Letter to <persName ref="#Webb_Mary_younger">Mary Webb</persName>, <date when="1819-12">December 1819.</date> Mary Russell Mitford Molly C. O'Donnell Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Molly C. O'Donnell Date last checked: 2015-10-19 Lisa Wilson First digital edition in TEI, date: . P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: DSCF9122.jpg, DSCF9123.jpg, DSCF9124.jpg, DSCF9125.jpg, DSCF9126.jpg, DSCF9127.jpg, DSCF9128.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 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Mary Webb, Deccember 1819.

Single sheet of paper folded in half to form four quarto leaves, with correspondence on 1-3 and address leaf on page 4, then folded in thirds and sealed for posting.

Address leaf bearing no visible postmark, and torn on edge where seal was removed.

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

Remants of black wax seal visible around torn area.

 Someone cataloging the letters wrote the date "[winter, 1819/20]" in under Mitford's "Monday Evening," at the top right of page 1.>

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.
Molly O'Donnell The Life of Mary Russell Mitford Related in a Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends, Second and Revised edition, 3 vols., Ed. Alfred Guy Kingan L’Estrange. London: Richard Bentley, 1870.
Wokingham Monday Evening [winter, 1819/20]

I cannot suffer an opportunity of sending you my dearest Mary a note postfree to escape without thanking you a thousand & a thousand times for your dear & kind letter. I have given Miss Eliza a good sound scolding for making you pay for that first letter of mine--& I shall never feel myself conscience cleared till you have written me a double letter & send it by post from Wokingham.--I am delighted to find that we shall get you back so soon (here is Miss Eliza a dishonourable jade peeping over my shoulder--so we must take care of ourselves when we have to do with such a peeper who breaks seals like a government spy)--She is gone now to spy a letter of Papa's so whilst she is prying into his secrets you & I may talk of ours. So find out if you can who is the fair object of John's attachment--I dare say whenever he does marry it will be in some strange sudden way to some pretty, unownable object.--

You are very kind in all that you say of our change of residence.Mitford here refers to the family's departure from Bertram House. I cannot even grasp where it will be--I have only one place to which I object, & that is Reading--only two for which I very ardently wish--London or the . Neither of these will probably be the place--but wherever we go I sh all hope to see more much more of you than ever I have done--I dare say we shall be in this neighborhood--& for this Spring at least I have no doubt of our going primrosing together. To "make haste slowly" according to the Horatian precept is the usual practice of Chan cery lawyers. I dare say sha ll not be off till May.

Adieu my very dear friend. Pray forgive this unconnected letter--It has been written in all the delightful confusion of courting talk--Kindest love to your Fireside--

Ever most faithfully yours M. R. Mitford. M. R. Mitford.
To Miss Webb