Letter to <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir William Elford</persName>, <date when="1821-03-22">22 March 1821</date> Mary Russell Mitford Lisa M. Wilson Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Lisa M. Wilson Proofing and corrections by Elisa Beshero-Bondar Molly C. O'Donnell First digital edition in TEI, date: 10 June 2014. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: 22March1821SirWilliamElford4b#.jpg, 22March1821SirWilliamElford4a#.jpg, 22March1821SirWilliamElford3b#.jpg, 22March1821SirWilliamElford3a#.jpg, 22March1821SirWilliamElford2b#.jpg, 22March1821SirWilliamElford2a#.jpg, 22March1821SirWilliamElford1b#.jpg, 22March1821SirWilliamElford1a#.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. 433 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford, 22 March 1821.

One sheet of folio paper folded in half to form four surfaces which are photographed. Letter text is on pages 1, 2, 3, and 4, with the address on page 4, and writing on page 4 continued again vertically at the top of page 1.

Address leaf bearing black postmark, partially illegible, reading READING M 22 1821 .

The entire address has penned slashes across it, as well as an 11 or 1, a possible fee, written next to where the red seal would have been when the letter was sealed.

Page 3 is torn on right edge where wax seal was removed.

Red wax seal.

 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. On this letter, a red line is drawn from the top left diagonally to the bottom right of pages 1-3, across the text in the same way on page 4, and again on page 1 horizontally across the top of the page. Someone, apparently other than Mitford, perhaps cataloging letters and describing them left grey pencil marks. This letter is dated March 1821 on the address.

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.
Three Mile Cross March 22. 1821.

Oh, my dear Sir William, I don't suppose I shall ever have the comfort & amusement of writing a long letter again! "First recover that, & than thou shalt hear 'farther.'" Mitford quotes from The Revenge by Edward Young (I.i.24-25. Zanoa: "To strike thee with astonishment at once,/I hate Alonzo. First recover that,/And then thou shalt hear farther." I am so busy. Since I came back from London I have written a Tragedy on the subject of Fiesco the Genoese Nobleman who conspired against Doria--the story is beautifully told in Robertson's Charles the Fifth--This Tragedy is now in Mr. Macready's hands--I suppose I shall hear in a day or two that its rejected--& the moment I hear that I shall fall to ding dong & write another. For I have an inward consciousness that any little talent I may have is altogether dramatic and having placed before my eyes the example of Mr. Tobin whose Honeymoon was produced after eleven other Plays of his composing had been rejected (I don't mean to follow his example in dying though before my successful Play is brought out) I am determined to persevere & to write a good Tragedy at last even if I previously write eleven bad ones. This I am resolved on. In the mean time I am writing for the magazines--Poetry criticism & Dramatic Sketches--I work as hard as a lawyer's clerk & besides the natural loathing of pen & ink which that sort of drudgery cannot fail to inspire I have really at present scarcely a moment to spare even to the violets and primroses. You would laugh if you saw me puzzling over my prose--You have no notion how much difficulty I find in writing any thing at all readable. One cause of this is my having been so egregious a letter writer--I have accustomed myself to a certain careless sauciness, a fluent incorrectness which passed very well with indulgent Friends such as yourself, my dear Sir William but will not do at all for that tremendous Correspondent the Public--so I ponder over every phrase--disjoint every sentence & finally produce such lumps of awkwardness I really expect instead of paying me for them Mr. Colburn & Mr. Baldwin will send me back the trash. But I will improve. This is another resolution which is as fixed as fate.--Well--I am now going to make a strange request--Will you my dear Friend have the goodness to lend me those letters of mine which you have taken the trouble to keep. I am not going to publish them--of that you may be sure. But without partaking of your kind delusion as to their merits I am aware that there are in them occasional passages & expressions which being written in the first freshness of feeling & with perfect ease & unrestraint are more effervescent & sparkling as well as more just than any thing I am likely to write now with the fear of the Public before my eyes. For instance I want to write an essay on Miss Austen's novels, which are by no means valued as they deserve--indeed are never mentioned or thought of amongst good writers--& I am sure I should find better materials in my letters to you written just after I read them than I should be able to compound from my own recollection. Of course I am not going to print them in the form of letters or to have any allusion to names or persons. All that I intend is to select any happy expressions (if I chance to find any)--or any vivid descriptions-- to steal from myself, as it were; & if you my dear Sir William, will condescend to be an accessory before the fact in this petty larceny, I shall be most obliged to you. You can bring the letters with you, for I shall depend on seeing you in our smoky den though I am rather ashamed of its dirt & dinginess--(I mean to send Mama off to Winchester, (She can't bear paint,) & to have it whitened & tidied up this summer)--but you must let us have a sight of you, for my going to Town is very uncertain--It depends on my Play, & I have no hopes of its being accepted--& when I give myself a few days holidays it will probably be later in the year, & my head quarters will be Richmond Twickenham Kew--I have many friends in those parts--to say nothing of Miss James--so you must come, just to satisfy yourself that I am fatter & rosier than ever in spite of my quill driving, & as gay as a lark my tragedies notwithstanding.--What you say about Kenilworth & about Curiosity is very just & true--but if the catastrophe were offered a thousand times over it would not alter the powerful impression made on my mind by such a dissection of the wicked human heart.--Have you read Mr. Nicholl's Recollections of the Reign of George the Third (I am not sure that this is the title) It seems to me the most extraordinary instance of fairness & impartiality in an old party man that I ever met with & is amusing to boot. To be sure if a man of 76 & stone blind, be not impartial one does not know where to look for that rare quality. Of course you won't disagree with him in many points--so do I--but the general rightmindedness is astonishing.--Mr. Haydon & his bright eyes are at Glasgow--His money was very ill--dying--So he was forced to set off at a day's warning to take care of his concerns there--leaving the Resurrection of Lazarus to take care of itself. He has painted down to the arms in the figure of Christ in that picture--which is a great improvement in industry & dispatch.--What a terrible affair this duel is! What a pity that poor John Scott did not at once fight Mr. Lockhart. Horace Smith for his second, or which would have been better still will say simply that he would not fight at all in a literary quarrel. He is now the Victim of his own contemptible second--a man who--a pawnbroker on Ludgate Hill & a dandy in St. James's Street--& who egged on his unhappy friend to gratify his own trumpery desire of notoriety. I hope he will be severely dealt with.--Thinking of hanging--we are all talking here of a neighbour of ours a rich farmer's widow who seems likely enough to be in that predicament. She has set fire to her premises to cheat the Insurance office--but if she has sense enough to plead lunacy I think she may escape. I must tell you one story of her. Her husband died about three months ago & desired to be buried at Chippenham--his native place. The disconsolate Widow mourned over the expence expense of a Herse hearse thought it would be much cheaper to send the body by the stage & set off to Reading to negociate negotiate for the carriage of the Corpse. "Carry a coffin on the outside of the Coach Ma'am! Its impossible." quoth the astonished Coachman. "Well never mind the Coffin" continued this persevering Economist "Can I pack him up some other way?" The owner of our old place is turning it alltopsy turvy--he has filled up the water & is going to cut down the firs --besides unheard of vagaries in the House--without he is spending two or three thousand pounds in spoiling the place, & if ever he should be tried for his life I will give him as good a character for being mad--as I would to the lady aforesaid. I must tell you a story of him. He is a soft youth of good fortune & no education, & being in love with a young woman, a clergyman's daughter contrived in pure mistake (it must have been mistake for they had neither of them any fortune) to marry her Aunt. Last summer the Aunt died, & he out of gratitude I suppose for the release had a sort of royal funeral which cost eight or nine hundred pounds--the defunct lying in state, in much such a cottage as this--& with no mortal to see her but himself & the Maid. He is now going to marry his first love the Niece--you know a similar accident befel Lord Portsmouth--who after he had been married two months to his present wife found out that he had intended to marry her sister.

To Sir William Elford Bart Bickham Plymouth single
Mary Anne Hanson Portsmouth Lady Portsmouth Countess of Portsmouth Mary Ann Hanson was the daughter of solicitor John Hanson. She was the second wife of John Charles Walopp, 3rd Earl of Portsmouth, until their marriage was annulled in 1823 on the grounds of the Earl's insanity. John Hanson. John Hanson was solicitor for Byron as well as solicitor and trustee for John Charles Walopp, 3rd Earl of Portsmouth. In 1814 his daughter Mary Anne married Lord Portsmouth; the marriage was later annulled. John Charles Walopp Portsmouth 3rd Earl of Portsmouth Lord Portsmouth Viscount Lymington Legally declared insane since 1809 in a well-publicized series of court hearings in 1823. After this case, his second marriage to Mary Anne Hanson, the daughter of his solicitor and trustee, was annulled. They married on 7 March 1814. Edward Young literary
Ludgate Hill St. James's Street
The Revenge Edward Young
violet One of Mitford's favorite flowers, blooms in spring in Berkshire primrose One of Mitford's favorite flowers, blooms in spring in Berkshire fir One of Mitford's favorite trees.