Letter to <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir William Elford</persName>, <date when="1819-01-12">January 12, 1819</date> Mary Russell Mitford Lisa M. Wilson Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Lisa M. Wilson Heather Long Date last checked: 2015-10-12 Proofing and corrections by Molly C.O'Donnell First digital edition in TEI, date: 16 October 2014. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: IMG_0212.jpg, IMG_0213.jpg, IMG_0214.jpg, IMG_0215.jpg, IMG_0216.jpg, IMG_0217.jpg, IMG_0218.jpg Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2013

Reproduced by courtesy of the Reading Central Library.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Reading Central Library The letters of Mary Russell Mitford, vol. 4, 1819-1823 qB/TU/MIT Vol. 4 Horizon No.: 1361550 ff.359 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford, 1819 January 12.

One sheet of folio paper, four surfaces photographed.

No address leaf.

No seal.

 Red crayon or thick red pencil. Probably a different hand from Mitford's that marks many of her letters, sometimes drawing vertical and diagonal lines across pages. On this letter, a red line is drawn from top left to bottom right of pages 2-4 and vertically on page 1. Someone, apparently other than Mitford, perhaps cataloging letters and describing them left grey pencil marks and numbered her letters now in the Reading Central Library's collection. This letter is numbered "2" in the top left of the first leaf, underneath the opening line, "To Sir W. Elford." As well as two notes marked with X's at the letter's end stating that the end of the letter is missing.

Mitford’s spelling and punctuation are retained, except where a word is split at the end of a line and the beginning of the next in the manuscript. Where Mitford’s spelling and hyphenation of words deviates from the standard, in order to facilitate searching we are using the TEI elements “choice," “sic," and “reg" to encode both Mitford’s spelling and the regular international standard of Oxford English spelling, following the first listed spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. The long s and ligatured forms are not encoded.
Bertram House Jany12th 1819. My dear Sir

I avail myself of the influx of Members occasioned by the Quarter Sessions to thank you for all the kindness of your very feeling letter, & to express once again the strong interest we all take in your welfare. All I trust has gone well with you the last month--& most of all I hope both your strength & your eyes have continued to improve. Firm health & strong sight are indeed almost all that your friends need to ask for you. Such Genius so directed must force its way to fame & fortune.

Your kindness will I know be gratified in hearing that things are looking better with us. A great point has been gained before the Master of the Rolls Thomas Plumer was Master of the Rolls from 6 January 1818 to 5 April 1824. The full title of the position was "Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England," and, as Mitford's letter suggests, in this period his role was judicial as well as clerical. & though there is no great chance of a Chancery Suit's making haste, we have the comfort of knowing that there is little doubt of our ultimate success within no very unreasonable period. My poor Uncle too is likely soon to be released. It seems as if the magic of your good wishes had had a favorable influence on our destiny, for the Decision of the Master of the Rolls arrived the very day after your kind & inspiriting letter. I cannot sufficiently thank you for your cheering caution against mental depression. My dear Sir it was needless. Amongst the many blessings I enjoy--my Dear Father, my admirable Mother--my tried & excellent friends, there is nothing for which I ought to thank God so earnestly as for the constitutional buoyancy of spirits--the aptness to hope--the will to be happy, which I inherit from my Father.--Yes I agree with you in all you say--I am grateful to misfortune for having shown me how much goodness & kindness exists in the world. They who have been always prosperous may be misanthropes. They cannot know a tenth part of the excellence of their fellow creatures.

If you should again travel Westward this winter I hope you will continue to give us the pleasure of a visit. You will forgive the deficiencies of this large & dilapidated mansion in favor of the smiling faces & the joyful hearts that will press forward to receive you--There is no one in the whole world whom we should esteem it such an honour to see. My Father will perhaps have the pleasure of calling on you before long--at least I think it probable that he may be in Town soon on his Chancery business & I am sure that he will not be there without waiting on you--May I be forgiven for writing to you--I believe the caution is needless--but it is better to tell you that Papa does not know the full extent of the communication I made to you in my last. He told me to tell the truth--but he is not aware of the perfect unreserve--the entire detail into which I entered. There is no man in the universe to whom he would sooner have confided any secret than yourself--but in pecuniary affairs he has a sensitiveness which I can respect though I do not participate. It is the only fault of a proud & liberal mind--a fault that I am sure you will pardon. In telling you this my Dear Sir I make an avowal which touches me far more nearly than any confession of poverty--but I make it from an impulse that I am sure not to repent--& even in consequence of your delicacy, your frank & friendly kindness might lead to some betrayal of the extent of your information. You are yourself so lifted above false pride & false shame that I may be pardoned for suspecting you of forgetting that all the world is not equally generous x xThe end conclusion of this letter is missing.