Thurday 1st
Walked with Granny--read Kenilworth--good but too tragical an end.
Feb 1821
Friday 2nd
At home--walked out with Granny--lost dear Molly on Spenser's wood--Mary found her again in about an hour, poor dear love.
Saturday 3rd
At home--heard from Miss James--wrote to Mrs. Hofland--read Young Arthur, a stupid enough poem, & the dear London Magazine--called at Mr. Body's with Granny & Molly.
Sunday 4th
Monday 5th
Tuesday 6th
At home--went flowering with dear Drum & the pets--found one white violet in the lane beyond Davis's--wrote to Mrs. Dickinson.
Wednesday 7th
At home--heard from Sir W. Elford--Mrs. Dickinson called--walked with dear Granny--read the Excursion.
Thursday 8th
At home--heard from Mrs. Jolliffe--wrote to Mrs. Jolliffe & Sir W. Elford--expected Mrs. Raggett, who did not come--walked with Granny--read the Edinburgh Review.
Friday 9th
At home--heard from Mr. Talfourd--saw a beautiful course in walking with Drum. Wrote to Mr. Talfourd, Mr. Haydon, Miss James & Mrs. Dickinson--expected Mrs. Raggett, who did not come.
Saturday 10th
At home--went with Drum to Reading--called at Mr. Green's, Mr. Newbery's, Captain Tuppen's, Doctor Valpy's & the Brooke's--dined at Coley--came home at night--read Mirandola--heard from Mrs. Dickinson--a pleasant day.
Sunday 11th
Monday 12th
Tuesday 13th
At home--Mrs. Raggett called--read Mrs. Delany's letters--worked at Fiesco--wrote to Mr. Talfourd & Mr. Monck.
Wednesday 14th
Thursday 15th
At home--walked with Drum & the pets--read an account of the Cossacks--heard from Miss Nooth & Miss James--wrote to Miss James.
Friday 16th
Sunday 18th
Monday 19th
At home--Drum went coursing with the party at the Warren House, best them all with Moses, Marmion & Mayflower--I went to Reading with Mrs. Dickinson, came home to dinner, & Granny went to stay at Farley Hill.
Tuesday 20th
At home--dear Granny still at Farley Hill--Drum & I walked there to dinner--got a great many primroses by the way--came back at night--a pleasant day.
Wednesday 21st
Thursday 22nd
Friday 23rd
Went with Drum to see dear Luce--went likewise to see Mr. Benyon's pond at Mortimer Westead with a thousand wild ducks sailing about on the water--Came home to dinner--delightful day.
Saturday 24th
Sunday 25th
Monday 26th
At home--tatted & read & walked.
Wednesday 28th
At home--read Life of Poussin.
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
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.
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.
wild duck
- species: Anas platyrhynchos
- genus: Anas
- family: Anatidae
Large dabbling duck with yellow-orange bill and dark blue and white wing tips, native
to Eurasia, North Africa, and North America. Females are shades of brown, and males
have a green head, purplish breast, and grey body. This wild species is the ancestor
of most domestic ducks. They are the most commonly-hunted duck and have been a food
source since ancient times. Mitford generally uses the term wild duck rather than mallard.
Places
Publications
Kenilworth
- Author: Walter Scott
- Date:
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.
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.
Fiesco
- Author: #MRM
- Date:
1820. 9 February 1821
Mitford’s first attempt to write a full-length tragedy, never performed or printed, although she did submit it for consideration to William Macready and the managers of Covent Garden Theatre in 1820. Schiller also wrote a play on this subject, entitled Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua; or Fiesco’s Conspiracy at Genoa. In a letter of 9 February 1821 Mitford indicates that she was not familiar with Schiller’s work, having neither seen nor sought for it.
Persons, Personas, and Characters
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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
.
Charlotte Nooth
- Nooth Charlotte
- Ireland
A friend of Dr. Richard Valpy, who resided at Kew, Surrey, but often visited Paris. She wrote a poem to Dr.
Valpy and published volumes of poetry in 1815 & 1816, including a verse tragedy, as well as a novel, Eglantine, published by A.J. Valpy
Mrs. Raggett
- Raggett Mrs.
Spouse of Mrs. Raggett. In Mitford's Journal in 1819, she indicates that Mrs. Raggett is her cousin, who offers her the position of companion, but she refuses to leave her father George. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
Thomas Davies
- Davies Thomas Mr.
- Farmer Davies
Lived in Earley. Owned a neighboring meadow near Bertram House
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).
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.
Thomas Noon Talfourd
- Talfourd Thomas Noon
- Reading, Berkshire, England
- Stafford, Staffordshire, England
Close friend, literary mentor, and frequent correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. A native of Reading, Talfourd was educated at the Reading’s newly-established Mill Hill school, a
dissenting academy, from 1808 to 1810. He attended Dr. Richard Valpy’s Reading School from 1810 to 1812. His career in law began with a legal apprenticeship with Joseph
Christy, special pleader, in
1817. He was called to the bar in London in 1821 and ultimately earned a
D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Laws) from Oxford on June 20, 1844. While
establishing his practice as a barrister and special pleader, he worked as
legal correspondent for The
Times, reporting on the Oxford
Circuit, and also continued his literary interests. After 1833,
he was appointed Serjeant at Law, as well as a King’s and Queen’s Counsel.
He was elected and served as Member of Parliament for
Reading
from 1835 to 1841 and from 1847 to 1849
; he served with Charles Fyshe
Palmer, Charles Russell, and
Francis Piggott. Highlights of his political and
legal career included introducing the first copyright bill
into Parliament in 1837 (for which action Charles
Dickens dedicated Pickwick Papers
to him) and defending Edward
Moxon’s publication of Percy Shelley’s
Queen Mab in 1841
. He was appointed Queen’s Serjeant in 1846
and Judge of Common Pleas in 1849
, at which post he served until his death in 1854. He
was knighted in 1850
.
Talfourd’s literary works include his plays
Ion (1835),
The Athenian Captive (1837) and
Glencoe, or the Fate of the
MacDonalds(1839).
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.
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.
Jacob Newbery
- Jacob Newbery
Solicitor at various addresses in Lincoln Inn Fields, London; and at Friar Street,
Reading. He was an articled clerk in Abingdon. Prominent citizen of Reading. Spouse
of Mrs. Newbery. Name variously spelled Newbery and Newberry. He was sued for fraudulent handling
of a client's money and subsequently declared bankrupt in 1835. Source: Reports of
Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts of Common Law, vol. 31 (1853): 62-63.
According to Francis Needham, a solicitor. Coles identifies him as Jacob Newberry, attorney, of 35 Great Queen Street Lincoln’s Inn Fields [London] and
Friar Street, Reading (#17, p. 109, note 32). Mentioned as a Reading solicitor of Mitford's acquaintance
in John Mitchell's Recollections, Political, Literary, Dramatic, and Miscellaneous: Of the Last Half-century,
Containing Anecdotes and Notes of Persons of Various Ranks Prominent in Their Vocations,
with Whom the Writer was Personally Acquainted (London: C. Mitchell, 1856: 77-79). Dates unknown.
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.
Dr. Richard Valpy
- Valpy Richard Doctor of Divinity
- Dr. Valpy
- St. John’s, Jersey, Channel Islands
- Reading, Berkshire, England
Richard Valpy (the fourth of that name) was the eldest son of Richard Valpy
[III] and Catherine Chevalier. He was a friend and literary mentor to
Mary Russell Mitford. He matriculated at
Pembroke College, Oxford University on April 1, 1773, aged eighteen, as a
Morley scholar. He received from Oxford a B.A. (1776), M.A. (1784), B.D.
& D.D. (1792). He took orders in the Church of England in 1777. Richard
Valpy served as Second Master at Bury School, Bury, Huntindonshire from 1771
to 1781, and was also collated to the rectory of Stradishall, Suffolk, in
1787. He became the Headmaster at Reading School, Reading, Berkshire, in
1781 and served until 1830, at which time he turned the Headmastership over
to his youngest son Francis E. J. Valpy and continued in semi-retirement
until his death in 1836. During his tenure as Headmaster of Reading Grammar School for boys over
the course of fifty years, he expanded the boarding school and added new
buildings. He is the author of numerous published works, including Greek and
Latin textbooks, sermons, volumes of poetry, and adaptations of plays such
as Shakespeare’s King John and Sheridan’s The Critic. His Elements of
Greek Grammar, Elements of Latin Grammar,,Greek
Delectus and Latin Delectus, printed and published by
his son A. J. Valpy, were all much
used as school texts throughout the nineteenth century. Valpy’s students
performed his own adaptations of Greek, Latin, and English plays for the
triennial visitations and the play receipts went to charitable
organizations. Valpy enlisted Mitford to write reviews of the productions
for the Reading Mercury. In 1803, his
adaptation of Shakespeare’s King John was performed at Covent Garden
Theatre.
Richard Valpy was married twice and had twelve children, eleven of whom
lived to adulthood. His first wife was Martha
Cornelia de Cartaret; Richard and Martha were married about
1778 and they had one daughter, Martha Cartaretta Cornelia.
His first wife Martha died about 1780 and he
married Mary Benwell of Caversham, Oxfordshire on May 30, 1782. Together they had six sons and
five daughters and ten of their eleven children survived to adulthood.
Richard Valpy and Mary Benwell’s sons were Richard Valpy (the
fifth of that name), Abraham John
Valpy, called John; Gabriel Valpy,
Anthony Blagrove Valpy; and Francis Edward
Jackson Valpy. His daughters were Mary Ann Catherine Valpy; Sarah
Frances Valpy, called Frances or Fanny; Catherine Elizabeth Blanch Valpy;
Penelope Arabella Valpy; and
Elizabeth Charlotte Valpy, who died as an
infant.
Richard Valpy died on March 28,
1836 in Reading,
Berkshire, and is buried in All Souls cemetery, Kensal
Green, London. Dr. Valpy’s students placed a marble bust of him
in St. Lawrence’s church, Reading, Berkshire, after his
death. John Opie painted Dr. Valpy’s portrait. See .Ann Body
- Body Ann
A local farmer of Shinfield, farmed at Hyde end farm. Listed among the traders of Shinfield village and parish in 1847 and 1854 in the
Post Office Directory of Berkshire
, and noted by Needham on a list of local tradespeople.
J. B. Monck
- John Berkeley Monck
Member of Parliament for Reading area
1820-1830, who frequently franked Mary Russell Mitford’s letters. Mitford’s letter to Sir William
Elford of 20 March 1820 about the
election of Monck describes him in context with a politically active
Patriot shoemaker, Mr.
Warry, who brought him from France. Monck was the author of
General Reflections on the System of the Poor Laws
(1807), in which he argued for a gradual approach
to abolishing the Poor Laws, and for the reform of workhouses. Francis Needham claims that it is he who
is referred to in Violeting, when the narrator thinks she sees Mr. and Mrs.
M. and dear B.. (Dear B. would be their son,
Bligh.) Dr. Webb’s research suggests that celebrated
shoemaker is Mr. Warry, possibly Joseph
Source:
Francis Needham, Letter to
William Roberts, 26 March 1954. Needham Papers, Reading Central
Library.
Tom White
- White Tom
Mentioned in connection with Captain Tuppen, may be a relation of Mr. White of Reading. Dates unknown. Source: Journal.
William Hanson Dearsley
- Dearsley William Hanson Mr.
- Romford, Essex, England
- Shinfield, Berkshire, England
Inherited Moore Place estate in Shinfield from his father William. After his death,
the estate descended to his wife Isabella, who later married Thomas Owst. Spelled
variously Dearesley, Dearsley, or Dearsly.
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.
Richard Benyon
- Benyon Richard
- Richard Powlett-Wrighte
- Richard Benyon De Beauvoir
- Westminster, London, England
One of the wealthiest commoners in Berkshire and a major landowner and philanthropist. A correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford; Mitford wrote a sonnet, Englefield House: The Seat of R. Benyon De Beauvoir, Esq., Near Reading, printed in her 1827 poems. He served as a Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant
for Berkshire, and as High Sheriff of Berkshire.