Sunday October 1st
At home--heard from Miss James--wrote to Mr. Haydon--had a charming walk with Drum & Granny & the Pets.
Oct 1820
Monday October 2nd
At home--went coursing with dear Drum & the pets to Mortimer Common--very beautiful day--enjoyed the scenery very much, but had no sport.
Tuesday October 3rd
At home--went to Reading with Drum & Granny--heard from Miss James & Miss Newman--called at Coley--at Mrs. Brooke's, Mrs. Newbery's & the Valpy's--came home to dinner--a pleasant morning.
Wednesday 4th
Thursday 5th
At home--went to dine with Mrs. Dickinson--met Mr. Bonviese, Mr. Hawley, Miss Broughton & young St. John--a very disagreeable day--saw a fine glow-worm as we came home at night.
Friday 6th
At home--went to Coley to write & dine--heard from Mrs. Hofland & Miss James--wrote to Miss Brooke--came home at night after a pleasant day.
Saturday 7th
At home--heard from Miss Nooth--wrote to Mrs. Hofland, Miss James & Miss Newman--Mr. Philip Crowther called, & Mr. & Mrs. Dickinson--walked with dear Granny & my Molly, & took dear Mr. Haydon's dogs--read Advice to Julia, a so so Poem.
Monday 9th
At home--dear Granny & Drum went to Winchester--I staid at home--walked with the pets--wrote to Miss Nooth.
Tuesday 10th
At home--Drum & Granny at Winchester--heard from Drum & Mr. Haydon--wrote to Drum & Mr. Haydon--walked with the Pets.
Wednesday 11th
At home--Drum & Granny still at Winchester--had a presant of pears from Mr. Dickinson--wrote to Mrs. Dickinson--heard from Miss Emily James & Miss Brooke--the Dickinsons called--wrote to Miss Emily James, Miss Brooke & Granny--read the Edinburgh Review.
Thursday 12th
Friday 13th
Saturday 14th
Sunday 15th
At home--Luce breakfasted & dined with us--went away in the Evening--took a walk with Drum--wrote to Mrs. Monck.
Monday 16th
At home--heard from dear Granny--wrote to dear Granny & Miss James & Mrs. Dickinson & Mrs. Jolliffe--walked with Molly, & read the Simple Story
Tuesday 17th
At home--dear Granny still at Winchester--Drum at the Quarter Sessions--heard from Mrs. Dickinson--wrote to Mrs. Dickinson.
Wednesday 18th
At home--dear Granny still at Winchester--Drum at the Quarter Sessions--read the Old Manor House--heard from Granny.
Thursday 19th
Friday 20th
Heard from dear Granny & Mr. Hazlitt--dear Granny & Drum came home from Winchester--so happy to see them! Wrote to Mr. Haydon & sent a brace of pheasants.
Saturday 21st
At home--dear Granny fell down & hurt her hand--heard from Mrs. Raggett--wrote to Mrs. Raggett--Mrs. Dickinson called with the baby.
Sunday 22nd
Monday 23rd
At home--worked at Miss James's collar & frill--walked with dear Granny--read the Missionary--very romantic.
Tuesday 24th
At home--confined with a very bad cold--expected Mrs. Raggett, who did not come--wrote to Miss Brooke--finished Miss James's butterfly collar--read Waverley.
Wednesday 25th
At home--my cold better--expected Mrs. Raggett, who did not come--heard from Mr. Haydon--worked at Miss James's collar & frill.
Thursday 26th
At home--my cold almost well--expected Mrs. Raggett, who did not come--trimmed my black bonnet--worked at Miss James's collar.
Friday 27th
At home--finished Miss James's frill & collar--my cold got pretty well.
Saturday 28th
At home--Mrs. Raggett came--took me into Reading & to Coley, returned to dine with us, & took me to sleep with her & Miss Hollis at Farley Hill--Mrs. Dickinson went out to Mr. Stephenson's before we came, & did not return till we were in bed, with which Mrs. R. was sorely affronted.
Sunday 29th
At Farley Hill--saw Miss Emily Stevenson & Lady Cecil Percy--was asked to go to their house in the evening--did not go--wrote to Granny--heard from Granny, Miss Brooke & Miss James--read Milton's Sonnets & the last number of the New Monthly Mag:--good--a very pleasant day.
Monday 30th
At Farley Hill--Mr. & Mrs. Shaw Lefevre called--Mrs. S.L. very uncivil to me--Mr. & Mrs. Monck & Mr. & Mrs. Rigby came to dinner--a pleasant day--the Moncks brought me home at night.
Gloss of Names Mentioned
Nature
glow-worm
- species: Lampyris noctiluca
- genus: Lampyris
- family: Lampyridae
A nocturnal beetle found throughout Europe and Asia, a member of the bioluminescent
family of insects commonly called lightning bugs or fireflies. The female forms are wingless, and thus became known as worms. Found in old-growth meadows, verges, hedgerows, and heaths, peaking in June and
July. A favorite subject for poets from at least the early-modern period; in Mitford's
time, a common subject, particularly for sonnets, by authors who include Charlotte
Smith, Anna Maria Porter, William Wordsworth, and John Clare.
pear
- species: Pyrus communis
- genus: Pyrus
- family: Rosaceae
The domestic pear tree is descended from the Eurasian wild pear, imported into Britain
around 995 AD. Mitford refers to the bergamot pear, which is another name for the domestic pear.
hornet
- species: Vespa crabro
- genus: Vespa
- family: Vespidae
Large nesting wasp native to Eurasia and southern England, transported into North
America in the nineteenth century. Also called yellowjackets.
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
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.
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
Poems on Several Occasions by Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, composed at several times
- Author:
- Date:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Mr. Bonviese
- Bonviese Mr.
Forename unknown. Dates unknown.
Mr. Hawley
Betsy Broughton
- Betsy Broughton
Local beauty from Three Mile Cross, engaged to Mr. Hawley through Mrs. Dickinson's matchmaking in 1821.
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)
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .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.
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.
William Hazlitt
- Hazlitt William
- Maidstone, Kent, England
- Soho, London, England
Essayist and critic, acquaintance of Mary Russell Mitford. Author of
Table Talk (1821)
and
The Spirit of the Age (1825). Also authored collections of critical essays such
as
Characters of Shakespeare (1817),
A View of the English Stage (1818), and
English Comic Writers (1819). In a letter of 2 October 1820
, Mary Russell Mitford writes of Hazlitt
to their mutual friend Haydon, He is
the most delightful critic in the [world]-- puts all his taste, his wit, his
deep thinking, his matchless acuteness into his subject, but he does not put
his whole heart & soul into it [. . . ] What charms me most in Mr. Haslitt is the beautiful candour which
he bursts forth sometimes from his own prejudices [ . . . ] I admire him so
ardently that when I begin to talk of him I never know how to stop. I could
talk on for an hour in a see saw of praise and blame as he himself does of
Beaumont & Fletcher & some of his old
[favourites].
John Milton
- John Milton
- Secretary for Foreign Tongues
- Bread Street, Cheapside, London, England
- Bunhill, London, England
English poet and polemical essayist who wrote in support of Parliamentary and Puritan
causes, best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667).
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.
Opie Amelia Alderson
- Norwich, Norfolk, England
- Norwich, Norfolk, England
A prolific novelist from 1790 through 1834, contemporary with Mitford, and an active
abolitionist in Norwich. Friendly with the Godwins, Shelleys, and Elizabeth Inchbald. Married to John Opie, the painter.