Letter to <persName ref="#Haydon">B.R. Haydon</persName>, 1823 October 1 Mary Russell Mitford Hailey Lown Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Hailey Lown Date last checked: 2016-12-31. Proofing and corrections by: Brooke A. Stewart Date checked: 23 February 2015. Proofing and corrections by: Rebecca Tang First digital edition in TEI, date: 11 August 2014. P5. The Digital Mitford Photo files: 1Oct1823BRHaydon1b#.JPG, 1Oct1823BRHaydon2a#.JPG, 1Oct1823BRHaydon2b#.JPG, 1Oct1823BRHaydon1a#.JPG Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2014

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 The letters of Mary Russell Mitford, vol. 4, 1819-1823 qB/TU/MIT Vol. 4, Horizon No.: 1361550 ff. 477 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to B.R. Haydon, 1823 October 1.

One octavo sheet of paper folded in thirds. The second page bears the end of the letter on one side, and (after being folded into three panels) exposes the address on the other side.

Address leaf bearing the following postmarks: 1) Sepia-colored oval delivery stamp, that is intact, in the top right of the address leaf page. OC*1 1823 2) Sepia-colored badge shaped delivery stamp, that is intact, at the top left of the address leaf page. It was applied upon deposit of the letter at the local PO. 1*OC 1823 3) Black, rectangular, Receiving House Stamp. Seems to say: Fleet St. 4) A large 3, denoting the fee for a single-sheet letter, has been written in black ink by the postal service across the address leaf.

Red wax seal.

 Someone, possibly B.R. Haydon, drew a picture of what seems to be a cow in black ink on the middle of the back third of the octavo folio. The reasoning behind it having been B.R. Haydon who drew it is that it was drawn in a different hand than Mitford. Also, it would be remiss to forget that B.R. Haydon was an artist. 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 "15" 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. On this letter, a red diagonal line is drawn from the top left to the bottom right of page 1 of the manuscript. Another one is drawn from the bottom right to the top left of page 2. 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, noted in the manuscripts held at Reading Central Library. This may be William Harness or A. G. L'Estrange. This annotator left a note at the top of the first leaf that documents the recipient of the letter as B.R. Haydon Esqr. Also written in pen beside the recipient is "Oct. 1823." and underneath, "Fragment--"

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.

 Added pencil handNote and editorial note about fragment. Proofed the body of the letter against the manuscript. Fixed transcription errors and dash format. This needs to be reviewed further--there are still issues and questions. Checked for completion, illegible word in handNote not clarified. Added collection information, corrected stamp and handNote info. Added idno information, photo files, and revised photo permission statement. Updated header to include the correct letter xml:id. Fixed minor formatting errors in respStmt. Proofed and corrected.
To B.R. Haydon Esqr. Oct. 1823. Fragment-- The pen annotator has indicated that what follows is only a fragment of a letter. The beginning of the letter appears to be missing. This would explain why there is no greeting, date, or address at the beginning. 15

I have a sneaking kindness for portraits--I do not mean the faces on the Royal Academy walls--but those portraits which escaped from the great painters--Titian--Rubens--Rembrandt--& that is the way that yours will be considered not only by posterity but by that main part of posterity the next generation the Englishmen of twenty years hence. Paint plenty of portraits--& plenty of humourous pictures--it is your peculiar talent--& do tell me what this one is about--I am so stupid that I have not been able to guess--Tell me this secret--& I will tell you one in return. & you must mot even let any one know that there is in my care a secret to tell.--I am sorry for what you tell me of Mr. Hazlitt--because the good faith his writings was their greatest charm--but in the Fonthill affair William Hazlitt visited Fonthill Abbey from September to October 1823. In a letter from Haydon to Mitford of September 1823, Haydon mentions that Hazlitt left Fonthill for a night or two to visit a couple of his "flames" after he had just recently divorced his wife. much may be said on --& at all events there is nobody like him.--Tell dear Mrs. Haydon with my kindest love that now Mr. Macready has left Covent garden. I hope the Foscari will be brought out there this season.--And now goodbye and God bless you--

Ever your's yours M. R. Mitford
B. R. Haydon Esqre 8 Paddington Green Near the Church Paddington
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through a personal act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. The motive in founding the Academy was twofold: to raise the professional status of the artist by establishing a sound system of training and expert judgment in the arts, and to arrange the exhibition of contemporary works of art attaining an appropriate standard of excellence. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation and interest in the public based on recognized canons of good taste. Fonthille Abbey Beckford's Folly Fonthill Gifford Wiltshire England A large Gothic revival country house that was completed in 1813 and was completely demolished around 1845 after the tower collapsed and damaged other parts of the buiding, which was structurally unsound. It was built for the English novelist, art collector, and travel writer William Thomas Beckford by the architect James Wyatt.
Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn Leiden Amsterdam,Netherlands artist A prolific painter, draftsman, and etcher, Rembrandt is usually regarded as the greatest artist of Holland's "Golden Age." Rembrandt never went abroad, but he voraciously surveyed the work of Northern artists who had lived in Italy. Even by Dutch standards, Rembrandt's preoccupation with direct observation was exceptional and continued throughout his career. Despite the constant evolution of his style, Rembrandt's compelling descriptions of light, space, atmosphere, modeling, texture, and human situations may be traced back even from his late works. Peter Paul Rubens Peter Paul Rubens Siegan Antwerp, Amsterdam artist A German painter who specialized in Baroque art. After study with local Antwerp painters, Rubens began finding his style in Italy, copying works from antiquity, Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo and Titian, and contemporaries like Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio. He worked principally in Rome and Genoa, where Giulio Romano's frescoes influenced him greatly. Returning to Antwerp, Rubens became court painter to the Spanish Viceroys, eventually receiving commissions from across Europe and England. Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Velcellio Pieve di Cadore Venice,Italy artist Known as Titian, Velcellio is thought of as the greatest Venetian artist of the sixteenth century, eventually gaining international fame. He is known above all for his remarkable use of color; his painterly approach was highly influential well into the seventeenth century. Titian contributed to all of the major areas of Renaissance art, painting altarpieces, portraits, mythologies, and pastoral landscapes with figures.