I have a very vivid remembrance of the appearance of Mary Russell Mitford as I used to see her on the occasions of my visits to Reading, where my grandfather"s second wife and then widow was residing. She was not corpulent, but her figure gave one the idea of almost cubical solidity. She had a round and red full moon sort of face, from the ample forehead above which the hair was all dragged back and stowed away under a small and close-fitting cap, which surrounding her face increased the effect of full-blown rotundity. But the grey eye and even the little snub nose were full of drollery and humour, and the lines about the generally somewhat closely shut mouth indicated unmistakable intellectual power. There is a singular resemblance between her handwriting and that of my mother. Very numerous letters must have pa.s.sed between them. But of all these I have been able to find but four.
On the 3rd of April, 1832, she writes from the "Three Mile Cross," so familiar to many readers, as follows:--
"My dear Mrs. Trollope,--I thank you most sincerely for your very delightful book, as well as for its great kindness towards me; and I wish you joy from the bottom of my heart of the splendid success which has not merely attended but awaited its career--a happy and I trust certain augury of your literary good fortune in every line which you may pursue. I a.s.sure you that my political prejudices are by no means shocked at your dislike of Republicanism. I was always a very aristocratic Whig, and since these reforming days am well-nigh become a staunch Tory, for pretty nearly the same reason that converted you--a dislike to mobs in action.... Refinement follows wealth, but not often closely, as witness the parvenu people even in dear England.... I heard of your plunge into the Backwoods first from Mr.
Owen himself, with whom I foregathered three years ago in London, and of whom you have given so very true and graphic a picture. What extraordinary mildness and plausibility that man possesses! I never before saw an instance of actual wildness--madness of theory accompanied by such suavity and soberness of manner. Did you see my friend, Miss Sedgwick? Her letters show a large and amiable mind, and a little niece of nine years old, who generally writes in them, has a style very unusual in so young a girl, and yet most youthful and natural too.... Can you tell me if Mr. Flint be the author of _George Mason, or the Young Backwoodsman_? I think that he is; and whether the name of a young satirical writer be Sams or Sands? Your answering these questions will stead me much, and I am sure that you will answer them if you can.
"Now to your kind questions. I am getting ready a fifth and last volume of _Our Village_ as fast as I can, though with pain and difficulty, having hurt my left hand so much by a fall from an open carriage that it affects the right, and makes writing very uncomfortable to me. And I am in a most perplexed state about my opera, not knowing whether it will be produced this season or not, in consequence of Captain Polhill and his singers having parted. This would not have happened had my coadjutor the composer kept to his time. And I have still hopes that when the opera be [shall, omitted probably] taken in (the music is even now not finished), a sense of interest will bring the parties together again. I hope that it may, for it will not only be a tremendous. .h.i.t for all of us, but it will take me to London and give me the pleasure of a peep at you, a happiness to which I look forward very anxiously. I know Mr. Tom, and like him of all things, as everybody who knows him must, and I hear that his sisters are charming. G.o.d bless you, my dear friend. My father joins me in every good wish, and
"I am ever most affectionately yours,
"M.R. MITFORD."
A few weeks later she writes a very long letter almost entirely filled with a discussion of the desirability or non-desirability of writing in this, that, and the other "annual" or magazine. Most of those she alludes to are dead, and there is no interest in preserving her mainly unfavourable remarks concerning them and their editors and publishers.
One sentence, however, is so singularly and amusingly suggestive of change in men and women and things, that I must give it. After reviewing a great number of the leading monthlies she says "as for Fraser"s and Blackwood"s, they are hardly such as a lady likes to write for"!
After advising my mother to stick to writing novels, she says, "I have not a doubt that that is by far the most profitable branch of the literary profession. If ever I be bold enough to try that arduous path, I shall endeavour to come as near as I can to Miss Austen, my idol. You are very good about my opera. I am sorry to tell you, and you will be sorry to hear, that the composer has disappointed me, that the music is not even yet ready, and that the piece is therefore necessarily delayed till next season. I am very sorry for this on account of the money, and because I have many friends in and near town, yourself amongst the rest, whom I was desirous to see. But I suppose it will be for the good of the opera to wait till the beginning of a season. It is to be produced with extraordinary splendour, and will, I think, be a tremendous. .h.i.t. I hope also to have a tragedy out at nearly the same time in the autumn, and _then_ I trust we shall meet, and I shall see your dear girls.
"How glad I am to find that you partake of my great aversion to the sort of puffery belonging to literature. I hate it! and always did, and love you all the better for partaking of my feeling on the subject. I believe that with me it is pride that revolts at the trash.
And then it is so false; the people are so clearly flattering to be flattered. Oh, I hate it!!!
"Make my kindest regards [_sic_] and accept my father"s.
"Ever most faithfully and affectionately yours,
"M.R. MITFORD.
"P.S.--I suppose my book will be out in about a month. I shall desire Whittaker to send you a copy. It is the fifth and last volume."
The following interesting letter, franked by her friend Talfourd, and shown only by the post-mark to have been posted on the 20th of June, 1836, is apparently only part of a letter, for it is written upon one page, and the two "turnovers" only; and begins abruptly:--
"My being in London this year seems very uncertain, although if Mr.
Sergeant Talfourd"s _Ion_ be played, as I believe it will, for Mr.
Macready"s benefit, I shall hardly be able to resist the temptation of going up for a very few days to be present upon that occasion. But I scarcely ever stir. I am not strong, and am subject to a painful complaint, which renders the service of a maid indispensable not only to my comfort but to my health; and that, besides the expense, has an appearance of fuss and finery, to which I have a great objection, and to which indeed I have from station no claim. My father, too, hates to be left even for a day. And splendid old man as he is in his healthful and vigorous age, I cannot but recollect that he is seventy-five, and that he is my only tie upon earth--the only relation (except, indeed, a few very distant cousins, Russells, Greys, Ogles, and Deans, whom I am too proud and too poor to hook on upon), my only relation in the wide world. This is a desolate view of things; but it explains a degree of clinging to that one most precious parent which people can hardly comprehend. You can scarcely imagine how fine an old man he is; how clear of head and warm of heart. He almost wept over your letter to-day, and reads your book with singular delight and satisfaction, in spite of the difference in politics. He feels strongly, and so, I a.s.sure you, do I, your kind mention of me and my poor writings--a sort of testimony always gratifying, but doubly so when the distinguished writer is a dear friend. Even in this desolation, your success--that of your last work [_Paris and the Parisians_] especially must be satisfactory to you. I have no doubt that two volumes on Italy will prove equally delightful to your readers, whilst the journey will be the best possible remedy for all that you have suffered in spirits and health.
"I am attempting a novel, for which Messieurs Saunders and Ottley have agreed to give 700_l_. It is to be ready some time in September--I mean the MS.--and I am most anxious upon every account to make it as good as possible, one very great reason being the fair, candid, and liberal conduct of the intended publishers. I shall do my very best.
Shall I, do you think, succeed? I take for granted that our loss is your gain, and that you see Mr. Milman and his charming wife, who will, I am sure, sympathise most sincerely in your present[1]
affliction.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Milman had resigned recently the inc.u.mbency of a parish in Reading. My mother"s affliction alluded to was the death of her youngest daughter, Emily.]
"Adieu, my dear friend. I am tying myself up from letter-writing until I have finished my novel. While I cannot but hope for one line from you to say that you are recovering. Letters to me may always be inclosed to Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, M.P., 2, Elm Court, Temple. Even if he be on circuit, they will reach me after a short delay. G.o.d bless you all. My father joins heartily in this prayer, with
"Your faithful and affectionate,
"M.R. MITFORD."
The next, and last which I have found, is entirely undated, but post-marked 20th April, 1837.
"MY DEAR FRIEND,--I don"t know when a trifle has pleased me so much as the coincidence which set us a-writing to each other just at the same time. I have all the north-country superst.i.tion flowing through my veins, and do really believe in the exploded doctrine of sympathies.
That is to say, I believe in all _genial_ superst.i.tions, and don"t like this steam-packet railway world of ours, which puts aside with so much scorn that which for certain Shakespeare and Ben Jonson held for true. I am charmed at your own account of yourself and your doings.
Mr. Edward Kenyon--(whose brother, John Kenyon, of Harley Place, the most delightful man in London--of course you know him--is my especial friend)--Mr. Edward Kenyon, who lives chiefly at Vienna, although, I believe, in great retirement, spending 200_l_. upon himself, and giving away 2,000_l_.--Mr. Edward Kenyon spoke of you to me as having such opportunities of knowing both the city and the country as rarely befell even a resident, and what you say of the peasantry gives me a strong desire to see your book.
"A happy subject is in my mind, a great thing, especially for you whose descriptions are so graphic. The thing that would interest me in Austria, and for the maintenance of which one almost pardons (not quite) their retaining that other old-fashioned thing, the State prisons, is their having kept up in their splendour those grand old monasteries, which are swept away now in Spain and Portugal. I have a pa.s.sion for Gothic architecture, and a leaning towards the magnificence of the old religion, the foster-mother of all that is finest and highest in art, and if I have such a thing as a literary project, it is to write a romance, of which Reading Abbey in its primal magnificence should form a part, not the least about forms of faith, understand, but as an element of the picturesque, and as embodying a very grand and influential part of bygone days. At present I have just finished (since writing _Country Stories_, which people seem so good as to like) writing all the prose (except one story about the fashionable subject of Egyptian magicians, furnished to me by your admirer, Henry Chorley; I wish you had seen him taking off his hat to the walls as I showed him your father"s old residence at Heckfield), all the prose of the most splendid of the annuals, Finden"s _Tableaux_, of which my longest and best story--a Young Pretender story--I have been obliged to omit in consequence of not calculating on the length of my poetical contributors. But my poetry, especially that by that wonderful young creature Miss Barrett, Mr. Kenyon, and Mr. Procter, is certainly such as has seldom before been seen in an annual, and joined with Finden"s magnificent engravings ought to make an attractive work.
"I am now going to my novel, if it please G.o.d to grant me health. For the last two months I have only once crossed the outer threshold, and, indeed, I have never been a day well since the united effects of the tragedy and the influenza ... [word destroyed by the seal]. What will become of that poor play is in the womb of time. But its being by universal admission a far more striking drama than _Rienzi_, and by very far the best thing I ever wrote, it follows almost of course, that it will share the fate of its predecessor, and be tossed about the theatres for three or four years to come. Of course I should be only too happy that it should be brought out at Covent Garden under the united auspices of Mr. Macready and Mr. Bartley.[1] But I am in const.i.tution and in feeling a much older person than you, my dear friend, as well as in look, however the acknowledgment of age (I am 48) may stand between us; and belonging to a most sanguine and confiding person, I am of course as p.r.o.ne to antic.i.p.ate all probable evil as he is to forestall impossible good. He, my dear father, is, I thank Heaven, splendidly well. He speaks of you always with much delight, is charmed with your writings, and I do hope that you will come to Reading and give him as well as me the great pleasure of seeing you at our poor cottage by the roadside. You would like my flower-garden. It is really a flower-garden becoming a d.u.c.h.ess. People are so good in ministering to this, my only amus.e.m.e.nt. And the effect is heightened by pa.s.sing through a labourer"s cottage to get at it, for such our poor hut literally is.
[Footnote 1: This gentleman was an old and highly valued friend of my mother.]
"You have heard, I suppose, that Mr. Wordsworth"s eldest son, who married a daughter of Mr. Curwen, has lost nearly, if not quite, all of his wife"s portion by the sea flowing in upon the mine, and has now nothing left but a living of 200_l._ given him by his father-in-law.
So are we all touched in turn.
"I have written to the Sedgwicks for the scarlet lilies mentioned by Miss Martineau in her American book. Did you happen to see them in their glory? of course they would flourish here; and having sent them primroses, cowslips, ivy, and many other English wild flowers, which took Theodore Sedgwick"s fancy, I have a right to the return. How glad I am to hear the good you tell me of my friend Tom. His fortune seems now a.s.sured. My father"s kindest regards.
"Ever my dear friend,
"Very faithfully yours,
"M.R. MITFORD.
"P.S.--Mr. Carey, the translator of Dante, has just been here. He says that he visited Cowper"s residence at Olney lately, and that his garden room, which suggested mine, is incredibly small, and not near so pretty. Come and see. You know, of course, that the "Modern Antiques" in _Our Village_ were Theodosia and Frances Hill, sisters of Joseph Hill, cousins and friends of poor Cowper."
What the "good" was by which my "fortune was a.s.sured" I am unable to guess. But I am sure of the sincerity of the writer"s rejoicing thereat.
Mary Mitford was a genuinely warm-hearted woman, and much of her talk would probably be stigmatised by the young gentlemen of the present generation, who consider the moral temperature of a fish to be "good form," as "gush." How old Landor, who "gushed" from cradle to grave, would have ma.s.sacred and rended in his wrath such talkers! Mary Mitford"s "gush" was sincere at all events. But there is a "hall-mark," for those who can decipher it, "without which none is genuine."
A considerable intimacy grew up between my mother and the author of _Highways and Byeways_ during the latter part of his residence in England, and subsequently, when returning from Boston on leave, he visited Florence and Rome. Many letters pa.s.sed between them after his establishment as British Consul at Boston, some characteristic selections from which will, I doubt not, be acceptable to many readers.
The following was written on the envelope enclosing a very long letter from Mrs. Grattan, and was written, I think, in 1840:--
"I cannot avoid squeezing in a few words more just as the ship is on the point of sailing or steaming away for England ... "The President"
has been a fatal t.i.tle this spring. Poor Harrison, a good and honest man, died in a month after he was elected, and this fine ship, about which we have been at this side of the Atlantic so painfully excited ever since March, is, I fear, gone down with its gallant captain (Roberts, with whom we crossed the Atlantic in the _British Queen_) and poor Power, whom the public cannot afford to lose.
"Since I wrote my letter three days ago--pardon the boldly original topic--the weather has mended considerably. Tell Tom that every tree is also striving to turn over a new leaf, and it is well for you that I have not another to turn too. G.o.d bless you.