in 



MITFOIin, MART RUSSELL. 



M1TFOUD WILLIAM. 



outs. He had a short time previously published bis ' Map of the 

 Colony of New South Wales, compiled from actual Measurements 

 with the Chain and Orcumforrnter, and according to a Trigonometrical 

 Bevrey. in Three Sheets.' Msjor Mitchell came to England for the 

 Mnoae of superintending these publications, and, before his return, 

 received, in 1839, the honour of knighthood from the queen, and the 

 title of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. He was also elected 

 Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Geographical Society. 



Sir Thomas Mitchell's fourth and hut expedition waa commenced 

 in December 1845, and terminated in December 1840. His account 

 of it wss published in 184 8, under the title of a ' Journal of an Expe- 

 dition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, in Search of a Itoute 

 bom Sydney to the Gulf of Cari-entaria, by Lieut-Colonel Sir T. L. 

 Mitchell,' STO, London, illustrated with lithographic engravings and 

 maps. This expedition did not reach the Quit of Carpentaria, baring 

 been compelled to return in consequence of the loss of the cattle and 

 Lunsi from drought and want of pasturage ; but advanced as far as 

 31' SO* SL lat Sir Thomas Mitchell himself was the first to discover 

 the important river which he named the Victoria, and raw it taking 

 a north-western course, in a direction towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

 Mr. Kennedy however, Sir T. Mitchell's assistant-surveyor, in a subse- 

 quent journey in 1847, found that the river mokes a great bend to 

 the south-west, and he traced its course in that direction as far as 

 86* 14' S. lat. The channels were iu many places quite dry, and he 

 was compelled to return from want of water and pasturage for his 

 horses. In 1860 Sir Thomas Mitchell published an admirable manual 

 of geography for the schools of New South Wales, entitled ' Australian 

 Geography, with the Shore* of the Pacific and those of the Indian 

 Ocean, designed for the Use of Schools in New South Wales,' 12mo, 

 Sydney. In 185S he again visited England. Having invented a new 

 propeller for steam-vessels on the principle of the curious instrument 

 used by the natives of Australia, be delivered a lecture on the subject 

 which excited much interest. It was published under the title of 

 'Origin, History, and Description of the Boomerang Propeller, a 

 Lecture delivered at the United Service Institution,' 8vo, London. 



Sir Thomas Mitchell wss advanced to the rank of colonel in 1854. 

 He died Octobers, 1865, at his residence near Sydney, and his remains 

 received the honour of a public funeral. 



MITFOItL), MAKY HUaSELL. one of the most delightful of our 

 female authors, was bom on the 16th of December 17(56, at Alresford, 

 Hampshire. Hrr father was a physician, and a man of very consider- 

 able attainments and ability, but of unthrifty and somewhat eccentric 

 habit*, and consequently unsuccessful alike in his professional pursuits 

 and in his pecuniary ffirs. By his general want of management and 

 injudicious speculations he wasted his wife's property as well as his 

 own, and when a characteristic present made when his own fortunes 

 were at the lowest ebb to his daughter on her tenth birthday, of a 

 ticket iu the Dublin lottery, turned up a prize of '20,0001., that too 

 was as thoroughly, though somewhat more slowly, dissipated as his 

 previous wealth had been. Yet he was a man of the kindliest and 

 most cheerful, a* well a* sanguine temper, and Mary Mitford, his 

 only child, without a murmur dedicated her life to the pro- 

 motion of his comfort and happiness, and almost before arriving at 

 womanhood devoted herself to literature as a means of ekeiug out his 

 diminished income. 



At ten Tears of age she was sent to a boarding-school at Chelsea ; 

 and in addition placed under the special guidance of a goverm s, who, 

 a* Mis* Mitford mentions in the introduction to her dramatic works, 

 was not only hrr-clf addicted to Terse-writing, but seemed to have 

 the faculty of making her pupils write verses also ; and among her 

 pupils >h< at different times numbered, beaides Mis* Mitford, Miss 

 Landon (L. K. L.), Fanny Kemble, and Lady Caroline Lamb. Mian 

 Mitford took the poetic fit strongly; and before she was twenty she 

 had published three volumes of poetry, one of which was a romance 

 in Terse after the manner of Sir Walter Scott They were not of 

 much worth, but they met with rougher treatment at the hands of 

 the ' guarteriy,' than their juvenile demerits justified. But though 

 pained she was not disheartened, and she profited by the somewhat 

 rough leieon. Another volume of verse' Watlington Hill; a 

 Pees*,' we* published in 1812. She had by this time deliberately 

 adopted literature a* a profession, and was busy in writing short teles 

 and sketch'* for the magaiine*. 8b bad acquired facility and con- 

 dene* by these exercise*, when the early celebrity probably of the 

 Bketoh Book of Oeoflry Crayon,' turned her thoughts to the writing 

 of some descriptive sketebw of English rural c-n.ry and rustic life. 

 A flsiesirt little village on the border* of Berkshire and Hampshire 

 Three Mile Cross, near Iteadiog had long been her residence; 

 every lane and field, and almost every nook and corner of it, every 

 boos*) and cottage, and almost every jienoo in them was familiar to 

 her; and it occurred to her that faithful delineations of the country 

 Binary and country manner* as they existed in that small southern 

 village would not be unwelcome to the world of reader*. 



But ah* met in UM first instance with serious discouragement 

 Thomas Campbell was then editor of the ' New Monthly Magazine,' 

 and the earlier essays of what ultimately form-d '(n.r Village* were 

 oOsred to him, but peremptorily rejected. They were beneath the 

 dignity of hie feagaxiur. Alt r other rebuffs they were fain to take 

 shelter hi the ' Lady's M<t : srine.' There their fre- 1, .ess, geuiality, and 



faithfulness were recognised, and Miss .Mitford, nothing loth, wss called 

 upon to publish them in a collected form. By the general public ' ( >ur 

 Village ' was warmly welcomed, and each series bos been several times 

 reprinted. They have found many imitators too, but hitherto no 

 rivals. She wrote in the Preface when they were first collected : 

 " Her descriptions have always been written on the spot and at the 

 moment, and in nearly every instance with the closest and most reso- 

 lute fidelity to the place and the people. If ihe be accused of having 

 given a brighter aspect to her villagers than is usually met with in 

 books, she cannot help it, and would not if she could. She bat painted, 

 as they appeared to her, their little frailties and their many virtues, 

 under an intense and thankful conviction, that in every condition of 

 life goodness and happiness may be found by those who seek them, 

 and never more surely than iu the fresh air, the shade and the 

 sunshine of nature." This is a fair account of them, nnd fairly repre- 

 sents, moreover, the genial and hearty spirit of their authoress. ' < >nr 

 Village ' is in all respects a work that more than almost any other 

 represents in literature that phase of English taste and feeling, which 

 is BO characteristically exhibited in our best water-colour landscapes 

 and scenes of country life so redolent of the open air and sunshine. 

 ' Our Village ' altogether extended in it* original collected form to fire 

 volumes, or series, tue last of which was published in 1832. Of some 

 of the sketches in the last volume or volumes it must however be 

 admitted that there is a little want of the primal freshness, and in 

 them, and in some of her later essays, there is too much yielding to 

 the besetting sin of those who depict character the tendency to exag- 

 geration or caricature. ' Belford Kegis ; or Sketches of a Country 

 Town,' in which the neighbouring town of Heading, instead uf the 

 pretty country hamlet, supplied the materials, was h r most important 

 subsequent work iu a similar style. Her later sketches and essays 

 furnished to various periodicals have not we believe been collected. 

 Among her other works may be mentioned her ' Stories of Country 

 Life.' She also for some years edited Fiudeu's ' Tableaux ;' and threo 

 volumes of ' Stories of American Life by American Authors.' 



Whilst at the Chelsea school Miss Mitford'g dramatic tastes hod 

 been as carefully nurtured as her poetic tastes. The consequence was 

 that in early life her most ardent aspirations as an authoress were 

 directed towards the stage. She wrote altogether a large number of 

 dramatic pieces of various kinds. Four of these were works of con- 

 siderable importance. The first, ' Julian,' was performed iu 1823, with 

 Macready for the hero, and met with decided success. The ' Foscari ' 

 appeared with equal good fortune iu 1826 ; and ' Hienzi,' whicli bad n 

 run, in 1828. 'Charles the First' was not so fortunate as its pre- 

 decessors ; Colman then liceucer of plays, having refused to a 

 its performance on the ground of the impropriety and danger of per- 

 mitting the trial uf on English king to b- represented on "the stage. 

 Driven from the legitimate houses, Charles I. was at length brought 

 out at a minor theatre, the Coburg, and it has not apparently 

 repeated elsewhere. Besides these an opera, ' Sadak and Ivalosrade,' 

 written by her, was produced at the Lyceum, but was unsuccessful. 

 One of .Miss Mitlord'it lust literary appearances was in an edition of 

 her 'Dramatic Works' (2 vols. Svo, 1*5-1), which, besides the 

 above named, included n tragedy printed for the first time ' Otto 

 of Wittelsbttch;' 'Iiuz di Castro,' another five-act piece, twico 

 rehearsed for performance, and twice withdrawn ; a melodrama, 

 ' Gastou de Bloudeville ; ' and several ' Dramatic Scenes.' 



In looking at Miss Mitford's works, it thould be borne iu mind that, 

 though they seem almost invariably the reflex of a mind full of happy 

 images, and surrounded by pleasant circumstances, they were often 

 really written under the pressure uf pecuniary discomfort and during 

 much ill-health. As long as her father lived her attention to him was 

 unremitted, and her own health suffered from her filial devotion : 

 shortly after his death it gave way entirely. Yet she lived and 

 laboured on iu her pretty lierkshiro cottage, beloved by every friend, 

 and cheered often by finding that her books had made her friends 

 innumerable. About three years before her death she was hurt by 

 the accidental overturning of her pony-chaise, and thenceforth she 

 was pretty much confined to her house ; but through her prolonged 

 and hopeless suffering, she retained her wonted cheerfulness, and even 

 her old industry was continued. IJesides revising the work on which 

 her fame is chiefly founded 'Our Village' for a new edition, which 

 appeared iu 1852, she compiled a sort of literary patch-work, ' II- col- 

 lections of My Literary Life; or books, Places, and People," which 

 is iu fact a sort of gossiping commentary on the " book*, jilact H, 

 ami people " that had, she fancied, most influenced her mental career, 

 with a somewhat large addition of extracts from her favourite authors. 

 She also prepared the collected edition of her ' Dramatic Works,' 

 already noticed to which works she prefixed various autobiographic 

 introductions; and in 1864 she publilu<l ' Atln-rtou; a novel,' in 

 3 vols. She died at her residence, Swallu wiiclil Cottage, near Heading, 

 on the 10th of January 1855. 



MITFOIll), WILLIAM, the eldest son of John Mitford, Esq., of 

 Ex bury iu Hampshire, was born in London on the 10th of February 

 1744. In bis boyhood he spent some time at the school kept at 

 (. beam in Sumy by the well-known Mr. Oilpin, who afterwards owed 

 to him the living of lloldra. [Qii.rm, Utv. WILLIAM.] Ill-health 

 caused his removal from school about, the age of fifteen ; and it sceuis 

 to have beau with very insufficient preparation that he became a 



