Sunday April 1st
At home--went violetting with Drum & Colonel Blagrave--got a great many--read Palmyre et Flam (middling)--worked at my sketch.
Apr 1821
Monday April 2nd
Tuesday April 3rd
Wednesday 4th
Heard from Sir W. Elford--Mr. Jolliffe called to take leave--went violetting--wrote Sir W. Elford & Mr. Talfourd.
Thursday 5th
Friday 6th
At home--Heard of poor Mr. Johnson's death--wrote to Miss Johnson--went Pengewooding [sic]--got a great many.
Saturday 7th
Sunday 8th
At home--Mr. Hill & Lucy dined here--went with them to see the old house--worked at Richmond--read No. 48 of Blackwood's Magazine.
Monday 9th
Thursday 12th
At home--began a Dramatic Sketch.
Friday 13th
At home--worked at my dramatic sketch.
Saturday 14th
At home--worked at my dramatic sketch.
Sunday 15th
At home--worked at my sketch.
Monday 16th
Tuesday 17th
Wednesday 18th
At home--heard from Sir W. Elford, Miss James & Mrs. Dickinson--wrote to Mr. Haydon & Mr. Talfourd--dear Drum went to Alresford--worked at my sketch.
Thursday 19th
Saturday 21st
At home--finished my Sketch--heard from Eliza Webb--went walking.
Sunday 22nd
Monday 23rd
At home--put leeches on dear M [?]--bled her for six hours--frightened me to death--Mr. & Mrs. Dickinson called, & Mr. Crowther & Miss B--wrote to Miss Brooke--read a Letter from the King.
Tuesday 24th
At home--began an article on Letters.
Wednesday 25th
Heard from Miss Brooke--went flowering.
Thursday 26th
Friday 27th
At home--heard from Miss Johnson--wrote to Miss Johnson--went to Wokingham--called at the Wheelers--pleasant day.
Saturday 28th
Sunday 29th
Monday 30th
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
flower
Flowering plants, whether domesticated or wild.
Places
Publications
Claudia’s Dream
- Author: #MRM
- Date:
September 30, 1822
One of Mitford’s dramatic sketches, appeared in Lady’s Magazine September 30, 1822 462-66 , retitled as The Siege in Dramatic Scenes
Blackwood’s Magazine
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
Founded as a Tory magazine in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review.
Richmond from Twickenham Park circa 1821
- Author: #Hofland_TC
- Date: circa 1821
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
Persons, Personas, and Characters
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.
Richard Body
- Body Richard
- Arborfield, Berkshire, England
- Wokingham, Berkshire, England
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.
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.
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).
John Johnson
- Johnson John Mr.
- the Junius of Marlow
- Timothy Trueman
Friend who leaves his collection of political books to Northmore upon his death in 1821. Mitford helps his
sister, Miss Johnson, sort out the
books that are part of the estate, according to her letter of 1 July 1821. Lived at Seymour Court near Great Marlow before his death. Mitford reports meeting Mr. Johnson and Mr. Northmore for the first time in March 1819 in a letter to Elford. She describes him as one of those
delightful old men that render age so charming--mild playful kind &
wise--talking just as Isaac Walton would
have talked if we were to [have] gone out fishing with him.
The Gentleman’s
Magazine obituary lists his full name as John Johnson, esq. and gives his
date of death as 5 April 1821. See Obituary; with Anecdotes of Remarkable
Persons. Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Review 91.1 (1821): [Died] April
5 . . . John Johnson, esq. of Seymour-court, near Great Marlow, a celebrated
member of the Hampden Club, and author of various political letters, &c.,
under the signature of Timothy Trueman (381). The Monthly Repository of
Theology and General Literature 16 (1821), lists the same death date and notes
that he was author of various political letters and essays in Mr. B. Flower’s
Political Register and other periodical works, under the signature of Timothy
Trueman
(314).
Miss Johnson
- Johnson Miss
Friend of Mitford’s. Unmarried
sister of Mr. Johnson. Mitford helps her sort out the books that are part of
her brother’s estate, according to her letter of 1 July
1821. More research
needed..
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.
Charles Hill
- Hill Charles
Schoolmaster at Silchester,
Berkshire, England. Spouse of Mitford servant Lucy Hill, whose marriage to him caused her to
leave her position in the Mitford household. Source: NeedhamPapers, 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).
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.
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)
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.
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
.
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.
Mr. Crowther
- Crowther Mr.
The dandy
Mitford pokes fun at in her letters of
9 and 10 January, 1819
. Possibly husband to Isabelle Crowther. According to Coles, his forename may be Phillip; Coles is not completely confident that the dandy Mr.
Crowther and Mr. Phillip Crowther are the same person. The second Mr. Crowther is
a correspondent of Mitford's, whom she writes to at Whitley cottage, near Reading. He may also have resided at Westbury on Trim near Bristol. William Coles is uncertain of whether Crowtheris the same Phillip Crowthermentioned in Mitford's Journal. Source: William Coles, Letter to Needham, 10 November 1957, NeedhamPapers, Reading Central Library.
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,
.
Leigh Hunt
- James Henry Leigh Hunt
- Southgate, England
- Putney, England
One of the founders and editors of The Examiner.