Wednesday Nov. 1st
Wrote to Miss James with her frill & letters--walked with deart Granny.
Nov 1820
Thursday 2nd
At home--Mr. & Mrs. Dickinson took me by appointment to dine at Mrs. Monck's--met the R.Valpys, H. Symonds's, [?]ckers & Monsieur Simon--came home at night--a very pleasant day--sent away my frill & collars to dear Miss James.
Saturday 4th
Monday 6th
Tuesday 7th
At home--walked with dear Granny--Mr. Body called--read the London Magazine--Capital--Tentamen, good--Essays by a Gentleman who has left his lodgings--so so.
Wednesday 8th
At home--walked with dear Granny--heard from dear Miss James--wrote to Mary Webb--worked at the additional breadth for Miss James's frill.
Thursday 9th
At home--heard from Sir William--walked with dear Granny & the pets--read the New Monthly Magazine (Talfourd's Articles)--finished Miss James's frill.
Friday 10th
At home--heard from Mr. Haydon & Eliza Webb--went coursing with Drum to Aldermaston & Tadley--sent a hare to Mr. Talfourd--wrote to Eliza Webb, Mrs. Hayward & Miss James.
Saturday 11th
At home--walked with dear Granny & the pets--read Talfourd's beautiful articles in the New Monthly--very fine indeed--wrote to Sir William Elford.
Sunday 12th
At home--heard from Eliza Webb--walked with dear Drum & the Pets to Farmer Davies's--read [?]ellingford--a tolerable novel.
Although the journal entry is not clear on the first capital letter, it could be a
P and the second letter appears to be a lower-case e. Possibly Mitford is reading Sarah Green’s Percival Ellingford: or the Reformist. A Novel. In Two Volumes. By Mrs. Green, Author of Good Men of Modern Date, Deception, Festival of St. Jago,
&c., first published 1810 with a second edition in 1816.. Check to see if this is mentioned in her letters?
Monday 13th
Tuesday 14th
Wednesday 15th
Friday 17th
Mr. Body called--in the Evening Three Mile Cross was illuminated in honour of the Queen (a sad [?] ), as Reading had been the night before--we were very gay, so were Body, Lowten & Wheatley--the Cross looked very pretty--the Bodys called in the evening--all was quiet.
Saturday 18th
At home--went to Reading with dear Drum--called at Mrs. Brooke's, Mrs. Monck's, Mr. Green's, &c.--dined at Mrs. Newbery's & met John Bulley--came home at night--a very pleasant day.
Sunday 19th
Monday 20th
Tuesday 21st
Wednesday 22nd
At home--heard from Miss James--wrote to Eliza Webb--finished dear Granny's frill--began knitting a dog's collar.
Thursday 23rd
At home--wrote to Miss James--knotted Mrs. Newbery's shirt--finished Maria's collar--walked with dear Drum & the Pets--Drum dined at Brown's last evening
Saturday 25th
Sunday 26th
At home--Mrs. Dickinson called--Walked with dear Drum--wrote to poor Mr. Jolliffe--read Blackwood's magazine.
Monday 27th
At home--dear Drum went to Ilsley--walked with dear Granny & the pets--read Turner's Tour in Normandy--worked at dear Granny's manchettes, & wrote to Sir William.
Tuesday 28th
At home--walked with dear Granny & the Pets--finished dear Granny's double manchettes--read Turner's Tour through Normandy, pretty good--finished my letter to Sir W. Elford.
Wednesday 29th
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
brown hare
- species: Lepus europaeus
- genus: Lepus
- family: Leporidae
Hares and jackrabbits are wild members of the rabbit family. Brown hares are small,
furry mammals with golden brown fur with white underbellies and tails and black-tipped
ears. They have longer ears and more powerful legs than European rabbits and live
alone or in pairs, rather than in groups. Thought to be introduced into Britain from
Eurasia with the Romans or earlier.
pheasant
- species: Phasianus colchicus
- genus: Phasianus
- family: Phasianidae
Large long-tailed game bird, native to Asia and with populations elsewhere naturalized
as well as raised for hunting. The males are brightly-colored, with green heads, while
the females are drab. Hybridization has bred types in a variety of colors. Pheasants,
likely from the Caucasus, were naturalized in Britain by at least 1050 AD, and may
have arrived earlier, with the Romans. The ring-necked variety was reintroduced in
the 18th century. In the UK, the birds are hunted by traditional driven-shoot methods,
employing beaters, and rough-shoot methods; both methods rely on gun dogs to flush
and retrieve the birds.
Places
Publications
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.
- Author: No author listed.
- Date: No date listed.
New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
1821 to 1830
Periodical edited by Thomas Campbell and Cyrus Redding from 1821 to 1830, after it was restyled with a more literary and less political focus than it had had at its founding in 1814 as a Tory competitor to the Whig Monthly Magazine. Talfourd and Mitford were contributors.
Blackwood’s Magazine
- Author: No author listed.
- Date:
Founded as a Tory magazine in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review.
Account of a Tour in Normandy
- Author: Dawson Turner
- Date: 1820
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.
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.
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).
Mary Stephens Monck
- Mary Stephens Monck
- Mrs. Monck
Wife of John Berkeley
Monck, the Member of Parliament for Reading. Francis Needham claims that it is she and
her husband who are referred to in
Violeting
, when the narrator thinks she
sees Mr. and Mrs. M. and dear B.. (Dear B.
would be their son, Bligh.) Source: Francis Needham, Letter to William Roberts, 26
March, 1954. Needham
Papers, Reading Central
Library.
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.
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
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.
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.
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).
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
.
Abraham Hayward
- Abraham Hayward
- Wilton, Wiltshire, England
- London, England
Solicitor and prolific editor, translator, and essayist. A correspondent of Mitford
between 1834 and 1839.
William Davie
- Davie William
Noted by Needham as a beer retailer and possibly a butcher. His source is the 1847
Post Office Directory of Berkshire
. Source:
NeedhamPapers, 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.
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,
.
Mr. Green
- Green Mr.
Actor who appeared in Mitford's play, Charles
I at the Victoria Theatre in 1834. Acted under Mr. Green. Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
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.
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)
.
Francis Beaumont
- Beaumont Francis
- Grace-Dieu, Leicestershire, England
- London, England
Contributor to a corpus of plays published in the seventeenth century as the collaborative
works of Beaumont and John Fletcher. Many of these plays are now thought to have been
composed by only one of the duo, with or without a third author, or by neither. Perhaps
the most famous Beaumont and Fletcher play is the ribald comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Beaumont was also a poet and friend of Ben Jonson. He contributed prefatory verses
to Jonson's comedy Volpone.
John Fletcher
- Fletcher John
- Rye, Sussex, England
- London, England
Playwright following Shakespeare, contemporary of Ben Jonson in the early seventeenth century, and collaborator with Francis Beaumont. Some plays once attributed to Beaumont and Fletcher as a duo were now known to have
been written by only one of them and/or with other collaborators.