Letter to <persName ref="#Webb_Mary_younger">Mary Webb</persName>, <date when="1819-07-05">July 5, 1819</date> Mary Russell Mitford Catherine Cox Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Catherine Cox Lisa M. Wilson Date last checked: 2015-10-19 Proofing and corrections by Lisa M. Wilson First digital edition in TEI, date: 29 May 2015. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: DSCF8963.jpg, DSCF8964.jpg, DSCF8965.jpg, DSCF8966.jpg, DSCF8967.jpg, DSCF8968.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 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Eliza Webb, 1819 July 5.

Single sheet of paper, four surfaces photographed.

Address leaf bears no postmarks.

Paper badly foxed.

Sheet (pages three and four) torn on right edge of page three where wax seal was removed.

Red wax seal, complete, adhered to upper edge of page four.

 Someone, apparently other than Mitford, perhaps cataloging letters and describing them, who left grey pencil marks and numbered her letters now in the Reading Central Library's collection. This letter has [ early 5 July, 1819] written in the top center of the first leaf.

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.
[ early 5 July, 1819] Monday Eveng

My Father is going to Reading tomorrow to take Mama to hear the Bishop of Salisbury preach & hopes to get the Tom Cribfor our own dear Miss Webb In this hope I sit down to thank you all my dear & kind friends for notes past & present--I being just now in debt all round--to thank you all & to beg you to look on this as an answer general. The first thing is pleasing to hear that one dear Friend is not worse--I hope this journey to London will make him much better--relieve his mind & and heal his body--The next thing in this "mingled yarn" A quotation from All's Well that Ends Well: "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together" (Act 4, scene 3).is regret for the lost broach--I still think you will find it. Did I never tell you how Lucy & I found a broach of my Grandmother's with Papa's hair which I had lost for eight months? We found it--guess where--in my empty purse--where for that eight months aforesaid it had been sole inhabitant.--The next thing is to ask if you have heard of Mr. Dickinson's bad accident? He was thrown from his horse on Friday & his left shoulder dislocated. Mr. Jackson as the nearest surgeon was sent for to reduce the dislocation--He & 6 men tugged at him for three hours without success--they then sent for Mr. Markley who very speedily & skilfully accomplished it. Thank God Mrs. Dickinson was away! Papa saw him on Sunday & is in perfect admiration of his patience & philosophyAs in Stoicism.--There is nothing I admire so much as that sort of passive courage--the courage of endurance--the only courage that belongs exclusively to the human animal. That of fighting they share with braver brutes.--

I had a charming letter from Miss James yesterday--She is just now consoling her Mother for the loss of Susy who is gone to reside with a family at the Lakes--gone I mean as a Governess--They send a thousand loves to you all--She wants to see me she says very much--but only think of her impudence!--She does not want me to meet Mr. Maurice because she says "there is is Mitford repeats a word here over the page break.a freebooting spirit about him which I should draw out & cherish to the extinction of graver things." Theres a pretty opinion for you! A fine specimen of partiality truly! I do really believe that she thinks of me as Edie Ochiltree said of himself--that "I should be a very bad example in any well regulated family"--but so it is--I am misused past endurance. Mrs. Rowden forsooth saith that "my wickedness is of a peculiarly dangerous character--it is so catching"--And this Mary Webb is the worst sauce box of all. Oh dear me! What will become of me--with all these wicked wits upon me--and I such a poor harm less civil-spoken person with no soul to take my part!--I assure you Mary dear that I was not home a moment too soon--Mama's first salutation was that she had always given me up--the ride was very pleasant but so cold that we were forced to have a fire to thaw ourselves--quite unheard of on the 5 th of July.--Mama is better--so much better that she talks of going into the Vale next week when Papa goes to the Sessions. I hope you mean to come & see me--Let me know on Saturday when I may look out for my dearest visitors, as well as as how your dear Father continues.--Poor Penelope Valpy is very ill still--the medical men are very much alarmed--Adieu my very dear friends--kindest love to all from all--

Ever most faithfully your's yours M.R. Mitford.
To Miss Webb