Letter to <persName ref="#Haydon">B.R. Haydon</persName>, 1820 September 1 Mary Russell Mitford Elizabeth Raisanen Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Elizabeth Raisanen Date last checked: . Proofing and corrections by: First digital edition in TEI, date: 12 October 2015. P5. The Digital Mitford Photo files:1Sept1820BRHaydon1#.JPG, 1Sept1820BRHaydon2#.JPG, 1Sept1820BRHaydon3#.JPG, 1Sept1820BRHaydon4#.JPG, 1Sept1820BRHaydon5#.JPG, 1Sept1820BRHaydon6#.JPG Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2015

Reproduced by courtesy of the The Reading Central Library.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive The Reading Central Library qB/TU/MIT Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to B.R. Haydon, 1820 September 1.

One quarto sheet of paper folded in half to form two octavo pages, which comprise pages 1-4 of the letter. The fifth page bears the end of the letter one side, and (after being folded into four panels) exposes the address on the other side.

Address leaf bearing the following postmarks: 1) black elliptical Receiving House stamp Reading 2) Sepia-colored oval stamp that is split in two, appearing at opposite ends of the address leaf page (the seal was divided after the letter was opened). The top half of the stamp reads as follows: 10 o' Cl The bottom half of the stamp is nearly illegible:

Red wax seal.

 Someone, apparently other than Mitford (perhaps cataloging the letters and describing them, or marking them up while creating an earlier edition of Mtiford's letters), left grey pencil marks and numbered her letters now in the Reading Central Library's collection. This letter is numbered "15" in the top left of the first leaf, underneath the opening line, "To B. R. Haydon Esqr." In what appears to be the same hand and the same pencil, the year "1820" appears faintly at the bottom of the fifth page of the letter. The same color pencil also appears as a vertical line in the lower-right margin of page 3 of the letter, and continues as a vertical line in the left margin of page 4 that runs from the top to the bottom of the page. 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 wo rds overtop and perpendicularly across Mitford's writing. On this letter, a red diagonal line is drawn from the top left to the bottom right of pages 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the manuscript. On the first page of the letter, there is a faint red line that is somewhat closer to vertical than diagonal drawn from the middle-right of the page down and to the left to the bottom of the page.

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.
To B.R. Haydon Esqr 15 Three Mile Cross Septr 1st 1820. My dear Sir

You are a thousand times too kind in sending Ms. Webb another puppy--I had not heard of it till I got your letter, not having been at Wokingham myself since I met my Father there on his return from London, & having unluckily been out when Miss Webb called on me last week. But I am sure our good friend will feel your kindness as gratefully as we do. The poor little puppy was certainly dead--Papa saw it quite stiff in the bottom of the basket having waited himself the coming in of the coach. It often happens--they are very delicate & bear travelling worse than any thing. I had half a mind not to tell you, for I was sure you would be sorry--& I am afraid I wrote with great impatience for I wrote in such a hurry & the friend who was to take the hose standing by me hat in hand & looking as if he thought every instant an hour. Pray forgive me if I seemed abrupt or ungrateful--you must know I could not mean it. Our little lady is a perfect beauty--she is gone out to keep at a farmhouse--Do not forget to pick out a pretty name for her--She must be of your naming--& shall always be yours whenever you want her I have no doubt of her being capital.--My dear Mr. Haydon your letter went to my very heart--It does one harm to think of those cold proud selfish Patrons--as they call themselves--It lessens one's faith in human nature. But the Picture will tell--it must--The same heartless vanity which prevents their co-operating in your liberal &delicate & unostentatious plan, will induce one of them to possess himself of their glorious work of art--I am persuaded of this. But it is heart-breaking to think that you in the meantime should be exposed to these petty cares, & harassed by doubt & vexation--you who ought to be lifted above all wordly care & to live amongst the delightful creations of your own genious. The only consolation is your elastic & buoyant spirit, which will bear you through all these trials to the prosperity you so well deserve. Fame you have already--a better & a purer fame than any living man--& competence will follow--I am sure of it--Riches you do not want--with such reputation they are not wanted. In the meantime, my dear Sir, be careful of your invaluable health--& your eyes, your poor eyes as you call them--to what complaint are they liable? Who that looked at them could fancy them subject to any!--Never apologise apologize to me for talking of yourself. It is a compliment of the highest kind--It tells me that you confide in my sympathy. Be assured you may--except my own dear family & Dear Miss James there is no one whom I regard with such admiring & respectful interest or of whose kindness I am half so proud.

So you are not a Queen's Man! How glad I am to hear it! You have no notion of the height to which this Queen fever has risen here. I am shocked & disquieted at its terrible effect on conversation. Why should people talk of such a subject? Why should they contaminate their minds by looking for an instant at such trash to settle whether a woman, whom all the world allows to be immodest, be more or less bad? There are no degrees of comparison in her chastity in my opinion--but all the ladies here (always excepting my own dear Mother) call me prudish old maidish I much amiable & read & talk on. Besides being jealous of the hitherto unstained purity of the English female character, I have another cause of grievance in the abominable role which my friends the Reformers have made of this bad woman. To rally the good cause by such an Ally! As to the Reading address, am not at all astonished--Reading is in a perpetual state of effervescence--a bottle of ginger beer in hot weather--bouncing & frothy & flying in every body's face--but that Sir Francis Burdett & Mr. Hobhouse should lend themselves to such mischievous wickedness is really astounding.--Yes Shakespeare knew the Mob most thoroughly--Is it not the most astonishing of all his astonishing qualities that with so deep an insight into the weakness & the wickedness of human nature he should yet have regarded it with so intense & indulgent a love? There is some soul of goodness in things evil Here, Mitford quotes a line from King Henry's opening monologue in Act IV, scene i of Shakespeare's Henry V.might be his motto.

I am engaged in a job just now compared to which the water-pitcherings of the Danaides were hopeful. I am persuading Papa to be good & take care of himself & keep quiet & go to the sea & get well. I might as well talk to the wind. He has an unpleasant infection on his legs--I think erysipelas Erysipelas is a bacterial infection. Symptoms include fever and raised red patches on the skin.though he will not allow it--for which all our medical friends advise the warm sea bath--& he could go to Southhampton in a day--leave Mama at Winchester where she has an engagement, & I would stay & keep house here & he might come back to me in a fortnight fresh & well--& he will not go. Is not this very naughty? How he stays--walking ten miles a day & getting to every house . I wonder what he would say if I were to behave so!---He desires his best & kindest remembrances to you nevertheless--& so does Mama--I am so glad that the coursing season approaches--so are they.

God bless you, my dear Mr. Haydon--

Ever most sincerely your's M. R. Mitford.
B. R. Haydon Esqre 22Lisson Grove Regents Park J. B. Monck London

How is Mr. Keats? Is he gone to Lisbon yet? I have not been able to procure his Poems . Perhaps when you come you will have the goodness to bring your copy with you.--Goodbye once more.
Southhampton Wokingham A town in southeastern England that is approximately 7 miles southeast of Reading. According to Vera Watson, Mitford drove Miss James into Wokingham sometime between 1812 and 1819 (119), and on 27 June 1820, Mitford and her father traveled to London by way of Wokingham (136). Lisbon The capital city of Portugal.
John Cam Hobhouse John Cam Hobhouse Redland Berkeley Square, London politician A friend and traveling companion of Lord Byron who contributed notes to the fourth canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, John Cam Hobhouse was elected to the House of Commons in 1820 as a member of the Whig party. In 1851, he became the First Baron Broughton.
Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, published in July 1820, was the last volume of Keats' poems to appear in print during his lifetime. Keats died from tuberculosis a little over half a year later, in February 1821.
Danaides According to Greek mythology, the Danaides were the daughters of Danaus who killed their husbands. As punishment, they were tasked with filling a tub with water using ewers with holes in them.