I have been waiting till Easter should bring some Parliament men into the Country to thank you for your delightful account of your 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 excursion[1] Haydon had recently returned from Scotland, where he had exhibited his painting, Christ's Entry Into Jerusalem.—scw—Oh what an honour & a pleasure it is to be selected as a friend to whom you like “to unburthen your thoughts”—& how heartily I sympathised with all your feelings whether stern or relenting—I had been waiting for a frank to tell you this—but I suppose indignation is a stonger impulse than pleasure for since I received the ExaminerThe Examiner, A Sunday paper, on politics, domestic economy, and theatricals. 1808-1886.
Weekly periodical launched by editor Leigh Hunt and his brother, the printer John Hunt. Mitford’s correspondence demonstrates that her household subscribed or regularly had access to The Examiner and The London Magazine.—ebb this morning I can no longer refrain from writing. I had read the Article in the MagazineThe London Magazine. 1820-1829.
An 18th-century periodical of this title (The London Magazine, or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer) ran from 1732 to 1785 . In 1820, John Scott launched a new series of The London Magazine emulating the style of Blackwood’s Magazine, though the two magazines soon came into heated contention. This series ran until 1829, and this is the series to which Mitford and her correspondents frequently refer in their letters. Scott’s editorship lasted until his death by duel on 27 February 1821 resulting form bitter personal conflict with the editors of Blackwood’s Magazine connected with their insulting characterization of a London Cockney School. After Scott’s death, William Hazlitt took up editing the magazine with the April 1821 issue.—ebb, lmw wondering who could be meant—thinking how likely it was to be misrepresented but never for an instant dreaming that it could be aimed at you—of all impossible slanders that seemed the most impossible—& I am even now lost in astonishment at such a malicious [del: 1 word.]falsehood's finding a place in so respectable a publication.[2] Mitford has just read Haydon's short retort, "Alleged Inhumanity of a Living Artist" published in the Examiner's current issue of 15 April 1821, in which he identifies himself as the unspecified "living artist" recently targeted in the April 1821 issue of The London Magazine, in "The British Institution". The London Magazine piece was an anonymous review of an art exhibition in which Haydon did not participate, but in which Edwin Landseer's Seizure of a Boar reminds the writer of an anecdote about "a living artist who, when a child was run over by a cart, before its own loved home, and the bankrupt mother stood rigid as stone, staring with maniac agony on her crushed darling, calmly and deliberately gazed on her 'to study the expression,' as he called it!! I care not to know his name. . . but let me take this opportunity to assure him, that, as a man, I hold him in the most sovereign contempt, not to say detestation!" (page 438). In his prompt rejoinder, Haydon identified himself as the "living artist," and described the circumstances of the encounter: "About eight years ago, while the living Artist alluded to was accidentally approaching Temple Bar, he saw suddenly a great crowd, and heard the screams of some poor woman in great agony! He ran on with many other gentlemen and squeezing near enough to give her aid, found a poor creature turning her head from one side ot the other, beating away the people who offered to calm her, and screaming on 'her dear boy' with a dry, parched, agitated hoarseness!—The people at last forced her into a house, and upon his inquiring what had happened, he found that she had permitted her boy to hold a horse and to mount it, and that the poor little fellow had been thrown and trampled on. Now, Sir, this is the truth and nothing but the truth, whereas in the London Magazine, the living Artist is made to witness unmoved a dear little child crushed by a cart wheel! and indifferent to its horrid condition, deliberately to walk up to the mother without feeling, sympathy, or pain; quietly to look in her face, and enraptured to study her expression!" Haydon continues that the child did not die of the accident, that the mother's face did not stare rigidly but was luridly animated, and that "The living Artist has often related this affecting incident to his friends, and has added, that his coming in contact with such a dreadful expression in Nature, at the very moment he was painting the real mother in the Judgment of Solomon, enabled him to give that look of 'agonized faintness' which it has been thought by every mother he has succeeded in giving."—ebb I suppose that as there is now no regular Editor the venom slid in undetected.[3] The April 1821 issue of The London Magazine announced the death of its founding editor, John Scott, who had on 16 February fallen in a duel with Jonathan Christie, John Gibson Lockhart's literary agent. Scott challenged Christie to the duel over what Scott took to be a personal insult, rooted in an escalating conflict between his London Magazine and what he took to be Lockhart's writings in Blackwood's Magazine caricaturing a Cockney School of London writers and artists. William Hazlitt had taken over as editor of The London Magazine for the April 1821 issue. Mitford's surprise that The London Magazine would print an implicit insult to Haydon is certainly warranted, since Haydon had long been a friend of John Scott (Source: ODNB]).—ebb I am almost glad that it did since it has afforded you an opportunity of making a defence & dignified & so spirited—What a necessary thing it is that a great painter should be a good writer! And really in these days when the appetite for anecdote as it is called (that is for scandal) is so [craving] & the gossip of a set of unidea'd women over a country tea table yields in malice to the slander of literary chit chat, every man should be brought to wield the pen as a weapon of defence against his enemies his rivals & his friends. Do you know to which class the present writer belongs?—I will not talk of him any more for it really gives me unwomanly feelings—to use a womanly phrase it puts me in a passion.——[4] Here Mitford's long dash signals a change of topic, effectively a paragraph break.—ebb

What became of your poor 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 culprit? Did he come back to London according to your behest? And is he likely topage 2
turn honest & make his way in the world?[5] We have not yet identified this "Glasgow culprit" from our review of Haydon's published correspondence.—ebb I think if any thing [del: .] could reform a man your severity of words & kindness of action would do so.

I think you know my friend Mrs HoflandBarbara Wreaks Hofland | Born: 1770 in Yorkshire, England. Died: 1844-11-04 in Richmond-on-Thames.
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. second marriage was to the artist Thomas Christopher Hofland. (Source: ODNB)—ebb I have just had a letter from 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 containing so remarkable an anecdote respecting her that I am tempted to transcribe it—To understand it I must tell you that Mrs HoflandBarbara Wreaks Hofland | Born: 1770 in Yorkshire, England. Died: 1844-11-04 in Richmond-on-Thames.
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. second marriage was to the artist Thomas Christopher Hofland. (Source: ODNB)—ebb has been for several years involved in a ChanceryCourt of Chancery
Court founded in Norman England, adjudicating equity cases with a tradition of leniency. This court had powers to cancel debts in cases of poverty.—ebb suit on the success of which they had placed great reliance.[6] The National Archives documents multiple Chancery suits, with records dating 1813, 1814, and 1818 involving Thomas and Barbara Hofland as plaintiffs against Francis Hoole, Joseph Wreaks, Job Baseby Rolls and Frederick Parkin Hoole. The surnames Wreaks and Hoole suggest connections on Barbara Hofland's side, as Hoole was the name of her first husband and Wreaks was her maiden name.—ebb (Ah I could have told them what a miserable thing is a successful Chancery suit!) Now for Miss James'sElizabeth 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 letter. "The Hofland suit is decided in their favour—but all the costs being to be paid out of the property not a sixpence Mrs. Hof.Barbara Wreaks Hofland | Born: 1770 in Yorkshire, England. Died: 1844-11-04 in Richmond-on-Thames.
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. second marriage was to the artist Thomas Christopher Hofland. (Source: ODNB)—ebb says will come to them. Their lawyer had neglected to write & the news of the decision was brought by a neighbour who told her only that it was decided in their favour—she went to Town to enquire was[and] was quite overcome by the information she received—& was about to mount the outside of the Twickenham CoachTwickenham Coach
Stage coach that travelled to Twickenham.—kdc to return all amort as you may suppose when recollecting she should save sixpence in going by the Richmond StageRichmond Coach
Stage coach that travelled to Richmond.—kdc & such an one being on hand,—she withdrew her foot although a most respectable woman with her husband at her side affected to make room for her—Home she came by the Richmond CoachRichmond Coach
Stage coach that travelled to Richmond.—kdc & saved her sixpence & her life. The Twickenham CoachTwickenham Coach
Stage coach that travelled to Twickenham.—kdc was overturned an hour after & that decent woman in whose place she would have sat killed on the spot. The husband had his collar bone & a rib broken. This most striking event gave a new & just turn to her thoughts—I am sure you will feel as thankful as I did at the detail which she gave in her most pathetic manner." _____

Having begun storytelling I must tell you  anothera story which comes from GermanyGermany | 51.165691 10.451526000000058 A country in central-western Europe. Berlin is the capital and largest city.—bas. The King of Naples[7] Possibly this a story about King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, also Ferdinand IV of Naples (1751 - 1825), though it is hard to tell if the anecdote is current.—ebb having arrived at Laybach before the other sovereigns  ofwas desirous to have the amusement of bear hunting which of course was to be provided for him but there being page 3
no bears resident in the neighbourhood one was purchased of a Savoyard & placed a few miles out of Town in a thicket. The King attended as the story went by a train of cars & courtiers arrived near the place & the Bear finding himself in the neighbourhood of so much good company fancied he was to perform as usual came out on his hind legs in a most graceful attitude—which alas! had an effect on the hard heart of his Neopolitan Majesty who discharged his piece & shot him dead. This story is none of my radical inventions—it came from 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

to Sir W. ElfordWilliam 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

& from him to me. ____

I have a great grievance just now which I have nothing [Damage: 3 word, agent: .][all to] do with—but which I cannot help thinking a grievance nevertheless. The Duke of WellingtonArthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , or: The Iron Duke | Born: 1769-05-01 in Dublin, Ireland. Died: 1852-09-14 in Walmer, Kent, England.
Before his fame in the Napoleonic Wars, Wellesley served in the Irish House of Commons, and after fighting against Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore in the Siege of Seringapatam he served as the governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799. He was promoted to general during the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon (the battles fought in the Iberian Peninsula), and was granted the title, the First Duke of Wellingtom, after Napoleon's first defeat and exile in 1814. He led the Allied English and European armies in Napoleon's decisive defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 . A prominent influence on the Tory party, he served as Prime Minister from 1828 to 1830, and again in 1834 . —ebb
's sons are at home for the EtonEton College
Boarding school for boys, located in Eton, Berkshire.—ebb holidays & they come every day to a little alehouse next door to learn French of a Jew who is lodging there for the purpose of teaching them. "The poor little lads Ma'amMary 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
", said my friend the Landlord, "are kept very strict. They never look up but their tutor corrects them, & there they sit in my parlour from eleven to half past four & never have a glass of any thing." Without sympathising very deeply in the misfortune which my friend the Alehouse keeper with a true tap-room feeling considers as worst of all, I am quite indignant at the poor little boys being cheated of their holidays. Is it not abominable?—A worse iniquity than  cheating beating NapoleonNapoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, Emperor of the French, President of the Italian Republic, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, or: First Consul of France Emperor of the French President of the Italian Republic King of Italy Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine | Born: 1769-08-15 in Ajaccio, Corsica, France. Died: 1821-05-05 in Longwood, St. Helena, United Kingdom.
Military commander and political leader. During the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars, Napoleon rose to prominence as a military leader. He engineered a coup in 1799 that brought him to power as First Consul of France and then as Napoleon I, Emperor of the French (from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815). As Emperor, he led France against a series of European military coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars, building an empire that extended over most of continental Europe until its collapse in 1815. In spring 1814, the Allies captured Paris and forced Napoleon to abdicate, exiling him to the island of Elba and restoring the Bourbons to power. Less than a year later, Napoleon escaped from Elba and retook control of France, only to suffer defeat by the Allies at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The British then exiled him to the island Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he remained until his death in 1821. He is celebrated as one of Europe's greatest military commanders and as the disseminator of the system of laws known as the Napoleonic Code.—lmw
.[8] A reference to Wellington's famous defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.—ad When they ought to be playing cricket or stealing bird's nests or doing mischief or doing nothing.—The Battle of Waterloo was [del: .] a [joke] to this wickedness. The only thing that even looks like the holidays is their mode of conveyance which is generally five in a gig rain or shine.

Pray did you get a little letter which I sent to you at Glasgow—It is not worth asking for.—My FatherGeorge 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 & MotherMary 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
join in kindest remembrances & I am ever

Were you not very affected at the death of poor John [Keats?]John Keats | Born: 1795-10-31 in London, England. Died: 1821-02-23 in Rome, Papal States.
Romantic-era poet, known for his Odes. Trained in the field of medicine, he worked as a dresser (surgeon's assistant) at Guy's Hospital, London and received his apothecary's license while studying to become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Friend of Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, and Benjamin Haydon, as well as publishers Taylor and Hessey and lived near them in Hampstead, where he became part of a circle of Hampstead writers and artists known to Mitford. In 1821, he traveled to Rome to preserve his health, but died there at the age of twenty-five.—lmw, rnes
[9] The April 1821 issue of The London Magazine to which Mitford refers earlier in this letter also contained an article on the "Death of Mr. John Keats" on pages 426-427.—ebb There is another proof of the terrible personality of the age. If he had lived I think his name would have been second only to 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.—lmw, rnes
amongst the Poets of the day—Indeed even now there are parts of EndymionEndymion. John Keats. John Keats Keats John . which surely no other man could have written.

I am happy to tell you that after a great deal of enquiry & some threats we have succeeded in regaining your greyhound puppy & have placed him in very good [del: 1 char.] summer quarters. He is the largest young dog I ever saw in my life & gives promise of great strength—Once more Farewell.