Letter to <persName ref="#Talfourd_Thos">Thomas Noon Talfourd</persName>, January 7, 1825 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 Kellie Donovan-Condron Date last checked: 2017-06-29 Proofing and corrections by Lisa M. Wilson Kellie Donovan-Condron First digital edition in TEI, date: March 21, 2015. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: DSCF6143.jpg, DSCF6144.jpg, DSCF6145.jpg, DSCF6146.jpg, DSCF6147.jpg Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2013

Courtesy of The University of Manchester.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive The John Rylands University Library Mitford-Talfourd Correspondence: Letters from Mary Russell Mitford to Thomas Noon Talfourd: vol. 665 JRL English MS 665 no. 17 Coles no. 85 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Thomas Noon Talfourd, 1825 January 7. We arrived at this date by checking a perpetual calendar. Mitford wrote "Friday evening" in the upper right corner of the first page, and the Evening Duty stamp on the address leaf is dated January 8, 1825.-->

Folio sheet of paper folded in half to form four quarto pages, with correspondence on four pages, then folded in nines to form the address leaf.

Letter folded by nines to form address leaf, addressed to Thomas Noon Talfourd at 2 Elm Court, Temple, London. Double ring Evening Duty stamp, dated January 8, 1925.

A large 2 denoting the posting fee has been written in black ink by the postal service across the address leaf.

Sheet (pages one and two) slightly torn and paper folded back on right edge; upper right corner of page three is missing where wax seal was removed.

Red wax seal, approximately one-quarter missing, adhered to page four. Seal impression is unclear.

 Someone, apparently other than Mitford, perhaps cataloging letters and describing them, who left grey pencil marks on her letters now in the The John Rylands Library collection. This letter is numbered "17" in the top right corner of the first 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.
This letter is numbered "17" in the top right corner of the first leaf. Friday evening. My dear Sir

I have waited till the last post day in hopes of seeing Mrs. Walter & finding from her if you were expected at Bear Wood on Sunday, but she has not called here nor have I been able to get to her, as my father although very much recovered has not been well enough to take so long a ride. We have not heard anything of your being expected there, & I in hoping to meet you on Monday spoke rather from my wishes than from rational expectation, therefore I should not imagine they would be offended if you did not go--but I am quite sure that to see you whether they have written or not would be the greatest possible pleasure both to Mr. and Mrs. Walter--I never heard any thing more enthusiastic than the way in which she spoke of you--if I may venture to advise you--Go! & I say this quite disinterestedly since I am afraid you would think it necessary to run away before the dinner party next day.--

I have heard very fully and kindly from Mr. Harness--He had not seen Charles Kemble but seemed quite sure that the Play could not have been performed properly at Covent Garden, & that the consciousness of that, (although no Manager Charles Kemble was manager of Covent Garden Theater from 1822 to 1831, and again for the 1842-43 season. could make such an avowal) was the real cause of Mr. Kemble's advice. He says that Charles Kemble has not popularity, nor Young power to undertake such a part. He--William Harness--urges me to finish Charles & Cromwell even if I never try a play again-- but I am doubtful--it is so cold & dead & motionless compared to the unlucky Rienzi--& I don't kn ow how to manage the alteration--where to begin the story--Perhaps you may remember what Mr. Macready said on the subject--& if I should have the pleasure of seeing you in Reading could tell me--That is a very foolish If of mine, for I must have that pleasure even if it be only for a few minutes--& then you can advise me if it would be worth while to send through Miss Skerrett to Mr. Macready--He, I assure you, did not seem to think Mr. Elliston's rejection of the play Macready had suggested numerous significant structural changes to Rienzi in November 1824, and Elliston rejected the play by the end of 1824. of any consequence if it should suit him to resume it--& I shall always feel persuaded that the rejection was contrived by him in order to remove the part out of the way of Mr. Kean. The danger is that he may have made some promise to Captain Smith about his play In <hi rend="italics">Meditations of an Autograph Collector</hi> , Adrian Hoffman Joline quotes an 1820 letter from Mitford to Benjamin Robert Haydon, in which she says in a postscript, "The papers say that Mr. Macready is bringing out a play of Mr. Knowles. If so he has served a certain Captain Smith as ill as he has me!" (Joline 199). Macready played the title role in Sheridan Knowles's play Virginius in May 1820.--for I suppose the great success of The Fatal Dowry Macready appeared as Remont in a bowdlerized version of Massinger and Field's The Fatal Dowry on 5 January 1825. would render a re-engagement no longer difficult to him.--I rejoice to hear that Mrs. Talfourd continues well--& I beg you to make my very kindest regards to her & to accept my Father & Mothers best remembrances--

Ever most gratefully yours M. R. M.
To T. N. Talfourd Esqre 2 Elm Court Temple London
Nathan Field Field Nathan Cripplegate, London, England Middlesex, England theater actor playwright Co-author of The Fatal Dowry with Philip Massinger. Captain Smith Smith Captain John Walter Walter John Battersea, England London, England literary editor journalist Second of that name; proprietor of the Times newspaper and the Evening Mail, son of the Times's founder, the first John Walter. Elected as a Member of Parliament for Berkshire in 1832. A neighbor of Mitford's in Wokingham. Walter Mary Smithe Second wife of John Walter, proprietor of the Times newspaper; they were married in 1818. Source: DNB. Joline Adrian Hoffman Author of Meditations of an Autograph Collector, which quotes a letter from Mitford to Benjamin Robert Haydon, in which Mitford comments about Macready.
Bear Wood, Berkshire, England Bearwood 51.4154 -0.8837 Bear Wood or Bearwood, near Wokingham. In Mitford's time, the estate of John Walter. The property became Bearwood College, and is now Reddam House Berkshire.
The Fatal Dowry Meditations of an Autograph Collector Adrian Hoffman Joline New York London Harper & Brothers 1902