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 bodyeverybody 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 neighbourhoodneighborhood was of your opinion.--The next important event was our election--Has your neighbourneighbor
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 wrightmillwright 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 tĂȘtes 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 honourablehonorable 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 neighbourhoodneighborhood 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 organiseorganize 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 cantcan't--you cannot write so dully if you would--though you may certainly chusechoose 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-speltmisspelt it--& yet a lover of Smollett ought to be able to spell the name sakenamesake 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-bubhubbub--have you been reading any thinganything 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 thingeverything
that is good pleased me particularly--If you read
Glenfergus tell me if you were not charmed with
Aunt Rachel
(I think thatsthat's her name--but really an election puts every thingeverything out of one's head)--She would have done
honourhonor 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
goodsizedgood-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
labourlabor & 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 thingeverything not distinguished by inverted commas.
That is a beautiful Chapter of the four lambs--I am so much interested in them--particularly 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 bodyeverybody 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 Chatterchitter-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'syours
Mary Russell Mitford.