Mary Russell Mitford

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Standard Name: Mitford, Mary Russell
Birth Name: Mary Russell Mitford
MRM , poet, playwright, editor, letter-writer, memoirist, and—in just one work—novelist, is best known for her sketches of rural life, especially those in the successive volumes of Our Village (whose first appeared in 1824). Her greatest success came when, under the pressure of her father's inexhaustible capacity for running up debt, she turned from the respected genres of poetry and plays to work at something more popular and remunerative.
Painting of Mary Russell Mitford by John Lucas, c. 1853, based on another by Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1824, which was disliked for its assertive look. Here an oval frame is painted in; Mitford wears a white ruffled cap around her face, a white collar pinned with a cameo, a grey gown and brown shawl.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett was introduced to Mary Russell Mitford , who became a lifelong friend, by her cousin John Kenyon ; she met Wordsworth the following day.
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography. Grafton.
80-2
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings’ Correspondence. Editors Kelley, Philip et al., Wedgestone Press.
3: 320
Friends, Associates Frances Trollope
It took several years for the Trollopes' financial difficulties to turn into a financial catastrophe, and during those years, FT entertained many friends and acquaintances, including Lady Milman , whose husband had been Queen Charlotte
Friends, Associates Catherine Gore
CG was acquainted with a number of important literary figures. Before leaving London for the Continent she attended an assembly given by Rosina Bulwer-Lytton to which Disraeli , Lady Morgan , and Letitia Landon also...
Friends, Associates Amelia Opie
In 1813 she again met de Staël (who was visiting London) and introduced her to Elizabeth Inchbald . Others she met after her husband's death included Richard Brinsley Sheridan , Byron , and Sir Walter Scott
Friends, Associates Maria Jane Jewsbury
Although they had been corresponding by letter for some time, this holiday was the first time the two writers met in person. MJJ was soon accepted into Hemans ' social circle and become friends with...
Friends, Associates Caroline Clive
CC remained a close friend of her early passion Catherine Gore .
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
She was also acquainted with Mary Russell Mitford , whom she described as priggy,
Clive, Caroline. Caroline Clive. Editor Clive, Mary, Bodley Head.
266
Elizabeth Barrett Browning ,
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
and Harriet Martineau
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Montagu
The term bluestocking very quickly came to imply dismissiveness, if not actual disapproval and contempt. The first to use it pejoratively may well have been, as Gary Kelly has suggested, those who felt threatened or...
Friends, Associates Fanny Kemble
Mary Russell Mitford was another who knew FK well even apart from their connection through the theatre.
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
2: 119-20
Other friends from this period or soon afterwards included the future poet and novelist Caroline Norton
Friends, Associates Felicia Hemans
FH introduced herself to Mary Russell Mitford through a letter praising Our Village for the sense of communion
Hughes, Harriet Browne Owen, and Felicia Hemans. “Memoir of Mrs. Hemans”. The Works of Mrs. Hemans, W. Blackwood, pp. 1-315.
123
with its author that she felt in reading it.
Hughes, Harriet Browne Owen, and Felicia Hemans. “Memoir of Mrs. Hemans”. The Works of Mrs. Hemans, W. Blackwood, pp. 1-315.
122-4
Family and Intimate relationships Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Respectable women had always shunned Blessington on account of her past; now her present too was publicly unacceptable. Her sister Ellen, now well married, dropped her.
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington,. “Introduction”. Conversations of Lord Byron, edited by Ernest J. Lovell, Princeton University Press, pp. 3-114.
80
Camilla Crosland later recalled how as an unmarried...
Family and Intimate relationships Mary Ann Browne
Mary Ann Browne married (after some delay and difficulty, according to Mary Russell Mitford ) James Gray .
Archives of the Royal Literary Fund, 1790-1918.
Family and Intimate relationships Selina Davenport
He was in his early twenties, just embarking on a literary career which began with writing poetry (melancholy in tone) and editing and criticising the poetry of others. He enjoyed the patronage of Edmund Burke
Family and Intimate relationships Eleanor Anne Porden
Although EAP was not beautiful—indeed, Mary Russell Mitford (no beauty herself) remarked on her ugliness—
L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, editor. The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as Recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents. Hurst and Blackett.
1: 121
she was courted by many men. She turned down all proposals of marriage on the grounds that she...
Family and Intimate relationships Caroline Norton
Under Victorian law she was not allowed to participate in the trial. Both her reputation and Melbourne's political career were at stake. In the event the jury found Melbourne innocent without calling one witness for...
Family and Intimate relationships Eliza Cook
After moving into the home of Weekly Dispatch editor James Harmer , she became involved in a scandal (large enough to have been known to Elizabeth Barrett Browning , who wrote of it to Mary Russell Mitford

Timeline

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Texts

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