Letter to <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir William Elford</persName>, <date when="1822-03-02">March 2, 1822</date> Mary Russell Mitford Elizabeth Raisanen Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Joshua Mostales Date last checked: 2018-02-018 Proofing and corrections by Elizabeth Raisanen First digital edition in TEI, date: August 8, 2017. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files:2March1822SirWilliamElford1a.JPG, 2March1822SirWilliamElford1b.JPG, 2March1822SirWilliamElford2a.JPG, 2March1822SirWilliamElford2b.JPG, 2March1822SirWilliamElford3a.JPG, 2March1822SirWilliamElford3b.JPG, 2March1822SirWilliamElford4a.JPG, 2March1822SirWilliamElford4b.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. 448 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford 1822 March 02

Folio sheet of paper folded in half to form four quarto pages, with correspondence on pages 1-3 and address leaf on page 4, then folded in thirds twice more and sealed for posting

Address leaf bearing black postmark, mostly illegible, reading RE942

A portion of page 3 has been torn away under the seal.

The address leaf (page 4) is degraded at the folded corners, possibly due to bleaching.

Red wax seal, complete, and adhered to page four.

 Someone, apparently other than Mitford, who occasionally left notes in a spidery thin hand to explain or document details in Mitford's letters in the margins of her pages, made notes in the manuscripts held at Reading Central Library. This may be William Harness or A. G. L'Estrange. This annotator inserts a footnote on the bottom of the first page indicating that a certain half sheet is found at the end of the letter. Someone, apparently other than Mitford (perhaps cataloging letters and describing them, or marking the up while creating an earlier edition of Mitford's letters), left grey pencil marks and numbered her letters now in the Reading Central Library's collection. This letter is numbered "40" in the top left of the first leaf, above which is noted the addressee of the letter, "To Sir W. Elford." 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. A red line is drawn from top left to bottom right of each of the first three leaves of this letter. There is no red crayon across the address leaf on the fourth 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 Sir W. Elford 40 Three Mile Cross March 2nd1822.

In all the variety of letters & modes of letters which, we have at different times sent to one another, pray did we ever try that fine classical thing a fragment? If not I have the pleasure of beginning the practice with the enclosed half page sheet After the inserted word "sheet," there is an X (as described in one of the handNotes in the TEI header) that has been inserted by a later annotator that points to a footnote at the bottom of the first page of the letter. This inserted footnote reads as follows: "This half sheet is printed at the end of the letter."--without an end--& beginning most Pindarically in the middle of a subject--"Ruin seize thee ruthless King" Mitford quotes from The Bard. A Pindaric Ode by Thomas Gray (I.1.1-4. Bard: "'Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!/Confusion on thy banners wait,/Though fanned by Conquest's crimson wing/They mock the air with idle state.'") is not a finer instance of abruptness.--The truth is, my dear friend, that about a week ago, I began a letter to ask you a question respecting a person whom I thought it possible you might know--but getting the information I wished from another quarter, the first page & a half of my letter became useless--& being as you know a great economist of time & paper I tore off the un-business part of the epistle & shall enclose what remains. I was talking I believe of Mr. Milman's new Poem The Martyr of Antioch--I know that you don't read much of things printed in uneven lines--& I fancy that nine tenths of Mr. Milman's readers care as little for poetry as you do--only that very few have the honesty to say so--They read him for fashion--for the honour & glory of reading a poem--& the soberer credit of reading a good book-- Its It's a sort of union of Sermon & romance--a Sunday evening amusement, which Mamas tolerate & Papas smile upon--so the book sells--And it ought to sell for it is full of splendid passages--with only one faux pas--all the Heathen persons odes & descriptions are worth a million of the Christian hymns & people--indeed Mr. Milman has a fine sense of classical beauty--he would make a glorious thing of some old Grecian story--but then that would never make him a Dean or a Bishop--Now you will not be very violently at a loss for a connexion connection with the fragment--which I have made still more of a subject for the Antiquarian Society (do you belong to that learned body?) by tearing off with my usual mal-adresse maladresse the beginnings & endings of some of the lines--Never mind you like riddles.

By the bye coming back to our eternal theme the Author of Waverley --I heard a day or two back from the young American Traveller of whom I have I think elsewhere made honorable mention Mitford appears to have met an American with whom she corresponded, possibly Nathaniel Parker Willis. that Captain Scott is much respected by those much with him in Canada (our Traveller aforesaid had the honour to be introduced to him) of having at least some share in the novels Thomas Scott was rumored to have been the author of Waverley, or at least a major contributor to the Waverley Novels. Many of Scott's novels subsequent to Waverley were simply ascribed to "the Author of Waverley".--he is certainly eternally writing--& if that be not the subject no one can guess what is.

To come back to a less distant Traveller (really I have done injustice to my own excellence in the art of transition--the Scott question being in itself a sort of conundrum would have hitched into the Milman & Antiquarian subject with no bigger a link than the little word Enigma--& Traveller would have served equally for Him of America & Her of Exmouth Here, Mitford refers to the "American Traveller" (possibly Nathaniel Parker Willis) and the "less distant Traveller" (Mrs. Dickinson), respectively. She compares their geographical distance to the disparity of her topics mentioned above.--there was not the slightest occasion for a mark of jerkification inasmuch as there was no jerk) Mrs. Dickenson Dickinson is come back from the West--quite delighted with Devonshire scenery Devonshire manners, & Devonshire people. We shall never get her to like Berkshire again. She spent her time very gaily & very happily at Exmouth & they have laid in a stock of health, she & her little girl, which will last them a twelvemonth--Mr. D. is still indifferent--they are talking of going to London for advice (N.B. when it is got he won't take it--I am sure of that)--Perhaps they are already gone--for they set off with a whole family with little more preparation than a bird makes when it takes flight from a tree--The Albatross whose wing has five joints to put in motion before it can get under way (vide the London Magazine for this month)An article titled "Narrative of a Voyage to New South Wales" in the March 1822 issue of The London Magazine recounts a sea voyage to Australia that the author of the piece (B.F.) undertook between August 1816 and February 1817. What was particularly notable about the voyage was the large number of albatrosses observed by the author, including one in particular that followed the ship from Rio de Janeiro onward. The author of the piece notes that the albatross "had possessed a great interest in my mind, from the conspicious part it plays in Mr. Coleridge's wonderful ballad of the 'Ancient Marinere' (223). The full text of the article can be found here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019351223;view=1up;seq=277. is much longer in taking flight than M rs. Dickinson. Pray are you going to Town this season? If you think of such a thing don't forget that we are only three miles from Reading & that we shall be delighted to see you in our hut. There is some chance that I might be able to shew show you Miss James--for I think she will come to Dr. Valpy's at Easter--& when she comes for the form of the thing to D. Valpy's she spends most of her time here. I think I love her better than I used to do when you used to laugh at me about her--we have ha d a quarrel--in which I scolded & she sulked--& as her only fault before was being faultless the discovery of this little imperfection has only made her the more charming--besides we are more upon an equality--she knew plenty of my little imperfections before--for my faults I thank them poor things lie visibly enough upon the surface--you may run & read --whilst her one sin lay buried like a tulip root at Christmas. I should like you to know her.

Was not I very poorly when I wrote to you last? Yes. I am quite well again--& quite ready for a letter from you as soon as ever you may condescend to write one--This is my second remember. Pray write soon & long. God bless you my dear friend--Kindest regards from Papa & Mama--.

Ever most faithfully your's yours M.R. Mitford.
Reading March Four--1822 Sir W. Elford--Bart Bickham C F Palmer Plymouth
The Bard. A Pindaric Ode Thomas Gray London Strawberry Hill 1757 Gray's poem, published by Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill press, gives voice to a Welsh bard who, upon the conquest of Wales by Edward I, commits suicide by leaping from the top of Mount Snowdon rather than allowing himself to be murdered along with his fellow Welsh poets. The Martyr of Antioch: A Dramatic Poem. Henry Hart Milman London John Murray 1822 Milman's poem, written as a blank-verse drama, is a fictionalized account of the life and death of Saint Margaret of Antioch. Milman's The Martyr of Antioch served as the source material for W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's 1880 oratorio of the same name. Society of Antiquaries of London Founded in 1707 and receiving a royal charter in 1751, the Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned body of scholars whose aim is to advance the study of antiquities and history. The Society held meetings at Somerset House from 1780 to 1874. Scott Thomas Thomas Scott Captain Scott England Canada Brother of Sir Walter Scott. He was rumored to have been the author of Waverley and other later novels until his brother's admission in 1827. Canada 56.130366 -106.346771 Country in North America north of the United States, and second largest country in the world. In Mitford's time, a British colony that became increasingly independent after the institution of responsible government in the 1830s. Exmouth, Devon, England Exmouth Devon England 50.619957 -3.413702 Port town in the county of Devon on the south coast of England.