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Monthly Archives: April 2013
‘My dear little friend’
Mitford’s love of animals and gardening is evident throughout her writing, but she was also extremely fond of children. Tales of the exploits of Lizzy and the other village children abound in the volumes of Our Village. These stories about … Continue reading
Posted in Biographers, Friends, Letters, Villagers
Tagged Letters, MRM, Three Mile Cross
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‘Thank you for your letter…’
The publisher J.T. Fields was just one of many American friends with whom Mitford corresponded. Nicholas R. Jones notes that MRM included Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1852), Daniel Webster (1782-1852; … Continue reading
Posted in Biographers, Books, Letters, Writers
Tagged Biography, F.R.D. Needham, Letters, Mitford Collection, MRM, W.J. Roberts
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‘Very dearly do I love my American friends’
Mary Russell Mitford’s fame wasn’t restricted to the British Isles and her work was widely read in America. One of her closest American friends was the publisher James T. Fields, of the publishing house Ticknor, Reed and Fields, based in … Continue reading
‘Yes! Spring is coming’
‘Walks in the Country: The Copse’ April 18th. Sad wintry weather; a north-east wind; a sun that puts out one’s eyes, without affording the slightest warmth; dryness that chaps lips and hands like frost in December; rain that comes chilling … Continue reading
Posted in Landscape, Three Mile Cross
Tagged Flowers, Gardening, Landscape, MRM, Our Village, Three Mile Cross
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“Sancho Panza in petticoats!”
The next writer I’m going to focus on was not necessarily influenced by Mitford, but was one of the many editors who published her work. Samuel Carter Hall (1800-1889) was born in Ireland and spent most of his adult life … Continue reading
Posted in Biographers, Books, Writers
Tagged Mitford Collection, MRM, Our Village, Three Mile Cross
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‘Drunken fantasies’; (or, The Work of John Ross Dix)
The figure of John Ross Dix deserves something of an introduction, although the details of his life run the risk of overshadowing all the work he produced. Born in Bristol in c. 1811, Dix was an alcoholic surgeon-turned poet-turned biographer-turned … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Our Village, Three Mile Cross, Writers
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My Village versus Our Village
The first response I’ve chosen is attributed to Thomas Crofton Croker (1798-1854), an Irish antiquary whose book Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (3 vols, 1825-8) was well-received but, as W. J. McCormack writes in Croker’s entry … Continue reading
Posted in Biographers, Books, London, Writers
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Mitford’s Influence
The majority of my posts so far have been about Mitford’s life and writing – details about her passive, loving mother and her charming, roguish father, for example – that are to be found in the collections at Reading Central … Continue reading
‘My first visit to London’
Mary Russell Mitford’s name is most commonly associated with recollections country life, but from a young age she also had a great love for London and all of the amusements to be found therein. The family moved from Alresford to … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Family, Friends, Lady's Magazine, Letters
Tagged Biography, George Mitford, Lady's Magazine, Letters, Mitford Collection, Reading Central Library
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‘My one accomplishment’
Mitford’s love of reading was nurtured from a very young age. The description of the book-lined breakfast room of the house in Alresford and MRM’s ‘beloved ballads’ demonstrate the young girl’s passion for literature, which continued well into old age … Continue reading
Unearthing "Our Village" 