Letter to Sir William Elford, 20 March 1820.

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            <title>Letter to <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir William Elford</persName>, 20 March 1820. 
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         <author ref="#MRM">Mary Russell Mitford</author>
         <editor ref="#ajc">Amy Colombo</editor>
         <sponsor><orgName>Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford
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         <sponsor>University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg</sponsor>
         <principal>Elisa Beshero-Bondar</principal>
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            <edition>First digital edition in TEI, date: 5 June 2014. P5.</edition>
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               <head>Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford, <date>20 March 1820</date>. </head>
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                              of <material>paper</material> with correspondence on recto and verso 5-6. There is a gap on page
                              6 intended for an address. The pages are
                              folded in half and thirds twice more and were sealed for posting. It appears that pages 1-4 are two large sheets folded
                           in half; the last page (5-6) is one sheet. This letter is glued into a scrapbook. </p>
                           <p>Address leaf bears a black circular
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           <handNote xml:id="rc" medium="red_crayon"> Red crayon or thick red pencil. Probably a
              different hand from Mitford's drawing a diagonal line (from upper-left corner to lower-right) across pages 1-6.</handNote>
           <handNote corresp="#pencil" medium="pencil">Someone cataloging the letters, apparently
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               To <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir W. Elford</persName><lb/><placeName ref="#Bertram_house">Bertram House</placeName><lb/>
               <date when="1820-03-20"> March 20th 1820</date></opener>
               <p>The first part of your delightful letter, my dear <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir William</persName>, to which I shall reply is your supposition respecting <persName ref="#Dickinson_Mrs"> Mrs. Dickinson</persName>. You never were so much mistaken in your life. She has the finest &amp; the prettiest little <persName ref="#Dickinson_Daughter">girl</persName> that ever was seen, &amp; is herself quite well--that is <q>"as well as can be expected."</q> The young lady is quite a beauty &amp; will be a fortnight old tomorrow--I did not think it possible for so young a child to be so pretty--perhaps I
               did not think it possible for me to be so interested in a young child--but really <choice><sic>every body</sic><reg resp="#ajc">everybody</reg></choice> calls this brat lovely--its <persName ref="#Dickinson_Charles">Papa</persName>--its <persName ref="#Dickinson_Mrs">Mama</persName>--its <persName ref="#Dickinson_Grandmama">Grandmama</persName>--its <persName ref="#Dickinson_Nurse">nurse</persName>--&amp; I who stand for a sort of maiden Aunt I think it loveliest of all--quite a She-<persName ref="#Cupid">Cupid</persName>.--After all your supposition was far from being unreasonable--for <persName ref="#Dickinson_Mrs">Mrs. Dickinson</persName> had made so great a mistake as to the time that half the <choice><sic>neighbourhood</sic><reg resp="#ajc">neighborhood</reg></choice> was of your opinion.--The next important event was our election--Has your <choice><sic>neighbour</sic><reg resp="#ajc">neighbor</reg></choice>
               <persName ref="#Sinclair_SrJohn"> Sir John Sinclair</persName> told you of this desperate contest--this struggle for 
                  life <metamark place="below" function ="insertion" rend="caret"/><add place="above">&amp; death</add>? It lasted 6 days--during the three last of which not more than thirty votes were polled on all sides--never to be sure were voters so filtered out drop by drop--Every unpolled elector was known on all sides--&amp; the obstinate who would not vote--the fearful who dared not--the rich who could not, were assailed morning noon &amp; night by the persuasions &amp; exhortations of the candidates &amp; their committees--Very little men were of great consequence during those three days--<said>"Has Philips voted yet?" </said> <said>"How is Butler<pb n="2"/> this morning?"</said> were the common salutations amongst committee men &amp; fair ladies<supplied reason="missing" resp="#ebb">.</supplied><note resp="#ebb">Here Mitford's dash appears to terminate the sentence.</note>--Now <persName>Philips </persName> was a <choice><sic>Mill wright</sic><reg resp="#ajc">millwright</reg></choice> desperately poor who tugged at on all sides deserted his house &amp; home to escape the certainty of offending his employers on one side or other--&amp; <persName ref="#Butler_Mr">Butler</persName> a sick <orgName ref="#Palmerite">Palmerite</orgName> who kept a little shop &amp; was nursed &amp; guarded by a <orgName ref="#Weylandite">Weylandite</orgName> wife who at last not content with locking up her husband fairly flung the <persName ref="#Palmer_CF">Palmer</persName> letters in the face of the messengers--so a long head of our party despairing to rescue him from her clutches paired him off with a sick <orgName ref="#Weylandite">Weylandite</orgName>.--All this time I have not told you who the Candidates were --<persName ref="#Palmer_CF">Mr. Palmer</persName> the old Member--<persName ref="#Weyland_John">Mr. Weyland</persName> the old Candidate--&amp; <persName ref="#Monck_JB">Mr. Monck</persName> an opposition man of large fortune brought from <placeName ref="#France">France</placeName> in a fit of patriotism by our celebrated shoemaker &amp; Patriot <persName>Mr. <unclear unit="chars" quantity="4"><supplied resp="#ebb">W</supplied><!--ebb: Could this be Waring? or Maury?--></unclear></persName>. <persName ref="#Monck_JB" >Mr. Monck</persName> is one of the best men that ever lived--a clever man--one old &amp; most intimate friend--he has been abroad for 8 years &amp; a half &amp; yet--I was most thoroughly sorry to see him. The truth is that sending for him was an act of madness--Parties are so nearly balanced in <placeName ref="#Reading_city">Reading</placeName> that it is impossible for two ministerial or two opposition men to sit quietly--&amp; the compromise which was desired by all but a few têtes exaltees of bringing in <persName ref="#Palmer_CF">Mr. Palmer</persName> &amp;<persName ref="#Weyland_John">Mr. Weyland</persName> without a contest was the only thing that could have ensured the peace of the Borough. At present by desperate &amp; despairing exertions the two opposition men are come in--but another time one must go out--&amp; that one (don't tell <persName ref="#Sinclair_SrJohn"> Sir John Sinclair</persName>) must be <persName ref="#Palmer_CF" >Mr. Palmer</persName>, against whom the sun was this time, &amp; whose purse is in no condition to stand these repeated contests, &amp; whose conduct has been so fair so pure so <choice><sic>honourable</sic><reg resp="#ajc">honorable</reg></choice> that it quite breaks one's heart to think of his being cast aside<pb n="3"/> in a fit of caprice--no not caprice a cold calculation made in the very spirit of trade--that a rich member living in the <choice><sic>neighbourhood</sic><reg resp="#ajc">neighborhood</reg></choice> is better than one less rich who lives at a distance. In the meanwhile all <placeName ref="#Reading_city">Reading</placeName> is experiencing the double evils of a beginning &amp; a finished election--all the malice hatred envy &amp; ill will of the one, combined with the restless activity, the perpetual talking, the threatening promising &amp; canvassing of the other. <persName ref="#Weyland_John">Mr. Weyland</persName> had no sooner lost his election by five votes, made his mob drunk, &amp; takes himself off, than his party began to <choice><sic>organise</sic><reg resp="#ajc">organize</reg></choice> Committees in all the Parishes for the purpose of securing the Independence &amp; so forth of the Borough at the next election which of course was instantly met by counter Committees for the exactly same purpose on the other side.-- I love <persName ref="#Monck_JB">Mr. Monck</persName> (always with his wife's permission)--I like <persName ref="#Palmer_CF">Mr. Palmer</persName>--&amp; I don't like <persName ref="#Weyland_John">Mr. Weyland</persName> who is a puritan of the very first water, &amp; yet I very sincerely wish that <persName ref="#Monck_JB">Mr. Monck</persName> was back at <placeName ref="#Tours_France">Tours</placeName> &amp; <persName ref="#Weyland_John">Mr. Weyland</persName> quietly in <orgName ref="#Parliament_UK">Parliament</orgName> <del rend="squiggles">--<gap quantity="1" unit="word"/></del>
for <persName ref="#Palmer_CF" >Mr. Palmer's</persName> sake--which wish is exceedingly disinterested on my part inasmuch as I mean the new member to frank my letters &amp; shall find him much easier to catch than the old one. Have not I tired you with this tirade? Punish me in kind--But you can't--no--you <choice><sic>cant</sic><reg resp="#ebb">can't</reg></choice>--you cannot write so dully if you would--though you may certainly <choice><sic>chuse</sic><reg resp="#ebb">choose</reg></choice> the same dull subject--The only consolation to my fears for the next election is that is it less likely than appeared lately to happen soon. We saw yesterday a gentleman from <placeName ref="#Brighton">Brighton</placeName> who is intimate with <persName ref="#Tierney_SrMat">Sir Matthew Tierney</persName> &amp; who received from him a few days ago an account of the <persName ref="#GeoIV">King's</persName> health so exceedingly favorable that no man of character could<pb n="4"/> have given it had he been in so precarious a state as has been imagined--He said his <persName ref="#GeoIV">Majesty</persName> was as well as ever he had been in his life--now <persName ref="#Tierney_SrMat">Sir Matthew Tierney</persName> could not have said this of a man in whom the water was rising &amp; whose legs were cased every morning in sheet lead--as has been the constant report here abouts for the last fortnight. Did you ever happen to hear how boldly &amp; wisely <persName ref="#Tierney_SrMat">Sir Matthew Tierney</persName> (Deuce take that man's name--I have three times <choice><sic>mis-spelt</sic><reg resp="#ajc">misspelt</reg></choice> it--&amp; yet a lover of <persName ref="#Smollett_Tob">Smollett</persName> ought to be able to spell the <choice><sic>name sake</sic><reg resp="#ajc">namesake</reg></choice> of <persName ref="#Bramble_Matthew">Matthew Bramble</persName>--how boldly <persName ref="#Tierney_SrMat">Sir Mat:</persName> saved the <persName ref="#GeoIV">King's</persName> life--he was dying--gasping--<persName ref="#Halford_SrHen">Sir Henry Halford</persName> walking about the room with his head lost (put that into French if you don't understand it in English) &amp; had been bled--till to bleed seemed to kill--when <persName ref="#Tierney_SrMat">Sir Matthew</persName> exclaimed--he will probably die in the bleeding--but he must die without--so I'll bleed him--He did so keeping his hand on the pulse &amp; saved him--<metamark rend="waves"/>.</p>
            <p>In the midst of this <choice><sic>hub-bub</sic><reg resp="#ajc">hubbub</reg></choice>--have you been reading <choice><sic>any thing</sic><reg resp="#ajc">anything</reg></choice> new? Did I mention to you a Scotch novel called <title ref="#Glenfergus_fict">Glenfergus</title>? Not interesting--<del rend="squiggles">&amp; <gap quantity="1" unit="word"/></del> or probable &amp; occasionally very prosy--but still of great merit, from its perfect truth of character, &amp; the pointed vivacity of the
               style--two characters a classical dandy &amp; a most amicable &amp; genuine oldish maiden homely, housewifely, &amp; <choice><sic>every thing</sic><reg resp="#ajc">everything</reg></choice>
               that is good pleased me particularly--If you read <title ref="#Glenfergus_fict">Glenfergus</title> tell me if you were not charmed with <persName ref="#Rachel_Aunt">Aunt Rachel</persName>
               <add place="above"><metamark place="above" function ="insertion" rend="caret"/>(I think <choice><sic>thats</sic><reg resp="#ebb">that's</reg></choice> her name--but really an election puts <choice><sic>every thing</sic><reg resp="#ajc">everything</reg></choice> out of one's head)</add>--She would have done <choice><sic>honour</sic><reg resp="#ajc">honor</reg></choice> to the fine conception of <persName ref="#Austen_Jane">Miss Austen</persName>.--I have had a great regale in <persName ref="#de_Chaboulon">Mr. Fleury de Chaboulon's</persName> <title ref="#Napoleon_memoir_nonfict">Memoires de la vie privee &amp;c &amp;c de Napoleon</title>--I don't recommend this book to you though very interesting because you might not enjoy so much as I do two <choice><sic>goodsized</sic><reg resp="#ajc">good-sized</reg></choice> volumes well filled with praises of the<pb n="5"/> <persName ref="#Napoleon">Ex-Emperor</persName>--By the bye this flaming Bon-apartishe book was printed at <persName ref="#Murray_John">Murray's</persName> <del rend="squiggles"><gap quantity="1" unit="char"/></del>--Is not that singular?--I am now reading <persName ref="#Drake_Nathan">Dr. Drake's</persName> great big <del rend="squiggles">books</del> volumes <title ref="#Shakespeare_Times_nonfict">Shakespeare &amp; his Times</title>--Every part of which that is not written by <persName ref="#Drake_Nathan">Dr. Drake</persName> is good--all that he did write is bad--but luckily the far greater part consists of selections from the contemporaries of <persName ref="#Shakespeare">Shakespeare</persName> collected with <damage agent="wrinkle"/> infinite <choice><sic>labour</sic><reg resp="#ajc">labor</reg></choice> &amp; much taste. How odd it is <damage agent="wrinkle"/> that a man whose reading is so extensive &amp; so excellent as <persName ref="#Drake_Nathan">Dr. Drakes</persName> &amp; who has been writing all his life, should in his own compositions be so intolerably mawkish! There would be no <damage agent="wrinkle"/> reading a page if <del rend="squiggles">if</del> one was not carried on by the hope of meeting with a quotation--indeed after a certain degree of acquaintance with the learned author one involuntarily skips <choice><sic>every thing</sic><reg resp="#ajc">everything</reg></choice> not distinguished by inverted commas. <metamark rend="waves"/></p><p>That is a beautiful Chapter of the four lambs--I am so much interested in them--particula<damage agent="tear" unit="chars" quantity="3"/><unclear><supplied resp="ajc">rly</supplied></unclear> the blind one--Who brings that up? the dairy maid or the dam<gap unit="chars" reason="torn"/>--Is it melancholy poor little thing? Does it know its Mother<gap reason="torn"/> Does the Mother pay it particular attention?--Oh how interesting a creature must be a blind lamb! A thing that is so innocent &amp; ought to be gay! Do tell me my dear <persName ref="#Elford_SirWm">Sir William</persName> all about your poor blind lamb--I do not believe a word about the man who had five--Whose ewe had five I mean-- 
               <choice><sic>every body</sic><reg resp="#ajc">everybody</reg></choice> here stares in a very proper manner at <del rend="squiggles"><gap quantity="2" unit="word"/>the four</del> your four. <metamark rend="waves"/></p><p><persName ref="#Elford_MrsE">Mrs. Elford</persName> <!-- Uncertain about this "Mrs. Elford" - assuming it's
               Sir William's 2nd wife, but according to ODNB they didn't marry until 1821--> is a great deal too good to me--She has caught it of you--nothing so contagious as kindness in some families--I wish I were what she supposes me--but really except that reading is one agreeable kind of idleness &amp; writing to you another, I do not know what either my trifling reading or my still more trifling remarks are good for--nothing but <choice><sic>Chitter Chatter</sic><reg resp="#ajc">chitter-chatter</reg></choice>--as an<pb n="6"/> honest Cumberland Squire used to call my letters to his niece.<metamark rend="waves"/></p><p>Make my very best &amp; most grateful respects to her notwithstanding 
               (there was no manner of occasion for that jerk)--<gap reason="wrinkle"/> let me hear very soon how you all are &amp; whether you are coming <placeName ref="#London_city">Londonward</placeName> &amp; when.-- I believe that at last we are really going away from this house--though I have heard &amp; said it so often that I shall never thoroughly believe we are going till we are gone. At all events we shall not go far 
               <add place="above"><metamark place="above" function ="insertion" rend="caret"/>&amp; you shall hear all about it</add>--<persName ref="#Mitford_Geo">Papa</persName> &amp; <persName ref="#Russell_M">Mama</persName> join in kindest Compliments, &amp; I am ever my dear &amp; kind friend most affectionately <choice><sic>your's</sic><reg resp="#ebb">yours</reg></choice></p>
            <closer><lb/><signed>Mary Russell Mitford.</signed><lb/></closer>
            
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Letter to Sir William Elford, 20 March 1820. Mary Russell Mitford Amy Colombo Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Amy Colombo Proofread against manuscript by Elisa Beshero-Bondar First digital edition in TEI, date: 5 June 2014. P5. Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2014

Reproduced by courtesy of the Reading Central Library.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Reading Central Library The letters of Mary Russell Mitford, vol. 4, 1819-1823 qB/TU/MIT Vol. 4 ff.441 Horizon No.: 1361550 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford, 20 March 1820.

Two folio sheets of paper, folded in half, with correspondence on recto and verso 1-4; one folio sheet of paper with correspondence on recto and verso 5-6. There is a gap on page 6 intended for an address. The pages are folded in half and thirds twice more and were sealed for posting. It appears that pages 1-4 are two large sheets folded in half; the last page (5-6) is one sheet. This letter is glued into a scrapbook.

Address leaf bears a black circular wax stamp; there are no postmarks.

Page 5/6: has a piece torn away on the side of the page and a small hole is seen above the wax seal on page 6; there is a small tear on the bottom. This page is also wrinkled - possibly due to the seal.

Black wax seal on page 6.

 Red crayon or thick red pencil. Probably a different hand from Mitford's drawing a diagonal line (from upper-left corner to lower-right) across pages 1-6. Someone cataloging the letters, apparently other than Mitford, wrote the number "4" on page 1 (upper left corner) below "To Sir W. Elford."

Mitford's spelling and punctuation are retained, except where a word is split at the end of a line and the beginning of the next in the manuscript. Where Mitford's spelling and hyphenation of words deviates from the standard, in order to facilitate searching we are using the TEI elements "choice," "sic," and "reg" to encode both Mitford's spelling and the regular international standard of Oxford English spelling, following the first listed spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. The long s and ligatured forms are not encoded.
To Sir W. Elford Bertram House March 20th 1820

The first part of your delightful letter, my dear Sir William, to which I shall reply is your supposition respecting Mrs. Dickinson. You never were so much mistaken in your life. She has the finest & the prettiest little girl that ever was seen, & is herself quite well--that is "as well as can be expected." The young lady is quite a beauty & will be a fortnight old tomorrow--I did not think it possible for so young a child to be so pretty--perhaps I did not think it possible for me to be so interested in a young child--but really every body everybody calls this brat lovely--its Papa--its Mama--its Grandmama--its nurse--& I who stand for a sort of maiden Aunt I think it loveliest of all--quite a She-Cupid.--After all your supposition was far from being unreasonable--for Mrs. Dickinson had made so great a mistake as to the time that half the neighbourhood neighborhood was of your opinion.--The next important event was our election--Has your neighbour neighbor Sir John Sinclair told you of this desperate contest--this struggle for life & death? It lasted 6 days--during the three last of which not more than thirty votes were polled on all sides--never to be sure were voters so filtered out drop by drop--Every unpolled elector was known on all sides--& the obstinate who would not vote--the fearful who dared not--the rich who could not, were assailed morning noon & night by the persuasions & exhortations of the candidates & their committees--Very little men were of great consequence during those three days--"Has Philips voted yet?" "How is Butler this morning?" were the common salutations amongst committee men & fair ladies.1 Here Mitford's dash appears to terminate the sentence.--Now Philips was a Mill wright millwright desperately poor who tugged at on all sides deserted his house & home to escape the certainty of offending his employers on one side or other--& Butler a sick Palmerite who kept a little shop & was nursed & guarded by a Weylandite wife who at last not content with locking up her husband fairly flung the Palmer letters in the face of the messengers--so a long head of our party despairing to rescue him from her clutches paired him off with a sick Weylandite.--All this time I have not told you who the Candidates were --Mr. Palmer the old Member--Mr. Weyland the old Candidate--& Mr. Monck an opposition man of large fortune brought from France in a fit of patriotism by our celebrated shoemaker & Patriot Mr. W . Mr. Monck is one of the best men that ever lived--a clever man--one old & most intimate friend--he has been abroad for 8 years & a half & yet--I was most thoroughly sorry to see him. The truth is that sending for him was an act of madness--Parties are so nearly balanced in Reading that it is impossible for two ministerial or two opposition men to sit quietly--& the compromise which was desired by all but a few têtes exaltees of bringing in Mr. Palmer &Mr. Weyland without a contest was the only thing that could have ensured the peace of the Borough. At present by desperate & despairing exertions the two opposition men are come in--but another time one must go out--& that one (don't tell Sir John Sinclair) must be Mr. Palmer, against whom the sun was this time, & whose purse is in no condition to stand these repeated contests, & whose conduct has been so fair so pure so honourable honorable that it quite breaks one's heart to think of his being cast aside in a fit of caprice--no not caprice a cold calculation made in the very spirit of trade--that a rich member living in the neighbourhood neighborhood is better than one less rich who lives at a distance. In the meanwhile all Reading is experiencing the double evils of a beginning & a finished election--all the malice hatred envy & ill will of the one, combined with the restless activity, the perpetual talking, the threatening promising & canvassing of the other. Mr. Weyland had no sooner lost his election by five votes, made his mob drunk, & takes himself off, than his party began to organise organize Committees in all the Parishes for the purpose of securing the Independence & so forth of the Borough at the next election which of course was instantly met by counter Committees for the exactly same purpose on the other side.-- I love Mr. Monck (always with his wife's permission)--I like Mr. Palmer--& I don't like Mr. Weyland who is a puritan of the very first water, & yet I very sincerely wish that Mr. Monck was back at Tours & Mr. Weyland quietly in Parliament -- for Mr. Palmer's sake--which wish is exceedingly disinterested on my part inasmuch as I mean the new member to frank my letters & shall find him much easier to catch than the old one. Have not I tired you with this tirade? Punish me in kind--But you can't--no--you cant can't --you cannot write so dully if you would--though you may certainly chuse choose the same dull subject--The only consolation to my fears for the next election is that is it less likely than appeared lately to happen soon. We saw yesterday a gentleman from Brighton who is intimate with Sir Matthew Tierney & who received from him a few days ago an account of the King's health so exceedingly favorable that no man of character could have given it had he been in so precarious a state as has been imagined--He said his Majesty was as well as ever he had been in his life--now Sir Matthew Tierney could not have said this of a man in whom the water was rising & whose legs were cased every morning in sheet lead--as has been the constant report here abouts for the last fortnight. Did you ever happen to hear how boldly & wisely Sir Matthew Tierney (Deuce take that man's name--I have three times mis-spelt misspelt it--& yet a lover of Smollett ought to be able to spell the name sake namesake of Matthew Bramble--how boldly Sir Mat: saved the King's life--he was dying--gasping--Sir Henry Halford walking about the room with his head lost (put that into French if you don't understand it in English) & had been bled--till to bleed seemed to kill--when Sir Matthew exclaimed--he will probably die in the bleeding--but he must die without--so I'll bleed him--He did so keeping his hand on the pulse & saved him--.

In the midst of this hub-bub hubbub --have you been reading any thing anything new? Did I mention to you a Scotch novel called Glenfergus? Not interesting--& or probable & occasionally very prosy--but still of great merit, from its perfect truth of character, & the pointed vivacity of the style--two characters a classical dandy & a most amicable & genuine oldish maiden homely, housewifely, & every thing everything that is good pleased me particularly--If you read Glenfergus tell me if you were not charmed with Aunt Rachel (I think thats that's her name--but really an election puts every thing everything out of one's head)--She would have done honour honor to the fine conception of Miss Austen.--I have had a great regale in Mr. Fleury de Chaboulon's Memoires de la vie privee &c &c de Napoleon--I don't recommend this book to you though very interesting because you might not enjoy so much as I do two goodsized good-sized volumes well filled with praises of the Ex-Emperor--By the bye this flaming Bon-apartishe book was printed at Murray's --Is not that singular?--I am now reading Dr. Drake's great big books volumes Shakespeare & his Times--Every part of which that is not written by Dr. Drake is good--all that he did write is bad--but luckily the far greater part consists of selections from the contemporaries of Shakespeare collected with infinite labour labor & much taste. How odd it is that a man whose reading is so extensive & so excellent as Dr. Drakes & who has been writing all his life, should in his own compositions be so intolerably mawkish! There would be no reading a page if if one was not carried on by the hope of meeting with a quotation--indeed after a certain degree of acquaintance with the learned author one involuntarily skips every thing everything not distinguished by inverted commas.

That is a beautiful Chapter of the four lambs--I am so much interested in them--particula rly the blind one--Who brings that up? the dairy maid or the dam--Is it melancholy poor little thing? Does it know its Mother Does the Mother pay it particular attention?--Oh how interesting a creature must be a blind lamb! A thing that is so innocent & ought to be gay! Do tell me my dear Sir William all about your poor blind lamb--I do not believe a word about the man who had five--Whose ewe had five I mean-- every body everybody here stares in a very proper manner at the four your four.

Mrs. Elford is a great deal too good to me--She has caught it of you--nothing so contagious as kindness in some families--I wish I were what she supposes me--but really except that reading is one agreeable kind of idleness & writing to you another, I do not know what either my trifling reading or my still more trifling remarks are good for--nothing but Chitter Chatter chitter-chatter --as an honest Cumberland Squire used to call my letters to his niece.

Make my very best & most grateful respects to her notwithstanding (there was no manner of occasion for that jerk)-- let me hear very soon how you all are & whether you are coming Londonward & when.-- I believe that at last we are really going away from this house--though I have heard & said it so often that I shall never thoroughly believe we are going till we are gone. At all events we shall not go far & you shall hear all about it--Papa & Mama join in kindest Compliments, & I am ever my dear & kind friend most affectionately your's yours

Mary Russell Mitford.

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Letter to Sir William Elford, 20 March 1820. Mary Russell Mitford Amy Colombo Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Amy Colombo Proofread against manuscript by Elisa Beshero-Bondar First digital edition in TEI, date: 5 June 2014. P5. Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2014

Reproduced by courtesy of the Reading Central Library.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Reading Central Library The letters of Mary Russell Mitford, vol. 4, 1819-1823 qB/TU/MIT Vol. 4 ff.441 Horizon No.: 1361550 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Sir William Elford, 20 March 1820.

Two folio sheets of paper, folded in half, with correspondence on recto and verso 1-4; one folio sheet of paper with correspondence on recto and verso 5-6. There is a gap on page 6 intended for an address. The pages are folded in half and thirds twice more and were sealed for posting. It appears that pages 1-4 are two large sheets folded in half; the last page (5-6) is one sheet. This letter is glued into a scrapbook.

Address leaf bears a black circular wax stamp; there are no postmarks.

Page 5/6: has a piece torn away on the side of the page and a small hole is seen above the wax seal on page 6; there is a small tear on the bottom. This page is also wrinkled - possibly due to the seal.

Black wax seal on page 6.

 Red crayon or thick red pencil. Probably a different hand from Mitford's drawing a diagonal line (from upper-left corner to lower-right) across pages 1-6. Someone cataloging the letters, apparently other than Mitford, wrote the number "4" on page 1 (upper left corner) below "To Sir W. Elford."

Mitford's spelling and punctuation are retained, except where a word is split at the end of a line and the beginning of the next in the manuscript. Where Mitford's spelling and hyphenation of words deviates from the standard, in order to facilitate searching we are using the TEI elements "choice," "sic," and "reg" to encode both Mitford's spelling and the regular international standard of Oxford English spelling, following the first listed spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. The long s and ligatured forms are not encoded.
To Sir W. Elford Bertram House March 20th 1820

The first part of your delightful letter, my dear Sir William, to which I shall reply is your supposition respecting Mrs. Dickinson. You never were so much mistaken in your life. She has the finest & the prettiest little girl that ever was seen, & is herself quite well--that is "as well as can be expected." The young lady is quite a beauty & will be a fortnight old tomorrow--I did not think it possible for so young a child to be so pretty--perhaps I did not think it possible for me to be so interested in a young child--but really every body everybody calls this brat lovely--its Papa--its Mama--its Grandmama--its nurse--& I who stand for a sort of maiden Aunt I think it loveliest of all--quite a She-Cupid.--After all your supposition was far from being unreasonable--for Mrs. Dickinson had made so great a mistake as to the time that half the neighbourhood neighborhood was of your opinion.--The next important event was our election--Has your neighbour neighbor Sir John Sinclair told you of this desperate contest--this struggle for life & death? It lasted 6 days--during the three last of which not more than thirty votes were polled on all sides--never to be sure were voters so filtered out drop by drop--Every unpolled elector was known on all sides--& the obstinate who would not vote--the fearful who dared not--the rich who could not, were assailed morning noon & night by the persuasions & exhortations of the candidates & their committees--Very little men were of great consequence during those three days--"Has Philips voted yet?" "How is Butler this morning?" were the common salutations amongst committee men & fair ladies. Here Mitford's dash appears to terminate the sentence.--Now Philips was a Mill wright millwright desperately poor who tugged at on all sides deserted his house & home to escape the certainty of offending his employers on one side or other--& Butler a sick Palmerite who kept a little shop & was nursed & guarded by a Weylandite wife who at last not content with locking up her husband fairly flung the Palmer letters in the face of the messengers--so a long head of our party despairing to rescue him from her clutches paired him off with a sick Weylandite.--All this time I have not told you who the Candidates were --Mr. Palmer the old Member--Mr. Weyland the old Candidate--& Mr. Monck an opposition man of large fortune brought from France in a fit of patriotism by our celebrated shoemaker & Patriot Mr. W . Mr. Monck is one of the best men that ever lived--a clever man--one old & most intimate friend--he has been abroad for 8 years & a half & yet--I was most thoroughly sorry to see him. The truth is that sending for him was an act of madness--Parties are so nearly balanced in Reading that it is impossible for two ministerial or two opposition men to sit quietly--& the compromise which was desired by all but a few têtes exaltees of bringing in Mr. Palmer &Mr. Weyland without a contest was the only thing that could have ensured the peace of the Borough. At present by desperate & despairing exertions the two opposition men are come in--but another time one must go out--& that one (don't tell Sir John Sinclair) must be Mr. Palmer, against whom the sun was this time, & whose purse is in no condition to stand these repeated contests, & whose conduct has been so fair so pure so honourable honorable that it quite breaks one's heart to think of his being cast aside in a fit of caprice--no not caprice a cold calculation made in the very spirit of trade--that a rich member living in the neighbourhood neighborhood is better than one less rich who lives at a distance. In the meanwhile all Reading is experiencing the double evils of a beginning & a finished election--all the malice hatred envy & ill will of the one, combined with the restless activity, the perpetual talking, the threatening promising & canvassing of the other. Mr. Weyland had no sooner lost his election by five votes, made his mob drunk, & takes himself off, than his party began to organise organize Committees in all the Parishes for the purpose of securing the Independence & so forth of the Borough at the next election which of course was instantly met by counter Committees for the exactly same purpose on the other side.-- I love Mr. Monck (always with his wife's permission)--I like Mr. Palmer--& I don't like Mr. Weyland who is a puritan of the very first water, & yet I very sincerely wish that Mr. Monck was back at Tours & Mr. Weyland quietly in Parliament -- for Mr. Palmer's sake--which wish is exceedingly disinterested on my part inasmuch as I mean the new member to frank my letters & shall find him much easier to catch than the old one. Have not I tired you with this tirade? Punish me in kind--But you can't--no--you cant can't --you cannot write so dully if you would--though you may certainly chuse choose the same dull subject--The only consolation to my fears for the next election is that is it less likely than appeared lately to happen soon. We saw yesterday a gentleman from Brighton who is intimate with Sir Matthew Tierney & who received from him a few days ago an account of the King's health so exceedingly favorable that no man of character could have given it had he been in so precarious a state as has been imagined--He said his Majesty was as well as ever he had been in his life--now Sir Matthew Tierney could not have said this of a man in whom the water was rising & whose legs were cased every morning in sheet lead--as has been the constant report here abouts for the last fortnight. Did you ever happen to hear how boldly & wisely Sir Matthew Tierney (Deuce take that man's name--I have three times mis-spelt misspelt it--& yet a lover of Smollett ought to be able to spell the name sake namesake of Matthew Bramble--how boldly Sir Mat: saved the King's life--he was dying--gasping--Sir Henry Halford walking about the room with his head lost (put that into French if you don't understand it in English) & had been bled--till to bleed seemed to kill--when Sir Matthew exclaimed--he will probably die in the bleeding--but he must die without--so I'll bleed him--He did so keeping his hand on the pulse & saved him--.

In the midst of this hub-bub hubbub --have you been reading any thing anything new? Did I mention to you a Scotch novel called Glenfergus? Not interesting--& or probable & occasionally very prosy--but still of great merit, from its perfect truth of character, & the pointed vivacity of the style--two characters a classical dandy & a most amicable & genuine oldish maiden homely, housewifely, & every thing everything that is good pleased me particularly--If you read Glenfergus tell me if you were not charmed with Aunt Rachel (I think thats that's her name--but really an election puts every thing everything out of one's head)--She would have done honour honor to the fine conception of Miss Austen.--I have had a great regale in Mr. Fleury de Chaboulon's Memoires de la vie privee &c &c de Napoleon--I don't recommend this book to you though very interesting because you might not enjoy so much as I do two goodsized good-sized volumes well filled with praises of the Ex-Emperor--By the bye this flaming Bon-apartishe book was printed at Murray's --Is not that singular?--I am now reading Dr. Drake's great big books volumes Shakespeare & his Times--Every part of which that is not written by Dr. Drake is good--all that he did write is bad--but luckily the far greater part consists of selections from the contemporaries of Shakespeare collected with infinite labour labor & much taste. How odd it is that a man whose reading is so extensive & so excellent as Dr. Drakes & who has been writing all his life, should in his own compositions be so intolerably mawkish! There would be no reading a page if if one was not carried on by the hope of meeting with a quotation--indeed after a certain degree of acquaintance with the learned author one involuntarily skips every thing everything not distinguished by inverted commas.

That is a beautiful Chapter of the four lambs--I am so much interested in them--particula rly the blind one--Who brings that up? the dairy maid or the dam--Is it melancholy poor little thing? Does it know its Mother Does the Mother pay it particular attention?--Oh how interesting a creature must be a blind lamb! A thing that is so innocent & ought to be gay! Do tell me my dear Sir William all about your poor blind lamb--I do not believe a word about the man who had five--Whose ewe had five I mean-- every body everybody here stares in a very proper manner at the four your four.

Mrs. Elford is a great deal too good to me--She has caught it of you--nothing so contagious as kindness in some families--I wish I were what she supposes me--but really except that reading is one agreeable kind of idleness & writing to you another, I do not know what either my trifling reading or my still more trifling remarks are good for--nothing but Chitter Chatter chitter-chatter --as an honest Cumberland Squire used to call my letters to his niece.

Make my very best & most grateful respects to her notwithstanding (there was no manner of occasion for that jerk)-- let me hear very soon how you all are & whether you are coming Londonward & when.-- I believe that at last we are really going away from this house--though I have heard & said it so often that I shall never thoroughly believe we are going till we are gone. At all events we shall not go far & you shall hear all about it--Papa & Mama join in kindest Compliments, & I am ever my dear & kind friend most affectionately your's yours

Mary Russell Mitford.