with rheumatism. In 1852 she published 'Recollections of a Literary Life, or Books Places, and People,' three volumes of delightful gossip, much of it autobiographical. Other editions came out in 1853, 1857, and 1859 Her last production, 'Atherton, and other Tales,' published in 1854, won high praise from Mr. Ruskin. Her death, hastened by a carriage accident, took place at Swallowfield on 10 Jan. 1855. On the 18th she was buried in the village churchyard. A few months before her death Walter Savage Landor addressed to her some eloquent verses in praise of her 'pleasant tales.' Nor could, he concluded, any tell
The country's purer charms so well
As Mary Mitford.
In childhood Mr. Harness remarks the 'sedateness and gravity of her face;' Miss Sedgwick describes her in 1839 as 'truly a little body. … She has a pale gray soul-lit eye, and hair as white as snow;' Mr. Hablot Browne spoke of that wonderful wall of forehead;' and both Mr. Horne and Miss Gushman mention the wonderful animation of her face. Charles Kingsley asserts that 'the glitter and depth' of her eyes gave a Trench or rather Gallic ' character to her countenance. The best portrait of her was that painted by Lucas in 1852, now in the National Portrait Gallery. It was engraved by S. Freeman. There is a drawing in crayon also executed by Lucas in 1852. Haydon's portrait is exaggerated and unsatisfactory. Her figure appears in outline by D. Maclise in 'Fraser's Magazine,' May 1831, with a notice by Maginn.
Miss Mitford was an admirable talker; both Mrs. Browning and Mr. Home preferred her conversation to her books. Mr, Fields called her voice 'a beautiful chime of silver bells.' About her friends she was always enthusiastic, and to the last respected her father's memory. She was very widely read in English literature, and was catholic and unconventional in her literary judgment. Her familiarity with French writers is traceable in her clear English style. She was an inveterate letter writer, and corresponded with scores of persons whom she never met. Her letters, scribbled on innumerable small scraps of paper, are fully as attractive as her books. The most interesting are those written to Sir William Elford and Miss Barrett. But her correspondents also included Macready, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Trollope, Dyce, Charles Boner, Allan Cunningham, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Haydon, Douglas Jerrold, Mary Howitt, Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Jameson, and Barry Cornwall. Vexatious difficulties were placed by her servants, her residuary legatees, in the way of the publication of the letters, but they were finally overcome by Mr. L'Estrange, and her correspondence was issued in 1870.
In addition to the works already mentioned, Miss Mitford published:
- 'Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets, and other Poems,' 1827.
- 'Stories of American Life,' 1830.
- 'American Stories for Children,' 1832.
She contributed to Mrs. Johnstone's 'Edinburgh Tales,' the 'London Magazine,' the 'Reading Mercury,' Mr. S. C. Hall's 'Amulet,' a religious annual (1826-36), Mrs. S. C. Hall's 'Juvenile Forget-me-not,' and others. She edited 'Finden's Tableaux,' a fashionable annual, from 1838 to 1841, and a selection from Dumas for the young, 1846.
[Life of Mary Russell Mitford, ed. by the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange, 1870; Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford, ed. by same; Lit. Life of the Rev. William Harness, ed. by same; Letters of Mary Russell Mitford, 2nd ser. ed. H. Chorley; Chorley's Memorials of Mrs. Hemans, 1836; Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to R. H. Home; Chorley's Autob. 1873; Memoirsof Charles Boner, 1871; Chorley's Authors of Engl. 1861; S. C. Hall's Book of Memories, 1877; James Payn's Lit. Recollections, 1885, pp. 74-97]
MITFORD, WILLIAM (1744–1827), historian, born in London on 10 Feb. 1744, was the elder of the two sons of John Mitford, barrister-at-law, of Exbury House, Hampshire, by his wife Philadelphia, daughter of W. Reveley of Newton Underwood and Throphill, Northumberland. John Freeman-Mitford, baron Redesdale [q. v.], lord chancellor of Ireland, was the younger son. William Mitford was educated at Cheam school, Surrey, under William Gilpin [q.v.], whom he afterwards presented, in 1777, to the vicarage of Boldre in the New Forest (Nichols, Lit. Illustr. i. 778; on Mitford's supposed education at Westminster School, cf. Notes and Queries, 7th ser. vii. 278, and Welch, Alumni Westmonast, p. 548). He matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, 16 July 1761, but neglected the ordinary studies, and left without a degree. At Queen's, where he was distinguished by his good looks and his personal strength, he was of the same breakfast club as Jeremy Bentham, who ' thought his conversation commonplace ' (Bowring, Life of Bentham, p. 40 a). In the vacations, however, he read some Greek and attended Blackst one's Vinerian lectures at Oxford with a view to the bar. He became a student of the Middle Temple in 1763, but never practised. On his father's death in 1761 he succeeded to the property at Exbury. In 1802 he acquired the Reveley estates in Yorkshire,
