Letter to <persName ref="#Webb_Mary_younger">Mary Webb</persName>, <date when="1819-05-16">1819 May 16</date> Mary Russell Mitford Lisa M. Wilson Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Elisa Beshero-Bondar Transcription and coding by Lisa M. Wilson Sara Cantwell Proofing and corrections by Lisa M. Wilson First digital edition in TEI, date: 25 September 2015. P5. Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors Digital Mitford photo files: DSCF8936.jpg, DSCF8939.jpg, DSCF8940.jpg, DSCF8941.jpg, DSCF8942.jpg, DSCF8943.jpg, DSCF8944.jpg Digital Mitford: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive Greensburg, PA, USA 2013

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 Letter from Mary Russell Mitford to Mary Webb, 1819 May 16.

One sheet of folio paper, four surfaces photographed.

Address leaf blank, bearing no addressee, address, or postmark.

All leaves show considerable foxing and discoloration.

No wax seal.

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.

I have stolen half of dear Aunt Mary's paper my own dear Mary to tell you what I presume you already know that I am not on my road to London though Papa very graciously very kindly permitted me to go & my dear Miss James wished to have me--and in the first place le jeu le ne vaut pas la chandelle to go to London for four days is condemning oneself to four days with too much to do in every one of them--in the second we are expecting a friend out of Hampshire, & Sir. W. Elford is coming on Friday. So at home I am (here) & at home (there) I shall remain--I came over today to console myself & was indeed consoled by seeing your dear father looking much better than I expected & in very good spirits--Mr. Palmer's beautiful phiz to too was here--by the way there is a print of the Reading procession--executed by an artist who must be very clever since he has performed what I should have considered as an impossibility on the first blush of the business--made Mr. Palmer 50 times uglier than he is--& moreover given to Miss Anstruther & the Right Honble Lady the air of having the rouge washed off their faces by the rain--so that they look like weather-beaten dolls. I saw this fine picture in Reading yesterday which I entered for the first time after my long quarantine--you need not send me a word about the fashions, my dear, Papa has been a complete Lady's Magazine & La Belle Assemble--you would have died laughing if you had heard him describe the way of trimming a ladies bonnet--at his total want of words & the bon hommie homie with which he adopted any ridiculous one's which I put into his month--coloring every remark with an “I assure you Eliza's bonnet was just so”--now Miss Eliza you must take this for a full answer to the letter which you have not written yet--and not have the assurance to expect me who am forced to spin all my cobwebs out of my own brain--to write again to you who live in the land of sights & shews--

I am very glad that you are going to Richmond--I wish with all my heart I were going there too--but I do not suppose. I shall be able to get there for a month or two. If you happen to see my dear Miss James, tell her that Papa behaved with perfect good faith in the invitation Mrs. Clarke was so kind as to send & very much wished me to put off our intended visitor and go--

--Dearest of the dear--it is post time--I have been talking to Aunt Mary & hindering myself and her from writing--you know what Papa says of my gossipping gossiping -- Goodbye--God bless you--How many lovers have you got? How many has Eliza? Ever your's yours M. R. Mitford Wokingham Sunday
Anstruther Miss Clarke Mrs.
La Belle Assemblée, Or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, Addressed Particularly to the Ladies John Bell London A general-interest miscellaneous periodical aimed at a female readership. Original 1806 sections included "Biographical Sketches" (usually illustrated), "Original Communications," "Original Correspondence," "State of Society and Manners," "Fine Arts," "Familiar Lectures on Useful Sciences," "Retrospect of Politics" (essays on topics including moral conduct, travel, fashion, politics, fine arts, music, science); "Beauties of Modern Literature" and "Poetry and Music" (brief reviews of new works as well as original poetry, fiction, and songs); and fashion plates and reports on London and Paris fashions. Published in this form until May 1832; continued under different management from 1832 to 1837 as The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée. From 1806 to 1821, published by John Bell. Between 1821 and 1823, published as "for the proprietors." Between 1823 and 1829, published as "for the proprietors" by G. & W. B. Whittaker & Co. In the 1820s the magazine increasingly focused on fashion and domestic concerns and included less material on politics and travel. target ref="http://www.british-fiction.cf.ac.uk/guide/reviews/lba.html"/ Lady's Magazine Robinson & Roberts C. Robinson London