Oh, my dear Sir William,William 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 don't suppose I shall ever have the comfort & amusement of writing a long letter again! "First recover that, & than thou shalt hear 'farther.'"[1] Mitford quotes from The Revenge by Edward Young (I.i.24-25. Zanoa: "To strike thee with astonishment at once,/I hate Alonzo. First recover that,/And then thou shalt hear farther."—lmw I am so busy. Since I came back from LondonLondon, England | London | England | 51.5073509 -0.12775829999998223 Capital city of England and the United Kingdom; one the oldest cities in Western Europe. Major seaport and global trading center at the mouth of the Thames. From 1831 to 1925, the largest city in the world.—lmw I have written a TragedyFiesco.
Mitford’s first attempt to write a full-length tragedy, never performed or printed, although she did submit it for consideration to William Macready and the managers of Covent Garden Theatre in 1820. Schiller also wrote a play on this subject, entitled Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua; or Fiesco’s Conspiracy at Genoa. In a letter of 9 February 1821 Mitford indicates that she was not familiar with Schiller’s work, having neither seen nor sought for it. —lmw on the subject of FiescoGiovanni Luigi Fiesco Fieschi, Count of Lavagna | Born: 1522. Died: 1547-01-02.
Giovanni Luigi Fieschi (or Fiesco), count of Lavagna was a nobleman of Genoa and leader of the failed Fieschi conspiracy of 1547. Subject of a play by Schiller, Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua (1782), also known simply as Fiesco . Subject of a play by Mitford, written and submitted to Macready for consideration, but never performed or printed.—lmw
the Genoese Nobleman who conspired against DoriaAndrea Doria, or: D'Oria | Born: 1466-11-30 in Oneglia, Republic of Genoa. Died: 1560-11-25 in Genoa, Republic of Genoa.
A fifteenth-century Genoese military commander and statemen of interest in Mary Russell Mitford's unperformed play Fiesco. Andrea Doria was a condottiere, or leader of mercenary troops engaged by contract by rivaling Italian city states, especially Naples and Genoa. Doria assembled a fleet of eight ships and led naval battles against the Barbary pirates and the Ottoman Turks. At varying points he served King Francis I of France against the Habsburg empire, and Hapbsurg empire against the French when he was displeased with French rule of his home city of Genoa, and eventually he was instrumental in expanding Habsburg imperial rule over the Italian peninsula.—ebb
—the story is beautifully told in Robertson's Charles the Fifth—This TragedyFiesco.
Mitford’s first attempt to write a full-length tragedy, never performed or printed, although she did submit it for consideration to William Macready and the managers of Covent Garden Theatre in 1820. Schiller also wrote a play on this subject, entitled Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua; or Fiesco’s Conspiracy at Genoa. In a letter of 9 February 1821 Mitford indicates that she was not familiar with Schiller’s work, having neither seen nor sought for it. —lmw is now in Mr. MacreadyWilliam Charles Macready | Born: 1793-03-03 in London, England. Died: 1873-04-27 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.
English actor, one of the most prominent tragedians of his era. He appeared at Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres in London and also toured the United States. He appeared in Sheridan Knowles's William Tell, Byron's Sardanapolus, and Bulwer-Lytton's Money (1840), as well as in many Shakespearean roles. He also managed both Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres. In his role as actor-manager, Macready was a correspondent and collaborator with Mary Russell Mitford. The first play on which they worked was Mitford's Julian. Mitford dedicated to Macready the print edition of Julian: To William Charles Macready, Esq., with high esteem for those endowments which have cast new lustre on his art; with warm admiration for those powers which have inspired, and that taste which has fostered the tragic dramatists of his age; with heartfelt gratitude for the zeal with which he befriended the production of a stranger, for the judicious alterations which he suggested, and for the energy, the pathos, and the skill with which he more than emhodied its principal character; this tragedy is most respectfully dedicated by the author. Macready retired from the stage in 1851. —lmw
's hands—I suppose I shall hear in a day or two that its rejected—& the moment I hear that I shall fall to ding dong & write another. For I have an inward consciousness that any little talent I may have is altogether dramatic and having placed before my eyes the example of Mr. TobinJohn Tobin | Born: 1770-01-28 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Died: 1804-12-07 in Cork, Ireland.
An unsuccessful playwright during his lifetime, Tobin submitted and had rejected more than ten plays and farces. Suffering from consumption, Tobin sailed for the West Indies for his health but died on the first day at sea; the ship turned back and he was buried at Cork, Ireland. His most successful work, The Honeymoon (or Honey Moon), began its run at Drury Lane Theatre just before his death in 1804. —lmw
whose HoneymoonThe Honeymoon. was produced after eleven other Plays ^of his composing had been rejected (I don't mean to follow his example in dying though before my successful Play is brought out) I am determined to persevere & to write a good Tragedy at last even if I previously write eleven bad ones. This I am resolved on. In the mean time I am writing for the magazines—Poetry criticism & Dramatic Sketches—I work as hard as a lawyer's clerk & besides the natural loathing of pen & ink which that sort of drudgery cannot fail to inspire I have really at present scarcely a moment to spare even to the violets and primroses. You would laugh if you saw me puzzling over my prose—You have no notion how much difficulty I find in writing any thing at all readable. One cause of this is my having been so egregious a letter writer—I have accustomed myself to a certain careless sauciness, a fluent incorrectness which passed very well with indulgent Friends such as yourself, 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

but will not do at all for that tremendous Correspondent the Public—so I ponder over every [del: .]phrasepage 2
—disjoint every sentence & finally produce such lumps of awkwardness I really expect instead of paying me for them Mr. Colburn & Mr. BaldwinRobert Baldwin | Born: 1780. Died: 1858-01-29.
Printer of the London Magazine; London printer and bookseller. Partners with Charles Cradock and William Joy; published works with them under firm name Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. Also published separately under R. Baldwin. See Coles 14.—lmw
will send me back the trash. But I will improve. This is another resolution which is as fixed as fate.—Well—I am now going to make a strange request—Will you my dear Friend have the goodness to lend me those letters of mine which you have taken the trouble to keep. I am not going to publish them—of that you may be sure. But without partaking of your kind delusion as to their merits I am aware that there are in them occasional passages & expressions which being written in the first freshness of feeling & with perfect ease & unrestraint are more effervescent & sparkling as well as more just than any thing I am likely to write now with the fear of the Public before my eyes. For instance I want to write an essay on 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
's novels, which are by no means valued [del: .]as they deserve—indeed are never mentioned or thought of amongst good writers—& I am sure I should find better materials in my letters to you written just after I read them than I should be able to compound[del: .] from my own recollection. Of course I am not going to print them in the form of letters or to have any allusion to names or persons. All that I intend is to select any happy expressions (if I chance to find any)—or any vivid descriptions—[del: .] to steal from myself, as it were; & if you my dear Sir William,William 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

will condescend to be an accessory before the fact in this petty larceny, I shall be most obliged to you. You can bring the letters with you, for I shall depend on seeing you in our smoky den though I am rather ashamed of its dirt & dinginess—(I page 3
mean to send 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
off to WinchesterWinchester, Hampshire, England | Winchester | Hampshire | England | 51.059771 -1.3101420000000417 City and county town of Hampshire. Site of Winchester Cathedral and Winchester College, one of the oldest public grammar schools. Jane Austen died here and is buried in the Cathedral. John Keats wrote several of his best-known poems while on a visit to the city.—lmw, (She can't bear paint,) & to have it whitened & tidied up this summer)—but you must let us have a sight of you, for my going to TownLondon, England | London | England | 51.5073509 -0.12775829999998223 Capital city of England and the United Kingdom; one the oldest cities in Western Europe. Major seaport and global trading center at the mouth of the Thames. From 1831 to 1925, the largest city in the world.—lmw is very uncertain—It depends on my PlayFiesco.
Mitford’s first attempt to write a full-length tragedy, never performed or printed, although she did submit it for consideration to William Macready and the managers of Covent Garden Theatre in 1820. Schiller also wrote a play on this subject, entitled Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua; or Fiesco’s Conspiracy at Genoa. In a letter of 9 February 1821 Mitford indicates that she was not familiar with Schiller’s work, having neither seen nor sought for it. —lmw, & I have no hopes of its being accepted—& when I give myself a few days holidays it will probably be later in the year, & my head quarters will be RichmondRichmond, London, England | Richmond upon Thames | Richmond | London | England | 51.46131099999999 -0.3037420000000566 Richmond upon Thames, now a borough of London, formerly part of Surrey. The Hoflands lived there and Thomas Hofland painted views of the area.—lmwTwickenhamTwickenham, Richmond upon Thames, London, England | Twickenham | Richmond upon Thames | London | England | 51.44458100000001 -0.3352459999999837 Twickenham, a town on the Thames, now part of Greater London. In the eighteenth century, the home of Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole, who built a neo-Gothic mansion at Strawberry Hill. —lmwKewKew, Richmond upon Thames, England | Kew village | Kew | Richmond upon Thames | England | 51.475251 -0.284890799999971 Once a village northeast of Richmond, now a suburban district part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Site of what is now the Royal Botanic Gardens, a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace, a royal residence favored by George III, and Kew Gardens. Mitford mentions visiting Kew in her Journal on July 4 1820.—lmw, hjb—I have many friends in those parts—to say nothing of Miss JamesElizabeth Mary James, or: Miss James | Born: 1775 in Bath, Somerset, England. Died: 1861-11-25 in 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey, England.
Close friend and correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. She was the eldest daughter of Thomas Webb and Susanna Haycock. Her father died in 1818 and her mother in 1835. After her parents’ deaths, she lived with her two younger sisters, Emily and Susan, in Green Park Buildings, Bath, Walcot, Somerset; High Street, Mortlake, Surrey; and 3 Pembroke Villas, Richmond, Surrey. According to Coles, referring to Mitford’s diary, letters were also addressed to her at Bellevue, Lower Road, Richmond (Coles 26). She was buried at St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond, Surrey. In the 1841 census, she is listed as living on independent means; in the 1851 census, as landholder; in the 1861 census, she as railway shareholder.—lmw—so you must come, just to satisfy yourself that I am fatter & rosier than ever in spite of my quill driving, & as gay as a lark my tragedies notwithstanding.—What you say about KenilworthKenilworth. Walter Scott. London Edinburgh: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne. 1821. & about Curiosity is very just & true—but if the catastrophe were offered a thousand times over it would not alter the powerful impression made on my mind by such a dissection of the wicked human heart.—Have you read Mr. NichollJohn Nicholls, or: Member of Parliament | Born: 1745 in England. Died: 1832 in France.
Solicitor and Member of Parliament for Bletchingley and for Tregony. Author of Recollections and Reflections, Personal and Political, as Connected with Public Affairs, During the Reign of George III, a memoir read by Mitford and mentioned in her 1821 correspondence.—lmw

's Recollections of the Reign of George the ThirdRecollections and Reflections, Personal and Political, as Connected with Public Affairs, During the Reign of George III. John Nicholls. London : Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. 1822. (I am not sure that this is the title) It seems to me the most extraordinary instance of fairness & impartiality in an old party man that I ever met with & is amusing to boot. To be sure if [del: .]a man of 76 & stone blind, be not impartial one does not know where to look for that rare quality. Of course you won't disagree with him in many points—so do I—but the general rightmindedness is astonishing.—Mr. HaydonBenjamin Robert Haydon | Born: 1786-01-26 in Plymouth, England. Died: 1846-06-22 in London.
Benjamin Robert Haydon was a painter educated at the Royal Academy, who was famous for contemporary, historical, classical, biblical, and mythological scenes, though tormented by financial difficulties and incarceration. He painted William Wordsworth's portrait in 1842 and painted a cameo of Keats in his epic canvas Christ's Entry into Jerusalem(1814-20). MRM was introduced to him at his London studio in the spring of 1817, and Sir William Elford was a mutual friend, and Haydon’s own acquaintances included several prominent British Romantic literary figures. He completed The Raising of Lazarus in 1823 . He wrote a diary and an autobiography, both of which were published only posthumously, and he committed suicide in 1846. George Paston's Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century (1893) contends that Mitford was asked to edit Haydon's memoir, but declined.—rnes, ebb & his bright eyes are at GlasgowGlasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland | Glasgow | Lanarkshire | Scotland | 55.864237 -4.251805999999988 Largest city in Scotland, on the River Clyde. Historically part of the county of Lanarkshire. Since the eighteenth century, an important center of trade and emigration with the Americas. Also a key center of the Industrial Revolution, particularly in shipbuilding and related industries.—lmw—His money was very ill—dying—So he was forced to set off at a day's warning to take care of his concerns there—leaving the Resurrection of LazarusThe Resurrection of Lazarus, The Raising of Lazarus. Benjamin Robert Haydon.
Painting of enormous dimensions exhibited in 1823 at Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London. While on exhibit in 1823, the picture was seized from the gallery when Haydon was arrested for debt and imprisoned for two months.—ebb to take care of itself. He has painted down to the arms in the figure of ChristJesus Jesus Christ Jesus of Nazareth | Born: 0001. Died: 0034.
Hebrew preacher and religious leader and the most important figure of the Christian religion, who Christians believe to the the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament and the incarnated Son of God the Father. —lmw in that picture—which is a great improvement in industry & dispatch.—What a terrible affair this duel is! What a pity that poor John ScottJohn Scott | Born: 1784-10-24 in Broadgate, Aberdeen, Scotland. Died: 1821-02-21 in York Street, Covent Garden, London, England.
Journalist and editor who revived The London Magazine in 1820 and edited it until his death on 27 February 1821. Died as the result of complications from a gunshot wound received in a duel fought on 16 February with Jonathan Henry Christie (John Gibson Lockhart's agent) at Chalk Farm. The duel resulted from an escalation of attacks and counterattacks between the editors of the London and Blackwood's Magazines over Blackwood's characterizations of a Cockney School.—lmw, ebb
did not at once fight 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
. Horace SmithHorace Smith | Born: 1779-12-31 in London, England. Died: 1849-07-12 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.
Born Horatio Smith. Co-author with his brother James of the literary parody collection Rejected Addresses. Acquaintance of Byron, Shelley, and Hunt.—lmw
for his second, or which would have been better still will say simply that he would not fight at all in a literary quarrel. He is now the Victim of his own contemptible second—a man who—a pawnbroker on Ludgate HillLudgate Hill, London, England | Ludgate Hill | London | England | 51.5139928 -0.10247660000004544 A hill in the City of London and the site of St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is one of the three ancient hills of London. The old city gate and attached gaol were removed in 1780. During Mitford’s lifetime, the street of the same name had not yet been built; a narrower roadway called Ludgate Street stood in its place. —lmw & a dandy in St. James's StreetSt. James’s Street, Westminster, London, England | St. James | Westminster | London | England | 51.5063355 -0.1391075000000228 The main thoroughfare in the district of St James’s in central London which runs from Piccadilly downhill to St James’s Palace at its southern end. The area was named after a hospital dedicated to St. James the Less. In Mitford’s time, St. James Street was the home of many of the best-known clubs, such as Brooke’s and White’s.—lmw—& who egged page 4
on his unhappy friend to gratify his own trumpery desire of notoriety. I hope he will be severely dealt with.—Thinking of hanging—we are all talking here of a neighbour of ours a rich farmer's widow who seems likely enough to be in that predicament. She has set fire to her premises to cheat the Insurance office—but if she has sense enough to plead lunacy I think she may escape. I must tell you one story of her. Her husband died about three months ago & desired to be buried at ChippenhamChippenham, Wiltshire, England | Chippenham | Wiltshire | England | 51.461514 -2.1195156999999654 Market town in Wiltshire, east of Bath. Founded on the River Avon and served by the Great Western Railway after 1841.—lmw—his native place. The disconsolate Widow mourned over the expenceexpense of a Hersehearse thought it would be much cheaper to send the body by the stage & set off to ReadingReading, Berkshire, England | Reading | Berkshire | England | 51.4542645 -0.9781302999999753 County town in Berkshire, in the Thames valley at the confluence of the Thames and the River Kennet. The town developed as a river port and in Mitford’s time served as a staging point on the Bath Road and was developing into a center of manufacturing. Mitford lived here with her parents from 1791 to 1795, on Coley Avenue in the parish of St. Mary’s and attended the Abbey School. The family returned to Reading from 1797 to about 1804, after which they relocated to Bertram House. They frequently visited Reading thereafter from their homes at nearby Bertram House, Three Mile Cross and Swallowfield. Mitford later used scenes from Reading as the basis for Belford Regis; or Sketches of a Country Town.—lmw to negociatenegotiate for the carriage of the Corpse. "Carry a coffin on the outside of the Coach Ma'am! Its impossible." quoth the astonished Coachman. "Well never mind the Coffin" continued this persevering Economist "Can I pack him up some other way?"〰 The owner of our old place is turning it  alltopsy turvy—he has filled up the water & is going to cut down the firs —besides unheard of vagaries in the House—without he is spending two or three thousand pounds in spoiling the place, & if ever he should be tried for his life I will give him as good a character for being mad—as I would to the lady aforesaid. I must tell you a story of him. He is a soft youth of good fortune & no education, & being in love with a young woman, a clergyman's daughter contrived in pure mistake (it must have been mistake for they had neither of them any fortune) to marry her Aunt. Last summer the Aunt died, & he out of gratitude I suppose for the release had a sort of royal funeral which cost eight or nine hundred pounds—the defunct lying in state, in much such a cottage as this—& with no mortal to see her but himself & the Maid. He is now going to marry his first love the Niece—you know a similar accident befel Lord PortsmouthJohn Charles Walopp Portsmouth 3rd Earl of Portsmouth Lord Portsmouth Viscount Lymington | Born: 1767-12-18. Died: 1853-07-14.
Legally declared insane since 1809 in a well-publicized series of court hearings in 1823. After this case, his second marriage to Mary Anne Hanson, the daughter of his solicitor and trustee, was annulled. They married on 7 March 1814.—lmw
—who after he had been married two months to his present wife found out that he had intended to marry her sister.