Your kind & delightful letter my dear friend was quite a treat—In addition to all its other charms it possessed that best & rarest unexpectedness—I had not even began to think it possible that I should hear yet awhile—Should not have looked out sharp for a franked letter with a great seal dated PlymouthPlymouth, Devonshire, England | Plymouth | Devonshire | England | 50.3754565 -4.14265649999993 City on the coast of Devonshire. After declines in the seventeenth century, increasingly important from the late eighteenth century into the nineteenth as a seaport, site of trade and emigration to and from the Americas, and a center of shipbuilding. Birthplace of Benjamin Robert Haydon. Sir William Elford was also born nearby at Bickham. Elford worked as a banker at Plymouth Bank (Elford, Tingcombe and Purchase) in Plymouth, from its founding in 1782, and he was elected a member of Parliament for Plymouth and served from 1796 to 1806.—ebb, lmw & addressed to Miss M.Mary Russell Mitford | Born: 1787-12-16 in New Alresford, Hampshire, England. Died: 1855-01-10 in Swallowfield, Berkshire, England.
Poet, playwright, writer of prose fiction sketches, Mary Russell Mitford is, of course, the subject of our archive. Mary Russell Mitford was born on December 16, 1787 at New Alresford, Hampshire, the only child of George Mitford (or Midford) and Mary Russell. She was baptized on February 29, 1788. Much of her writing was devoted to supporting herself and her parents. She received a civil list pension in 1837. Census records from 1841 indicate that she is living with her father George, three female servants: Kerenhappuch Taylor (Mary’s ladies maid), two maids of all work, Mary Bramley and Mary Allaway, and a manservant (probably serving also as gardener), Benjamin Embury. The 1851 census lists her occupation as authoress, and lists her as living at Three Mile Cross with Kerenhappuch Taylor (lady’s maid), Sarah Chernk (maid-of-all-work), and Samuel Swetman (gardener), after the death of her father. Mitford’s long life and prolific career ended after injuries from a carriage accident. She is buried in Swallowfield churchyard. The executor of her will and her literary executor was the Rev. William Harness and her lady’s maid, Kerenhappuch Taylor Sweetman, was residuary legatee of her estate. —lmw, ebb
—for a week to come at least—So you see that being a little lazy as a correspondent sometimes (you say so yourself—So I may say so too) a lot a new zest to your alertness—Suppose I were to take this course, & write only once six weeks or two months—I then surprise you with a letter at the three weeks end. Would you be as delighted to get mine as I was to get yours I wonder would you? Shall I try? Tell me.—First of all let me tell you that Lord AshburtonAlexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton, or: Lord Ashburton | Born: 1774-10-27. Died: 1848-05-13 in Longleat, Wiltshire, England.
Influential financier, politician, and government official. Head of Baring Brothers, Merchants, which later operated as Barings Bank, which upon its collapse in 1995 was Britain's oldest merchant bank. Barings also served as Member of Parliament for Taunton and later, for North Essex, and as Master of the Mint, President of the Board of Trade, and Ambassador to the United States. In 1842, as Ambassador, he was responsible for the Ashburton Treaty, which delimited the frontiers between British North America and the USA.—rnes

's letter is not in the slightest danger of being made known through my means—I assure you that no one has seen or heard any part of it except 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 to whom read the original & 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
for whom I made the copy—nor shall I show it to anyone else—I thought I had told you so in my last.—I admire it quite as much as ever & wish as ardently to see the Journal published. In addition to the other sources of pleasure—(In addition again—deuce take it!—very odd that when I once get a beginning to a sentence I can't help beginning all other sentences the same way through a whole letter—as if I had no more words than a parrot! This is a little gentle scolding which I have been giving myself quite aside—you don't hear a word of it you know)—Besides its other excellencies Lord AshburtonAlexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton, or: Lord Ashburton | Born: 1774-10-27. Died: 1848-05-13 in Longleat, Wiltshire, England.
Influential financier, politician, and government official. Head of Baring Brothers, Merchants, which later operated as Barings Bank, which upon its collapse in 1995 was Britain's oldest merchant bank. Barings also served as Member of Parliament for Taunton and later, for North Essex, and as Master of the Mint, President of the Board of Trade, and Ambassador to the United States. In 1842, as Ambassador, he was responsible for the Ashburton Treaty, which delimited the frontiers between British North America and the USA.—rnes

's letter gave me the pleasure of hearing that there is in the world another person who is fat—& of seeing & proving page 2
that there is another who writes long letters—aye even longer than mine—(Should you have believed that possible 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

) To me sure there is some difference—his LordAlexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton, or: Lord Ashburton | Born: 1774-10-27. Died: 1848-05-13 in Longleat, Wiltshire, England.
Influential financier, politician, and government official. Head of Baring Brothers, Merchants, which later operated as Barings Bank, which upon its collapse in 1995 was Britain's oldest merchant bank. Barings also served as Member of Parliament for Taunton and later, for North Essex, and as Master of the Mint, President of the Board of Trade, and Ambassador to the United States. In 1842, as Ambassador, he was responsible for the Ashburton Treaty, which delimited the frontiers between British North America and the USA.—rnes

ship writes about something—I about nothing—he writes sense—I nonsense—but both are letters & both are long. There is a river [of ink] in both "— Macedon & Monmouth [2] Quote from Shakespeare's King Henry the Fifth—led are not more alike.—What a delightful person your Mr. Cranstoun must be! In PeterDr. Peter Morris
Protagonist in John Gibson Lockhart’s 1819 novel, Peter’s Letters to his Kinfolk.—ncl's written portaits—he has given two much of the peculiarity of Mind & face & person & manner—too much for all the honey of his panegyric to sweeten—They are like reflections in a looking glass in their every day dress—not like the embellished & softened & finely colored portait of Sir Thomas Lawrence—& this which is such a charm to all the leaders, the real charm of the book in my opinion, will be no great delight to the luckless originals. The only persons whom he has shared seem to me to be Mr. ScottWalter 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
& Mr. Cranstoun.—the former from personal affection  gap> probably—the latter because he appears to be caricatured in the gentle  gap>faultless elegance which can as little be caricatured as a Greek statue.—I agree with you too as to the occasional prosing of our friend Dr. MorrisDr. Peter Morris
Protagonist in John Gibson Lockhart’s 1819 novel, Peter’s Letters to his Kinfolk.—ncl. He does certainly prose—there's no denying it—but does not he make noble amends?—I feel prosing gap> much less than other people—I read with great rapidity—& generally return to parts I like & read them over again before I finish the book—So that in works of unequal merit I have [del: .]frequently a livelier sense of the good & a less vivid impression of the bad than most readers—this may explain to you why I have sometimes thought more highly of a book than you have done.—It refers of course only to unequally written X The reference is to "Peter's letters to his Kinsfolk.Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk. John Gibson Lockhart A fictious first edition was advertised in Blackwood’s, and the first printed edition was labeled second edition on the title page, although it was actually the first edition. Published anonymously. . Edinburgh: William Blackwood. 1819.
Mitford rated it very good. In journal entry Saturday 4 September 1819 .—lmw"page 3
productions—of those which are quite good, or quite bad, or which travel quietly along on one dull unvaried road of respectable commonplace I think pretty much like other people—except that I have a small tendency to prefer at all times the bad to the middling.—From this prosperity it is that instead of talking to you of divers reputable books which I have been reading lately such as The Memoirs of the Marquis of Montrose—(What a wonderful man that was! What a hero! What a Poet! Did you ever read the lovely verses beginning "My Dear & only love"(?) [3] Quote from Memoirs of the Marquis of Montrose—led or the correspondence of Dr. FranklinBenjamin Franklin | Born: 1706-01-17 in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, British America. Died: 1790-04-17 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Polymath, naturalist and inventor. Newspaper editor, printer and postmaster in Philadelphia. Author of Poor Richard's Almanack. Later served as Ambassador to France and spent many years in Europe. He is one of the framers and signers of the Declaration of Independence; he was also a signer of the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the United States Constitution. He also served as the first United States Postmaster General and as President (similar to Governor) of Pennsylvania. In letters of 1819, Mitford names Franklin as one of only two Americans she admires; the other was George Washington, a view she shared with many of her contemporaries of moderate political views.—lmw
(& really those letters which are not merely political not exclusively about the American War on the AmericaUnited States of America | United States of America | 37.09024 -95.71289100000001 n peace are admirable for the humour their wisdom—their originality & those sayings which like some of Lord BaconFrancis Bacon, Sir, Viscount St. Alban, Attorney General of England and Wales, Lord Chancellor of England, or: Viscount St. Alban Attorney General of England and Wales Lord Chancellor of England | Born: 1561-01-22 in Strand, London, England. Died: 1626-04-09 in Highgate, Middlesex, England.
A writer and philosopher who made important methodological contributions to science, particularly championing empiricism. His philosophical works include the Novum Organum Scientiarum (New Organon), Advancement of Learning, Essays, and New Atlantis. A nephew of the powerful Elizabethan politician William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (or Burghley), he served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies at various times, as an advisor to Elizabeth's doomed favourite and failed usurper Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor under James I. In 1621, he was prosecuted for corruption and barred from further public service. He has been controversially reputed to be homosexual, on the grounds that a fellow M.P. called one of his (Bacon's) servingmen his catamite and bed-fellow. In 1845 (during Mitford's lifetime), this passage was published for the first time.—rnes
's are at once so witty & so wise that one scarcely knows whether to call them aphorisms or bon mots.) or The Carib Chief (That Carib Chief is a surprising tragedy to be written by Horace Twiss—the plot is absolutely good—I suppose he stole it) or The Sacrifice of Isabel (a very elegant pathetic little tale by the by—printed in Bensley's fairy type on paper not much longer than the leaf of a water lily  gap> a fit gift from Oberon to titania—Lord ByronGeorge Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron | Born: 1788-01-22 in Holles Street, London, England. Died: 1824-04-19 in Missolonghi, Greece.
Romantic-era poet, playwright, and celebrity. English peer after he inherited the Barony of Byron of Rochdale in 1798. He died fighting for independence for Greece. Friend of William Harness.—lmw

-ish—but not to Lord ByronGeorge Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron | Born: 1788-01-22 in Holles Street, London, England. Died: 1824-04-19 in Missolonghi, Greece.
Romantic-era poet, playwright, and celebrity. English peer after he inherited the Barony of Byron of Rochdale in 1798. He died fighting for independence for Greece. Friend of William Harness.—lmw

-ish—Leigh HuntJames Henry Leigh Hunt | Born: 1784-10-19 in Southgate, England. Died: 1859-08-28 in Putney, England.
One of the founders and editors of The Examiner.—ncl, lmw
-ish but not too Leigh HuntJames Henry Leigh Hunt | Born: 1784-10-19 in Southgate, England. Died: 1859-08-28 in Putney, England.
One of the founders and editors of The Examiner.—ncl, lmw
-ish—bold, for he introduces Napolean—not too bold—for he so manages his as to please me & not displease you—) or Bubb Dottington's diary (What a gem of a book that is! What a perfection of impudence!—What simplicity, what good faith, what single mindedness in corruption! Only think of my never having seen it before!) or Clarkson's  gap> History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade (That most interesting book on the most interesting subject where I met with your name mentioned in a manner ever to raise my opinion of my kind correspondent & feel prouder than ever of being called  gap>hispage 4
friend—I never knew before that you had taken an active part in the Abolition—still less did I imagine that the admirable idea of the section of a Slave Ship [4] Refering to an image of a cross section of a packed slave ship—led had originated with you—You must have seen Clarkson's book—Oh that mention of you is true fame! Setting all the interest the subject aside is not the work powerfully written? There are none of the outward marks of fine writing—but there must be the spirit—It laid hold of my mind like a romance—I could not put it down—Could not get it out of my thoughts & my memory.) Instead of  gap> talking of these books & others of the same caliber I have selected for the "literary article" of this letter a new novel The Munster Cottage Boy—by a Maria Regina Roche (there's a name for you!) who has I understand committed other iniquities of the same nature under the title of the Children of the Abbey & many others which I have been lucky enough not to read. The story of this production as I did not according to my system find it necessary to read any part over again I cannot very clearly pretend to understand—In fact I don't suppose the author herself does—the characters are first Munster Cottage boy—who is a thin old rebel—father to the heroine & never appears on the stage & has the good luck not to be hanged till he is fifty past—thats all I know of him—the hero—whose name is—is—I can't well tell—he goes by four—& I can't well remember which is the real one—only that my impression at the time was that the one Mrs. Roche makes the real one is the only one that cannot belong to him—but I know that the heroine is called Fidelia—the en second Albina (Mrs Maria Regina is as choice & select in the names of her heroines as in her own)—those heroines—particularly the first lose their character fifty times & get turned out of every house they enter—twenty at least—for you are jolted about in the book all over the United Kingdoms to my great disquiet who am lazy in my reading & love a heroine to stay in one place page 5
—& after a variety of possible incidents, such as the hero's fighting a duel with his father & other prettiness of the sort, get married & so the book ends.—Only imagine that this precious production was seriously recommended to me as an excellent novel by a very clever & literary person!—Before I have quite done with books I must got back for a moment to PeterDr. Peter Morris
Protagonist in John Gibson Lockhart’s 1819 novel, Peter’s Letters to his Kinfolk.—ncl's letters—They are said to ^be a joint production Mr. LockhartJohn Gibson Lockhart, or: John Gibson Lockhart | Born: 1794-07-12 in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Died: 1854-11-25 in Abbotsford, near Melrose, Scotland.
A prominent writer for Blackwood's Magazine in its early years, Lockhart joined the staff of the magazine in 1817, and came to be associated with its abrasive style and particularly (though without verification) its insulting characterization of London artists and literary figures as a Cockney School in 1820 and 1821. Assumptions and bitter accusations in the matter led to a bitter personal conflict aired in the pages of Blackwood's and The London Magazine resulting in the death by duel of The London Magazine's editor, John Scott in February 1821, at the hands of Lockhart's literary agent Jonathan Christie . Lockhart married Walter Scott's daughter Sophia in 1820, which caused John Scott and others to assume that Walter Scott had some involvement with Blackwood's campaign against the Cockneys. Lockhart took over the editorship of the Quarterly Review from March 1826 until June 1853, shortly before his death. He is perhaps best known as the author of his father-in-law's 7-volume biography, Life of Walter Scott, published in 1837-1838 .—ebb
a young Advocate in Edinburgh & Mr. John Wilson the dismal Poet of the city of the PlagueJohn Wilson, or: Christopher North | Born: 1785-05-18 in Paisley, Scotland. Died: 1854-04-03 in Gloucester Place, Edinburgh, Scotland.
John Wilson wrote under the pseudonym Christopher North for Blackwood's Magazine. He later served as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.—lmw
—this is disagreeable to my imagination—because you know John WilsonJohn Wilson, or: Christopher North | Born: 1785-05-18 in Paisley, Scotland. Died: 1854-04-03 in Gloucester Place, Edinburgh, Scotland.
John Wilson wrote under the pseudonym Christopher North for Blackwood's Magazine. He later served as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.—lmw
and James HoggJames Hogg, or: the Ettrick Shepherd | Born: 1770 in Ettrick, Scotland. Died: 1835-11-21.
Scottish ballad collector, poet, and novelist who wrote in Scots and English and was encouraged by his life-long friend Walter Scott to take up a writing career. Hogg authored The Queen's Wake, a long poem on Mary Queen of Scots in 1813, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, anonymously published in 1824.—ebb
are the two most attractive persons in the book, & though of course Mr. L.John Gibson Lockhart, or: John Gibson Lockhart | Born: 1794-07-12 in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Died: 1854-11-25 in Abbotsford, near Melrose, Scotland.
A prominent writer for Blackwood's Magazine in its early years, Lockhart joined the staff of the magazine in 1817, and came to be associated with its abrasive style and particularly (though without verification) its insulting characterization of London artists and literary figures as a Cockney School in 1820 and 1821. Assumptions and bitter accusations in the matter led to a bitter personal conflict aired in the pages of Blackwood's and The London Magazine resulting in the death by duel of The London Magazine's editor, John Scott in February 1821, at the hands of Lockhart's literary agent Jonathan Christie . Lockhart married Walter Scott's daughter Sophia in 1820, which caused John Scott and others to assume that Walter Scott had some involvement with Blackwood's campaign against the Cockneys. Lockhart took over the editorship of the Quarterly Review from March 1826 until June 1853, shortly before his death. He is perhaps best known as the author of his father-in-law's 7-volume biography, Life of Walter Scott, published in 1837-1838 .—ebb
wrote the passages about Mr. W.John Wilson, or: Christopher North | Born: 1785-05-18 in Paisley, Scotland. Died: 1854-04-03 in Gloucester Place, Edinburgh, Scotland.
John Wilson wrote under the pseudonym Christopher North for Blackwood's Magazine. He later served as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.—lmw
yet still you know common decency should have kept the joint Author under a little. By the way these three—Messrs. WilsonJohn Wilson, or: Christopher North | Born: 1785-05-18 in Paisley, Scotland. Died: 1854-04-03 in Gloucester Place, Edinburgh, Scotland.
John Wilson wrote under the pseudonym Christopher North for Blackwood's Magazine. He later served as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.—lmw
, LockhartJohn Gibson Lockhart, or: John Gibson Lockhart | Born: 1794-07-12 in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Died: 1854-11-25 in Abbotsford, near Melrose, Scotland.
A prominent writer for Blackwood's Magazine in its early years, Lockhart joined the staff of the magazine in 1817, and came to be associated with its abrasive style and particularly (though without verification) its insulting characterization of London artists and literary figures as a Cockney School in 1820 and 1821. Assumptions and bitter accusations in the matter led to a bitter personal conflict aired in the pages of Blackwood's and The London Magazine resulting in the death by duel of The London Magazine's editor, John Scott in February 1821, at the hands of Lockhart's literary agent Jonathan Christie . Lockhart married Walter Scott's daughter Sophia in 1820, which caused John Scott and others to assume that Walter Scott had some involvement with Blackwood's campaign against the Cockneys. Lockhart took over the editorship of the Quarterly Review from March 1826 until June 1853, shortly before his death. He is perhaps best known as the author of his father-in-law's 7-volume biography, Life of Walter Scott, published in 1837-1838 .—ebb
, & HoggJames Hogg, or: the Ettrick Shepherd | Born: 1770 in Ettrick, Scotland. Died: 1835-11-21.
Scottish ballad collector, poet, and novelist who wrote in Scots and English and was encouraged by his life-long friend Walter Scott to take up a writing career. Hogg authored The Queen's Wake, a long poem on Mary Queen of Scots in 1813, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, anonymously published in 1824.—ebb
are the chief writers of that delightful—good-for-nothing—,Blackwoods MagazineBlackwood’s Magazine. Edinburgh: 1817-04-1980.
Founded as a Tory magazine in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review.—ebb—a work where there are more lies & more wit than in any other publication in Christendom.—perhaps "wit" is not quite the word I should have said humour. Do you see BlackwoodBlackwood’s Magazine. Edinburgh: 1817-04-1980.
Founded as a Tory magazine in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Review.—ebb? You would like it out & out—for you have not my partiality for the "Cockney School of Poetry & Paintingthe Cockney School
Satirical term coined by an anonymous Blackwood’s article of October 1817 targeting a circle of intellectuals, writers, and artists specifically including John Keats, William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and Benjamin Robert Haydon.—ebb". As to Mr. AllanWilliam Allan, Sir | Born: 1782 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Died: 1850-02-23 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland.
Artist who painted portraits of Scott, Byron, and Burns, as well as Scottish, English, and Russian historical subjects. Mitford was aware through Benjamin Robert Haydon of his painting, The Broken Fiddle. In 1838 he was appointed president of the Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1841 he became the queen's limner in Scotland and was knighted. Source: ODNB.—ajc, ebb
I never heard of him in my life—& I don't suppose Dr. MorrisDr. Peter Morris
Protagonist in John Gibson Lockhart’s 1819 novel, Peter’s Letters to his Kinfolk.—ncl does know much of painting—though he conciliated my favour on this score by his vivid & eloquent admiration of a picture which I think of as often as I think of beauty—that unforgettable picture the Bodleian Mary.—One thing that contributes to the heaviness of PeterDr. Peter Morris
Protagonist in John Gibson Lockhart’s 1819 novel, Peter’s Letters to his Kinfolk.—ncl's letters (the occasional heaviness I mean—I won't admit an inch more) is the unwieldy length of the sentences—& as you say a disproportion of importance between the words & the ideas—the sense & the sound—-a sort of grandiloquence the very reverse of good taste." This fault is not common nowadays—for style seems to me generally speaking very sharp & pointed—angular & full of page 6
little turns like Mr. HazlittWilliam Hazlitt | Born: 1778-04-10 in Maidstone, Kent, England. Died: 1830-09-18 in Soho, London, England.
Essayist and critic, acquaintance of Mary Russell Mitford. Author of Table Talk (1821) and The Spirit of the Age (1825). Also authored collections of critical essays such as Characters of Shakespeare (1817), A View of the English Stage (1818), and English Comic Writers (1819). In a letter of 2 October 1820 , Mary Russell Mitford writes of Hazlitt to their mutual friend Haydon, He is the most delightful critic in the [world]— puts all his taste, his wit, his deep thinking, his matchless acuteness into his subject, but he does not put his whole heart & soul into it [. . . ] What charms me most in Mr. Haslitt is the beautiful candour which he bursts forth sometimes from his own prejudices [ . . . ] I admire him so ardently that when I begin to talk of him I never know how to stop. I could talk on for an hour in a see saw of praise and blame as he himself does of Beaumont & Fletcher & some of his old [favourites]. —lmw, cmm
's. By the by I never hear you talk of HazlittWilliam Hazlitt | Born: 1778-04-10 in Maidstone, Kent, England. Died: 1830-09-18 in Soho, London, England.
Essayist and critic, acquaintance of Mary Russell Mitford. Author of Table Talk (1821) and The Spirit of the Age (1825). Also authored collections of critical essays such as Characters of Shakespeare (1817), A View of the English Stage (1818), and English Comic Writers (1819). In a letter of 2 October 1820 , Mary Russell Mitford writes of Hazlitt to their mutual friend Haydon, He is the most delightful critic in the [world]— puts all his taste, his wit, his deep thinking, his matchless acuteness into his subject, but he does not put his whole heart & soul into it [. . . ] What charms me most in Mr. Haslitt is the beautiful candour which he bursts forth sometimes from his own prejudices [ . . . ] I admire him so ardently that when I begin to talk of him I never know how to stop. I could talk on for an hour in a see saw of praise and blame as he himself does of Beaumont & Fletcher & some of his old [favourites]. —lmw, cmm
—Did you never read any of  gap> his works? Never read the Round Table? The Characters of Shakespeare's Plays? The Lectures on English Poetry? or the Lectures on the English Comic WritersLectures on the English Comic Writers, delivered at the Surry Institution. William Hazlitt. London : Taylor and Hessey . 1819.
Spelled Surry on title page.—lmw?—the Quarterly ReviewQuarterly Review. 1809-1967.
Tory periodical founded by George Canning in 1809, published by John Murray. William Gifford edited the Quarterly Review from its founding in 1809 until 1824, was succeeded briefly by John Taylor Coleridge in 1825, until John Gibson Lockhart took over as editor from 1826 through 1853. Archived at Romantic Circles, Quarterly Review Archive —lmwers give him a bad character—but that merely regards politics—& politics ought not to weigh in works of general literature—I am sure you would like them—they are so exquisitely entertaining—so original—so free from every sort of  gap> critical shackle—the style is so delightfully piquant—so sparkling—so glittering. so tasteful—so condensed—the images & illustrations come in such rich & graceful—profusion that one seems like Aladdin in the Magic GardenAladdin.
There were many pantomimes under this name on the English stage, many combining the story of Aladdin with that of other Arabian Nights tales such as Ali Baba and moving the story to a mythologized China from Arabia. Pantomime versions introduce the character of the Widow Twankey, Aladdian’s mother. John O’Keefe dramatized the story as early as 1788 at Covent Garden.—lmw where the leaves were emeralds, the flowers sapphires, & the fruit topazes & rubies. Do read some of the Lectures—you will not agree with half Mr. HazlittWilliam Hazlitt | Born: 1778-04-10 in Maidstone, Kent, England. Died: 1830-09-18 in Soho, London, England.
Essayist and critic, acquaintance of Mary Russell Mitford. Author of Table Talk (1821) and The Spirit of the Age (1825). Also authored collections of critical essays such as Characters of Shakespeare (1817), A View of the English Stage (1818), and English Comic Writers (1819). In a letter of 2 October 1820 , Mary Russell Mitford writes of Hazlitt to their mutual friend Haydon, He is the most delightful critic in the [world]— puts all his taste, his wit, his deep thinking, his matchless acuteness into his subject, but he does not put his whole heart & soul into it [. . . ] What charms me most in Mr. Haslitt is the beautiful candour which he bursts forth sometimes from his own prejudices [ . . . ] I admire him so ardently that when I begin to talk of him I never know how to stop. I could talk on for an hour in a see saw of praise and blame as he himself does of Beaumont & Fletcher & some of his old [favourites]. —lmw, cmm
's opinions—neither do I—but you will be very much entertained—every now & then two or three pages together are really like series of epigrams—particularly in the lecture on The Living Poets there is a character of your friend 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. Mitford mentions in her Journal that she was reading and copying Wordsworth's poems in September 1819.—lmw, rnes, hjb
which will enchant you. Now for a jerk—Oh by the way one of your jerks was so mystical that I could not possibly make it out—it puzzled me half the morning—the jerk was not an accidental jerk either—do you remember the one I mean? If you do send me the key to the jerk. Of course I do not mean the plan of the garden which seems to me excellent.—Your jerks are growing so much into pictures that we must have them represented by woodcuts when your letters are published—the next time you are at a loss for a device send me a little jerk of the house 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 as well as the garden. These jerks are a very important & delightful part of your letters—a grace  gap> epistolary which I leave wholly & you contenting myself with a simple scroll like nothing on earth but the hieroglyphics which one sometimes sees on thepage 7
outsides of franks. Admire the address with which without any jerk at all I have steered round to Mr. 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 .
—Whom I mean to frank this letter if I can catch him—think I have told you that 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
knows a little of Lady MadelinaMadelina Madalina Sinclair Palmer, the Lady, or: Lady M.P., Lady Mad., Lady Madelina Palmer | Born: 1772-06-19 in Gordon Castle, Bellie, Moray, Scotland. Died: 1847 in Chapel Street, Grosvenor Place, London, England.
Lady Madelina Gordon was born on June 10, 1772, the daughter of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon, and Jane Maxwell, at Gordon Castle, Bellie, Moray, Scotland. Her first husband was Robert Sinclair, 7th Baronet Sinclair; they married in 1789 and had one child, John Gordon Sinclair. Her second husband was the Reading Whig politician Charles Fyshe Palmer. They married 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. Her sister Charlotte Gordon became Duchess of Richmond through her marriage to Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox and 4th Duke of Aubigny. Her sister Susan Gordon became Duchess of Manchester through her marriage to William Montagu, Duke of Manchester. Her sister Louise Gordon became Marchioness Cornwallis through marriage to Charles Cornwallis, Marquess of Cornwallis. Her sister Georgiana Gordon became Duchess of Bedford through marriage to John Russell, Duke of Bedford. Her brothers were George Duncan Gordon, who became 5th Duke of Gordon, and Lord Alexander Gordon. Charles Fyshe Palmer’s marriage to Lady Madelina thus gained him access to aristocratic houses, including the Holland House. Lady Madelina’s name is variously spelled Madelina and Madalina, although Madelina appears to be the more common and standard spellling of the name, as an anglicization of the French Madeline. For more on the Palmers, see note 2 in The Browning’s Correspondence rendering of Mitford’s letter of 12 March 1842 to Elizabeth Barrett Browning .—kab, ebb, ad, lmw—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 something more—& I nothing at all. I have never seen her but I hear she is a very agreeable entertaining woman with more of the cleverness the impudence & the good humor of her match making Mother than any other of the family.—I don't think you will see Mr. 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 .
in DevonshireDevonshire, England | Devon | 50.7155591 -3.5308750000000373 County in the south west of England bordering the English Channel and the Bristol Channel. Now called Devon.—ebb, lmw this Spring because he is as constant in attending the HouseHouse of Commons
The lower house of the bicameral Parliament, the Commons was established in the mid-thirteenth century.—rnes as the Speaker himself. If you do see him you will like him—he is a perfect gentleman—plain, unaffected, & well informed, though he has fits of silence, which together with his height, his elegance, his ugliness & his M.P.Members of Parliament
Members of Parliament —lmwship have occasioned a report that  gap> He is the real living undoubted original of the Ourang Outang member of Parliament in MelincourtMelincourt. Thomas Love Peacock. London : T. Hookham, Jr. & co.. 1817.
First edition published anonymously as by the Author of Headlong Hall. —lmw a report which I, who have once heard him speak & often he[gap: 5 chars, reason: torn.][aring] him talk & very agreeable too, can testify to be false & mal[gap: 6 chars, reason: torn.][icious] [del: .] [5] Here a jerk is drawn out as an imitation—led Is your fog cleared away yet? We have just got a fall of snow —very disagreeable—shuts me up—& I had been enjoying so much this lovely clear winter weather trotting about in the plantations picking up the fir cones & feeding the robins who used to come to me & take the bread almost from my hand—not quite—but as nearly as possible—I have seen one catch it between my hand & the ground. All that can be enjoyed indoors of this sweet intimacy & confidence with these beautiful innocent creatures I do enjoy, by having had constantly all the winter a board at the parlour window with bread crumbs on it from which not merely my redbreasts but a great many other birds are supplied—I wonder that this cheap & innocent pleasure is not commoner—birds in a cage make one melancholy—but to feed them & make them love page 8
one when at liberty—to conquer their mistrust & tame their shyness is delightful.—All this is "silly sooth"—I will redeem its insipidity by a most curious report by which a correspondent of mine Miss NoothCharlotte Nooth | Born: 1780 in Ireland. Died: .
A friend of Dr. Richard Valpy, who resided at Kew, Surrey, but often visited Paris. She wrote a poem to Dr. Valpy and published volumes of poetry in 1815 & 1816, including a verse tragedy, as well as a novel, Eglantine, published by A.J. Valpy—scw, lmw

who is as present living in the first circles in ParisParis, France | Paris | Paris | France | 48.85661400000001 2.3522219000000177 Capital of France and important center of trade, banking, publishing, fashion, and artistic and scientific activity. Center of Enlightenment activity in the eighteenth century. A key site in the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars; travel between London and Paris was much restricted during this period.—lmw sent me yesterday. She says that the "monsters" who have gone out there lately stabbing women with small daggers are supposed to be employed by a greater Power to inoculate for the Plague!!!—After this Wonderful Wonder of Wonders—I will add nothing but a request to you to persevere in your excellent plan of answering my letters very speedily. Write soon 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

I beseech you—& tell us that Mr. ElfordJonathan Elford, Member of Parliament, or: Mr. Elford, Member of Parliament | Born: 1776-11-05 in Plympton Erle, Plymouth, Devon, England. Died: 1823-03-11 in Upland, Tamerton Foliott, Plymouth, Devon, England.
The only son of Sir William Elford and his first wife Mary Davies Elford. He joined Oriel College, Oxford on June 3, 1795 and later moved to Tamerton Folliot, Devon on an estate he called Upland. He served as a Captain in the South Devonshire militia from 1803 with his father, who was also an officer. On May 10, 1810, he married Charlotte Wynne . He also became a freeman for Plymouth in 1810. Throughout his adulthood, his father tried unsuccessfully to secure him a position within the government. He served briefly as Member of Parliament for Westbury from March 10 to November 29, 1820, a seat he secured under the patronage of Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes. At this time, Westbury was a controversial rotten borough whose interest Lopes had purchased from Lord Abingdon, and Jonathan Elford probably secured the position in the place of Lopes who was serving a prison sentence for electoral corruption. When Lopes's sentence was lifted, Elford resigned his seat in November 1820 so Lopes could return. His death at the age of 46 left Sir William without an heir and his debts contributed to his father’s financial collapse in 1825 .—kab, ebb, lmw
is recovered you did not mention him in your last.—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
is come back from Winchester & joins 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 in kindest regards & good wishes.—

& is an ampersand

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