Literary Life of the Rev. William Harness
Mary Russell Mitford to William Harness, 4 April 1837
“Three Mile Cross,
“April 4, 1837.
“I have only one moment in which to offer a peti-![]()
| 240 | DEDICATION TO MR. HARNESS. | |
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tion to you. I have a little trumpery
volume called ‘Country
Stories,’ about to be published by Saunders and Otley. Will you
permit me to give these Tales some little value in my own eyes by inscribing them (of
course in a few true and simple words) to you, my old and most kind friend? I would not
dedicate a play to you, for fear of causing you injury in your profession; but I do not
think that this slight testimony of a very sincere affection could do you harm in that
way; for even those who do not allow novels in their house, sanction my little books.
“Ever affectionately yours,
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.
Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855)
English poet, playwright, and essayist; author of
Our Village: Sketches
of Rural Character and Scenery (1824, etc.).
Edward John Otley (1798-1857)
In partnership with Simon Saunders he purchased Henry Colburn's Conduit Street
circulating library in 1824, afterwards becoming publishers.
Simon Saunders (1783-1861)
In partnership with Edward John Otley he purchased Henry Colburn's Conduit Street
circulating library in 1824, afterwards becoming publishers of novels and the
Metropolitan Magazine.
