Thursday 1st
At home--heard from Miss James--finished my letter to Mrs. Hofland--read the Sketch Book--very
good--walked out with Lucy & the
Pets--dear Drum better.
Jun 1820
Friday 2nd
At home--Mrs. Dickinson called & the Whites & Tuppens--walked out with Drum--read the Quarterly Review.
Saturday 3rd
At home--wrote to Mr. Dickinson & Miss James--dressed my flowers--walked with dear
Granny & the Pets.
Sunday 4th
At home--rained all day--little
Miss Keep gave me a pretty flower to
hang up in the arcade--wrote to Mrs. Hayward--read newspapers & Reviews.
Monday 5th
At home--gave little Miss Keep a pretty needlebook and
pincushion--read George 3rd his [?] & Family--sad stupid stuff--Mr. Dickinson called--weeded my little
flower Court.
Wednesday 7th
At home--went to Reading with dear Drum--called at the Brookes,
Valpys &Co.--saw Mr.
Nares, Mr. MacFarlane
& a great many people--came home to dinner & walked after--pleasant day.
Thursday 8th
At home--Captain
Montague called--walked with Granny, Luce & the
Pets--read London Magazine--Mr.
Dickinson drank tea with us.
Friday 9th
At home--went to Reading to Mr.
MacFarlane's Lecture on the Italian Poets--very good
indeed--excellent--drank tea at Mrs.
Tuppens--very pleasant Evening.
Saturday 10th
Took a long walk with Granny & the
Pets--Mrs. Dickinson came to fetch me
to Farley Hill after dinner.
Sunday 11th
At Farley Hill--heard from Drum, Miss Nooth & Mrs. Hayward--wrote to Drum--drove with Mrs. D. to Wokingham
to call on the Webbs--read Classical
Journal--pleasant day.
Monday 12th
At Farley Hill--walked about & read
Edwards's Canons of Criticism--famous--& some reviews &
magazines.
Tuesday 13th
Wednesday 14th
Thursday 15th
(dear Granny's birthday) At home--heard from Drum--wrote to Drum &
Mrs. Hayward--read a very sweet
Italian novel (the only Italian novel) called Ultime Lettere de Jacopo
Ortis, written by Ugo Foscolo who is now in
Eng: writing for the Quarterly--too dismal but good--walked with the
pets--sent off little Fly (the brindled bitch)
to Mrs. Wilson.
Friday 16th
At home--heard from Drum--wrote to Eliza
Webb--read Morier's 2nd Journey in Persia--Mr. MacFarlane drank tea with us & was
very pleasant.
Saturday 17th
Sunday 18th
At home--heard from dear Drum--wrote to dear Drum--walked with dear Granny
& the Pets--read Dubois' Account of
India--heard from Eliza Webb.
Monday 19th
At home--wrote to dear Drum--called on Mrs. Richard
Body--dressed my flowers--Dr.
Valpy & Mr.
& Mrs. Dickinson called on us.
Tuesday 20th
At home--heard from dear Drum & of his having dined with Mr. Haydon--walked with dear Granny & the Pets--read the new number of the
Edinburgh Review--wrote to dear
Drum & did some work.
Wednesday 21st
At home--heard from dear Drum & Sir
William--walked to Bertram
House with Granny--Mr. Joliffe drank tea with us--wrote to Drum & Sir
William Elford.
Thursday 22nd
At home--heard from dear Drum & Mrs.
Dickinson--wrote to Mr. Monck
& sent off my letter to dear Sir
William--walked with Granny
& the Pets--dear Drum came home at
night.
Friday 23rd
At home--went into Reading in the Cart with Drum & Granny & Molly--called at
the Brookes, Tuppens,
Newberys & Valpy's--saw Mr. Edward Valpy & his
Wife--very pleasant morning--came home to dinner--wrote to Mrs. Jolliffe & Mrs. Dickinson.
Saturday 24th
At home--dined at the Newberys to meet the book club & Mr. Palmer (a wager dinner which Drum won of Mr.
Newbery about Fyshe's voting
with [?] on Sir Francis Burdett's motion)--a very pleasant
day--wrote to Miss Nooth--came home at night--Dr. Valpy brought a Mr.
Burgess, a great Grecian, to dine at the Newberys--he was an odd man--not at all pleasant.
Sunday 25th
Monday 26th
At home--went into Reading with Drum--called on Mrs. Anthony
Valpy & Mrs.
Newbery--came back to dinner--packed up my things to go to London tomorrow--wrote to Mrs. Dickinson & Mrs. A. Valpy.
Tuesday 27th
At home--went to London with Drum in Mr. Eastaff's gig & with
Farmer Smith's mare--drove by Wokingham, where we breakfasted--then by
Egham through Windsor Park (a
most beautiful drive), & drank tea at Richmond with the James's--got to
Great Queen Street about 10 o'clock--the hottest day I
ever remember.
Wednesday 28th
In Town--went with the Newberys to the Insurance
Office--then with Drum to
the Exhibition (not good)--Star
Office--Sun Office--Chronicle
Office--[?]--Haydon's Pictures,
famous--British Gallery,
capital--dined at home with the Newberys & Miss Danny in Great
Queen Street--very hot day--Young Tanner came
in the evening--pleasant morning.
Thursday 29th
In Town--drove with Drum to call on the Perrys,
Haydon & the
Moncks--saw the Regent's Park--went in
the evening with the Newberys to see
Miss Kelly at the English Opera
House--wrote to dear Granny
& Mr. Haydon.
Friday 30th
In London--went with Drum to stay at the
James's--he went on home--walked with
Miss James, Miss Emily & Miss Newman to Lord
Dysart's--a very pleasant day.
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
flower
Flowering plants, whether domesticated or wild.
Places
Publications
Quarterly Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1809 1809 until 1824 1825 from 1826 through 1853
Tory periodical founded by George Canning in 1809, published by John Murray. William Gifford edited the Quarterly Review from its founding in 1809 until 1824, was succeeded briefly by John Taylor Coleridge in 1825, until John Gibson Lockhart took over as editor from 1826 through 1853. Archived at Romantic Circles, Quarterly Review Archive
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.
Persons, Personas, and Characters
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)
Lucy
Title character of the Our Village story. Lucy is a servant in the narrator's household who leaves to get married. The character appears in several stories,
notably Hannah and A Visit to Lucy. According to Needham's Mitford papers, the character is based on the servant in the Mitford household, Lucy Sweetser Hill. Surname not given.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Harriet Keep
- Keep Harriet
Servant in the Mitford
household from around 1822-1830. Source:
Needham Papers, Reading Central Library.
Mrs. Hayward
- Hayward Mrs.
Likely the spouse of William Hayward the elder. Lived in Watlington and and mother of William Hayward the younger.
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.
Fly
Female dog given as a gift to Mitford by Farmer Webb in February
1819 and married (i.e., mated) to Mitford's dog Mossy in May 1819.
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
.
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 .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.
Mr. Jolliffe
- Jolliffe Mr.
Friend of the Mitford family, who offered the family lumber to build a cottage in 1818. Source: L'Estrange.
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.
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.
Charles Fyshe Palmer
- Palmer Charles Fyshe
- Long Fyshe
- Luckley House, Wokingham, Berkshire, England
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
Charles Fyshe Palmer was the son of
Charles Fyshe Palmer and Lucy
Jones. He married Lady Madelina Gordon Sinclair in 1805 at Kimbolton Castle in Kimbolton,
Herefordshire
. They lived at Luckley House, Wokingham,
Berkshire and at East Court, Finchampstead,
Berkshire. Through her siblings, Lady Madelina was connected
to several of the most influential aristocratic families in the country, and
Charles Fyshe Palmer’s marriage to Lady Madelina thus gained him access to
aristocratic houses, including the Holland
House.
A Whig politician, Palmer began running for Parliament elections as the
member for Reading
after 1816, and appears to have served off and
on in that role until 1841. He led the
Berkshire meetings to protest British government’s handling of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. On March 16, 1820, Palmer ran for a seat in Parliament against
two other candidates. The votes ran: John
Berkeley Monck (418 votes), Charles Fyshe Palmer(399 votes), and John Weyland(395 votes.) Mitford’s
letters around this time indicate she much preferred his opponent J. B. Monck, and she had earlier satirized
Palmer in 1818 as vastly
like a mop-stick, or, rather, a tall hop-pole, or an extremely long
fishing-rod, or anything that is all length and no substance.
Mitford also mentions Palmer in connection with a legal issue surrounding
the Billiard Club, in her letter to Talfourd of 31 August 1822
. Mitford also mentions the ways that Palmer’s political opponents
sometimes undermined his Whig reformist positions by referencing the noble
privileges (and money) he accrued by marrying the Lady Madelina Gordon in 1805.
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.
Mrs. Newbery
- Newbery Mrs.
Spouse of Jacob Newbery. Name variously spelled Newbery and Newberry. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
Anna Harris Valpy
- Valpy Harris Anna
- Reading, Berkshire, England
- Blagdon, Somerset, England
Spouse of Anthony Valpy, married on 15 December 1818 at St. Giles Church, Reading. A frequent visitor at the Mitford's early in their marriage, they afterward settled
in Blagdon, Somerset. They had four children. Her parents were Quakers.
Emily James
- James Emily
- Bath, Somerset, England
- 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey
Friend of Mary Russell Mitford, and sister to Elizabeth James and Susan James and cared for pupils with her. She
was born about 1782 in Bath, Somerset, the 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 sisters in Green Park Buildings, Bath, Walcot,
Somerset; High Street, Mortlake, Surrey; and 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond,
Surrey. She died on August 29, 1863, at 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey and
was buried at St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond, Surrey.