Three Mile Cross Sept. -- I don't know What-- In the last--How many days has September?

You delight me, my dear Friend by what you say about the Queen--It is just what I knew you would say--just what I think--only your Toryism takes some thing what of a party view of the question which my Whiggism does not. She is & must be guilty of a fatal want of all modesty all decency all the outworks to Virtue--And what is a woman without them! And what a terrible thing is party Spirit when such a woman is set up as an idol! If she were acquitted a thousand times it would never alter my opinion--& acquitted I hope she will be for the quiet of the nation--A mob in a good humour is a much more peaceable thing than a mob in an ill one--And as you say every body knows what she is--they they talk so grandly about innocence and purity & whatnot!--"Springes to catch woodcocks"--I liked your note to Lady Madelina exceedingly--Ah if she begins to write to you she will quite put my nose out of Joint--My only chance for favour was her going away--but if she begins to write--that charming person--& if she writes only half as delightfully as she talks--it is all over with your poor little Correspondent--She will be thrown aside like an old glove--poor luckless Cast away--not worth stooping for--poor unhappy thing! Won't she?--The only comfort is that my charming rival cannot put her Scotch voice upon paper--that sweet Scotch voice--she cannot write that Can she?--There is my only chance. Ah I see that I am sinking in your good graces already--you accuse me of talking politics--& I avow to you my dear friend that I talk politics less than any body of my acquaintance--never when any one will talk to me of flowers or greyhounds or pictures or books--Never, unless I meet with a person who is utterly ignorant of all better subjects & then when we have done with the weather & the Scotch novels--why there is nothing else to turn to--And then the Scotch novels--you accuse me of over-rating them--when I will be bound to say that there is amongst all the nonsense that I have written to you full twenty sheets of sheer fault-finding & impertinence & sauciness about these same works. And then you accuse me of under-rating Misses Edgeworth & Austen--when amongst the aforementioned bundle of trash might be found at least the same quantity of admiring praises of these worthies. The fact is my dear Sir Wiliam that our taste in novels, particularly these novels, is remarkably similar--I am more headlong & ardent than you, & I have not half of your clearness & soundness of judgment & therefore may be sometimes carried away by my admiration of the beauties to overlook the faults that accompany them--but the parts that I particularly admire are precisely those which you yourself would select as nearest to Common nature--to real existing life--Oldbuck and Edie Ochiltree--Pleydell & Dandie Dinmont--Jenny Dennison Character in Walter Scott's , spelled Denison in the novel.--Jeanie Deans--the Baron of Bradwardine--these are my heroes--these I hold by--& utterly reject & abominate the Meg Merrilies--& Balfours of Burleys--&old Elspeths--& white Spirits of all sorts Now is this not your Creed? Moreover I hold the wit & the admirable delineation of character & of manners in the Mesdemoiselles Edgeworth & Austen to be fifty times more valuable and less imitable than the romantic & historical & poetical parts of the Scotch novels--preferring Miss Austen to Miss Edgeworth inasmuch as she has more heart & never deviates into the slang and vulgarity of high life as Miss Edgeworth sometimes condescends to do--Is not this your Creed also? And will you rank me any longer with your Mr. Marshams?Possibly a reference to Robert Marsham (1708-1797), English naturalist. Gilbert White described Marsham as a painful and accurate naturalist, so it is possible that Mitford here pokes fun at the notion of his painstaking detail. More research is needed to definitely identify the Marsham mentioned here. Source of Gilbert White's comment on Robert Marsham: excerpt from an unpublished letter in (July 1876) 4979 . or such unwise scorners & scoffers your dear faithless Correspondent? Eh?--After all I believe you knew my opinion as well as I did myself & only threw out the reproach which has occasioned this tirade just as one struts up to a Bantam Hen sometimes to have the pleasure of vexingputting the little fool in a pet & making her ruffle up her feathers--If so you deserve to be published by this tedious explanation--Ah you little knew what a shower bath was coming when you pulled the string--or you would have jumped out first--as the gentleman did in a story you once told me--Would not you?--Perhaps I may like Walter Scott better than you did first from having more enthusiasm of that particular sort--& feeling therefore somewhat more strongly the gratitude due to the Author of fine books--Secondly from not having the your variety of resources in conversation & being most thankful to any one who spares one me the trouble of hunting for a subject to talk of to strangers or the stupid. Ah what an inexpressible comfort it is when perched on a sofa next to some pretty bland Miss whom one is expected to entertain to have the power of of breaking the Ice & making her tongue speech flow by the simple question. "Have you read ?" or "Do you like ?" All the world can talk of the Scotch novels & half the world can talk of nothing else.--Before we entirely leave the subject of Novels, Have you read or heard of ? A new novel by Mr. Dallas. Dallas is a bad writer & this can hardly be called a good work, bad the plan, & the character of the heroine very fine indeed. Nothing of this appears in the first Volume which is so dull as almost to have tempted me to throw down the book--but as the character opens one becomes interested--It is founded on the grand sublime, elevating virtue of Repentance & the hero is more exalted by his humility & self-abasement than can be imagined--All the best of the book is very bad--quite below inferior--but this fine conception makes it worth reading. Mr. Dallas is the person to whom Lord Byron gave the profits of the first Canto of --he being ruined I believe by an expensive wife--(indeed I have heard that she will not dine without being serenaded by Musicians, & I cannot help thinking--though there is no visible allusion that in the character though not in the story there is an occasional hint at Lord Byron--At least that the Author means to suggest him & of him--that lost fame and lost virtue & lost happiness may be recovered & redressed. How are you off for Summer in Devonshire? The two last days have brought ours back again--I am writing out of doors in our little Arbour with my attention somewhat distracted by a superb butterfly close by who is fluttering around & around in the sun swinging in the rich blossom of a China Aster--how fond they are of China Asters! So am I--They come when flowers begin to be most precious & rare--I have never had so many before--or so fine--& they are always beautiful with their rich colours like so many patterns for winter gowns--or with the pure delicate white stripes mingled with purple like violets of both hues--And they are so hardy too--they hold up their gay heads & will live and let the weather be what it may--I dearly love China Asters & so do the butterflies. But indeed in this little garden I have had a great crop of flowers of all sorts--Its quite astonishing how little room they will do with, & I like that crowd of bright blossoms mingling the one with the other like flowers in a basket or the mimic qaiety of a carpet I have been getting in my harvest of sweet peas to day.--What stuff I write to you my dear Friend--full of confidence in your kindness--& presuming upon it almost past bearing--But these trifles are my pleasures--a part even of my happiness & why should I not talk about them! Papa has seen Mr. Palmer today, who gives an excellent account of Lady Madelina--perhaps I may see him tomorrow--If I do I will let you know any news I may hear of her--Am I not a generous rival?-- Adieu my dear Friend--Pray write soon. Kindest regards from all here--Ever most affectionately,

M.R. Mitford

Have you seen a ? It is by my friend Mrs. Hofland--Exceedingly well & even elegantly written.

I had half a mind not to let this scrawl go--it is so stupid--but I will send it--you will be entertained with my jealousy--& I love to make you laugh whether with me or at me. Good bye my dear Friend--

Don't you think the Whigs are much to blame to encourage the Queen? Why do they I wonder. Once more Goodbye--

Reading October three--1821 Sir WmElford Bart Bickham Plymouth CFPalmer