I have just this moment received your most kind & entertaining letter, my dear friendWilliam 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

, & I hasten to answer it on the full gallop that I may catch our flying M.P. 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 .
- who was in 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 yesterday & [del: 1 word.][Damage: agent: .][our] (Deuce take that blot—more haste worse speed!) our moveable MemberCharles 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 .
who was in 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 yesterday & therefore will not be there tomorrow. First let me express how unfeignedly sorry I am—we are—for the sickness you have had to encounter at 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 hope this will find your daughter recovering both her strength & her looks—& that your cough will disappear in this mild weather—melt & go off like the snow. 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
& I have kept quite well this unhealthy winter—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 has not— he has had a great deal of head achheadache & heavy cold —& as he takes no manner of care of himself—comes down from 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 at four oclocko'clock in the morning on the outside of a coach—& other tendencies of the same nature (I hope he is looking over my shoulder) can scarcely expect to be free from complaint. 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 yet confined & keeps pretty well as to health though a good deal troubled with superstitious forebodings which I do all in my power to drive out of her head by [gayer] nonsense. Now you have our bulletins all round.[gap: .]What you say of IvanhoeIvanhoe. Walter Scott. Sir Walter Scott Walter Scott Sir Baronet . is admirably just and true - RowenaRowena
Character in Ivanhoe —lmw is a mere woman of straw - a peg to hang [del: .]love upon—as almost all hisWalter Scott, Sir, Baronet, or: Sir Baronet | Born: 1771-08-15 in College Wynd, Edinburgh, Scotland. Died: 1832-09-21 in Abbotsford, near Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland.
Scottish advocate, antiquarian, poet, and novelist. Also worked as clerk of the Court of Session in Edinburgh. He assembled a collection of Scottish ballads, many of which had never before been printed, in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, first published in 1802, but continually expanded in revised editions through 1812 . Author of the long romance poems, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion (1808), and The Lady of the Lake (1810). From 1814-1831, Scott published 23 novels, and over the course of his literary career, he wrote review articles for the Edinburgh Review, The Quarterly Review, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, and the Foreign Quarterly Review.—ebb, esh
heroines are—of that horrible old woman I had before made dishonourable mention—& those two scenes of burning & of torture are quite unworthy of so great a Poet—He picked up that love of representing bodily suffering though, wherepage 2
[by word] syllable by syllable—It is their fault, that they are of [gap: reason: ms photo.] Poems the most recherchés—Moreover Madame de GenlisStéphanie Félicité de Saint-Aubin du Crest, Comtesse, or: Comtesse de Genlis, Madame de Genlis | Born: 1746-01-25 in Issy-l'Évêque, Saône-et-Loire, France. Died: 1830-12-30.
French author of sensibility novels as well as works for children based on the practices of Rousseau. Later an emigre to England in the wake of the French Revolution.—lmw
makes Petrarque out an angel & then says she is just like him! Really these French women are vain of their own vanity! - Do you ever read Miss BurneySarah Harriet Burney, or: Miss Burney | Born: 1772-08-29 in Lynn Regis, Norfolk, England. Died: 1844-02-08 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.
Daughter of Charles Burney by his second wife, Elizabeth Allen. Half sister to Frances Burney.—lmw
's novels? I mean the lesser BurneySarah Harriet Burney, or: Miss Burney | Born: 1772-08-29 in Lynn Regis, Norfolk, England. Died: 1844-02-08 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.
Daughter of Charles Burney by his second wife, Elizabeth Allen. Half sister to Frances Burney.—lmw
—not Madame D'ArblayFrances d' Arblay | Born: 1752-06-13 in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. Died: 1840-01-06 in London, England.
Author of satirical comedies, blank verse tragedies, and novels of manners as well as a biographer of her father, musician Charles Burney. Her diaries and letters were published posthumously.—lmw
but her sister whom I like better. We are reading one now—Country NeighboursTales of Fancy: Country Neighbors; or, The Secret. Sarah Harriet Burney . London: H. Colburn. 1816.
Country Neighbors makes up volumes two and three of the three-volume work. As she reads, Mitford rated it famous; very good and very good indeed.—lmw—pretty enough I think. [gap: 1 word, reason: illegible.] by millions—a heroine who is so young so wise so good so beautiful & so accomplished that she makes one sick even before she saves her lover's life, an iniquity so Miss-PorterishAnna Maria Porter | Born: 1780. Died: 1832-09-21 in Bristol, England.
Sister of the popular historical novelist Jane Porter, Anna Maria Porter wrote prolifically in verse romance, two novels, and collaborated with her sister on story collections. Both sisters were friends of Walter Scott. See the Orlando Project’s summation of major themes in her works: and History’s Women for a biographical sketch of both sisters .—ebb
that I quite wonder at Miss BurneySarah Harriet Burney, or: Miss Burney | Born: 1772-08-29 in Lynn Regis, Norfolk, England. Died: 1844-02-08 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.
Daughter of Charles Burney by his second wife, Elizabeth Allen. Half sister to Frances Burney.—lmw
's lighting upon it—the plot too is exceedingly disagreeable & entangled—all in a snarl as the cotton-spinners say, & mighty difficult to undo. But nevertheless the book is pretty—there is some good observation in it—& a sarcastic old lady whom I like exceedingly—to say nothing of a most amiable old maid - Well I think I have talked enough of novels—Did you ever read a little book which has been lately reprinted The Captivity of Captain John Knox inonthe Island of CeylonAccount of the Captivity of Robert Knox and Other Englishmen, in the Island of Ceylon: And of the Captain’s Miraculous Escape and Return to England in September 1680, After Detention on the Island of Nineteen Years and a Half. Robert Knox. London: J. Hatchard. 1818. ? It is charming—If one did not know it to be nothing but a real true history told by the very man to whom it happened one should take it for one of the enchanting fictions of DefoeDaniel Defoe | Born: 1660 in London, England. Died: 1731-04-24 in London, England.
Early practitioner of the English novel, admired by Mitford for the vivid realism of his fictional portraits.—lmw
—Nothing but Robinson CrusoeThe Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner". Daniel Defoe . London: W. Taylor. 1719.
Full title: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived eight and twenty years all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river of Oroonoque; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, wherein all the men perished but himself. With an account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by pyrates. Written by himself.
was ever so vividly real[del: .] I thought I had done with books—but I find I have not —Ben JonsonBenjamin Jonson | Born: 1572-06-11. Died: 1637-08-06 in London, England.
Early modern English playwright and contemporary of William Shakespeare. Jonson was known for satirical plays, including Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Foxe (1605), and The Alchemist (1610).—ebb's Sad ShepherdThe Sad Shepherd: Or, A Tale of Robin Hood, a Fragment. Ben Jonson .
Appeared in this form in 1783, edited by Francis Godolphin Waldron and Peter Whalley.—lmwis a fragment of a Pastoral Drama said to have been left unfinished in consequence of the ill success of his friend FletcherJohn Fletcher | Born: 1579 in Rye, Sussex, England. Died: 1625 in London, England.
Playwright following Shakespeare, contemporary of Ben Jonson in the early seventeenth century, and collaborator with Francis Beaumont. Some plays once attributed to Beaumont and Fletcher as a duo were now known to have been written by only one of them and/or with other collaborators.—ebb, rnes
's exquisite Faithful ShepherdessThe Faithful Shepherdess. John Fletcher .
Likely first performed in 1608 and first appeared in print in 1609.—lmw—only two acts & a scene remain, but they are enchanting— not in old BenBenjamin Jonson | Born: 1572-06-11. Died: 1637-08-06 in London, England.
Early modern English playwright and contemporary of William Shakespeare. Jonson was known for satirical plays, including Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Foxe (1605), and The Alchemist (1610).—ebb's common Dramatic style, so stiff & artificial—but in the sweet & tender manner of some of his beautiful lyrics—If finished it would have been one of the finest things in the language—the story relates to— Gammer Gurton's page 3
NeedleGammer Gurton’s Needle.
Comic play written during the 1550s, considered one of the first comedies in English. Published anonymously, authorship is now likely attributed to William Stevenson (1530–1575).—lmw is quite another matter—you know that it is the oldest English play—& really it is one of the most diverting—coarse enough to be true but exceedingly fresh & frolicsome & funny & not at all unintelligible—Miss JamesElizabeth Mary James, or: Miss James | Born: 1775 in Bath, Somerset, England. Died: 1861-11-25 in 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey, England.
Close friend and correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Webb and Susanna Haycock. Her father died in 1818 and her mother in 1835. After her parents’ deaths, she lived with her two younger sisters, Emily and Susan, in Green Park Buildings, Bath, Walcot, Somerset; High Street, Mortlake, Surrey; and 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey. According to Coles, referring to Mitford’s diary, letters were also addressed to her at Bellevue, Lower Road, Richmond (Coles 26). She was buried at St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond, Surrey. In the 1841 census, she is listed as living on independent means; in the 1851 census, as landholder; in the 1861 census, she as railway shareholder.—lmw who is  by farone of the most elegant person of my acquaintance says she likes it better than any comedy in the language—one of the characters in it always put me in mind of Edie OchiltreeEdie Ochiltree
character in The Antiquary.—esh—not in ^ supernatural capacity—[del: .] which you dislike so much—but in his better vocation of a merry old beggar—that "Antiquary"The Antiquary. Walter Scott. Sir Walter Scott Walter Scott Sir Baronet . Edinburgh London: Constable and co. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. after all is my favourite of the whole set of Scotch novels—it is written with more verve—is more a pure exertion of Intellect—seems to be the favorite of the Author.—& above all is the least popular among the novel reading young Misses whose praise is not fame. There are more faults than in any including Old ElspethElspeth
Steenie’s grandmother in Walter Scott’s The Antiquary .—esh, lmw & all the ford story—as well as that incredible DousterwivelDousterwivel
Character in The Antiquary —lmw—& still it is my favorite—Tell me is it your's?

you are very good to the Bishop of SalisburyJohn Fisher, or: Bishop of Exeter, Bishop of Salisbury | Born: 1748. Died: 1825-05-08.
Bishop of Exeter and then Bishop of Salisbury from 1807-1825. Art collector and patron of John Constable. —lmw to assign his "distractions" as a reason for this thefts—or an excuse—but did you never observe that your absent people sometimes make very good use of their absences? I had a friend—an old Portuguese Countess who came here when the rest of  theher tribe went to the BrazilsBrazil | Republic of Brazil | República Federativa do Brasil | -14.235004 -51.92527999999999 Largest country in South America.—bas—she could not bear to be beaten at Chess—& being like the Bishop very absent, always when she saw the game going against her used to stare about a little—sweep the men off the board and get up with a "Finisons!—J'ai de distractions!" I never knew her to have "distraction" when she was winning in my life—And some such useful fit of absence seized the Right Revd.John Fisher, or: Bishop of Exeter, Bishop of Salisbury | Born: 1748. Died: 1825-05-08.
Bishop of Exeter and then Bishop of Salisbury from 1807-1825. Art collector and patron of John Constable. —lmw when he forgot to return [del: .]poor Mr. DickinsonCharles Dickinson, or: Mr. Dickinson | Born: 1755-03-06 in Pickwick Lodge, Corsham, Wiltshire, England. Died: 1827 in Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, England.
Friend of the Mitford family. He was the son of Vikris Dickinson and Elizabeth Marchant. The Dickinson family were Quakers who lived in the vicinity of Bristol, Gloucestershire. On August 3, 1807, he married Catherine Allingham at St Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived at Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, where their daughter Frances was born, and where the Mitfords visited them. Charles Dickinson owned a private press he employed to print literary works by his friends (See letters to Elford from March 13, 1819 and June 21, 1820). He wrote and published an epic poem in sixty-six cantos, The Travels of Cyllenius, in 1795. Upon his uncle's death, Charles Dickinson inherited the considerable wealth his extended family had amassed in the West Indies.—ajc, lmw
's and RembrandtRembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn | Born: 1606-07-15 in Leiden, Netherlands. Died: 1669-10-04 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Famous Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker. A prolific painter and printmaker, Rembrandt is usually regarded as the greatest artist of the Netherlands’ Golden Age. Best known for his portraits in oil, particularly his many self-portraits, he also painted landscapes and narratives, including biblical and mythological scenes. He was also a skilled printmaker, employing etching as well as dry point techniques. See The Met’s Rembrandt site at . —hbl, lmw, ebb
s—How you love to laugh at my pedantry!—Well I do think the elements are in me & that if I knew any thing at all I really should be a Pedant page 4
But I was full of those fine etchings when I  talkedwrote to you & could not help talking of them—Weinotter's are chiefly little tiny [del: .]landscapes on slips of paper—abundantly sweet & delicate & graceful—& Mr. DickinsonCharles Dickinson, or: Mr. Dickinson | Born: 1755-03-06 in Pickwick Lodge, Corsham, Wiltshire, England. Died: 1827 in Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, England.
Friend of the Mitford family. He was the son of Vikris Dickinson and Elizabeth Marchant. The Dickinson family were Quakers who lived in the vicinity of Bristol, Gloucestershire. On August 3, 1807, he married Catherine Allingham at St Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived at Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, where their daughter Frances was born, and where the Mitfords visited them. Charles Dickinson owned a private press he employed to print literary works by his friends (See letters to Elford from March 13, 1819 and June 21, 1820). He wrote and published an epic poem in sixty-six cantos, The Travels of Cyllenius, in 1795. Upon his uncle's death, Charles Dickinson inherited the considerable wealth his extended family had amassed in the West Indies.—ajc, lmw
says rare.

I have just heard that the KingGeorge William Frederick , King of Great Britain and King of Ireland , King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Born: 1738-06-04 in Norfolk House, St. James's Square, London, England. Died: 1820-01-29 in Windsor Castle, Windsor, England.
The king who lost the American colonies, and suffered porphyria and mental illness in the 1810s, when his son, the future King George IV reigned in his stead as the Prince Regent. King George III's role changed after the Act of Union between England and Ireland in 1801.—ebb
is dead—Poor venerable old Man!—It is fortunate for you that my paper is nearly filled & the servant waiting to take my letter into 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 or I should have vented to you, my ever kindest & most indulgent friend, some of that fullness of thought & feeling which such an event forces into every mind!

Adieu! Pray write soon—& give us a good account of you all—My FatherGeorge 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 and MotherMary 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
join in kindest compliments, & I am always, 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

Pray forgive my blobs and blunders

Feby 2nd—Have you read Spence's AnecotesAnecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men. Collected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope, and Other Eminent Persons of His Time. Joseph Spence . London: John Murray. 1820.
Spence’s Anecdotes were collected and published posthumously in 1820 by Edmund Malone.—lmw? I have just finished them—a delightful chitchat book after the manner of BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinlek, or: 9th Laird of Auchinlek | Born: 1740-10-29 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Died: 1795-05-19 in London, England.
Best known as the companion and biographer of Samuel Johnson, Boswell travelled extensively in Europe and Great Britain and published accounts of his travels in Corsica and in the Hebrides. Although never prominent in the legal profession, he was trained in Scotland and practiced as an advocate, and later also practiced at the English bar. Boswell represented the Scottish bookseller Alexander Donaldson in the important copyright case, Donaldson v. Beckett. Mitford compares his skill as a biographer unfavorably to that of Aubrey, preferring the latter's brevity. His voluminous journals and letters were rediscovered in the 1920s and edited and published in multiple volumes between 1950 and 1989.—lmw
PopeAlexander Pope | Born: 1688-05-21 in London, England. Died: 1744-05-30 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England.
Augustan-era Catholic poet whose achievements include the mock epics The Rape of the Lock and the Dunciad, as well as the Essay on Man, and a translation of the Illiad. He had a disfiguring disability, probably resulting from Pott's disease, and was an invalid for much of his life. He was known for his biting satire. Source: Britannica.—lmw, rnes
being the hero. I never saw PopeAlexander Pope | Born: 1688-05-21 in London, England. Died: 1744-05-30 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England.
Augustan-era Catholic poet whose achievements include the mock epics The Rape of the Lock and the Dunciad, as well as the Essay on Man, and a translation of the Illiad. He had a disfiguring disability, probably resulting from Pott's disease, and was an invalid for much of his life. He was known for his biting satire. Source: Britannica.—lmw, rnes
to such advantage—nor BolingbrokeHenry St. John, or: Lord Bolingbroke, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke | Born: 1678-09-16 in Battersea, Surrey, England. Died: 1751-12-12 in Battersea, Surrey, England.
Tory politician, political philosopher, and supporter of the 1715 Jacobiterebellion. His works influenced Voltaire as well as proponents of American republicanism such as Thomas Jefferson. Mitford mentions reading about Bolingbroke in Spence's Anecdotes.—lmw
—AddisonJoseph Addison | Born: 1672-05-01 in Millstone, Wiltshire, England. Died: 1719-06-17 in Holland House, London, England.
English politician and writer who, with his friend Sir Richard Steele, edited the journal The Spectator.—alg cuts a very shabby figure indeed—How very out-of-fashion the critical remarks seem now! a list of English Prose writers & neither Jeremy TaylorJeremy Taylor | Born: 1613-08-15. Died: 1667-08-13.
Church of England clergyman and author, known as the Shakespeare of Divines and admired for his literary prose style. Mitford mentions his style admiringly, along with that of Izaak Walton.—lmw, rnes
nor Isaac WaltonIzaak Walton | Born: 1594 in Stafford, Staffordshire, England. Died: 1683-12-15 in Winchester, Hampshire, England.
Wrote The Compleat Angler and a book of short biographies, The Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, &c., sometimes called Walton's Lives. Mitford admired Walton's literary style and realism as a biographer in her letters of 1819. —ncl, lmw
, nor Sir Thomas BrownThomas Browne | Born: 1605-10-19 in London, England. Died: 1682-10-19 in Norwich, Norfolk, England.
Physician, philosopher, and theologian who made considerable contributions to English thought, especially about science, and the English language (including recording over 700 neologisms), particularly during the turbulent era of the Civil Wars. His most famous works include Religio Medici (A Doctor's Religion), Urne-Buriall, and the extraordinary encyclopedia of pseudoscientific error, the Pseudodoxia Epidemica (translated in 1672 as Enquiries Into Commonly Presumed Truths). Browne's writing was admired by many Romantic and Victorian authors, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle. The subject of a biography by Samuel Johnson, Browne has lost much of his cultural status since the end of the nineteenth century, but is now undergoing a cultural resurgence.—rnes
so much as hinted at!—Observations on English Poets & Lord DorsetCharles Sackville, or: 6th Earl of Dorset, 1st Earl of Middlesex | Born: 1638-01-24. Died: 1706-01-29 in Bath, Somerset, England.
Restoration-era courtier, rake, and wit, the associate of Sir Charles Sedley, Rochester, and Nell Gwynn. Literary patron of Dryden, among others, and author of satirical lampoons.—lmw
& RochesterJohn Wilmot, or: 2nd Earl of Rochester | Born: 1647-04-01 in Ditchley, Oxfordshire, England. Died: 1680-07-26 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England.
& the two Dukes of Buckingham examined & sifted & talked about as if they were worth finding fault with!—What a famous text book this of SpenceJoseph Spence | Born: 1699-04-28 in Kingsclere, Hampshire, England. Died: 1768-08-20 in Byfleet, Surrey, England.
Clergyman and garden designer, Professor of Poetry, and Regius Professor of History at Oxford University. Author of Spence's Anecdotes, unpublished during his lifetime, which contain anecdotes about his friendships with eighteenth-century literary figures such as Alexander Pope.—lmw
's will be for one of Mr. DickinsonCharles Dickinson, or: Mr. Dickinson | Born: 1755-03-06 in Pickwick Lodge, Corsham, Wiltshire, England. Died: 1827 in Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, England.
Friend of the Mitford family. He was the son of Vikris Dickinson and Elizabeth Marchant. The Dickinson family were Quakers who lived in the vicinity of Bristol, Gloucestershire. On August 3, 1807, he married Catherine Allingham at St Giles, South Mimms, Middlesex. They lived at Farley Hill, near Swallowfield, Berkshire, where their daughter Frances was born, and where the Mitfords visited them. Charles Dickinson owned a private press he employed to print literary works by his friends (See letters to Elford from March 13, 1819 and June 21, 1820). He wrote and published an epic poem in sixty-six cantos, The Travels of Cyllenius, in 1795. Upon his uncle's death, Charles Dickinson inherited the considerable wealth his extended family had amassed in the West Indies.—ajc, lmw
's long lectures! How he will glory in these opinions positive & negative these omissions & commisionscommissions! How he will buffet me with Mr. SpenceJoseph Spence | Born: 1699-04-28 in Kingsclere, Hampshire, England. Died: 1768-08-20 in Byfleet, Surrey, England.
Clergyman and garden designer, Professor of Poetry, and Regius Professor of History at Oxford University. Author of Spence's Anecdotes, unpublished during his lifetime, which contain anecdotes about his friendships with eighteenth-century literary figures such as Alexander Pope.—lmw
& knock me down with Mr. PopeAlexander Pope | Born: 1688-05-21 in London, England. Died: 1744-05-30 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England.
Augustan-era Catholic poet whose achievements include the mock epics The Rape of the Lock and the Dunciad, as well as the Essay on Man, and a translation of the Illiad. He had a disfiguring disability, probably resulting from Pott's disease, and was an invalid for much of his life. He was known for his biting satire. Source: Britannica.—lmw, rnes
! Excellent sport for him!—& no very bad fun for me.—no baby there yet.—I wonder very much when I shall get a frank—If I don't get one soon my letter will be too heavy—Do you know this calamity did actually befell me once with Miss JamesElizabeth Mary James, or: Miss James | Born: 1775 in Bath, Somerset, England. Died: 1861-11-25 in 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey, England.
Close friend and correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Webb and Susanna Haycock. Her father died in 1818 and her mother in 1835. After her parents’ deaths, she lived with her two younger sisters, Emily and Susan, in Green Park Buildings, Bath, Walcot, Somerset; High Street, Mortlake, Surrey; and 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey. According to Coles, referring to Mitford’s diary, letters were also addressed to her at Bellevue, Lower Road, Richmond (Coles 26). She was buried at St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond, Surrey. In the 1841 census, she is listed as living on independent means; in the 1851 census, as landholder; in the 1861 census, she as railway shareholder.—lmw—I waited for a cover, & wrote on & on,—till I filled four sheets and was forced to send them by the Coach. Good bye my dear Friend. I have at last pulled the wax off to lighten my packet—for the half dozenth time Adieu dear Friend.