SD1171. Mary Russell Mitford to Henrietta Harrison
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 383 (in part).
[Three Mile Cross]
March 12th, 1842
As you do not say where I had better direct the parcel, dearest Miss Harrison, I shall desire it to be left at the post-office, it will be sent to-morrow (Saturday), and I only trust that the seeds may do credit to our poor garden. How I wish they were as pretty as love and gratitude could make them; and then they might say in their own lovely language: “How very very much we feel your great kindness.”
Heaven bless you all! I am going to-morrow (by a strange coincidence) to Lady Madalina Palmer’s, whose husband is related to Mrs. Gisborne, and who once brought her to our poor cottage. I shall take the admirable letter, which I have read over twice to-night to my father, to East Court, and leave it with Lady Madalina for a day or two, in case she should not have seen it, and if she have, I shall send it to Miss Barrett, who will enclose it back to you. [1]
It is really a privilege to read such a production, more like “Junius” in point, and sarcasm, and triumphant reasoning than any pamphlet that I have read this many a day. I thank you heartily for your kindness in trusting me with it, and shall double the gratification by enclosing it to my sick friend. I am sure that you may depend upon her for returning the treasure. I shall send, besides the “Memoirs of Margaret Davidson,” the “Life of a Huguenot,” and “A New Home, Who’ll Follow?” [2] which gives, I believe, the best view of life in the far West—and Mr. Kenyon’s two volumes, which, although nominally published, were, I believe, given away within the first few weeks of their being printed. Take your own time, my dear young friend, for returning them. There is not the slightest hurry. How very beautiful the epitaph in question is? May I ask for a copy of the lines which it suggested? I confess that my motive, one of my motives, is to send it to dear Miss Barrett, who already knows you by name and character, and would be so sure to love yourself. She has stood this winter in London bravely, gaining rather than losing strength, so that we begin to hope for improved health, for a change of room at least (she already walks from the bed to the sofa), and, perhaps, for even more. I trust that the approaching season may work still brighter changes in your sister and dear Mrs. Harrison, and that your father and yourself may continue happy and well.
Text: Chorley, I, 288–290.
1. Miss Mitford alludes here to one of the many able pamphlets and letters on the politics of his time, which were published by the late Thomas Gisborne, Esq., M.P., during the twenty-five years he was a member of the House of Commons. A third edition of his admirable “Essays on Agriculture,” which first appeared in the “Quarterly Review,” was published, after his death, by Mr. Murray of Albermarle Street, in 1854.
2. By Mary Clavers—Mrs. Kirkland.—C.
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