Letter to <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir William Elford</persName>, April 3, 1815 Mary Russell Mitford Lisa M. Wilson Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Lisa M. Wilson First digital edition in TEI, date: August 15, 2017. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: P1010674.jpg, P1010675.jpg, P1010676.jpg, P1010677.jpg, P1010678.jpg, P1010679.jpg, P1010680.jpg, P1010681.jpg, P1010682.jpg, P1010683.jpg, P1010684.jpg, P1010685.jpg, P1010686.jpg, P1010687.jpg, P1010688.jpg, P1010689.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. 3, 1815-1818 qB/TU/MIT Vol. 3 Horizon No.: 1361547 ff. 258 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford, 1815 April 3. We arrived at this date by checking a perpetual calendar. It must be this date because etc etc -->

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

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. On leaf four, a red line is drawn from top left to bottom right across each of the two text blocks. 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. This letter is numbered "11" in the top left 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.
Bertram House April 3rd 1815.

What a happy device have you found, my dear Sir William, to make me write quickly! "Unless you write immediately & write a long letter" say you "I shall be sure that you are married." And then you talk something of being certain that I am in Love & being courted & so forth because I have given you a short respite from the fatigue & diffiulty of deciphering a frankfull of my hieroglyphics once a fortnight. But, Alas! my dear friend, you are mistaken, quite mistaken, I assure you! I am not going to be married--no such good luck as Papa says--I have not been courted--& I am not in Love. So much for this question--If I ever should happen to be going to be married (elegant construction this!) I will not fail to let you into the secret--but Alas! Alas!! Alas!!! "In such a then I write a never." Quotation from All's Well that Ends well, act three, scene two; letter read by Helena: "When thou canst get the ring upon my finger, which shall never come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body, that I am father to, then call me husband, but in such a then I write a never."--In the meantime I am infinitely flattered & delighted to find you complaining of short letters. Papa has always so scolded me for sending you such long ones & bewailed your hard fate so pitifully in being condemned to read them, that I really began to think in spite of all your politeness & my own vanity that I was doing you a great favour in curtailing my epistles. But now he may scold as long as he pleases I have it under your own hand that you like long letters & long ones you shall have bad good & indifferent--there is a Latin line which I am afraid of writing for fear of blunder butwhich you doubtless remember which expresses pretty accurately the degree in which the aforesaid qualities are likely to appear in my epistles.--Now my dear Sir William, then I have like you & Cowper done talking of my letter. I will if you please begin writing it. And first of all I must quarrel with you for depriving me of the pleasure of descanting on two such notable subjects as the Corn Laws & Bonaparte by being exactly of my opinion & leaving me nothing to say. As to the Corn Laws they, I must confess, are but the Ghost of a subject & even that troubled spirit seems likely enough to be laid in the red Sea by the mighty Conjuror of France--but we might neverthless have had a very pretty little dispute about it if we had not happened to be of the same way of thinking--though I believe that I was less an advocate for them than you were (I take it for granted you see that you were for them though you defied me to find out on which side you had ranged yourself) from thinking in common with the best informed people in this neighbourhood that the difference either to the Farmer or the Consumer would be infinitely less than was expected not merely by the mob but by the rational part of their leaders. With regard to the Emperor we are exactly of a mind--no country can have a right to dictate to another as to the form of its internal Government, & when a whole nation, consisting of course of those who act & those who acquiesce, when a whole nation by one simultaneous & bloodless revolution deposed one Monarch--a Monarch imposed on them it by conquering Kings & replaces another of its own free & unbiased choice, & when France is that Nation and Napoleon that Monarch none but madmen would interfere & none but fools could expect their interference to succeed. If Napoleon be a Tyrant what is that to us! The French have deserved him by their treachery to Louis, & if they prefer a King ?? to a King ?? in the name of Heaven let them keep him. If he be not a Tyrant--And surely France ought to know--they have deserved him by their fidelity to himself, & why should we interrupt their happiness by efforts which must mar our own. What a pity it was that Louis did not when he saw as he must have seen that hope was lost retire presently tranquilly to England leaving Peace as a parting legacy to France & building for himself a truer a better & a more dignified reputation by relinquishing his throne than any that even a long reign could have gained him. He was good enough to have done this--why was he not great enough?

Pray have you read the Lord of the Isles? I do not mean, as I once unwittingly did in the beginning of our correspondence, to draw you into the scrape of reading a Poem, but if you should by chance have looked at it pray tell me how you like it. It is certainly a thousand times better than Rokeby & yet it does not please me as Scott's Poems used to do. I am afraid that I once admired him a great deal too much & now am in some danger of liking him a great deal too little. Nothing so violent as a rebound either of the head or the heart. Once extinquish enthusiasm & all the fire in Vesuvius will never light it again. I fancy that the World is something of my mind in this respect & begins to tire of its Idol--only the World is not half so honest & instead of Knocking down one piece of wood contents itself with sticking up another right before it--"It is not" say all the gentle damsels of my acquaintance "that we like Scott less--we only like Lord Byron better." Now I do not--I like Scott less--but Lord Byron less still; the only modern Poet whom I liked better & better is Campbell. I have told you my dear friend that I would not trust you in the case to be jingled into a fever by "mincing poesy" Hotspur in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I, act 3, scene 1: "And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,/ Nothing so much as mincing poetry" but I have found out, to my great satisfaction (for I too am a novel-reader) that there is no danger of affronting you by recommending a prose Epic to your perusal, & I have lately been very much & very unexpectedly pleased with Lady Morgan (ci-devant Miss Owenson's) O'Donnel. I had a great prejudice & dislike to this fair Author ever since I read a certain description of which she was guilty where part of a Lady's dress is described as "an apparent tissue of woven air," A misattribution. Not from from Owenson's 1814 novel but from her Woman; or Ida of Athens: "She resembled as she lay, the beautiful personification of Bashfulness by Corradini; for an air of vestal innocence, that modesty which is of soul, seemed to diffuse itself over a form whose exquisite symmetry was at once betrayed and concealed by the apparent tissue of woven air which fell like a vapour around her." The Quarterly Review and Barrett's novel The Heroine also poked fun at this passage. & really took up the book with an idea that nothing but nonsense could come from that quarter. I was however very much disappointed in my malicious of laughing at her & obliged to content myself with laughing with her. Her hero is very interesting--her heroine very amusing--there are some good characters particularly a managing bustling woman of fashion et pour la bonne nouche Colloquially, the best for the last. there is an Irish servant not much if at all inferior to the admirable Irishmen of Miss Edgeworth. With all this the book has two great faults--Irish politics & Irish Antiquities found admission I by the help of an Author-like fellow feeling have discovered. Poor Lady Morgan meant to have made one of her old romances full of "woven air" & so forth of her work & have collected materials & written a good deal could not find it in her heart to throw it away & so foisted the ODonnel of Elizabeth's time into the ODonnel of George the Third's by way of an Ancestor. After all the book is very entertaining & the Episode easily skipt skipped . Apropos to novels.--I have discovered that our great favourite Miss Austen is my Countrywoman--that Mama knew all her family very intimately, & that she herself is an old maid (I beg her pardon I mean a young lady) with whom Mama before her marriage was acquainted.-- Mama says that she was then the prettiest silliest most affected husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers--& a friend of mine who visits her now says that she has stiffened into the most perpendicular precise taciturn piece of "single blessedness" A Midsummer Night's Dream, act one, scene one, Theseus to Hermia: "Earthlier happy is the rose distilled/ Than that which withering on the virgin thorn/ Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness."that ever existed, & that till Pride and Prejudice showed what a previous gem was hidden in that unbending case she was no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire skreen screen or any other thin upright piece of wood or iron that fills its corner in peace & quietness. The case is very different now--she is still a poker--but a poker of whom every one is afraid. It must be confessed that this silent observation from such an observer is rather formidable--most writers are good humoured chatterers--neither very wise nor very witty--but nine times out of ten--at least in the few that I have known, unaffected & pleasant & quite removing by their conversation any fear awe that may have been excited by their works--but a wit, a delineator of character who does not talk is terrific indeed! After all I do not know that I can quite vouch for this account though the friend from whom I received it is truth itself--but her family connections must render her disagreeable to Miss Austen since she is the sister in law of a Gentleman who is at law with Miss A.'s brother for the greater part of his fortune. You must have remarked how much her stories hinge upon entailed estates--doubtless she has learnt to dislike Entails. Her brother was adopted by a Mr. Knight who left him his name & two much better legacies in an estate of five thousand a year in Kent & one of nearly double the value in Hampshire, but it seems that he forgot some ceremony--passing a fine I think they call it--with regards to the Hampshire property, which Mr. Baverstock has claimed in right of his Mother together with the mesne rents & is likely to be successful.--Before I quite drop the subject of novels I must tell you that I am reading Guy Mannering with great pleasure--I have not finished it nearly so that I speak of it now as any one would do that had read no farther than the second Volume of the Mysteries of Udolpho & that won't be much better than one who had finished it--I do not think that Walter Scott did write Guy Mannering--it is not nearly so like him as Waverley was & the motto is from "The Lay."

I am quite happy that you are of my opinion with regard to Scripture heroes--I always think myself so safe when you agree with me. It was however natural in Mr. Haydon to wish to draw the bow of Ulysses Penelope set her unwelcome suitors the task of drawing the bow of her missing husband Ulysses/Odysseus and sending an arrow through twelve rings in succession. Proverbial for a nearly-impossible task. & try the subject which has engrossed all the great Masters. Mr. Eustace I think it is who has objected to the exaggerated expression of meekness which distinguishes the Christ of the Italian MastersPainters--In those which I have seen I should rather complain of the entire absence of the expression of Power--Power latent dormant in repose but still Power--still that power which could with without exertion with unaltered calmness heal the sick & raise the dead. It would be less absurd to paint a sleeping Hercules without the appearance of strength, than to delineate our Saviour without the expression of Power.--No one can so well supply this defect as Mr. Haydon & he is very likely to have done it.

And so you really were not the Definer of Metaphysics? You really disown the bon mot? Well if you did not say it you might have said it, for it is quite in your way--& I did not make believe to fancy you said it I assure you, neither am I even now remember from whom I heard it--I am quite sure however that it is none of mine--it is a thousand times too good.

I have sent you two monodies on the Death of two of my dearest friends, Mrs. Perry and Mrs. Webb. Of Mrs. Perry I have before spoken to you--the verses on her Death are perhaps among the least bad I have ever written--they were the offspring of that strong emotion which is almost Genius. Those on Mrs. Webb are not worthy of their subject--who was (& it is saying every thing at once) almost as charming a woman as Mama. Her daughters are my most intimate friends--three sweet sweet girls all under twenty. It is Papa who send you these dismal ditties he says you will like them--you must forgive the shabby paper they are copies which he has been carrying about & Mama who would have written you others is out for a few days. Is not this a long letter? I am not going to be married now am I? Pray write for Papa begs his best regards--Shall you be in London this year. Pray say yes.--God bless you my dear Friend.

always most affectionately yours M.R. Mitford

Reading five April 1815 Sir Wm Elford Bart Bickham J Simeon Plymouth
Red Sea Erythraean Sea 22 38 Mount Vesuvius 40.816667 14.433333 An active volcano in mainland Europe, on the Gulf of Naples, near Campania, Italy. Its 79 AD eruption buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It entered a newly-active phase in 1631 and erupted six times during Mitford's lifetime, including a major eruption in 1794. The remains of Pompeii were rediscovered in 1748 by Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre. Chawton House Chawton Hampshire England 51.1282 -0.9885 A grade II listed Elizabethan-era manor house in the village of Chawton in Hampshire. During Mitford's lifetime, the estate was inherited by Edward Austen Knight, the brother of Jane Austen. The building now a research library and the entire village lies within the South Downs National Park. The Lord of the Isles: A Poem. In Six Cantos Walter Scott Edinburgh Archibald Constable and Co. London Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown Rokeby: A Poem. In Six Cantos Walter Scott Edinburgh John Ballantyne and Co. London Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown The Lay of the Last Minstrel. A Poem Walter Scott Edinburgh John Ballantyne and Co. London Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown Woman; or Ida of Athens Sydney Owenson London Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme The Heroine; or Adventures of Cherubina Eaton Stannard Barrett London H. Colburn The Mysteries of Udolpho; A Romance, Interspersed with Some Pieces of Poetry Ann Radcliffe London G.G. and J. Robinson A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare Written around 1595, the first printed version appears in 1600. The play was likely acted before 1600, although the first performance for which we have a record took place in 1605.