You delight me, 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

by what you say about the QueenCaroline, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom Caroline Queen Consort of the United Kingdom Caroline of Brunswick Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Princess of Wales | Born: 1768-05-17 in Brunswick, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empire. Died: 1821-08-07 in Hammersmith, London, England.
The cousin and later the estranged wife of the Prince Regent (later George IV). Caroline was adopted as the mascot of the parliamentary reform movement around the time that the Regent attempted to divorce her on grounds of adultery in 1818, and his struggles with Parliament to divorce her and prevent her from becoming Queen are known as the Queen Caroline Affair. Mitford writes humorously in her letters of 1818 and 1819 of the political fodder made of the Affair by both Whigs and Tories.—lmw, ebb, rnes
—It is just what I knew you would say—just what I think—only your Toryism takes some  thingwhat of a party view of the question which my Whiggism does not. She is & must be guilty of a fatal want of all modesty all decency all the outworks to Virtue—And what is a woman without them! And what a terrible thing is party Spirit when such a woman is set up as an idol! If she were acquitted a thousand times it would never alter my opinion—& acquitted I hope she will be for the quiet of the nation—A mob in a good humour is a much more peaceable thing than a mob in an ill one—And as you say every body [del: .] knows what she is—they they talk so grandly about innocence and purity & whatnot!—"Springes to catch woodcocks"—I liked your note to 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 exceedingly—Ah if she begins to write to you she will quite put my nose ^out of Joint—My only chance for favour was her going away—but if she begins to write—that charming person—& if she writes only half as delightfully as she talks—it is all over with your poor little CorrespondentMary 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
—She will be thrown aside like an old glove—poor luckless Cast away—not worth stooping for—poor unhappy thing! Won't she?—The only comfort is that my charming rival cannot put her Scotch voice upon paper—that sweet Scotch voice—she cannot write that page 2
Can she?—There is my only chance. Ah I see that I am sinking in your good graces already—you accuse me of talking politics—& I avow to you my dear friend that I talk politics less than any body of my acquaintance—never when any one will talk to me of flowers or greyhounds or pictures or books—Never, unless I meet with a person who is utterly ignorant of all better subjects & then when we have done with the weather & the Scotch novels—why there is nothing else to turn to—And then the Scotch novels—you accuse me of over-rating them—when I will be [del: .]bound to say that there is amongst all the nonsense that I have written to you full twenty sheets of sheer fault-finding & impertinence & sauciness about these same works. And then you accuse me of under-rating Misses EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth | Born: 1768-01-01 in Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, England. Died: 1849-05-22 in Engleworthstown, Longford, Ireland.
British author and educator. Best known for Castle Rackrent (1800); also wrote children's novels and educational treatises.—lmw, cmm
& AustenJane Austen | Born: 1775-12-16 in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Died: 1817-07-18 in Winchester, Hampshire, England.
Novelist celebrated for her wit and style, whose works investigated women's social and economic vulnerabilities in English society. During her lifetime she published anonymously. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815), all anonymously. Northanger Abbey, the first written of her novels (composed in 1798-1799) was published posthumously in 1818 (the title was chosen by surviving family) along with her final completed novel, Persuasion. Mitford claims in a letter to Sir William Elford of 3 April 1815 that she has recently discovered Austen is my countrywoman,, that is, a neighbor. Later in a letter of 2 July 1816 praised Emma in particular among Austen's novels. She and Elford evidently knew the identity of Austen as the author long before the information was public knowledge, and she claims in the April 3 letter that her mother remembered Jane Austen in her youth as the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers, but that Jane was by the 1810s extremely quiet, which impressed Mitford: till Pride and Prejudice showed what a precious gem was hidden in that unbending case, she was no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire-screen, or any other thin upright piece of wood or iron that fills its corner in peace and 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 and pleasant, and quite removing by their conversation any awe that may have been excited by their works. But a wit, a delineator of character, who does not talk, is terrific indeed! Source: L’Estrange.—ebb, rnes
—when amongst the aforementioned bundle of trash might be found at least the same quantity of admiring praises of these worthies. The fact is my dear Sir WiliamWilliam 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

that our taste in novels, particularly these novels, is remarkably similar—I am more headlong & ardent than you, & I have not half of your clearness & soundness of judgment & therefore may be sometimes carried away by my admiration of the beauties to overlook the faults that accompany them—but the parts that I particularly admire are precisely those which you yourself would select as nearest to Common nature—to real existing life—OldbuckJohn Oldbuck
character in The Antiquary.—esh and Edie OchiltreeEdie Ochiltree
character in The Antiquary.—esh—PleydellPleydell
character in Guy Mannering.—esh & Dandie DinmontDandie Dinmont
Character in Guy Mannering.—esh—Jenny DennisonJenny Denison
Character in Old Mortality by Walter Scott . Edith Bellenden’s maid.—lmw[1] Character in Walter Scott's Old Mortality, spelled Denison in the novel.—lmw—Jeanie DeansJeanie Deans
character in The Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott , heroine and sister of Effie Deans. She walks from Edinburgh to London to secure a pardon for her sister on a charge of infanticide.—lmw—the Baron of BradwardineBaron of Bradwardine
Jacobite character in Walter Scott’s Waverley ; He lives at Tully-Veolan, and is the friend of protagonist Edward Waverley’s uncle.—lmw—these are my heroes—these I hold by—& utterly reject & abominate the Meg MerriliesMeg Merrilies
character in Guy Mannering.—esh—& Balfours of Burleys
The Balfours of Burley are a family of characters in Walter Scott’s Old Mortality .—lmw—&old ElspethsElspeth
Steenie’s grandmother in Walter Scott’s The Antiquary .—esh, lmw—& white Spiritsthe White Spirit
The White Spirit is a supernatural guardian spirit character in Walter Scott’s The Monastery .—lmw of all sortspage 3
Now is this not your Creed? Moreover I hold the wit & the admirable delineation of character & of manners in the Mesdemoiselles EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth | Born: 1768-01-01 in Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, England. Died: 1849-05-22 in Engleworthstown, Longford, Ireland.
British author and educator. Best known for Castle Rackrent (1800); also wrote children's novels and educational treatises.—lmw, cmm
& AustenJane Austen | Born: 1775-12-16 in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Died: 1817-07-18 in Winchester, Hampshire, England.
Novelist celebrated for her wit and style, whose works investigated women's social and economic vulnerabilities in English society. During her lifetime she published anonymously. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815), all anonymously. Northanger Abbey, the first written of her novels (composed in 1798-1799) was published posthumously in 1818 (the title was chosen by surviving family) along with her final completed novel, Persuasion. Mitford claims in a letter to Sir William Elford of 3 April 1815 that she has recently discovered Austen is my countrywoman,, that is, a neighbor. Later in a letter of 2 July 1816 praised Emma in particular among Austen's novels. She and Elford evidently knew the identity of Austen as the author long before the information was public knowledge, and she claims in the April 3 letter that her mother remembered Jane Austen in her youth as the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers, but that Jane was by the 1810s extremely quiet, which impressed Mitford: till Pride and Prejudice showed what a precious gem was hidden in that unbending case, she was no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire-screen, or any other thin upright piece of wood or iron that fills its corner in peace and 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 and pleasant, and quite removing by their conversation any awe that may have been excited by their works. But a wit, a delineator of character, who does not talk, is terrific indeed! Source: L’Estrange.—ebb, rnes
to be fifty times more valuable and less imitable than the romantic & historical & poetical parts of the Scotch novels—preferring Miss AustenJane Austen | Born: 1775-12-16 in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Died: 1817-07-18 in Winchester, Hampshire, England.
Novelist celebrated for her wit and style, whose works investigated women's social and economic vulnerabilities in English society. During her lifetime she published anonymously. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815), all anonymously. Northanger Abbey, the first written of her novels (composed in 1798-1799) was published posthumously in 1818 (the title was chosen by surviving family) along with her final completed novel, Persuasion. Mitford claims in a letter to Sir William Elford of 3 April 1815 that she has recently discovered Austen is my countrywoman,, that is, a neighbor. Later in a letter of 2 July 1816 praised Emma in particular among Austen's novels. She and Elford evidently knew the identity of Austen as the author long before the information was public knowledge, and she claims in the April 3 letter that her mother remembered Jane Austen in her youth as the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers, but that Jane was by the 1810s extremely quiet, which impressed Mitford: till Pride and Prejudice showed what a precious gem was hidden in that unbending case, she was no more regarded in society than a poker or a fire-screen, or any other thin upright piece of wood or iron that fills its corner in peace and 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 and pleasant, and quite removing by their conversation any awe that may have been excited by their works. But a wit, a delineator of character, who does not talk, is terrific indeed! Source: L’Estrange.—ebb, rnes
to Miss EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth | Born: 1768-01-01 in Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, England. Died: 1849-05-22 in Engleworthstown, Longford, Ireland.
British author and educator. Best known for Castle Rackrent (1800); also wrote children's novels and educational treatises.—lmw, cmm
inasmuch as she has more heart & never deviates into the slang and vulgarity of high life as Miss EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth | Born: 1768-01-01 in Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, England. Died: 1849-05-22 in Engleworthstown, Longford, Ireland.
British author and educator. Best known for Castle Rackrent (1800); also wrote children's novels and educational treatises.—lmw, cmm
sometimes condescends to do—Is not this your Creed also? And will you rank me any longer with your Mr. MarshamRobert Marsham | Born: 1708-01-27. Died: 1797-09-04.
English naturalist and author of Indications of Spring (1789), a founding work in the field of phenology, the study of the effects of the seasons on plants and animals. Likely the Marsham mentioned in Mitford’s letter to Sir William Elford of 30 September 1820 .—lmws?[2] Possibly a reference to Robert Marsham (1708-1797), English naturalist. Gilbert White described Marsham as a painful and accurate naturalist, so it is possible that Mitford here pokes fun at the notion of his painstaking detail. More research is needed to definitely identify the Marsham mentioned here. Source of Gilbert White's comment on Robert Marsham: excerpt from an unpublished letter in The Zoologist (July 1876) 4979.—lmw, ebb or such unwise scorners & scoffers your dear faithless Correspondent? Eh?—After all I believe you knew my opinion as well as I did myself & only threw out the reproach which has occasioned this tirade [del: .] just as one struts up to a Bantam Hen sometimes to have the pleasure of  vexingputting the little fool in a pet & making her ruffle up her feathers—If so you deserve to be published by this tedious explanation—Ah you little knew what a shower bath was coming when you pulled the string—or you would have [del: .]jumped out first—as the gentleman did in a story you once told me—Would not you?—Perhaps I may like Walter 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
better than you did first from having more enthusiasm of that particular sort—& feeling therefore somewhat more strongly the gratitude due to the Author of fine books—Secondly from not having  theyour variety of resources in conversation & being most thankful to any one who spares  oneme the trouble of hunting for a subject to talk of to strangers or the stupid. Ah what an inexpressible comfort it is when perched on a sofa next to some pretty bland Miss whom one is expected to entertain to have the power of page 4
of breaking the Ice & making her  tonguespeech flow by the simple question. "Have you read the AbbottThe Abbot. Walter Scott. London Edinburgh: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne. 1820.
Historical novel: One of Scott’s series of Tales from Benedictine Sources, The Abbot introduces the character Roland Graeme, and renders the experiences of Mary, Queen of Scots during her imprisonment and escape from Loch Leven Castle in 1567 .—ebb?" or "Do you like the MonasteryThe Monastery.
As Mitford reads, she rates it not very good, not so good as some of his Novels and then, presumably as she reads the final volume, pretty good too. In journal entry Friday 7th April 1820 .—lmw?" All the world can talk of the Scotch novels & half the world can talk of nothing else.—Before we entirely leave the subject of Novels, Have you read or heard of ? A new novel by Mr. DallasRobert Charles Dallas, Sir, Serjeant-at-Law, King's Counsel, Member of Parliament | Born: 1756-10-16 in Kingston, Jamaica. Died: 1824.
R.C. Dallas was a prominent barrister and judge who worked on many parliamentary and privy council cases, including those on disputed parliamentary elections. His most notable legal accomplishments were serving as junior counsel at the trial of Warren Hastings (1787), defending General Thomas Picton (1806-1808), and representing Jamaican merchants and planters to oppose the 1807 Slave Trade Act. In 1818, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and was sworn to the Privy Council; between 1818 and 1823 he headed the special commission that tried the Cato Street conspirators, presided over the trial of James Ings, and advised Parliament on the 1820 Pains and Penalties Bill. He served briefly as a Member of Parliament in the Tory interest in two constitencies. He also wrote poetry, plays, novels, and nonfiction works such as History of the Maroons, from their Origin to their Establishment in Sierra Leone (1803) and Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the year 1808 to the end of 1814 (1824). Mitford mentions his 1820 novel Sir Francis Darrell, or the Vortex , in her letters. Dallas is perhaps best known today as a Byron correspondent and biographer. His sister, Charlotte Henrietta Dallas, married Captain George Anson Byron, and their son George Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title upon his death in 1824. Note: The VIAF record seemingly gives an incorrect year of birth of 1754 instead of 1756.—lmw

. DallasRobert Charles Dallas, Sir, Serjeant-at-Law, King's Counsel, Member of Parliament | Born: 1756-10-16 in Kingston, Jamaica. Died: 1824.
R.C. Dallas was a prominent barrister and judge who worked on many parliamentary and privy council cases, including those on disputed parliamentary elections. His most notable legal accomplishments were serving as junior counsel at the trial of Warren Hastings (1787), defending General Thomas Picton (1806-1808), and representing Jamaican merchants and planters to oppose the 1807 Slave Trade Act. In 1818, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and was sworn to the Privy Council; between 1818 and 1823 he headed the special commission that tried the Cato Street conspirators, presided over the trial of James Ings, and advised Parliament on the 1820 Pains and Penalties Bill. He served briefly as a Member of Parliament in the Tory interest in two constitencies. He also wrote poetry, plays, novels, and nonfiction works such as History of the Maroons, from their Origin to their Establishment in Sierra Leone (1803) and Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the year 1808 to the end of 1814 (1824). Mitford mentions his 1820 novel Sir Francis Darrell, or the Vortex , in her letters. Dallas is perhaps best known today as a Byron correspondent and biographer. His sister, Charlotte Henrietta Dallas, married Captain George Anson Byron, and their son George Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title upon his death in 1824. Note: The VIAF record seemingly gives an incorrect year of birth of 1754 instead of 1756.—lmw

is a bad writer & this can hardly be called a good work, bad the plan, & the character of the heroine very fine indeed. Nothing of this appears in the first Volume which is so dull as almost to have tempted me to throw down the book—but as the character opens one becomes interested—It is founded on the grand sublime, elevating virtue of Repentance & the hero is more exalted by his humility & self-abasement than can be imagined—All the best of the book is very bad—quite below inferior—but this fine conception makes it worth reading. Mr. DallasRobert Charles Dallas, Sir, Serjeant-at-Law, King's Counsel, Member of Parliament | Born: 1756-10-16 in Kingston, Jamaica. Died: 1824.
R.C. Dallas was a prominent barrister and judge who worked on many parliamentary and privy council cases, including those on disputed parliamentary elections. His most notable legal accomplishments were serving as junior counsel at the trial of Warren Hastings (1787), defending General Thomas Picton (1806-1808), and representing Jamaican merchants and planters to oppose the 1807 Slave Trade Act. In 1818, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and was sworn to the Privy Council; between 1818 and 1823 he headed the special commission that tried the Cato Street conspirators, presided over the trial of James Ings, and advised Parliament on the 1820 Pains and Penalties Bill. He served briefly as a Member of Parliament in the Tory interest in two constitencies. He also wrote poetry, plays, novels, and nonfiction works such as History of the Maroons, from their Origin to their Establishment in Sierra Leone (1803) and Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the year 1808 to the end of 1814 (1824). Mitford mentions his 1820 novel Sir Francis Darrell, or the Vortex , in her letters. Dallas is perhaps best known today as a Byron correspondent and biographer. His sister, Charlotte Henrietta Dallas, married Captain George Anson Byron, and their son George Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title upon his death in 1824. Note: The VIAF record seemingly gives an incorrect year of birth of 1754 instead of 1756.—lmw

is the person to whom 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

gave the profits of the first Canto of Childe HaroldChilde Harold’s Pilgrimage. Byron. London: John Murray.
Published in parts between 1812 and 1818.—lmw—he being ruined I believe by an expensive wife—(indeed I have heard that she will not dine without being serenaded by Musicians, & I cannot help thinking—though there is no visible allusion that in the character though not in the story there is an occasional hint at 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

—At least that the AuthorRobert Charles Dallas, Sir, Serjeant-at-Law, King's Counsel, Member of Parliament | Born: 1756-10-16 in Kingston, Jamaica. Died: 1824.
R.C. Dallas was a prominent barrister and judge who worked on many parliamentary and privy council cases, including those on disputed parliamentary elections. His most notable legal accomplishments were serving as junior counsel at the trial of Warren Hastings (1787), defending General Thomas Picton (1806-1808), and representing Jamaican merchants and planters to oppose the 1807 Slave Trade Act. In 1818, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and was sworn to the Privy Council; between 1818 and 1823 he headed the special commission that tried the Cato Street conspirators, presided over the trial of James Ings, and advised Parliament on the 1820 Pains and Penalties Bill. He served briefly as a Member of Parliament in the Tory interest in two constitencies. He also wrote poetry, plays, novels, and nonfiction works such as History of the Maroons, from their Origin to their Establishment in Sierra Leone (1803) and Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the year 1808 to the end of 1814 (1824). Mitford mentions his 1820 novel Sir Francis Darrell, or the Vortex , in her letters. Dallas is perhaps best known today as a Byron correspondent and biographer. His sister, Charlotte Henrietta Dallas, married Captain George Anson Byron, and their son George Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title upon his death in 1824. Note: The VIAF record seemingly gives an incorrect year of birth of 1754 instead of 1756.—lmw

means to suggest him & of him—that lost fame and lost virtue & lost happiness may be recovered & redressed. 〰 How are you off for Summer in DevonshireDevonshire | Devonshire | England | Devon | 50.716667 -3.716667 The county of Devonshire, now known as Devon, in the south west of England.—scw? The two last days have brought ours back again—I am writing out of doors in our little Arbour with my attention somewhat distracted by a superb butterfly close by who is fluttering around & around in the sun [del: .] swinging in the rich blossom of a China AsterName: China Aster or annual aster | Genus: Callistephus | Family: Asteraceae | Species: Callistephus chinensis.
An annual flowering plant native to China and Korea, with single or double daisy-like flowers in white, pink, or purple; unrelated to the perennial aster. Grown as a garden plant and cut flower.—ebb, lmw

—how fond they are of China AstersName: China Aster or annual aster | Genus: Callistephus | Family: Asteraceae | Species: Callistephus chinensis.
An annual flowering plant native to China and Korea, with single or double daisy-like flowers in white, pink, or purple; unrelated to the perennial aster. Grown as a garden plant and cut flower.—ebb, lmw

! So am I—They come when flowerspage 5
begin to be most precious & rare—I have never had so many before—or so fine—& they are always beautiful with their rich colours like so many patterns for winter gowns—or with the pure delicate white stripes mingled with purple like violets of both hues—And they are so hardy too—they hold up their gay heads & will live and let the weather be what it may—I dearly love China AstersName: China Aster or annual aster | Genus: Callistephus | Family: Asteraceae | Species: Callistephus chinensis.
An annual flowering plant native to China and Korea, with single or double daisy-like flowers in white, pink, or purple; unrelated to the perennial aster. Grown as a garden plant and cut flower.—ebb, lmw

& so do the butterflies. But indeed in this little garden I have had a great crop of flowers of all sorts—Its quite astonishing how little room they will do with, & I like that crowd of bright blossoms mingling  the one with the other like flowers in a basket or the mimic qaiety of a [gap: reason: torn.]carpet I have been [gap: reason: torn.][ge]tting in my harvest of sweet peas to day.—What [gap: reason: torn.][s]tuff I write to you my dear Friend—full of confidence in your kindness—& presuming upon it almost past bearing—But these trifles are my pleasures—a part even of my happiness & why should I not talk about them! 〰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 seen 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 .
today, who gives an excellent account 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—perhaps I may see him tomorrow—If I do I will let you know any news I may hear of her—Am I not a generous rival?— Adieu my dear Friend—Pray write soon. Kindest regards from all here—Ever most affectionately,

Have you seen a letter to Hannah MoreHannah More | Born: 1745-02-02 in Fishponds, Bristol, England. Died: 1833-09-07 in Clifton, Bristol, England.
Hannah More began her career in 1770s London as a successful playwright and associate of David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Montagu, and Joshua Reynolds. She was a prominent member of the Bluestocking group of women following Montagu’s salon. In the 1780s, she brought the working-class Bristol poet Ann Yearsley to public attention, and became increasingly active with abolitionists and evangelicals such as William Willberforce and Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London. With her sister Martha, More became active in philanthropic activities intended to improve the living conditions and education of the poor, including setting up Sunday Schools to teach reading. Between the 1780s and the 1830s she was a prolific and popular author of novels, conduct books, and ethical tracts, including Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education (1799) and Practical Piety (1811). She wrote numerous moralistic poems and prose sketches aimed at literate working-class poor audiences, including Village Politics, by Will Chip (1792), and later worked with Porteus on the series Cheap Repository Tracts (1795 to 1797), the most famous of which is The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain .—lmw
from an English woman on the present CrisisAn Englishwoman’s Letter to Mrs. Hannah More on the Present Crisis. London: J. Hatchard. 1820.
Anonymously published eighteen-page pamphlet on the Queen Caroline Affair. WorldCat attributes the second edition of the pamplet to Jane Alice Sargant; Mitford’s letters of 1820 indicate that she believed it to have been written by her friend Barbara Hofland.—lmw? It is by my friend Mrs. HoflandBarbara Wreaks Hofland | Born: 1770 in Yorkshire, England. Died: 1844-11-04 in Richmond-on-Thames.
Frequent correspondent of Mitford's, mentioned often in her Journal of 1819-1823. Novelist and writer of children’s books popular in England and America, Barbara Hofland was a native of Sheffield, Yorkshire, where she published poems from July 1794 in the local newspaper, The Sheffield Iris. Her first marriage to Thomas Bradshawe Hoole left her widowed and in poverty, raising a son, Frederic, on her own, and she supported herself by publishing poems and children’s books, and by running a girl’s school in Harrogate. Her second marriage was to the artist Thomas Christopher Hofland. (Source: ODNB)—ebb, hjb—Exceedingly well & even elegantly written.

I had half a mind not to let this scrawl go—it is so stupid—but I will send it—you will be entertained with my jealousy—& I love to make you laugh whether with me or at me. Good bye my dear Friend—

Don't you think the Whigs are much to blame to encourage the QueenCaroline, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom Caroline Queen Consort of the United Kingdom Caroline of Brunswick Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Princess of Wales | Born: 1768-05-17 in Brunswick, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empire. Died: 1821-08-07 in Hammersmith, London, England.
The cousin and later the estranged wife of the Prince Regent (later George IV). Caroline was adopted as the mascot of the parliamentary reform movement around the time that the Regent attempted to divorce her on grounds of adultery in 1818, and his struggles with Parliament to divorce her and prevent her from becoming Queen are known as the Queen Caroline Affair. Mitford writes humorously in her letters of 1818 and 1819 of the political fodder made of the Affair by both Whigs and Tories.—lmw, ebb, rnes
? Why do they I wonder. Once more Goodbye—