ENGLISH POETRY, 1750-1855

Part 1: Recollections, Conversations and Commonplace Books of the Reverend John Mitford (1781-1859) from the British Library, London

Publisher's Note

This is an incredibly rich resource for literary scholars. This series of seventeen original manuscript commonplace books totally immerse the reader in the highs and lows of late 18th and early 19th century literary culture. They provide access to contemporary politics (with extracts from, and copies of, pamphlets), items from newspapers, poetry, copies of letters, anecdotes, sayings and biographical details. There is material covering Art, Literature, the Theatre, polite conversation, wit and society gossip.

The commonplace books were the creation of the Reverend John Mitford (1781-1859), an indefatigable writer, collator and editor, with a passion for poetry, painting and landscape gardening. He was like one of those remarkable clergymen that one finds peopling the novels of Trollope and Oliphant, in that he used the time and comfort that his clerical position afforded him to pursue his own intellectual passions. He became a central figure in London literary society, was the Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine from 1834 to 1850, and was one of the principal editors of the Aldine Poetry series.

John Mitford was born to a well-to-do family in Richmond, Surrey. His father was a Commander in the East India Company’s China Trade. He was descended from the Mitford’s of Mitford Castle, Northumberland, and closely related to William Mitford, the historian of Greece.

He went to school at Richmond and then at Tunbridge Grammar School under the tutelage of Vicesimus Knox (1752-1821), the essayist and compiler of Elegant Extracts. Mitford was also tutored privately in Winchester by the Rev. John Baynes of Exton. In 1801 he went up to Oriel College, Oxford and developed a close friendship with Reginald Heber (1783-1826), poet and author of hymns such as Holy, Holy, Holy, who later became Bishop of Calcutta. The two friends contested the English verse prize, which Heber won with his Palestine. Mitford graduated in 1804 and in 1809 was ordained into the Church of England. He was soon after admitted to orders, and – through the intervention of his relative, Lord Redesdale – was presented to the vicarage of Benhall, Suffolk. He was afterwards appointed to the livings of Weston St Peters and Stratford St Andrew, both in Suffolk.

Mitford loved Benhall, which served as his country lodging. He built a charming parsonage and lavished particular care on the garden, which he planted with “a great variety of ornamental and foreign trees.” He assembled collections of Greek coins and cameos and excelled at village cricket. He also built up a renowned library of English poetry, which he drew upon in his subsequent writing.

Mitford rented a house in fashionable Sloane Street in London, granting him access to London literary society. Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), poet and noted raconteur, became a life-long friend and introduced him to a circle including Lamb, Wordsworth and Byron. Mitford's hospitality and table-talk were much admired and Mrs Houston commented on his “brilliant conversation, totally unmoved by any desire to shine.” Further guests at his soirées included Wellington, George Canning, Coleridge, Robert Southey, Crabb Robinson, Sydney Smith, Richard Porson, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Hannah More, and Lord John Russell. In addition to discussing the issues of the day, Mitford used these occasions to glean recollections of past writers and artists.

Mitford also travelled extensively throughout England from the Home Counties to the Lakes indulging his passion for landscape and the picturesque. He was a welcome guest at many famous houses from Castle Howard to Apsley House and recorded the paintings that he most admired. He was an enthusiastic advocate of Italian painting, medieval arts and Gothic architecture.

The publication of Mitford’s own poetry began in 1811 with Agnes, the Indian Captive. His editorial work began with the first accurate edition of The Poems of Thomas Gray (1814) and this was augmented with many unpublished letters and other materials to form his two volume edition of The Works of Thomas Gray (1816).

William Pickering (1796-1854) became another close friend. Pickering established his business in 1820 at the age of 24 and shared with Mitford a love of biography, poetry and painting. He launched The Bijou: Annual of Literature and the Arts in 1828 and this ran for three years, featuring contributions by Lamb, Hood, Southey, L.E.L., and Mitford. He also employed Mitford as an Editor for a number of the handsomely produced Aldine editions of English poets including those for Cowper (1830), Goldsmith (1831), Milton (1832), Dryden (1833), Swift (1834), Parnell (1833), Young (1834), Prior (1835), Butler (1835), Falconer (1836) and Spenser (1839). During the 1830s Mitford contributed many articles to the Gentleman's Magazine and the Quarterly Review, through which he came into acquaintance with J G Lockhart. When Pickering purchased a share in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1833, he appointed Mitford as the Editor and he served in that capacity from 1834 to 1850, regularly contributing poems (as ‘J.M.’) and writing a famous series of essays on English poetry.

In 1851 he edited an eight volume edition of The Works of Milton in Verse and Prose, as well as the correspondence of Horace Walpole and William Mason.

Mitford's commonplace books are a model of their kind and are a mine of information on all of the topics that interested him. They capture original poems, extracts from works and letters now lost, transcribed table-talk and recollections of discussions. All seventeen volumes, now held at the British Library, are reproduced in their entirety.

Literary figures covered range from Dryden and Pope, through Walpole and Gray, to Ruskin and John Forster. There is extensive coverage of his conversations with Samuel Rogers and Crabb Robinson and there are lengthy extracts from the correspondence of Horace Walpole, Thomas Gray, Jonathan Toup and William Mason.

Some of the topics covered are the poetry of Samuel Daniel, Pitt's popularity, Linnaen botanical theory, the Junius controversy, books in Mr Penn's library, Shakespeare's plays, Xenophon, Burke, radical politics, Reynold's theories of colour in painting, the portraits of Sir Thomas Lawrence, drama in the age of Sheridan and Kemble, the original Mrs Malaprop, and life in the courts of Europe. There are original manuscripts in the hands of Gray and Walpole.

The commonplace books are important sources for anecdotes and information concerning:

- Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
- Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
- William Mason (1725-1797)
- Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)
- Hannah More (1745-1833)
- Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806)
- Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
- William Beckford (1760-1844)
- Robert Southey (1774-1843)

Stray entries from these books have found their way into print (such as 'Conversations with the Duke of Wellington' in Temple Bar in 1888) but this is the first time that the whole of the commonplace books have been made available. They will be welcomed by scholars working on individual literary and artistic figures or on general topics such as eighteenth century taste, the classical revival, the sublime, the picturesque and late eighteenth and early nineteenth century culture and society.

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