MamaMary Russell Mitford, or: Mrs. Mitford | Born: 1750 in Ashe, Hampshire, England. Died: 1830-01-02 in Three Mile Cross, parish of Shinfield, Berkshire, England.
Mary Russell was the youngest child of the Rev. Dr. Richard Russell and his second wife, Mary Dicker; she was born about 1750 in Ashe, Hampshire. (Her birth date is as yet unverified; period sources indicate that she was ten years older than her husband George, born in 1760.) Through the Russells, she was a distant relation of the Dukes of Bedford (sixth creation, 1694). She had two siblings, Charles William and Frances; both predeceased her and their parents, which resulted in Mary Russell inheriting her family’s entire estate upon her mother’s death in 1785. Her father’s rectory in Ashe was only a short distance from Steventon, and so she was acquainted with the young Jane Austen. She married George Mitford or Midford on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford, Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their addresses as Old Alresford. Their only daughter, Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years later on December 16, 1787 at New Alresford, Hampshire. Mary Russell died on January 2, 1830 at Three Mile Cross in the parish of Shinfield, Berkshire. Her obituary in the 1830 New Monthly Magazine gives New Year’s day as the date of her death.—ajc, lmw
desires me to thank you very sincerely, my dear Sir WilliamWilliam Elford, Sir, baronet, Recorder for Plymouth, Recorder for Totnes, Member of Parliament | Born: 1749-08 in Kingsbridge, Devon, England. Died: 1837-11-30 in Totnes, Devon, England.
According to L’Estrange, Sir William was first a friend of Mitford’s father, and Mitford met him for the first time in the spring of 1810 when he was a widower nearing the age of 64. They carried on a lively correspondence until his death in 1837.
Elford worked as a banker at Plymouth Bank (Elford, Tingcombe and Purchase) in Plymouth, Devon, from its founding in 1782. He was elected a member of Parliament for Plymouth as a supporter of the government and Tory William Pitt, and served from 1796 to 1806. After his election defeat in Plymouth in 1806, he was elected member of Parliament for Rye and served from July 1807 until his resignation in July 1808. For his service in Parliament as a supporter of Pitt, he was made a baronet in 1800. After his son Jonathan came of age, he tried to secure a stable government post for him but never succeeded. Mayor of Plymouth in 1796 and Recorder for Plymouth from 1797 to 1833, he was also Recorder for Totnes from 1832 to 1834. Sir William served as an officer in the South Devon militia from 1788, eventually attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel; the unit saw active service in Ireland during the Peninsular Wars. Sir William was a talented amateur painter in oils and watercolors who exhibited at the Royal Society from 1774 to 1837; he exhibited still lifes and portraits but preferred landscapes. He was elected to the Royal Society Academy in 1790. He was also a talented amateur naturalist and was elected to the Royal Linnaean Society in 1790; late in life, he published his findings on an alternative to yeast.
He married his first wife, Mary Davies of Plympton, on January 20, 1776 and they had one son, Jonathan, and two daughters, Grace Chard and Elizabeth. After the death of his first wife, he married Elizabeth Hall Walrond, widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Maine Swete Walrond of the Coldstream Guards. His only son Jonathan died in 1823, leaving him without an heir.
—ebb, lmw

, for your kindness in so soon & so carefully returning her letter. There is no end to Mr. DundasCharles Dundas, 1st Baron Amesbury , Member of Parliament, or: 1st Baron Amesbury , Member of Parliament | Born: 1751-08-05 in Scotland. Died: 1832-07-07 in Pimlico, Westminster, London, England.
Member of Parliament for Berkshire from 1794 to 1832. He generally sided with liberal and refomist policies but was not an active party member. His first wife Anne brought him the estate of Kintbury-Amesbury (or Barton Court) in Berkshire as well as other property. He was also the first chairman of the Kennet and Avon Canal Company; the Dundas Aqueduct was named after him.—lmw

's talent for blundering, but this mistake could not have happened to any one in whose honour (honour is rather too grand a word for the occasion) in whose gentlemanliness my Mother would place more implicit confidence. The letter will now pursue its destination Northward instead of Westward under the auspices of Mr. Fyshe PalmerCharles Fyshe Palmer, or: Long Fyshe | Born: 1769 in Luckley House, Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Died: 1843-01-24 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England.
Charles Fyshe Palmer was the son of Charles Fyshe Palmer and Lucy Jones. He married Lady Madelina Gordon Sinclair in 1805 at Kimbolton Castle in Kimbolton, Herefordshire . They lived at Luckley House, Wokingham, Berkshire and at East Court, Finchampstead, Berkshire. Through her siblings, Lady Madelina was connected to several of the most influential aristocratic families in the country, and Charles Fyshe Palmer’s marriage to Lady Madelina thus gained him access to aristocratic houses, including the Holland House.
A Whig politician, Palmer began running for Parliament elections as the member for Reading after 1816, and appears to have served off and on in that role until 1841. He led the Berkshire meetings to protest British government’s handling of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. On March 16, 1820, Palmer ran for a seat in Parliament against two other candidates. The votes ran: John Berkeley Monck (418 votes), Charles Fyshe Palmer(399 votes), and John Weyland(395 votes.) Mitford’s letters around this time indicate she much preferred his opponent J. B. Monck, and she had earlier satirized Palmer in 1818 as vastly like a mop-stick, or, rather, a tall hop-pole, or an extremely long fishing-rod, or anything that is all length and no substance.
Mitford also mentions Palmer in connection with a legal issue surrounding the Billiard Club, in her letter to Talfourd of 31 August 1822 . Mitford also mentions the ways that Palmer’s political opponents sometimes undermined his Whig reformist positions by referencing the noble privileges (and money) he accrued by marrying the Lady Madelina Gordon in 1805.
—ajc, lmw
See note 2 in The Browning’s Correspondence rendering of Mitford’s letter of 12 March 1842 to Elizabeth Barrett Browning .
—I shall not send my epistle to him—for fear of another blunder—the good Town of ReadingReading, Berkshire, England | Reading | Berkshire | England | 51.4542645 -0.9781302999999753 County town in Berkshire, in the Thames valley at the confluence of the Thames and the River Kennet. The town developed as a river port and in Mitford’s time served as a staging point on the Bath Road and was developing into a center of manufacturing. Mitford lived here with her parents from 1791 to 1795, on Coley Avenue in the parish of St. Mary’s and attended the Abbey School. The family returned to Reading from 1797 to about 1804, after which they relocated to Bertram House. They frequently visited Reading thereafter from their homes at nearby Bertram House, Three Mile Cross and Swallowfield. Mitford later used scenes from Reading as the basis for Belford Regis; or Sketches of a Country Town.—lmw would be very sorry if its Members yielded to the County M.P'sMembers of Parliament
Members of Parliament —lmw in any quality ^whatsoever—& in that of puzzlepatedness ("though Mr. PCharles Fyshe Palmer, or: Long Fyshe | Born: 1769 in Luckley House, Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Died: 1843-01-24 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England.
Charles Fyshe Palmer was the son of Charles Fyshe Palmer and Lucy Jones. He married Lady Madelina Gordon Sinclair in 1805 at Kimbolton Castle in Kimbolton, Herefordshire . They lived at Luckley House, Wokingham, Berkshire and at East Court, Finchampstead, Berkshire. Through her siblings, Lady Madelina was connected to several of the most influential aristocratic families in the country, and Charles Fyshe Palmer’s marriage to Lady Madelina thus gained him access to aristocratic houses, including the Holland House.
A Whig politician, Palmer began running for Parliament elections as the member for Reading after 1816, and appears to have served off and on in that role until 1841. He led the Berkshire meetings to protest British government’s handling of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. On March 16, 1820, Palmer ran for a seat in Parliament against two other candidates. The votes ran: John Berkeley Monck (418 votes), Charles Fyshe Palmer(399 votes), and John Weyland(395 votes.) Mitford’s letters around this time indicate she much preferred his opponent J. B. Monck, and she had earlier satirized Palmer in 1818 as vastly like a mop-stick, or, rather, a tall hop-pole, or an extremely long fishing-rod, or anything that is all length and no substance.
Mitford also mentions Palmer in connection with a legal issue surrounding the Billiard Club, in her letter to Talfourd of 31 August 1822 . Mitford also mentions the ways that Palmer’s political opponents sometimes undermined his Whig reformist positions by referencing the noble privileges (and money) he accrued by marrying the Lady Madelina Gordon in 1805.
—ajc, lmw
See note 2 in The Browning’s Correspondence rendering of Mitford’s letter of 12 March 1842 to Elizabeth Barrett Browning .
is my friend") I don't think they do.—What were we talking about in my last letter? Of my journey to OxfordshireOxfordshire, England | Oxfordshire | England | 51.7612056 -1.2464674000000286 A county in south east England. Location of Oxford University and Blenheim Palace.—lmw?—But I did not go—Luckily I had in my engagement put in a saving clause about the weather—You who know the qualities of our horse —his admirable slowness—his delightful knack of standing ^stilland ride may imagine what his performance would be in the wet up a hill which we flat-country folks call a mountain—So it was good enough to rain & I escaped. People may say what they will about the uncertainty of our English climate, but I think for my part one may always be tolerably certain of a little rain. My escape was greater even than I thought—there were 35, Godfathers Godmothers & others—a bed broke down, & a table—the very house cracked under the weight of its burthen—& if I had been there they would have laid it all to me—PapaGeorge Mitford, Esq., or: George Midford | Born: . Died: .
Father of Mary Rusell Mitford, George Mitford was the son of Francis Midford, surgeon, and Jane Graham. The family name is sometimes recorded as Midford. Immediate family called him by nicknames including Drum, Tod, and Dodo. He was a member of a minor branch of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle in Northumberland. Although later sources would suggest that he was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh medical school, there is no evidence that he obtained a medical degree and he did not generally refer to himself as Dr. Mitford, preferring to style himself Esq.. In 1784, he is listed in a Hampshire directory as surgeon (medicine) of Alresford. His father and grandfather worked as apothecary-surgeons and it seems likely that he served a medical apprenticeship with family members.
He married Mary Russell on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford, Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their addresses as Old Alresford; they later came to live at Broad Street in New Alresford. Their only child to live to adulthood, Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years later on December 16, 1787 at New Alresford, Hampshire. He assisted Mitford's literary career by representing her interests in London and elsewhere with theater owners and publishers. He was active in Whig politics and later served as a local magistrate. He coursed greyhounds with his friend James Webb.
—lmw would have declared it was all my fatness—indeed it is almost as bad as it is—for the friend who wrote me this account finished the paragraph by saying "You being away, my dear, we cannot understand how these things can have happened."—Only see my dear Friend how they page 2
use me! So you are really CamillaCamilla, or a Picture of Young Lady. Frances Burney . London: Payne Cadell and Davies. 1796. ! I mean to do the same myself that I may have the satisfaction & honour of fighting under your banners & helping to knock down that buckram hero Mr. Edgar MandlebertMr. Edgar Mandlebert
Character in Camilla; Mitford says of this character that the very name is as stiff as poker, in a letter to Elford from 30 May 1819.—lmw. I suspect that poor dear Mrs. DickinsonCatherine Dickinson Allingham | Born: 1787 in Middlesex, England. Died: 1861-09-02 in St. Marylebone, Middlesex, England.
Catherine Allingham was the daughter of Thomas Allingham. She married Charles Dickinson on August 2, 1807 at St. Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived in Swallowfield, where their daughter Frances was born, and where they were visited by the Mitford family. According to Mitford, Catherine Dickinson was fond of match-making among her friends and acquaintances. (See Mitford's February 8th, 1821 letter to Elford . Her husband Charles died in 1827, when her daughter was seven. Source: L'Estrange). —ajc, lmw is not very much obliged either to your complaisance or mine on this score—for I certainly & you probably read not to be convinced which you know never happens (vide HudibrasHudibras. Samuel Butler .
First published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678, then as a single edition in 1684.—lmw
) but to find fault—& next to reading with an undivided & enthusiastic admiration such as I feel for the Faerie QueenThe Faerie Queene. Edmund Spenser . 1590-1596. you for Tom JonesThe History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. Henry Fielding . London: 1749. & both of us for Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice: A Novel. Jane Austen. Jane Austen Jane Austen . London: T. Egerton. 1813. —next to that absorbing delight the greatest pleasure in reading is to be critical & fastidious, & laugh at, & pull to pieces. Whether this be wise or [del: .] not, I cannot tell—both the child & the botanist are amused in  pullpicking off the leaves of the flowers to come at the internal structure—& perhaps the younger philosopher who performs this operation from the mere instinct of mischief is as happy—that is as wise—as the graver and elder demolisher. I am no scientific puller to pieces at all events—though lately I have almost wished myself a reviewer to vent my grievances at a quantity of maudlin Travels I have been reading—Walks in SwitzerlandSwitzerland | 46.95, 7.45 A country located in western-Central Europe.—bas—Autumns near the RhineRhine River | 49.345124 7.866922700000032 Second largest river in central and western Europe; begins in the southeastern Swiss Alps and eventually empties into the North Sea in the Netherlands. —lmw—Picturesque Tours—Visits to La TrappeSoligny-la-Trappe, Orne, France | La Trappe | Soligny-la-Trappe | Orne | France | 48.617649 0.53741500000001 Site of La Trappe Abbey, the house of origin of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.: Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae), Reformed Cistercians or Trappists, to whom it gave its name.—lmw countless others names forgotten—Don't you think there ought to be a high duty on this importation of nonsense in these times of financial difficulty? Though very likely a tax of that sort would not catch them—these travels are perhaps all written at home—but to me there is a real grievance in having the bloom brushed from the grape—in disenchanting the DulcineaDulcinea del Toboso
Name of idealized female character in Don Quixote (who is mentioned in the text but never appears). Proverbial for an ideal woman.—lmws of one's imagination—in cutting asunder the fine links by which great names are united to local objects—in turning that which should be a vision & a dram, into dull & flat reality—making MeillerieMeillerie, France | Meillerie | Haute-Savoie | France | 46.407097 6.719229000000041 Meillerie is a village on the shores of Lake Geneva, in southeastern France.—lmw as common as old BrentfordBrentford, Middlesex, England | Brentford Middlesex London England | 51.486073 -0.31011690000002545 In the nineteenth century, a village near Hownslow, west of London at the confluence of the Thames and the River Brent. It was the historic county town of Middlesex. Now part of Greater London.—lmw & laying VaucluseVaucluse, France | Vaucluse | France | 44.0565054 5.14320680000003 A department in southeast France, named after the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, a famous spring.—lmw as open page 3
as Hounslow HeathHounslow Heath | Hounslow | London | England | 51.462704 -0.3874074999999948 Historically, a four thousand acre tract of heathland outside London near Hounslow in the county of Middlesex, crossed by major routes between London and the west and southwest of England. In Mitford’s time, the heath was crossed by the Great West Road and the Bath Road and, as it had been in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was still known as a dangerous spot for unwary travellers who might find themselves robbed by highwaymen or footpads. From at least the English Civil Wars until World War II, the heath has been used as a military staging area and training ground. Today, all that remains of the heath is two hundred acres preserved as parkland.. I have a good mind not to read another book of Travels till Dr. ClarkeEdward Daniel Clarke, Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge University, or: Dr. Clarke, Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge University | Born: 1769-06-05 in Willingdon, Sussex, England. Died: 1822-03-09 in London, England.
Traveller, writer, and naturalist. Author of Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa.—lmw
's next Volume. Apropos to Dr. ClarkeEdward Daniel Clarke, Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge University, or: Dr. Clarke, Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge University | Born: 1769-06-05 in Willingdon, Sussex, England. Died: 1822-03-09 in London, England.
Traveller, writer, and naturalist. Author of Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa.—lmw
—his name is Edward Daniell—so he was not your preacher.—The pleasantest very pleasant account of foreign countries I meant to mention to you—did I? A Ten years residence in TripolyTripoli | Tripoly | Tripoli | Ottoman Empire | Libya | 32.8872094 13.191338299999984 Ancient seaport in North Africa, now the capital and largest city in Libya. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the city was nominally under control of the Ottoman Empire but was de facto ruled by Turkish Janissary officers between 1714 and 1835, after which the Ottoman Empire reasserted control. During the period of Janissary rule, Tripoli was a base of operations for piracy (Barbary pirates), blackmail schemes, and demands for tribute as protection against piracy, which led to the first and second Barbary Wars with the United States in the early nineteenth century.—lmwTripoliA Narrative of a Ten Years’ Residence at Tripoli in Africa from the Original Correspondence in the Possession of the Family of the Late Richard Tully, Esq., Comprising Authentic Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Reigning Bashaw, His Family, and Other Persons of Distinction; also an Account of the Domestic Manners of the Moors, Arabs, and Turks. Miss Tully. London: H. Colburn. 1816.
Mitford may have read the third edition, published in 1819.—lmw
Mitford rated it very entertaining indeed. In journal entry Wednesday 12 May 1819 .—lmw—written by a ladyMiss Tully Tully Miss
According to the Preface to , Miss Tully is the sister of Richard Tully, Esq., his Brittanic Majesty’s Counsul at the Court of Tripoly, who edited her correspondence.—lmw—She lets one quite into the interior of those inaccessible places Seraglios Harems & so forth—Lady M. W. Montague herself was less learned in ^fair fatimas & slippers & sashes & handkerchiefs & caftans & all the mysteries of a Turkish toilette—besides this womanish knowledge there is a vast deal of knowledge not womanish—& an account of the Bashaw's family which but for the misfortune of its being true would pass for one of the finest tragic narratives in the world. In short if you are not alarmed at the size of the book you will find it to say the least a great deal more entertaining than CamillaCamilla, or a Picture of Young Lady. Frances Burney . London: Payne Cadell and Davies. 1796. .—Before I have done with [gap: 1 word, reason: torn.][literature] I must ask if you have seen an imitation of your part[gap: 6 chars, reason: torn.][icular] favorite Mr. WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth | Born: 1770-04-07 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. Died: 1850-04-23 in Rydal Mount, near Amberside, Cumberland, England.
First-generation poet of the Romantic era, Lake Poet and friend of fellow poet Coleridge, who co-authored Lyrical Ballads with him and to whom his major poem The Prelude was originally addressed. Poet Laureate from 1843-1850, succeeding his sometime friend and fellow Lake Poet Robert Southey in that role.—lmw, rnes
called Peter BellPeter Bell: A Lyrical Ballad. John Hamilton Reynolds . London: Taylor and Hessey . 1819. ?—He—the real Mr. WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth | Born: 1770-04-07 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. Died: 1850-04-23 in Rydal Mount, near Amberside, Cumberland, England.
First-generation poet of the Romantic era, Lake Poet and friend of fellow poet Coleridge, who co-authored Lyrical Ballads with him and to whom his major poem The Prelude was originally addressed. Poet Laureate from 1843-1850, succeeding his sometime friend and fellow Lake Poet Robert Southey in that role.—lmw, rnes
had announced a ditty so called—& some wicked wit much of your mind with regard to that great Poet—came out a week before him with this parody by anticipation—I only saw it the other day for five minutes but I thought it extremely clever particularly an Epitaph on Mr. WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth | Born: 1770-04-07 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. Died: 1850-04-23 in Rydal Mount, near Amberside, Cumberland, England.
First-generation poet of the Romantic era, Lake Poet and friend of fellow poet Coleridge, who co-authored Lyrical Ballads with him and to whom his major poem The Prelude was originally addressed. Poet Laureate from 1843-1850, succeeding his sometime friend and fellow Lake Poet Robert Southey in that role.—lmw, rnes
—which I don't quite recollect but which was to this effect

—I am not sure of any part of these lines being quite right except the rhymes—but you will agree with me that they are not to be forgotten.—I saw too a very clever toryTory Party
Originally, a 17th-century insulting nickname for those who supported James II’s right to the throne of England, even though he was Catholic. The term connoted an Irish Catholic outlaw. The term was adopted by the party, which became generally affiliated with the interests of the country gentry, Anglicanism, and support of the divine right of kings. The party was loosely affiliated until the late 18th century, when William Pitt the Younger emerged as the leader of a revitalized party. The Conservative Party, founded in 1834 by Sir Robert Peel, absorbed and reorganized the Tory Party and retained the party nickname. —kdc squib from a little book called the New Whig GuideThe New Whig Guide. London: W. Wright. 1819.
Authorship attributed to Viscount Henry John Temple Palmerston John Wilson Croker, and Robert Peel —lmw—there are several very good things in it—but that which struck me particularly was the Trial of Henry BroughamHenry Peter Brougham 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux Lord Chancellor | Born: 1778-09-19 in Cowgate, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland . Died: 1868-05-07 in Cannes, France.
One of the founders of the Edinburgh Review. Practiced law in Edinburgh and London. Whig reformer and member of Parliament; known for political, educational and legal reforms. While Lord Chancellor in the 1830s, he oversaw the Representation of the People Act of 1832 (voting reforms), the Slavery Abolition Act of 1832 (abolishing slavery throughout the British empire), and established the Central Criminal Court. Chief legal advisor to Queen Caroline and defended her in 1820. Designer of the fashionable four-wheeled carriage that bears his name. Helped popularize Cannes as a seaside resort.—lmw
for Mutiny—Nothing can be more laughable. page 4
Now you must write to me very soon—& find fault with CamillaCamilla, or a Picture of Young Lady. Frances Burney . London: Payne Cadell and Davies. 1796. & tell me that you found your family all well—& if you should be at a loss for a subject send me a description of BickhamBickham, Somerset, England | Bickham | Somerset | England | 51.163534 -3.506621999999993 Hamlet near Plymouth, and residence of Sir William Elford, who lived there until the failure of his finances in 1825 forced him eventually to sell his family’s estate. He sold his property in Bickham in 1831 and moved to The Priory, in Totnes, Devon the house of his daughter (Elizabeth) and son-in-law.—ebb, lmw. I want very much to know all about it.—Adieu my dear Friend—PapaGeorge Mitford, Esq., or: George Midford | Born: . Died: .
Father of Mary Rusell Mitford, George Mitford was the son of Francis Midford, surgeon, and Jane Graham. The family name is sometimes recorded as Midford. Immediate family called him by nicknames including Drum, Tod, and Dodo. He was a member of a minor branch of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle in Northumberland. Although later sources would suggest that he was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh medical school, there is no evidence that he obtained a medical degree and he did not generally refer to himself as Dr. Mitford, preferring to style himself Esq.. In 1784, he is listed in a Hampshire directory as surgeon (medicine) of Alresford. His father and grandfather worked as apothecary-surgeons and it seems likely that he served a medical apprenticeship with family members.
He married Mary Russell on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford, Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their addresses as Old Alresford; they later came to live at Broad Street in New Alresford. Their only child to live to adulthood, Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years later on December 16, 1787 at New Alresford, Hampshire. He assisted Mitford's literary career by representing her interests in London and elsewhere with theater owners and publishers. He was active in Whig politics and later served as a local magistrate. He coursed greyhounds with his friend James Webb.
—lmw is in LondonLondon, England | London | England | 51.5073509 -0.12775829999998223 Capital city of England and the United Kingdom; one the oldest cities in Western Europe. Major seaport and global trading center at the mouth of the Thames. From 1831 to 1925, the largest city in the world.—lmw—MamaMary Russell Mitford, or: Mrs. Mitford | Born: 1750 in Ashe, Hampshire, England. Died: 1830-01-02 in Three Mile Cross, parish of Shinfield, Berkshire, England.
Mary Russell was the youngest child of the Rev. Dr. Richard Russell and his second wife, Mary Dicker; she was born about 1750 in Ashe, Hampshire. (Her birth date is as yet unverified; period sources indicate that she was ten years older than her husband George, born in 1760.) Through the Russells, she was a distant relation of the Dukes of Bedford (sixth creation, 1694). She had two siblings, Charles William and Frances; both predeceased her and their parents, which resulted in Mary Russell inheriting her family’s entire estate upon her mother’s death in 1785. Her father’s rectory in Ashe was only a short distance from Steventon, and so she was acquainted with the young Jane Austen. She married George Mitford or Midford on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford, Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their addresses as Old Alresford. Their only daughter, Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years later on December 16, 1787 at New Alresford, Hampshire. Mary Russell died on January 2, 1830 at Three Mile Cross in the parish of Shinfield, Berkshire. Her obituary in the 1830 New Monthly Magazine gives New Year’s day as the date of her death.—ajc, lmw
sends her kindest remembrances—

P.S. I had a complete elucidation one very dark night soon after your visit of your theory of the ^remaining senses being quickened by one's lying dormant—We quite traced our way home from WokinghamWokingham, Berkshire, England | Wokingham | Berkshire | England | 51.410457 -0.8338610000000699 A market town in south east England in Berkshire, near Reading. The Mitfords sometimes travelled to Wokingham on their way to London, or to visit the home of their friends, the Webbs.—lmw, err (9 miles off) by the succession of sweet scents which in the day we had hardly noticed, the bean fields—the stocks & honeysuckles of the Cottage gardens were as completely our landmarks as the fields & cottages themselves could have been in the broad day light. 〰Adieu once more my dear Friend. Pray excuse my bad writing—worse than common owing to a wretched pen.