Letter to <persName ref="#Russell_M">Mrs. Mitford</persName>, <date when="1819-12-10">1819 December 10</date> Mary Russell Mitford Lisa M. Wilson Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Lisa M. Wilson Proofing and corrections by Molly C. O'Donnell First digital edition in TEI, date: 26 April 2015. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: P1020340.jpg, P1020341.jpg, P1020342.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.392 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Mrs. Mitford, 1819 December 10. Red crayon or thick red pencil. Probably a different hand from Mitford's that marks many of her letters, sometimes drawing diagonal lines across pages, and sometimes writing words overtop and perpendicularly across Mitford's writing. 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 is numbered "22" in the top left of the first leaf, and dated 1819 in the top right.

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.
22 Bertram House December 10th .1819 To Mrs. Mitford the Revd. J. Woodburn Close Winchester

I wonder whether Mr. Woodburn has taken his departure this snowy morning, my own dear Granny! If so he will have a sad journey--Of that however I am not so much afraid as that he will seize the weather as a good excuse.--I hope & trust that you will not think of coming home in the snow out of complaisance to my birthday Mitford's birthday was December 16, six days from the date this letter was begun.--Much as we long to have you back again you must not risk catching cold in the transportation.--I hope you find your cloth gown comfortable & that you have worn my shawl constantly--Have you done a frill? Does it look pretty? You must want something of the sort to wear by this time I think--though I suppose they wash in Winchester though they do not keep netting needles--The only thing about which Lucy is troubled is your nightcap which she says can't be washed because you have no change--I dare say however you borrowed one of Mrs. Woodburn.--I have a letter from Fyshe to day to whom, in enclosing a letter to forward to Sir William last Sunday, I had mentioned your not having received that I sent to you--Fyshe's letter is not particularly civil I think--though perhaps the man only means to be funny & does not know how--It is not every body that can combine playfulness with goodbreeding.--At all events the delay was his as he confesses.--So I shall never trust any Despatch that requires dispatch to his punctuality--He seems to have taken a lesson in writing from his friend Dr. Parr--half his words one is forced to guess at--he literally "writes as ill as a Member of Parliament." Quotation unidentified. Likely proverbial.--I have had a superb present from Mr. John Valpy--a fine thick grand quarto volume--printed upon wire wove paper & hotpressed --the book has but one fault--the small fault of being totally unreadable. It is an English Poem by a German Gentleman called Time or Light & Shade--And seems in all points a very fit companion to a certain work called Cyllenius--I intend to make Mr. Dickinson read it & expect to be exceedingly amused by his strictures--He'll pull it to pieces just as much as if Cyllenius was not made of such stuff--"A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind" From David Garrick's Prologue on Quitting the Stage, June 10, 1776: "Their cause I plead,--plead it in heart and mind;/ A fellow feeling makes one wondrous kind."--may be a true axiom in some cases but not in poetry.--You will be glad to hear that Kate Valpy is better--the Doctor was going to dine at the bookclub which was held at Jacobs--& Jacob pressed Drum very much to dine with them--but Drum is inexpressibly good he had never dined in Reading except the once we dined together at Dr. Valpy's & indeed I think goes in a morning only to get me books. You have no notion how well we get on.--I have got two new numbers of Blackwood.--The rest of the Tent is capital.--Dr. Parr courses there.--& Prince Leopold--they make famous use of the Doctor.--That is famous fun--There certainly is an originality & audacity of impudence about Messrs Lockhart and Wilson, more amusing than anything that can be imagined. I shall keep these two numbers for you to read.--Jacob was so much better that he did not go to Mr. Arnott.--I have a great number of Bobbies coming every day to be fed, which is a great delight poor little lambs I don't know what they would do without my board--unless something in your Sunday's letter--(for you must write Sunday my dear Granny) should require it I shall not write again--Good bye my own dear darling--Kind regards to dear Mrs. Woodburn.

Ever most fondly your own M. R. Mitford

Lucy and Molly desire their duty.