George Paston's
Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth
Century (1893) contends that Mitford was
asked to edit Haydon's memoir, but
declined.
Sir William Elford
- Elford William Sir baronet Recorder for Plymouth Recorder for Totnes Member of Parliament
- Kingsbridge, Devon, England
- Totnes, Devon, England
According to L’Estrange, Sir William was first a friend of
Mitford’s father, and
Mitford met him for the first time in the
spring of 1810 when he was a widower nearing the
age of 64. They carried on a lively correspondence until his death
in 1837.
Elford worked as a banker at Plymouth Bank (Elford, Tingcombe and Purchase)
in Plymouth, Devon, from its
founding in 1782. He was elected a member of
Parliament for Plymouth as a
supporter of the government and Tory William
Pitt, and served from 1796 to 1806. After his election defeat
in Plymouth in 1806, he was elected member of Parliament for Rye and served
from July 1807 until his resignation in July 1808. For his service in
Parliament as a supporter of Pitt, he was made a baronet in 1800. After his
son Jonathan came of age, he tried to
secure a stable government post for him but never succeeded. Mayor of
Plymouth in 1796 and Recorder for Plymouth from 1797 to 1833, he was also
Recorder for Totnes from 1832 to 1834. Sir William served as an officer in
the South Devon militia from 1788, eventually attaining the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel; the unit saw active service in Ireland during the Peninsular Wars. Sir
William was a talented amateur painter in oils and watercolors
who exhibited at the Royal Society from 1774 to 1837; he
exhibited still lifes and portraits but preferred landscapes. He was elected
to the Royal Society Academy in 1790. He was also a
talented amateur naturalist and was elected to the Royal Linnaean
Society in 1790; late in life, he published his findings on an
alternative to yeast.
He
married his first wife, Mary Davies
of Plympton, on January 20, 1776 and they had
one son, Jonathan, and two daughters,
Grace Chard and Elizabeth. After the death of his
first wife, he married Elizabeth Hall
Walrond, widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Maine Swete
Walrond of the Coldstream Guards.
His
only son Jonathan died in 1823, leaving him without an heir.
Selim
Mitford's ferocious long-haired white cat. The cat may have been a Turkish angora,
a breed that became fashionable in the early 19th century.
Mr. Green
- Green Mr.
Local man who visited the Mitfords at Bertram House and dined at Three Mile Cross. Forename unknown. Dates unknown. Unlikely to be the same person as the actor Mr. Green.
Mitford Russell Mary
- Mrs. Mitford
- Ashe, Hampshire, England
- Three Mile Cross, parish of Shinfield, Berkshire, England
Mary Russell was the youngest child of
the Rev. Dr. Richard Russell and
his second wife, Mary Dicker; she was born about 1750 in Ashe, Hampshire. (Her
birth date is as yet unverified; period sources indicate that she was ten years
older than her husband George, born in 1760.) Through the Russells, she was a
distant relation of the Dukes of Bedford (sixth creation, 1694). She had two
siblings, Charles William and Frances; both predeceased her and their parents,
which resulted in Mary Russell inheriting
her family’s entire estate upon her mother’s death in 1785. Her father’s rectory in Ashe was only a
short distance from Steventon, and so she was acquainted
with the young Jane Austen. She married
George Mitford or Midford on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford,
Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their
addresses as Old Alresford. Their only daughter,
Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years
later on December 16, 1787 at New
Alresford, Hampshire. Mary
Russell died on January 2, 1830 at
Three Mile Cross in the parish of Shinfield,
Berkshire. Her obituary in the 1830
New
Monthly Magazine gives New Year’s day as the date of her death.
Elizabeth James
- Elizabeth Mary James
- Miss James
- Bath, Somerset, England
- 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey, England
Close friend and correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Webb and Susanna Haycock. Her father
died in 1818 and her mother in 1835. After her parents’ deaths, she lived with
her two younger sisters, Emily and Susan, in Green Park Buildings, Bath,
Walcot, Somerset; High Street, Mortlake, Surrey; and 3 Pembroke Villas,
Richmond, Surrey. According to Coles,
referring to Mitford’s diary, letters were also addressed to her at Bellevue,
Lower Road, Richmond (Coles 26). She was buried at St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond,
Surrey. In the 1841 census, she is listed as living on independent means; in the 1851
census, as landholder; in the 1861 census, she as railway
shareholder.
Mary Webb
- Webb Mary Elizabeth
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
Close friend and frequent correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. Mary Webb was the daughter of James Webb. and Jane Elizabeth Ogbourn. Baptized on
April 15, 1796 in Wokingham, Berkshire. Sister of
Elizabeth (called Eliza) and Jane
Eleanor Webb and niece of the elder Mary Webb,
Aunt Mary. In
Needham’s papers, he
notes from the Berkshire Directorythat she lived on
Broad street, presumably in Wokingham, Berkshire. She
was the wife of Thomas Hawkins as she is referred to thus in probate
papers of 1858 regarding the wills of her sister Eliza Webb Walter and her
husband Henry Walter. Date of death unknown. Dates unknown.
Eliza Webb
- Webb Elizabeth Eliza
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
- Sandgate, Kent, England
Elizabeth Webb, called Eliza, was a neighbor and friend of Mary Russell Mitford. Eliza Webb was the youngest daughter of James Webb and Jane Elizabeth
Ogbourn. She was baptized privately on March 3, 1797, and publicly on June 8, 1797 in
Wokingham, Berkshire. She is the sister of Mary Elizabeth and Jane Eleanor
Webb. In 1837 she married Henry Walters, Esq., in Wokingham, Berkshire. In
Needham’s papers, he
notes from the Berkshire Directorythat she lived on
Broad street, presumably in Wokingham. Source: See
Needham’s letter to Roberts on November
27, 1953
.
Rev. William Harness
- William Harness
- Wickham, Hampshire, England
- Battle, Sussex, England
A lifelong friend of Mary Russell Mitford
who knew her from their childhood in the 1790s, Harness launched the first
major effort to collect and edit Mitford’s letters into a series of volumes,
which was completed by his assistant, Alfred Guy
Kingan L’Estrange a year after Harness’s death, and published
as The Life of Mary Russell Mitford, Related
in a Selection from her Letters to her Friends. This collection
was originally intended to be six volumes, but was cut back to three by the
publishers, to Harness’s distress. Harness and Byron were also friends from
their schooling at Harrow, as Byron sympathized with Harness’s experience of
a disabled foot, crushed in an accident in early childhood. Byron considered
dedicating the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage
to Harness, but refrained so as not to taint Harness’s reputation as
he was taking orders as an Anglican curate. Harness admired and encouraged
Mitford’s playwrighting in particular, and she commented that he was one of
the few of her friends who thought she should prioritize the drama over
prose. When William Macready was
attacked in an anonymous Blackwood’s Magazine piece
in 1825 for his demands and rudeness to Mitford over revisions to
Rienzi, Macready assumed that Harness was
the author of the anonymous piece, though in 1839
after many years of distance, Harness assured Macready in person that he was
not the writer, though he may have shared word of the poor treatment his
friend had endured. William Harness was the son of John
Harness, M.D. and Sarah Dredge; he was baptized at Whitchurch, Hampshire on
April 13, 1790. He received his B.A. in 1812 and his M.A. in 1816 from
Christ’s College, Cambridge. He served as curate at Kelmeston, Hampshire
(1812) and Dorking (1814-1816). He was preacher at Trinity Chapel, Conduit
Street, London and minister and lecturer at St. Anne’s in Soho. He was Boyle
lecturer in London (1822) and was curate at Hampstead from 1828 to 1844. In
1825, he published an eight-volume edition of Shakespeare, including a
biography; his friends would later endow a prize in his name at Cambridge
for the study of Shakespearean literature. He also authored numerous essays
and reviews, some for the Quarterly Review. From 1844 to 1847 he was
minister of Brompton Chapel in London. He undertook to raise the funds to
build the church of All Saints, Knightsbridge, in the parish of St.
Margaret’s Westminster, which opened in 1849, and he then became perpetual curate
of
that congregation. At the 1851 and 1861 censuses, he lived at 3 Hyde Park
Terrace, Westminster St. Margaret, Middlesex, with his sister Mary Harness
and his first cousin Jemima Harness, daughter of his uncle William. He died
while on a visit to one of his former curates in
Battle, Sussex. At the time of his death he living at the same address at 3
Hyde Park Terrace; he is buried in Bath.Sources:
Duncan-Jones, Miss Mitford and Mr. Harness
(1955); Lord Byron and His Times:
Barbara Wreaks Hofland
- Hofland Wreaks Barbara
- Yorkshire, England
- Richmond-on-Thames
Novelist and writer of children’s books popular in England and
America, Barbara Hofland was a native of Sheffield,
Yorkshire, where she published poems from July 1794 in the local
newspaper, The Sheffield Iris. Her first
marriage to Thomas Bradshawe Hoole left her widowed and in
poverty, raising a son, Frederic, on her own, and she supported herself by
publishing poems and children’s books, and by running a girl’s school in
Harrogate. second marriage was to the artist
Thomas Christopher Hofland. (Source:
ODNB)
Lucy Sweetser Hill
- Hill Sweatser Lucy
- Stratfield Saye, Berkshire, England
Beloved servant for twelve years in the Mitford
household who, on 7 August 1820 married
Charles Hill. She is the basis for
the title character in the Our Village story. Source:
Needham Papers,
Reading Central Library.
Mrs. Dickinson
- Catherine Allingham Dickinson
- Middlesex, England
- St. Marylebone, Middlesex, England
Catherine Allingham was the daughter of Thomas Allingham. She married Charles Dickinson
on August 2, 1807 at St. Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived in Swallowfield, where their daughter Frances was born, and where they were visited by the Mitford family. According to Mitford, Catherine Dickinson was fond of match-making among her friends
and acquaintances. (See
Mitford's February 8th, 1821 letter to Elford
. Her husband Charles died in 1827, when her daughter was seven. Source: L'Estrange).
Mr. Stewart
- Stewart Mr.
Mitford's Journal of 1820 mentions both a Mr. Stewart and a Major Stewart. Relationship
and forenames unknown. Dates unknown.
Charles Dickinson
- Dickinson Charles
- Mr. Dickinson
- Pickwick Lodge, Corsham, Wiltshire, England
- Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, England
Friend of the Mitford family. He was the son of Vikris Dickinson and Elizabeth Marchant. The Dickinson family
were Quakers who lived in the vicinity of Bristol, Gloucestershire. On August 3, 1807, he married Catherine Allingham at St Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived at Farley Hill, near Swallowfield,
Berkshire, where their daughter Frances was born, and where the Mitfords visited them.
Charles Dickinson owned a private press he employed to print literary works by his
friends (See letters to Elford from March 13, 1819 and June 21, 1820). He wrote and
published an epic poem in sixty-six cantos, The Travels of Cyllenius, in 1795. Upon his uncle's death, Charles Dickinson inherited the considerable wealth
his extended family had amassed in the West Indies.
Stéphanie Félicité de Genlis
- Stéphanie Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin Comtesse
- Comtesse de Genlis
- Madame de Genlis
- Issy-l'Évêque, Saône-et-Loire, France
French author of sensibility novels as well as works for children based on the practices
of Rousseau. Later an emigre to England in the wake of the French Revolution.
Mr. Hill
- Hill Mr.
Received one of Molly's two puppies, born in 1819. Unknown whether this person is the same as or associated
with Charles Hill.
Mrs. Hayward
- Hayward Mrs.
Likely the spouse of William Hayward the elder. Lived in Watlington and and mother of William Hayward the younger.
Mrs. Voules
- Voules Msr.
Friend of the Mitfords. She adopts one of Molly's puppies in 1820. Likely the spouse of Mr. Voules. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
Thomas Davies
- Davies Thomas Mr.
- Farmer Davies
Lived in Earley. Owned a neighboring meadow near Bertram House
Mr. Brooke
- Brooke Mr.
Forename unknown. The father of Miss Brooke and spouse of Mrs. Brooke. A Mr. Brooke was an Original member of the Ilsley Coursing Society, with George Mitford
William Tuppen
- William Tuppen Captain
- Captain Tuppen
In Mitford's time, a captain retired from the Royal West regiment of the London militia.
Later became a magistrate and served as mayor of Reading.
Mr. Liebensrood
- Liebensrood Mr.
Father and head of a family visited by the Mitfords. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
James Webb
- Webb James
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
Prominent manufacturer in the
Wokinghambrewing industry, and community leader in
Wokingham and the county of Berkshire. Father of Eliza, Jane, and Mary Webb. Francis Needham
suggested that he was the original of the gentleman in the
Our Villagesketch Aunt Martha. Sources:
Francis Needham, Letter to
William Roberts, 16 June 1953
.
Needham Papers, Reading Central Library
.
Francis Beaumont
- Beaumont Francis
- Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire, England
- London, England
Contributor to a corpus of plays published in the seventeenth century as the collaborative
works of Beaumont and John Fletcher. Many of these plays are now thought to have been
composed by only one of the duo, with or without a third author, or by neither. Perhaps
the most famous Beaumont and Fletcher play is the ribald comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont was also a poet and friend of Ben Jonson. He contributed prefatory verses
to Jonson's comedy Volpone.
John Fletcher
- Fletcher John
- Rye, Sussex, England
- London, England
Playwright following Shakespeare, contemporary of Ben Jonson in the early seventeenth century, and collaborator with Francis Beaumont. Some plays once attributed to Beaumont and Fletcher as a duo were now known to have
been written by only one of them and/or with other collaborators.
Thomas Hodgskin
- Hodgskin Thomas
- Chatham, Kent, England
- Feltham, Middlesex, England
Mitford read his Travels in the North of Germany. Anti-capitalist and utilitarian political philosopher and friend of Francis Place, Jeremy Bentham and James Mill.
Mr. Bridgwater
- Bridgwater Mr.
Local owner of meadows in Shinfield parish. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
Robert Southey
- Robert Southey
- Bristol, England
- London, England
English poet, historian, essayist, and biographer. Early friend of Coleridge. He was Poet Laureate of England from 1813 to 1843.
Liebensrood
Son of Mr. Liebensrood and member of a family visited by the Mitfords. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
James Hogg
- Hogg James
- the Ettrick Shepherd
- Ettrick, Scotland
Scottish ballad collector, poet, and novelist who wrote in Scots and English and was
encouraged by his life-long friend Walter Scott to take up a writing career. Hogg authored The Queen's Wake, a long poem on Mary Queen of Scots in 1813, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, anonymously published in 1824.