Literary Life of the Rev. William Harness
William Harness to A. G. K. L'Estrange, 2 November 1866
“The Deanery, Battle, Sussex.
“Nov. 2, 1866.
“Your letter I found here, after my sojourn with my old
friends at my first curacy in Hampshire: and I write, almost at the first pause I have
had since my arrival at Crake’s, to tell
you how ![]()
| 276 | MISS MITFORD'S LETTERS. | |
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much obliged I am for your
thinking of me and sending me the Shakespeare
photograph. It is from the Chandos picture, which the late Lord
Ellesmere purchased at the sale of the late Duke of Buckingham’s effects at Stowe, and of which a print is
hanging up opposite my drawing-room door in town. You would not imagine the photo as a
copy from the same original, because it is so much darker.
“The letters improve as I get on. Even those to Sir W Elford get easier and better, as she became less
upon punctilio and more familiar with him; in fact, as—with all her asserted
deference—she felt herself more and more his superior in intellect and
information. When we meet in town we will get on swimmingly, as I have no longer any
sermons to prepare: I have given up preaching altogether. The first thing to be done is
to arrange in chronological order all the letters to Mrs.
Browning, that they may come into their fitting places; for I find, to my
surprise, that Miss Mitford was acquainted with
Miss Barrett as early as 1814.
“I shall stay here, in all probability, till the end of the
month, and then go home, light my fire, and pack myself up in my study for the rest of
the year, and till the end of Winter.
“I’ll tell Dyce to
send his Shakespeare to the ![]()
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Museum at Stratford; but it is not yet finished.* There is one
volume (if not a second) yet to come. With best regards,
“Believe me to be,
“Yours ever affectionately,
“Have you heard that they expect Fenian disturbances in
Ireland? I hope it is not true.”
Elizabeth Browning [née Barrett] (1806-1861)
English poet, author of
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) and
Aurora Leigh (1856); she married Robert Browning in 1846.
Edward Neville Crake (1827 c.-1909)
The son of William Crake of London; educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was Dean
of Battle in Sussex (1863-82).
Alexander Dyce (1798-1869)
Editor and antiquary, educated at Edinburgh High School and Exeter College, Oxford; he
published
Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers
(1856).
Francis Egerton, first earl of Ellesmere (1800-1857)
Poet, statesman, and Tory MP; a younger son the second marquess of Stafford, he was
educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, was chief secretary for Ireland (1828-30), and
translated Goethe and Schiller and contributed articles to the
Quarterly
Review.
Sir William Elford, baronet (1749-1837)
MP for Plymouth (1796-1806); he was a painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy and a
correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford.
William Harness (1790-1869)
A Harrow friend and early correspondent of Byron. He later answered the poet in
The Wrath of Cain (1822) and published an edition of Shakespeare
(1825) and other literary projects. Harness was a longtime friend of Mary Russell
Mitford.
Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange (1832-1915)
Miscellaneous writer and biographer of Mary Russell Mitford. He took his degrees from
Exeter College, Oxford and was curate to William Harness at All Saints', Knightsbridge. He
died unmarried, having restored the family castle at Conna.
Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855)
English poet, playwright, and essayist; author of
Our Village: Sketches
of Rural Character and Scenery (1824, etc.).
