May 1821
Wednesday 2nd
Worked at the books--wrote to Mr. Haydon--walked in those beautiful beech woods--read Rousseau & Lord Shaftesbury's Letters.
Friday
Worked at my Catalogue--walked in the woods.
Saturday
Finished the Catalogue--read Andrew Marvel.
Sunday
Monday
The Bookseller & Auctioneer came--arranged papers, correspondence &c.
Tuesday
Wednesday 9th
At home--went into Reading with Drum--saw my Emily in the London Magazine--called at the Brookes, Valpys &c.--saw the Dickinsons--wrote to Miss Johnson.
Thursday 10th
At home--went to Wokingham--dined Bear Wood--returned to tea--heard from Miss James--worked at my article on Letters.
Friday 11th
At home--heard from Miss Brooke & Miss Nooth--Luce sent home my bonnet & some flowers--wrote to Luce--went cowslipping--wrote to Miss Brooke, Mrs. Hofland & Miss James--worked at my Article.
Saturday 12th
Sunday 12
This is the second day in a row Mitford has written May 12th, starting a week of misdating.
Monday 13th
At home--worked at my sketch.
Tuesday 14
Wednesday 15
Thursday 16th
Heard from Miss James.
Friday 1 8th
On consulting a perpetual calendar and surrounding entries, this date is the 18th.
This is the end of Mitford's misdating.
[] Heard from Mrs. Rowden & Miss Johnson--wrote to Miss Johnson, Mrs. Rowden & Miss Nooth--planted 200 flowers in the garden.
Saturday 19th
Sunday 20th
Monday 21st
At home--worked at my sketch.
Wednesday 23rd
Thursday 24th
At home--heard from Mr. Talfourd--went to Wokingham to keep Mr. Webb's birthday--gay party, pleasant day--came home at night.
Friday 25th
At home--wrote to Mr. Talfourd.
Saturday 26th
At home--heard from Sir W. Elford
Sunday 27
Monday 28th
Mrs. Rowarth & Dr. & Mrs. J. Valpy called--worked at my article.
Tuesday 29th
At home--wrote to Mrs. Body.
Wednesday 30th
Went to Silchester & got some lily of the valley roots in a beautiful copse--pleasant day.
Thursday 31
At home--went to Reading--saw Mr. Bowles the poet at Dr. Valpy's--liked him very much--came home to dinner--worked at my prose.
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
beech
- genus: Fagus
- family: Fagaceae
- species: Fagus sylvatica
A genus of deciduous trees, native to
temperate Europe, Asia and North America. Mitford likely refers to the European
beech (Fagus sylvatica) which is considered native to the southern UK and introduced
elsewhere for tall hedging and plantations, particularly after the eighteenth century.
More recently, research suggests the beech was introduced into England around 4,000
B.C. and so is non-native. Beech woods are densely canopied with floors suitable only
for shade-loving understory plants such as bluebells. The bark is smooth and light grey and the tree bears inconspicuous flowers and
catkins that develop into husk-enclosed nuts that are bitter but edible. The nuts
and bark are high in tannins, used to tan leather, and the trees produce a fine-grained
medium-weight wood used for indoor flooring, staircases, and small furniture. It also
makes good firewood, as well as wood pulp for papermaking.
flower
Flowering plants, whether domesticated or wild.
lily of the valley
- genus: Convallaria
- species: Convallaria majalis
- family: Asparagaceae
Scented woodland flowering plant native to the cool temperate
Northern Hemisphere. It was previously classified as in its own family (Convallariaceae),
and before
that was believed to be part of the Lily family (Liliaceae).
Places
Publications
Emily, A Dramatic Sketch
- Author: #MRM
- Date:
Originally appeared in the London Magazine 3.17 (May 1821): 499-505. Later reprinted in Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets, and Other Poems (83-105).
The London Magazine
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1820 to 1829 1732 to 1785 1820 1829 27 February 1821 April 1821
An 18th-century periodical of this title (The London Magazine, or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer) ran from 1732 to 1785 . In 1820, John Scott launched a new series of The London Magazine emulating the style of Blackwood’s Magazine, though the two magazines soon came into heated contention. This series ran until 1829, and this is the series to which Mitford and her correspondents frequently refer in their letters. Scott’s editorship lasted until his death by duel on 27 February 1821 resulting form bitter personal conflict with the editors of Blackwood’s Magazine connected with their insulting characterization of a London Cockney School. After Scott’s death, William Hazlitt took up editing the magazine with the April 1821 issue.
Blackwood’s Magazine
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
Founded as a Tory magazine in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review.
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
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.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Ermenonville, France
18th-century French philosopher, novelist, and memoirist, whose political philosophy
regarding the social contract, inequality, and individual human rights were influential
throughout Europe and shaped the French Revolution. His fiction and autobiographical writings influenced the literature of sensibility
and the development of Romanticism.
Thomas Northmore
- Northmore Thomas
- Cleve, Devonshire, England
- Furzebrook House, near Axminster, England
An acquaintance of Mary Russell Mitford, friend of John Johnson and co-founder with him of the Hampden Club. A Radical, Northmore ran unsuccessfully as Member of Parliament for Exeter and for
Barnstaple. In a letter to Haydon dated 9 February 1824
, Mitford refers to Northmore as a great Devonshire reformer, one of the bad epic poets and very pleasant men in which that country abounds (
Life of Mary Russell Mitford ed. L'Estrange Vol II, page 22). In an 1819 letter to Elford, Mitford gives this description of Northmore, and mentions
his authorship of an epic poem on George Washington: what a man! How loud & shrewd & full of himself & sharp all over from his eagle nose
to his pointed hook toe! What a perpetual sky rocket bouncing starting & flaming!
What a talker against time! Well might Mr. Hobhouse call him the gentleman who came all the way from Devonshire to tell us that he was a great
man at home. And he is a Poet too. Has written an Epic, which must have appeared incognito–for
I never remember to have heard it mentioned in my life. An Epic Poem about Washington
. Mitford may not have seen the poem, since it was published in Baltimore, MD. Northmore's
poem was entitled Washington; or Liberty Restored. A Poem in Ten Books.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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,
.
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
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.
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)
Ann Body
- Body Ann
A local farmer of Shinfield, farmed at Hyde end farm. Listed among the traders of Shinfield village and parish in 1847 and 1854 in the
Post Office Directory of Berkshire
, and noted by Needham on a list of local tradespeople.
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).
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.
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)
.
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
.
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).
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
.
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.
Mary Valpy Roworth
- Valpy Roworth Mary Ann Catherine
- Miss Valpy
- Reading, Berkshire, England
- Bath, Somerset, England
Eldest of the daughters of Dr. Richard Valpy and his second wife,
Mary Benwell, likely born about 1786. Mary Ann Catherine Valpy married Thomas Roworth, Esq.
of Blagdon, Somerset on 24 November 1810
at St. Lawrence, Reading, Berkshire. They lived in Blagdon, Somerset, and
died without issue. Mary Valpy Roworth died in January 1854 at Bath, Somerset.
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 .William Lisles Bowles
- Bowles William Lisle
- King's Sutton, Northamptonshire, England
- Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Clergyman and poet, known for his sonnets as well as for his long poems including
The Missionary published 1813
,
The Grave of the Last Saxon published 1822
and
St. John in Patmos published 1833
. Bowles was an acquaintance of Mitford's father for over thirty years. Bowles was a key figure in the Romantic-era sonnet revival.
As a literary critic, Bowles ignited the so-called Pope-Bowles controversy, a pamphlet
war about Alexander Pope's moral authority and literary significance, upon which Mitfordcomments in her letters.