Jan 1820
Sunday 2
At home--fed my Bobbies --read Wright's & Cobbett's trial with Mr. Wright's
excellent preface--Molly married to
Whim.
Monday 3
Tues 4
Wednesday 5
At home--wrote to Miss Brooke & finished my letter to Miss Nooth--Col.
Boscawen called--walked with Drum--fed my bobbies.
Thursday 6
At home--Heard from Eliza Webb with H. Hayward's
bridecake--went to
Reading with Drum--called on the Newbery's & Joliffes--home to
dinner--pleasant morning--read the Edinburgh
Review.
Friday 7
At home--heard from Mr. Haydon & Mrs.
Dickinson--wrote to Mr. Haydon,
Mrs. Dickinson & Miss Eliza Webb--read the Miniature
Unidentified. May refer to an early 19th c. periodical of that title, or
Davenport's The Original of the Miniature.
--fed my
Bobbies--worked my shirt.Saturday 8
Sunday 9
Heard from Mr. Haydon--wrote to Miss James, Mrs.
Rowden & Miss
Webb--poor Lucy had a bad fall on
the ice in the yard--poor dear.
Tuesday 11
At home--wrote to Leigh Hunt & Drum who was at Reading
for the Sessions--Lucy better--fed my Bobbies--read The Dead Letter
Office.
Friday 14
Saturday 15
Sunday 16
Mrs. Dickinson sent for me to Farley Hill--I went--a very pleasant day.
Monday 17
At Farley Hill--heard from Drum & Granny--Mr.
Bocket & Mr.
Stephenson called--looked over Mr. Dickinson's fine prints--pleasant day.
Tuesday 18
Wednesday 19
Thursday 20
Friday 21
Saturday 22
At home--dear Drum came home--heard from Mary
Webb--went firtopping--fed my bobbies--wrote to Miss
Hawkes & Mrs. Rowden.
Sunday 23
At home--heard from Mrs. Hofland & Miss Hawkes--wrote to Miss
Webb, Mrs. Dickinson,
Mrs. Waterton, Mrs. Hofland & Miss
James.
Monday 24
At home--fed my Bobbies--wrote to Sir
William--Hannah Rapley went at
my recommendation to live with Mrs.
Dickinson.
Tuesday 25
At home--Heard from Miss James--fed my Bobbies--read Petrarque et Laura by
Madame de Genlis--pretty good.
Wednesday 26
At home--wrote to Miss James--fed my Bobbies--got my mourning ready for the Duke of Kent--read the Hermit in London--very good.
Thursday 27
At home--went to Wokingham--found Mr. Webb better--Eliza not
well--Mrs. Hayward's little girl
very pretty. Came home to dinner--read
Country Neighbours--famous.
Friday 28
At home--fed my bobbies--wrote to Miss
Webb--read a sketch of my Friend's
Family--sad Methodistical stuff--Miss
Burney's Country
Neighbours--very good.
Sat.29th
Sunday 30th
At home--fed my bobbies--heard from Sir
William--wrote to Sir William
Elford--read Country
Neighbours--very good indeed--Heard of the King's Death.
Monday 31st
At home--went Firtopping--picked up a great many & got a great deal of furse stumps--heard from Mrs. Dickinson--wrote to Sir William
Elford.
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
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.
fir
- species: Abies alba
- genus: Abies
- family: Pinaceae
Evergreen coniferous trees found through much of North and Central America, Europe,
Asia, and North Africa. Unlike other conifers, firs bear erect cones that are raised
above the branches like candles; at maturity, the cones disintegrate to release winged
seeds. One of Mitford’s favorite foraging trees; she calls her collecting activity fir topping. Mitford would likely have been familiar with the European silver fir, which was
brought to England in the 17th century. Other types of firs such as Douglas firs and
noble firs, native to North America and used as Christmas trees, were introduced to
the UK in the nineteenth century.
furze
- species: Ulex europaeus
- genus: Ulex
- family: Fabaceae
A spiny evergreen shrub with scented yellow blooms native to the UK and western Europe.
Also called gorse or whin. Flowers from spring into summer.
Places
Publications
Ivanhoe
- Author: #Scott_Wal
- Date: No date listed.
Report of the Action, Wright v. Clement
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: Report of the Action, Wright v. Clement: for certain libels published in Cobbett's Political Register: tried in the Court of King's Bench at Westminster, on Friday, the 10th of December, 1819, before Lord Chief Justice Abbott and a special jury.
The Eclectic Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Monthly periodical published between 1805 and 1868. Focusesd on long and short reviews and topical review essays. Founded by Dissenters and operated as a non-profit; all profits were donated to the British and Foreign Bible Society. Followed a nonsectarian editorial policy with an intellectual tone modeled on 18th-century periodicals but advanced reviewing toward critical analysis and away from quotation and summary. Coverage included American as well as British literature, and other subjects and titles of general interest. Influential editors included co-founder Daniel Parken (until 1813), Josiah Conder (1813-1836), Thomas Price (1837-1855).
British Critic, A New Review
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Conservative periodical with High Church editorial views. Published monthly between 1792 and 1825 and then quarterly until 1843. Succeeded by the English Review in 1853. Edited until 1811 by Thomas Fanshaw Middleton. Also edited by William R. Lyall (1816-17); Archibald M. Campbell (about 1823-1833); James S. Boone (1833-1837); Samuel R. Maitland (1837-38); John Henry Newman (1838-1841); and Thomas Mozley (1841-43).
View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages
- Author:
- Date:
3 volumes. Mitford rated it good.
Edinburgh Review, second series
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
No date listed.Quarterly political and literary review founded by Francis Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, Henry Brougham, and Francis Horner in 1802 and published by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh. It supported Whig and reformist politics and opposed its Tory and conservative rival, The Quarterly Review. Ceased publication in 1929.
The Original of the Miniature. A Novel.
- Author:
- Date:
4 volumes. Printed at the Minerva Press.
Clarissa, or, The history of a young lady : comprehending the most important concerns of private life: and particularly shewing, the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and children, in relation to marriage
- Author:
- Date: 1748
- Author: No author listed.
- Date: No date listed.
Account of the captivity of Capt. Robert Knox and other Englishmen, in the island of Ceylon
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: Account of the Captivity of Capt. Robert Knox and other Englishmen, in the island of Ceylon; and of the Captain's miraculous escape, and return to England, in September, 1680; after detention on the island of nineteen years and a half..
Pétrarque et Laura
- Author:
- Date:
The Hermit in London
- Author:
- Date:
Published anonymously. 5 volumes. Full title: The Hermit In London, Or, Sketches of English Manners. Mitford rated it very good.
Tales of Fancy: Country Neighbors; or, The Secret
- Author:
- Date:
1816
Country Neighbors makes up volumes two and three of the three-volume work. As she reads, Mitford rated it famous; very good and very good indeed.
A Sketch of my Friend's Family
- Author:
- Date:
Full title: A Sketch of my Friend's Family: intended to suggest some practical hints on religion and domestic manners. Mitford rated it sad Methodistical stuff.
Persons, Personas, and Characters
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.
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. 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).
Henry Hallam
- Hallam Henry
- England
- London, London, England
Proponent of Whig causes such as
the abolition of the slave trade. Wrote for the Edinburgh Review as well as authoring longer works on political and
literary history. Mitford read his View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages.
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
Colonel Boscawen
- Boscawen Colonel
Mitford corresponded with him in 1819. 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.
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
.
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.
Selina Davenport
- Davenport Wheler Selena Granville
- London, London, England
- England
Author of 11 novels between the 1810s and 1830s. Friend of
Anna Maria and Jane Porter. After her retirement from writing,
she kept a small shop in Cheshire.
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)
.
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.
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.
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.
Leigh Hunt
- James Henry Leigh Hunt
- Southgate, England
- Putney, England
One of the founders and editors of The Examiner.
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.
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.
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)
Miss Hawkes
- Hawkes Miss
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.
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.
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
- Hanover Edward Augustus Prince
- Duke of Kent and Strathearn
- Buckingham House, Westminster, London, England
- Woolbrook Cottage, Sidmouth, Devon, England
4th son of King George III, his daughter became Queen Victoria, following the 1817 death of Princess Charlotte, the royal family's only other legitimate
grandchild. Served as a British army officer in Quebec and Halifax in the 1790s and
played an influential role in the UK's changing relations with Upper and Lower Canada
and with the United States. From 1799, he served as Commander-in-Chief of British
forces in North America. Also served with the rank of Field Marshal in the French
Revolutionary and Coalition (Napoleonic) Wars. He died of pneumonia and Mitford dons mourning dress for him.
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
.
Mrs. Hayward
- Hayward Mrs.
Likely the spouse of William Hayward the elder. Lived in Watlington and and mother of William Hayward the younger.
Sarah Harriet Burney
- Sarah Harriet Burney
- Miss Burney
- Lynn Regis, Norfolk, England
- Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Daughter of Charles Burney by his second wife, Elizabeth Allen. Half sister to Frances Burney.
George III, King of Great Britain and King of Ireland
- George William Frederick King of Great Britain and King of Ireland King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Norfolk House, St. James's Square, London, England
- Windsor Castle, Windsor, England