<!-- When I looked up the xmlid of the letter, the "notes" column lists the words "Monday night". On the letter, this is "Wednesday night". Is this an error in the spreadsheet, or does this record other information?--> <!--LMW: we can double check with Greg!--> Letter to <persName ref="#Haydon">B.R. Haydon, Esq.</persName>, <date when="1824-02-09">February 9, 1824</date> Mary Russell Mitford Melissa J. Klamer Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Melissa J. Klamer First digital edition in TEI, date: October 26, 2017. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: DSCN2551.jpg, DSCN2550.jpg, DSCN2549.jpg, DSCN2548.jpg, DSCN2547.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.: 1361549 ff. 481 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to B. R. Haydon Esq., February 9th, 1824.

Folio sheet of paper, with four surfaces photographed. Four pages (1 leaf), folded in half, folded again in thirds. The first three surfaces are written as pages of the letter; the fourth contains the address leaf.

Address leaf bearing the folowing postmarks: 1) A black mileage stamp, partially legible Ct Surrey .

2) A sepia-inked oval Delivery stamp, double lined rim reading * FE * 8 * 1824

3) A sepia-inked oval Delivery stamp, reading * FE * 9 * 1824

A large 3 denoting the posting fee has been written in black ink by the postal service across the address leaf.

Sheet (pages three and four) torn on right edge of page three where wax seal was removed.

Red wax seal, partial, adhered to the corner of pages three and four.

 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. There is no red crayon across the address text block. 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. The pencil has inscribed the date "Feby 9th 1824" at the top left of the first leaf. This letter is also numbered "18" in the top center of the first leaf to the right of the opener. 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 letter labeled "To B R Haydon Esq."

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.

 Proofed and corrected against ms.
To B R Haydon Esq. 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. The pencil has inscribed the date "Feby 9th 1824" at the top left of the first leaf. This letter is also numbered "18" in the top center of the first leaf to the right of the opener. Three Mile Cross Wednesday Night My dear Sir,

I have to thank you for two very charming letters--to congratulate you most heartily on your escape from two such disagreeable oddities as your late landlord & landlady, & to wish you all prosperity in your new abode--I do not wish you happiness--for you have it--With such a wife & such a boy, & such a consciousness of those blessings I do really think you the happiest man in the world. Does Mrs. Haydon ever see your letters to me? If not I will lend them to her sometime or other just that she may see how a married lover can write of his "mistress"--that being our country phrase for wife--& I think a very pretty one.--must take--& who even in this age of can't & can object to the moral? Was not it the finest comic moral in the world?--The moral of the Depend upon it the picture will take--It must & it shall. I quite long to see it. I had prepared all my discretion to keep the secret when I on the intelligence in print in the last No. but one of the New Monthly, & then I treated my dear father & mother with reading them your letter. I found there too in one of M. Hazlitt's delightful Table Talks the terrible story of Mr. Wordsworth's letter to you--which spoils his poetry to me--for there was about his poetry something personal--we cling to him and to Cowper--& now--It will not bear talking of--"Jeremy Bentham" is also I think by Mr. Hazlitt--I wonder if he ever heard a story told to me by your Countryman Mr. Northmore--a great Devonshire Reformer--one of the bad epic poets, & very pleasant men in which that country abounds. He said that Jeremy Bentham being on a visit at a Shew Show house in those parts at a time when he was little known except as a Jurist through the translations of M. Dumont--certainly before the publication of the <!--new xml-id added below--><!--LMW: insert it here, using hastag in front. It will fire an error in the schema, simply because it's new.-->Church of Englandism or any such enormities--Mrs. Hannah More, being at a Watering place in the neighborhood was m inded to see him, & availed herself of the house being one which was shewn shown shewn on stated days to pay a visit to the Philosopher. He was in the library when the news arrived--& the lady being already in the ante chamber & no possible mode of escape presenting itself, he sent one servant to detain her a few minutes, & employed another to build him up with books in a corner of the room--when the folios & quartos rose above his head the curious lady was admitted. Must not it have been a droll scene?--The philosopher playing at bopeep in his entrenchment, & the pious maiden, who had previously ascertained that he was in the room, peering after him in all the agony of baffled curiosity.-- Your Frank must be a charming little fellow--Give my love to him & his dear Mother--How well I can fancy you darting about in your half furnished house, doing half every body's work with your own rapid hands. No wonder that when the babble was over you should feel a little languid like a young lady after a ball.--God bless you my dear friend--All happiness be with you & your's yours --.

Ever very sincerely. M. R. Mitford.
To B. R. Haydon Esqre 57 Sovereign Terrace Connaught Place Edgeware Road
Jeremy Bentham Bentham Jeremy London, England London, England Dumont Pierre Etienne Louis Geneva, Switzerland Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont, or Etienne Dumont, was in large part responsible for Bentham's popularity. Dumont was a minister in the Genevan Reformed Church, but he abandoned Geneva a year later due to political unrest and moved to Russia. In 1786 he relocated to England, where he met several prominent men through whom he met Bentham. In 1802, he published a three-volume edition of Bentham's works in Bruzelles, which created interest in the philosopher's work. Some scholars have called him a disciple of Bentham. Church-Of-Englandism and its Catechism Explained Jeremy Bentham 1818