Jul 1819: Mary Russell Mitford's Notebook of 1819 to 1823

Jul 1819

Thursday 1

At home --heard from Miss Nooth--went to Reading & Wokingham--called on Miss Brooke & Mrs. Newell--dined with the Webbs--met Mr. Carter there--very pleasant day--came home at night.

1819 The friends to whom we sent my Poems were Miss Harley--the Miss Holdens, Miss Deverell--Mrs. Woodburn & Miss At the same time sent a spaniel Puppy to John Holden which we got from Mr. Webb and our own pretty little bitch Miranda, alias Miss Mouse, to be kept for us by Mrs. Hunt of Arlesford. God bless her pretty love--she's a great beauty.

Friday 2

At home--read the British Critic & Eclectic Reviews--so cold & wet that we had a fire--cleared up rather in the Evening & walked with dear Drum. Sent some of my Poems to Hampshire friends Woodburns Holdens &c.

Saturday 3

At home--dressed my flowers--heard from Miss James--read Camilla--Walked with Granny Lucy & Mossy about our own place.

Sunday 4

At home--lay in the Hay--read Zuma by Madame de Genlis--stupid--Mr. John Deverell came to dine & sleep--he stupid too! Walked in the evening with him & Drum & the pets--the pets very amiable.

Friday 9

At home--Mr. Elliott & Mr. Spurling came here & settled to take to the place at Michaelmas--they both behaved very well--Harry Marsh came to meet them & dined here--heard from Miss James.

Saturday 10

At home--lay in the hay--walked about the place with Drum Granny & the pets--read Lord Byron's Mazeppa liked it very much.

Sunday 11

At home--went with dear Granny to Wokingham--found them all dismal on account of Mr. Webb's operation which is to be performed Tuesday--came home to dinner--lay in the hay.

Monday 12

At home--went to Reading with dear Drum--made a great many calls changed my books--a pleasant morning--Came home to dinner--lay in my hay--finished my letter to Miss James.

Tuesday 13

At home--Dear Drum & Granny went to Lockinge--dressed my flowers--lay in the hay--walked down the lane with Luce & saw a beautiful glowworm on a weed in the ditch.

Wednesday 14

At home--dear Drum and Granny at Lockinge--lay in the hay--walked in the hayfield--a little bird by my hay has been very tame for the two last days--read Colonel FitzClarence's Indian Journal.

Thursday 15

At home--Drum & Granny still out--laid in the hay--my little robin kept eating close to me--walked in the hayfield. Betty Rapley dined here--heard from Miss Eliza Webb--read the Magazines.

Friday 16

At home--heard from dear Drum--Drum & Granny came home--very glad to get them--lay in the hay--walked down the lane--read the Monthly & European Magazines--pretty good.

Saturday 17

At home--dressed my flowers--lay in the hay--read Sir Joshua Reynold's works

Although various editions of Reynolds's works appeared during Mitford's lifetime, it seems likely that she reads the 1819 3-volume collection, The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

.--fed my tame robin--began a letter to Miss Nooth. Twice caught in the rain & obliged to change my things.

Sunday 18

At home--lay in the hay--read Crabbe's Tales of the Hall liked them--wrote to Miss Brooke & Mrs. Rowden--walked down the lane with dear Drum & pets. Mossy very amiable.

Monday 19

At home--lay in the Hay--read Crabbe's Tales of the Hall--walked with Drum & Granny & the Pets backward & forward to the white gate.

Tuesday 20

At home--lay in the hay--dear Mossy not well--Bobby brought a relation to eat bread crums crumbs both of them very amiable--dear Mossy better in the Evening--read Reynolds's works.

Although various editions of Reynolds's works appeared during Mitford's lifetime, it seems likely that she reads the 1819 3-volume collection, The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Wednesday 21

At home--Poor dear Drum taken very ill--giddy & sick--sent for Mr. Sherwood who bled & physicked him. Dear Drum better in the Evening--Mossy quite well to day--read.

Thursday 22

At home--dear Drum much better--God bless him--dressed my flowers--lay in the hay--walked in the wood--dear Drum brought me some fine Jasmine from Mr. Davies.

Friday 23

At home--Dear Drum's throat very bad--sent for Mr. Harris who came to see him--dear Drum better in the Evening--lay in the Hay--read Traits of Nature. Walked with the Pets.

Saturday 24

At home--Dear Drum much better. Heard from Mrs. Dickinson Mrs. Rowden & Miss Harley--lay in the hay--Marmy very ill--wrote to Mrs. Rowden--finished my letter to Miss Nooth--began one to Sir William.

Sunday 25

At home--finished my letter to Sir William & sent off that of Mrs. Rowden's--dined at Wokingham--dear Mr. Webb much better--a very pleasant day--came home by Reading to get a parcel for Miss James containing two long letters from her & Mrs. Hofland a pretty handkerchief bordered with roses & Professor Brown's book on cause & effect--Marmy quite well.

Monday 26

At home--wrote to the Miss Webbs & sent them some apples amp; French beans--lay in the hay--read De Rance & Zeneide

Story included in Zuma collection.

by Madame de Genlis--the first very bad the other pretty--wrote to Mrs. Dickinson.

Tuesday 27

At home--called on Mrs. Voules with dear Drum--lay in the hay--read Professor Brown on Cause & Effect--wrote to Miss James.

Wednesday 28

At home--heard from Sir William--wrote to Sir William & Miss James--dressed my flowers--walked with dear Drum and the pets.

Thursday 29

At home--wrote to Mr. Haydon. Called at Farley Hill--Mr. D. just gone out--dined at Wokingham--very pleasant day--had a wandering band to play to us--we drank tea in the shrubbery--Came home at night.

Friday 30

At home--lay in the hay with Mossy & talked to my Bobby -- Bobby very amiable--I think he'll soon talk too! Read Miss Plumptre's Tales--very amusing.

Saturday 31

At home--lay in the hay till it thundered--heard from Mr. Dickinson (with a proof of Cyllenius) & from Mrs. Rowden--corrected the proof & wrote to Mr. Dickinson--read Lord Byron's Don Juan good but wicked.

Gloss of Names Mentioned

Nature

flower

Flowering plants, whether domesticated or wild.

hay

Mixed grasses or other herbaceous plants largely grown and harvested as animal fodder. In Britain, farms traditionally maintained ecologically diverse hay meadows of grasses and wildflowers, mown to provide horse fodder.

robin redbreast

species: Erithacus rubecula
genus: Erithacus
family: Muscicapidae

Small songbird, native to Europe, now considered a type of Old World flycatcher. In Mitford's time, believed to be part of the thrush family, along with nightingales. Not to be confused with the American robin, a new World thrush, this bird is sometimes referred to as an English robin in North America. Frequently referenced in British folk tales and popular culture, the bird became associated with the Christmas holiday in the mid-nineteenth century. The bird's name derives from the male forename Robin or Robert, which led to nicknames of Bob and Bobby. Robins in Great Britain are generally less wary of humans than their counterparts in continental Europe. Mitford calls the tame robins she feeds her bobbies.

jasmine

species: Jasminum officinale
genus: Jasminum
family: Oleaceae

A climbing woody shrub with fragrant white flowers, native to Asia and naturalized in the UK since the 16th century. Some varieties are cultivated to produce oils for perfume. Mitford also uses the term jessamine, generally used in Britain to refer to common jasmine or white jasmine.

apple tree

species: Malus domestica
genus: Malus
family: ‎Rosaceae

Deciduous tree producing showy pink and white flowers and then firm round pomes, usually red and yellow-green fruit. Cultivated varieties developed from wild trees in Central Asia, and have likely been domesticated for at least four thousand years. Before the invention of refrigeration, the fruit was important for its ability to be dried, to overwinter in cold storage and to produce fermented cider. While the apple appears in many mythological and religious traditions as a mystical or forbidden object, as in the forbidden Edenic fruit in the Old Testament, the term generally referred to any edible or non-native fruit, and did not necessarily indicate fruits of the genus Malus. There are currently more than 7,000 apple cultivars and the University of Reading, in Berkshire, is responsible for the UK national apple database. Mitford mentions at least three varieties: golden rennet or Golden Reinette also known as the English pippin, a golden-yellow apple, streaked red-orange; russetting types, apples whose smooth skin is covered all or in part by rougher brown skin, thought to have more nutty and aromatic flavors than non-russeting types and used in cider making; and a crumplingtype; an underdeveloped or deformed apple that shrivels on the tree.

common bean

genus: Phaseolus
family: Fabaceae

Also called the green bean, the common bean is a member of a large family of herbaceous flowering plants whose seeds or legumes, and pods, are cultivated and consumed by humans and animals. Wild types are twining, as are some cultivated types, while others grow as low rounded clumps. A spring-flowering plant with white, pink, or purple scented blooms. Fava or >broad beans are also historically cultivated in England. The OED suggests that fields of this bean are those commonly mentioned in literature as fragrant.

https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris

Places

Publications

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).

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).

Poems: Second Edition with Considerable Additions

Author: #MRM
Date: 1811

2 volumes.

Camilla, or a Picture of Young Lady

Author:
Date: 1796

Zuma, or the Tree of Health

Author: #deGenlis_Mme
Date:

Full title: Zuma, or the Tree of Health. To which are added, the fair Pauline,--Zeneida,--the reeds of the Tiber,--and the Widow of Luzi. First published in Paris in 1817 asZuma, ou, La Découverte du quinquina uivi de La belle Paule, de Zenéide, des Roseaux du Tibre, etc. Mitford dismisses it as stupid.

An Autumn Near the Rhine

Author: #DoddCE
Date:

Full title: An Autumn Near the Rhine; Or Sketches of Courts, Society, Scenery, &c. in Some of the German States Bordering on the Rhine. To which are added translations from Schiller, Goethe and other German poets..

An Account of Denmark in 1692

Author:
Date:

Full title: An Account of Denmark as it was in the year MDCXCII.

Memoirs of the Court of Elizabeth, Queen of England

Author:
Date:

2 volumes.

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Journal of a Route Across India

Author:
Date:

Full title: Journal of a Route Across India, Through Egypt, to England, in the Latter End of the Year 1817, and the Beginning of 1818.

The Monthly Magazine

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Monthly general-interest periodical. Published between 1796 and 1843. Founded by publisher Richard Philips and edited until 1811 by John Aikin.

European Magazine

Author: No author listed.
Date: No date listed.

Monthly periodical published from 1782 until 1826. Original title: European Magazine, and London Review covering the Literature, History, Politics, Arts, Manners, and Amusements of the Age. Early publisher of Wordsworth.

The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

Author:
Date:

Full title: The Literary Works Of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knight. Late President Of The Royal Academy; Containing His Discourses, Papers In The Idler, The Journal Of A Tour Through Flanders And Holland, And Also His Commentary On Du Fresnoy's Art Of Painting. Printed From The Author's Revised Copies, With his last Corrections and Additions: To Which Is Prefixed, Some Account of the Life of the Author By Edmond Malone, Esq. In Three Volumes.

Tales of the Hall

Author:
Date:

2 vols. Verse. Last work published in his lifetime.

Traits of Nature

Author:
Date:

5 volumes.

Observations on the Nature and Tendency of the Doctrine of Mr. Hume, concerning the relation of cause and effect

Author: #Brown_DrT
Date:

De Rancé: a Poem

Author: #Cunningham_JW
Date:

Tales of Wonder, of Humour, and of Sentiment; Original and Translated

Author: #PlumptreAnne #PlumptreAnnabella
Date:

2 vols. Volume 1 contains Zelis, The Weathercock, The Magic Dollar Volume 2 contains The Spectre of Presburg, The Fair of Beaucaire, Tsching-Quang. Mitford rates it very amusing.

The Travels of Cyllenius: A Poem, in 66 cantos

Author:
Date:

First published in 1795 and privately printed by Charles Dickinson himself. Period records suggest that the poem was available in at least four different forms: as individual quarto cantos sold for 1 shilling each (some listing ’White’ as the name of the publisher, although this may be a bookseller); as a 1796 quarto complete edition of all sixty-six cantos; as partial quarto editions of the middle 40 cantos (possibly gathered from individual cantos, as each were numbered separately); and a 12mo. complete edition in two volumes, with 389 pages listed as printed at Farley-Hill in 1820, of which only 12 copies were made and which were presentation copies to Dickinson’s friends. Some editions appear in boards, others in half morocco. An auction catalog for Richard Valpy’s library indicates that there were only 12 copies, printed by the author himself, who presented this to me (ie, Richard Valpy); another presentation copy appears in an auction catalogs for Samuel Rogers’s library. Periodicals and their reviewers from 1796 do not appear to have had access to the complete work in 66 cantos but instead review partial editions of cantos 41-60 (Edinburgh Magazine); canto 38 only (Analytical Review); Cantos 38-60 (British Critic); Cantos 38 and 40 only (Monthly Review). WorldCat lists an edition of cantos 37 to 60 only from 1795. Separate listings for a two-page mock title-page for the work, attributed to Horne-Took, appear as Speedily will be published, price 3l.6s. in boards, The travels of Cyllenius: a poem. In sixty-six cantos.

Don Juan

Author:
Date: 1820 and 1824 Saturday 31 July 1819

Published in parts between 1820 and 1824.

Persons, Personas, and Characters

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

Miss Brooke

Brooke Miss

A correspondent of Mitford's, to whom she writes at 11 East Cliff, Brighton. William Colessuggests that this could be a summer address, and that she was a resident of Reading. She was courted by Dr. Valpy in October 1823. Forename unknown. Possibly the daughter of Mrs. Brooke and Mr. Brooke. Source: Letter from William Coles to Needham, 10 November 1957 , Needham Papers, .

Mrs. Newell

Newell Mrs.

Mitford called on her at Wokingham. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.

Mr. Carter

Carter Mr.

Mitford met him at the Webbs in 1819. Forename unknown. Dates unknown. Source: Journal.

Miss Harley

Harley Miss

Friend of Mitford's who made her a purse and who received a presentation copy of the 1811 Poems. She writes more frequently than she visits. Forename unknown. Dates unknown. Source: Journal.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mossy

Mitford’s dog; He died on Saturday, August 21, 1819 at Bertram House. Mossy was a nickname for Moss Trooper.

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.

Marmy

Marmion

One of Mitford's dogs at Bertram House in 1819.

Moses

One of Mitford's greyhounds at Bertram House in 1819.

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.

Lucy Aikin

Aikin Lucy
Mary Godolphin
Warrington, Cheshire, England
Hampstead, London, England

Daughter of John Aikin and niece of Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Prolific author of verse and prose for children, including two textbooks, as well as biographies of European historical figures for adults. Under her pseudonym, she authored several groundbreaking abridgements of British novels and stories, starting with Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable. Like Mitford, she was known as a witty and intelligent letter writer.

Mr. Spurling

Spurling Mr.

An associate of Mr. Elliott, possibly an attorney. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.

Henry (Harry) Marsh

Marsh Henry

MRM's letters in December 1820 indicate that Henry Marsh was involved in a local political tiff with Henry Hart Milman. The rift between Henry Marsh and H.H. Milman is well documented. See The History of Parliament online.

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Byron George Gordon Noel 6th Baron Byron
Holles Street, London, England
Missolonghi, Greece

Romantic-era poet, playwright, and celebrity. English peer after he inherited the Barony of Byron of Rochdale in 1798. He died fighting for independence for Greece. Friend of William Harness.

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 .

George Fitzclarence

Fitzclarence George Augustus Frederick Colonel Earl of Munster

Eldest son of William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan. Mitford read his Journal of a Route Across India.

http://viaf.org/viaf/49996676

Betty Rapley

Rapley Betty

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 .

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Reynolds Joshua Sir
Plympton, Devonshire, England
Leicester Fields, London, England

The most celebrated and sought-after English portrait painter of the second half of the eighteenth century; he was the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts. His Discourses, lectures given on art and later printed, were highly influential on the art and aesthetics of his time.

George Crabbe

Crabbe George
Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England
Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England

Mentored by Edmund Burke and friend of Scott and Wordsworth. Mitford read his Tales of the Hall.

http://viaf.org/viaf/100175819

Frances Rowden St. Quintin

Rowden St. Quintin Frances Arabella Fanny

Educator, author, and Mitford tutor. Also taught Caroline Lamb and L.E.L.. Worked at St. Quintin School at 22 Hans Place, London, started by M. St. Quintin, a French emigre. St. Quintin and his first wife originally ran a school in Reading; Frances Rowden became his second wife after his first wife's death. In The Queens of Society by Grace and Philip Wharton, the authors note that, while unmarried, Frances Rowden styled herself Mrs. Rowden (1860: 148). Rowden wrote poetry, including Poetical Introduction to the Study of Botany (1801) and The Pleasures of Friendship: A Poem, in two parts (1810, rpt. 1812, 1818); also wrote textbooks, including A Christian Wreath for the Pagan Dieties (1820, illus. Caroline Lamb), and A Biographical Sketch of the Most Distinguished Writers of Ancient and Modern Times (1821, illus. Caroline Lamb). (See Landon's Memoirs ; See also L'Estrange, ed. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself,(21) .

Mr. Sherwood

Sherwood Thomas

Practiced medicine in Reading. He was a friend of John Berkeley Monck, and likely others in the Reading political scene. Sources: Needham Papers, Reading Central Library ; History of Parliament Online. ReadingBorough http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/constituencies/reading.

Thomas Davies

Davies Thomas Mr.
Farmer Davies

Lived in Earley. Owned a neighboring meadow near Bertram House

Mr. Harris

Harris Mr.

Dates unknown. Local doctor, not the same person as Henry Harris, the Covent Garden Theatre manager. Forename unknown.

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.

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)

Thomas Brown

Brown Thomas Professor
Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland
Brompton, London, England

M.D. and Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Mitford read his Observations on the Nature and Tendency of the Doctrine of Mr. Hume, concerning the relation of cause and effect. He defended Hume and was a critic of Erasmus Darwin.

http://viaf.org/viaf/51841475

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.

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.

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.

1819

1820

1821