Letter to <persName ref="#Haydon">Benjamin Robert Haydon</persName>, <date when="1822-06-13">June 13, 1822</date> Mary Russell Mitford Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Madelyn N. Scott Elizabeth Raisanen Date last checked: 2017-12-31 Proofing and corrections by Elisa Beshero-Bondar Lisa M. Wilson First digital edition in TEI, date: 8 August 2017. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: 13June1822BRHaydon1a#.JPG, 13June1822BRHaydon1b#.JPG, 13June1822BRHaydon2a#.JPG, 13June1822BRHaydon2b#.JPG, 13June1822BRHaydon3a#.JPG, 13June1822BRHaydon3b#.JPG, 13June1822BRHaydon4a#.JPG, 13June1822BRHaydon4b#.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. 453 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1822 June 13.

One sheet of folio paper folded into four writing surfaces (each surface photographed separately). The letter begins on the top of the first page, and continues from top to bottom of pages two through four. The text of the letter on the fourth page is split after the fifth line, allowing space for the address leaf. The address leaf is centered on the page, and oriented perpendicularly to the text. The paper is folded into thirds two additional times (forming nine rectangular regions distinguished by creases in the paper) for sealing and posting.

The letter bears three distinct postmarks:

1) one circluar, black mileage stamp (left of the address leaf) reading READING JU 13 1822 42 This stamp signifies that the letter was deposited at the local post office on June 13, 1822, and that the distance between Reading and London is 42 miles.

2) one elliptical, red delivery stamp (left of the address leaf) reading * JU * 18 * 1822 F.N.n The abbreviation, "F.N.n," stands for "Forenoon." The order of the date (Month, Day) and the single rim surrounding the text on the stamp indicate that the letter was delivered to the Chief Postal Office.

3) one circular, black franking stamp (partially covering the address line) reading FREE 18 JUNE 1822

Pages three and four of the letter exhibit a small hole in the paper from removal of the wax seal. Small, circular regions of sepia staining are present throughout the document (but not inhibitive of text legibility). The size and scattered placement of these stains could indicate randomized water damage from rainfall.

Red wax seal, with partial adherence to the third and fourth page surfaces. There is not enough of the wax remaining on the letter to distinguish what seal Mitford used.

 Someone, apparently other than Mitford, perhaps cataloging letters and describing them, who left grey pencil marks and numbered her letters now in the Reading Central Library's collection. This letter is numbered "43" in the top left of the first leaf. 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. On leaf four, a red line is drawn from top left to bottom right across each of the two text blocks. There is no red crayon across the address text block. Someone, apparently other than Mitford, perhaps cataloging letters and describing them. Two illegibile lines of text are present in between the mileage stamp and delivery stamp to the left of the address leaf on the fourth page of the letter. J.B. Monck provided a franking signature on the fourth page of the letter, in line with the address leaf.

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 June 13th 1822.

A thousand thanks, my dear Sir, for your kind & delightful letter. I felt that I had not deserved it--for I must have appeared sadly inattentive & undeserving by being three days in town without waiting on Mrs. Haydon--But you know how it happened--On the Friday I was not sure that you had not moved in the first place when Pope set out in quest of you, & in the second it was necessary that I should keep myself perfectly quiet to attend an appointment with Mr. C Kemble at two oclock o'clock --Saturday you were as I knew out --Sunday as I knew coming--besides which I was actually confined to the house on both of those days from the necessity of not missing a friend whom I was obliged to see after my interview with the Manager to make sure that I might not by altering to please him displease Mr. Macready--& on Sunday Evening I was so unwell as to be obliged to make up my friend to disappoint myself by breaking my appointment for Monday morning--& it was very well I did so--for when the morning came I was fit for nothing but to be backed off home. In fact a country lady who lives almost literally in the open air, in green fields or flowery gardens, is terribly out of her element in London in hot weather--All the time that I was in Norton Street I felt just as I suppose that Patriarchal Larch -- tell of hotland must have done, when crammed into a garden hot & coddled amongst the myrtles & orange trees of the Duke of Athole Atholl 's Mitford does not make a direct indication as to which Duke of Atholl she is referencing; it is assumed that she is speaking of the Duke living at the time of writing. greenhouse Mitford is likely comparing the European larch to smaller trees to emphasize feeling out of place in the hot cityscape of London.. But I am so sorry not to have seen the two charms of Lisson Grove--The furniture--& its fair Inspirer . Well I will hope that the day may come when I shall be so fortunate as to make acquaintance with both--especially the latter. I cannot tell you, my dear Mr. Haydon, with what pleasure & interest I read your fresh & glowing account of your mutual happiness--No wonder that you fear society--or rather that you fear that fine company which does not deserve the name of society, & which seems to me good for nothing but to spoil the mind, the manners, the very beauty of women, & to turn them into the sort of fine There is a small tear in the paper here that could be mistaken for a comma. ladies which you have described so well in your portrait of the wife of the Portrait Painter --poor man. How you must have pitied him! For my part I think that except here & there some "creature of poetry" It is unclear if Mitford is making a specific reference here. However, because she was well aquainted with the writings of John Keats', Mitford could be referencing the phrase, "fair creature of an hour," from line nine of his poem, "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be." just as you have been happy enough to meet with & to deserve, Ladies are nowadays all alike--all accomplished--all literary--all artificial--with heads divided between Quadrilles Resembling American square dancing, the quadrille was a popularized dance in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries in which four couples assembled in a square formation and took turns dancing. & criticism--If routs & reviews had been extant in Shakespeare's time we should not have had the Violas & the Desdemonas.--You see I cannot help coming back to the Drama. If Miss James had the pleasure of seeing you she probably told you that "Foscari" was accepted--& that Mr. Charles Kemble, whose conduct has really been very kind, promises certainly to bring it out next season--but there must be another alteration in the catastrophe--which as well as the delay exceedingly provokes my still kinder, though unknown, friend Mr. Macready. I must alter it however as well as I can--A manager has certainly a right to require that--& I am sure from the extreme frankness & friendliness of Mr. C. Kemble's manner that he is really afraid of the present catastrophe--But you may imagine what a job it will be when I tell you, that this fifth Act has already been remodelled 6 times! The Doge has died of joy--& his son has died of joy--there have been two poisonings (the one by the bye worse than the other--I am a sad hand at a fatal draught draft )--two assissinations--& how I am going to kill my hero by fair fighting. This, to compare a very small thing with a very great one, is almost like the alterations in the Head of Christ in your great Picture--at l east it had the same uncomfortable & This ampersand is partially covered by red wax from the letter's seal. unsettling effect on my mind, that the altering your sublime conception must have had on your ' s yours Ink from the delivery stamp has bled through the page at this location in the letter, but does not affect the legibility of either the stamp text or letter content.. I have too a lurking fear that, not from any fault of the Manager, but from an unlucky confluence of better Plays , my poor Foscari may never be acted at all. Sir Walter Scott is going to take the field--& worse still--no not worse--better for literature & the Drama & the Country (God defend me from Envy!)--better still Mr. Knowles has another Play If she is speaking about a specific play, Mitford could be referencing Sheridan's William Tell, completed in 1825. if not two to send in--& what could stand against another Virginius? Mr. Kemble promises through all--& I should believe--only that it is so difficult to replant Hope when it has once been booted out--Nevertheless I shall write on, & attempt higher things than this pretty but too womanish Tragedy. Pray forgive me for writing so much on so unworthy a subject--but I am so interested in all that concerns you that I cannot help flattering myself that you in some small degree return the compliment--& this is not an affair of vanity--but of comfort--almost of The content of the letter is written around the Address Leaf information, broken at this point in Mitford's message. subsistence. Oh what a terrible thing it is to have only the powerless will to be offense to those who are so very very dear!--God bless you my dear friend!--My father & mother join in all that is kindest to you & to Mrs. Haydon--whom I cannot think of as a stranger--

Ever most sincerely yours MR Mitford
Reading June sixt seventeen 1822 B.R. Haydon Esqre The word following Haydon'sname is obscured by the postmark stamp St Johns Place Lisson Grove Regents Regent's Park London
J.B. Monck The name of John Berkeley Monck, who franked some of Mitford's letters, is left-justified and written adjacent to Haydon's address on the Address Leaf.
European larch Larix decidua Mitford may refer to the European larch, a deciduous conifer that can grow up to 100 feet in height and 50 feet in circumference (due to its sprawling, drooping lower branches). For additional information, refer to common myrtle Myrtus communis Mitford may be refering to the common myrtle, a small (16 ft) flowering tree with white or pink petals. The common myrtle is a native plant of the European region. For additional information, refer to Murray John 4th Duke of Atholl 4th Duke of Athole Marquess of Tullibardine Lord Lieutenant of Perthshire

Mitford makes a general reference to the "Duke of Atholl" in her 13 June 1822 letter to B.R. Haydon. The Duke of Atholl lived in Blair Castle, located in Perthshire, Scotland. In 1822, John Murray, the fourth Duke of Atholl, would have been in office. Murray (as the eldest son) succeeded his father in dukedom, served from 1774 until his death in 1830, and was succeeded by his firstborn son John Murray, the fifth Duke of Atholl. Murray maintained a position in the House of Lords (of the Peerage of Great Britain) after becoming Earl Strange. He is credited with cultivating the Dunkeld Larch by cross-breeding the Japanese Larch with the European Larch. For additional information, refer to the following: and

... <!--Title-->