2 Bertram House Jany January 30st1820. To Sir W. Elford

I have just this moment received your most kind & entertaining letter, my dear friend, & I hasten to answer it on the full gallop that I may catch our flying M.P. Mr Fyshe Palmer - who was in Reading yesterday & our (Deuce take that blot--more haste worse speed!) our moveable Member who was in Reading yesterday & therefore will not be there tomorrow. First let me express how unfeignedly sorry I am--we are--for the sickness you have had to encounter at Bickham--I hope this will find your daughter recovering both her strength & her looks--& that your cough will disappear in this mild weather--melt & go off like the snow. Mama & I have kept quite well this unhealthy winter--Papa has not-- he has had a great deal of head ach headache & heavy cold --& as he takes no manner of care of himself--comes down from London at four oclock o'clock in the morning on the outside of a coach--& other tendencies of the same nature (I hope he is looking over my shoulder) can scarcely expect to be free from complaint. Mrs Dickinson is not yet confined & keeps pretty well as to health though a good deal troubled with superstitious forebodings which I do all in my power to drive out of her head by gayer nonsense. Now you have our bulletins all round.What you say of is admirably just and true - Rowena is a mere woman of straw - a peg to hang love upon--as almost all his heroines are--of that horrible old woman I had before made dishonourable mention--& those two scenes of burning & of torture are quite unworthy of so great a Poet--He picked up that love of representing bodily suffering though, where by word syllable by syllable--It is their fault, that they are of Poems the most recherchés--Moreover Madame de Genlis makes out an angel & then says she is just like him! Really these French women are vain of their own vanity! - Do you ever read Miss Burney's novels? I mean the lesser Burney--not Madame D'Arblaybut her sister whom I like better. We are reading one now----pretty enough I think. by millions--a heroine who is so young so wise so good so beautiful & so accomplished that she makes one sick even before she saves her lover's life, an iniquity so Miss-Porterish that I quite wonder at Miss Burney's lighting upon it--the plot too is exceedingly disagreeable & entangled--all in a snarl as the cotton-spinners say, & mighty difficult to undo. But nevertheless the book is pretty--there is some good observation in it--& a sarcastic old lady whom I like exceedingly--to say nothing of a most amiable old maid - Well I think I have talked enough of novels--Did you ever read a little book which has been lately reprinted ? It is charming--If one did not know it to be nothing but a real true history told by the very man to whom it happened one should take it for one of the enchanting fictions of Defoe--Nothing but was ever so vividly real I thought I had done with books--but I find I have not --Ben Jonson's is a fragment of a Pastoral Drama said to have been left unfinished in consequence of the ill success of his friend Fletcher's exquisite --only two acts & a scene remain, but they are enchanting-- not in old Ben's common Dramatic style, so stiff & artificial--but in the sweet & tender manner of some of his beautiful lyrics--If finished it would have been one of the finest things in the language--the story relates to-- is quite another matter--you know that it is the oldest English play--& really it is one of the most diverting--coarse enough to be true but exceedingly fresh & frolicsome & funny & not at all unintelligible--Miss James who is by far one of the most elegant person of my acquaintance says she likes it better than any comedy in the language--one of the characters in it always put me in mind of Edie Ochiltree--not in his supernatural capacity-- which you dislike so much--but in his better vocation of a merry old beggar--that after all is my favourite of the whole set of Scotch novels--it is written with more verve--is more a pure exertion of Intellect--seems to be the favorite of the Author.--& above all is the least popular among the novel reading young Misses whose praise is not fame. There are more faults than in any including Old Elspeth & all the ford story--as well as that incredible Dousterwivel--& still it is my favorite--Tell me is it your's?

you are very good to the Bishop of Salisbury to assign his "distractions" as a reason for this thefts--or an excuse--but did you never observe that your absent people sometimes make very good use of their absences? I had a friend--an old Portuguese Countess who came here when the rest of the her tribe went to the Brazils--she could not bear to be beaten at Chess--& being like the Bishop very absent, always when she saw the game going against her used to stare about a little--sweep the men off the board and get up with a "Finisons!--J'ai de distractions!" I never knew her to have "distraction" when she was winning in my life--And some such useful fit of absence seized the Right Revd. when he forgot to return poor Mr. Dickinson's and Rembrandts--How you love to laugh at my pedantry!--Well I do think the elements are in me & that if I knew any thing at all I really should be a Pedant But I was full of those fine etchings when I talked wrote to you & could not help talking of them--Weinotter's are chiefly little tiny landscapes on slips of paper--abundantly sweet & delicate & graceful--& Mr. Dickinson says rare.

I have just heard that the King is dead--Poor venerable old Man!--It is fortunate for you that my paper is nearly filled & the servant waiting to take my letter into Reading or I should have vented to you, my ever kindest & most indulgent friend, some of that fullness of thought & feeling which such an event forces into every mind!

Adieu! Pray write soon--& give us a good account of you all--My Father and Mother join in kindest compliments, & I am always, my dear Sir William

Most sincerely & affectionately your's yours M.R. Mitford.

Pray forgive my blobs and blunders

Feby 2nd --Have you read ? I have just finished them--a delightful chitchat book after the manner of Boswell Pope being the hero. I never saw Pope to such advantage--nor Bolingbroke--Addison cuts a very shabby figure indeed--How very out-of-fashion the critical remarks seem now! a list of English Prose writers & neither Jeremy Taylor nor Isaac Walton, nor Sir Thomas Brown so much as hinted at!--Observations on English Poets & Lord Dorset & Rochester & the two Dukes of Buckingham examined & sifted & talked about as if they were worth finding fault with!--What a famous text book this of Spence's will be for one of Mr. Dickinson's long lectures! How he will glory in these opinions positive & negative these omissions & commisions commissions ! How he will buffet me with Mr. Spence & knock me down with Mr. Pope! Excellent sport for him!--& no very bad fun for me.--no baby there yet.--I wonder very much when I shall get a frank--If I don't get one soon my letter will be too heavy--Do you know this calamity did actually befell me once with Miss James--I waited for a cover, & wrote on & on,--till I filled four sheets and was forced to send them by the Coach. Good bye my dear Friend. I have at last pulled the wax off to lighten my packet--for the half dozenth time Adieu dear Friend.