Letter to <persName ref="#Webb_Mary_younger">Mary Webb</persName>, 29 January 1821. Mary Russell Mitford Molly C. O'Donnell Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Molly C. O'Donnell Proofing and corrections by Lisa M. Wilson First digital edition in TEI, date: 11 March 2015. P5. Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2014

Reproduced by courtesy of the Reading Central Library.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Reading Central Library The letters of Mary Russell Mitford, vol. 4, 1819-1823 qB/TU/MIT Vol. 4 ff.441 Horizon No.: 1361550 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Mary Webb, 29 January 1821.

Folio sheet of paper folded in half to form six quarto pages, with correspondence on 1-6 and address leaf on page 6, then folded in thirds twice more and sealed for posting.

Address leaf bearing one postmark: partial black stamp that is illegible

Red wax seal

 This letter is prefaced by a separate sheet of paper on which Francis Needham has noted in black ink and sometimes in pencil, "To Mary Webb date 29 January, 1821] Miss James, and her sister Emily’s illness. Kate Wheeler's prescription of a syringe and soapsuds has completely cured M.R.M.'s deafness. Her father’s bowel complaint. Postscript: 'Just finished my play, & going to send it to Mr. Talfourd--though I mean to write two of the acts over again—after consulting him on the alterations.' ['At the end of the month the complete tragedy was dispatched to Talfourd,' Watson 138]. But of letter to Haydon perhaps 7 Jan ( Harness II 123-4), in which she says,' "Fiesco" is now with Mr. Talfourd.'] [For the date, see Diary.]" Someone cataloging the letters wrote the date c. 10 dateJan. 1821 in under Mitford's "Monday," at the top left of page 1.>

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.
Molly O'Donnell The Life of Mary Russell Mitford Related in a Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends, Second and Revised edition, 3 vols., Ed. Alfred Guy Kingan L’Estrange. London: Richard Bentley, 1870.
[c. 10 dateJan. 1821]Monday.

My dear Friend You will be sorry to hear that I have just had a letter from Miss James who has been hurried from Birmingham by the illness of her sister Emily so that we shall not have the pleasure of seeing her this winter or spring. She wrote just as she was getting into the coach & promised to send me word how she found her sister in a few days. She did not herself fear that her illness was dangerous but thought it necessary to hurry home to take care of their four pupils & to relieve Emily’s mind from such a charge. This is a great disappointment--she begs me to say every thing that is kind & grateful from her to you & to express how very sorry she is to miss the pleasure of waiting on you.--Tell Kate Wheeler there is no calling such a loveable person Miss & that her prescription of the syringe & soapsuds has completely relieved my deafness--she will be glad to hear this for she has the delightful quality of being in volved in everybody’s comforts. Poor Papa is not quite well--he has had something of a bowel complaint & been out in the cob too long--I hope he will be better tomorrow--It is such a bad thing to see him ill. How are you all my dear Friends? Your head? Eliza’s rheumatism & the dear Papa’s Eyes? Send me a good account of you all round.--Kindest regards to everybody.

Most faithfully your'syours MR Mitford. M. R. Mitford.

Just finished my play & going to send it to Mr. Talfourd—though I mean to write two of the acts over again--after consulting him on the alterations.--

To Miss Webb.
Birmingham James Emily Sister to Susan James and cared for pupils with her.