New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-12

OF the miscellaneous drudgery If Miss Milford al
this time the bIographer gives no accounts pnt iro"
her known fondness for and knowledge OF country
life 1T s safe TO say that this not neglected ny
her, particularly as she found il easy work ono
must have written upon rural themes from inc
beginning for il was not long before she had enonGh
matter of this nature for a volume, when was
brought out in the Spring of 1921 under the ''is VI
"Our Village" Her next work mot counting hoi
contributions TO the magazines, with whose eu.'o''
she was greatly IN demand) was two uaecuies
"Rienzi" written for Drury Lane, and "Charies INC
First written for COvent Garden. Inc lasV was
declared not licensable by the Lord chamberlain
and was for time a loss 10 her Not discouraged
for what could discourage this lucky littie WOMAN
she wrote a third play. "Gaston," which was duly
dispatched to Kembe. In the mean time. foscari
had been produced with success. Her agreement
with the tbeater was for f100 on the
third. ninth. fifteenth and twentieth nights !;
INIT 10 we are not told how many
niphts IL ran. we know not what il netted her For
the copyrirht and volume of Dramatic Sketches
she received ESQ. Her gains must have been con-
siderable in any event but they were not sufficient
TO buoy ND her spirits The terrible improvidonce
of one dear parent-the failure of memory and de-
cav of faculty in that other who is still dearer cast
on me weight of care and of fear L can hardly
stand up against" little later she writes that she
has begun novel. wish me success! IL Is ire
mendous undertaking, for | write with extreme
slowness labor, and difficulty and. whatever you
nav think there is great difference of facility In
different minds ! am the slowest writer, l suppose
in England. and tonch and retouch perpetually.'
Nothing" says Miss Milford, in of her letters
10 Miss Barrett IN 1871. nothing seems to me SO
melancholy rs the lives OF AUTHORSHIP Walter Scott
Mrs Hemans, and this of Miss Landon" Aud in an
earlier letter to another correspondent she refers TO
the career of Scott and wonders that one stretched
out hand TO save him. But all literary people die
overwrought; it is the destiny of the class"
Though the biographies of English writer's DO not
warrant so sweeping assertion this, it was pain
fully true of Miss Milford herself who not only died.
but lived overweight. from the day when she hrst
took up her pen to maintain her parents, to the last
day of her life What her life had been up 10 this
time Qs2j) we have described at some length; what
il was for the next fifteen twenty years wo shall
indicate as briefly as possible 1t was crowded with
brain-work which was good or bad, as circumstances
were favorable or adverse. The popularity of 0ur
villas2, Led e ss:?9nd vO,amc, the copyright of
WHICH Vas sold for one hundred and fifty pounds
and later to a third volume, which brought her the
same sum- The tragedy of Rienzi,' before men
toned was successfully produced. and, we pre-
snme Maid her well: a large edition of it
was sold in three days. Dr. Milford dd
not take kindly 10 the reputation which
her dramatic writings brought his daughter and
was positively rude to the theatrical people with
whom II was necessary that she should come in con
tact. "IIe hates and despises them,' she wrote,
and all their professors-loOks them with hatred
and scorn and is constantly taunting mo with my
friends and my people las he calls them), re-
preaching i'll hold the slightest intercourse with
author, editor artist, or actor, and treating with
frank contempt every one not OF certain station IN
the county. am entirely convinced that he would
consider Sir Thomas Lawrence, SrWal:cr Scott. aud
Mrs Siddons as his interiors IL was wonderful
how Miss Milford bore mp under all this, and still
more wonderful that her mother lived on as she did
a ruined. broken-down old woman. She died at
last OH the "a Of January. $50 in her cighty-irst
wear and her daughter had one cause of anxiety
less 1t left her leisure however, since her mprov-
dent father had still to be maintained of old She
added fourth Volume to "Our Village" which
brought her in another hundred and fifty pounds.
and she continued to work upon the tragedy OF
- Otto" which she had begun some time before.
Her health which had never troubled her before,
began to give way her chief ailment being a cough,
which, whilst it pacites the nights, stupeiies the
days" In 1852 she published the fifth and last vol
ume of Our Village which probably brought her
as much as the earlier volumes. At any rate, she
earned great deal of money for in of her letters
to her father. who was in London-probably playing
whist at his Club-she told him what her resources
were; as eighteen guneas due in one place; twelve
more soon to he due IN another; and ten from
Alaric Watts-and ten from Elder and Smith-and
five from Ackemann"-lfty-iive guineas in all.
" viii this and the dividend last MS past Christmas,
if the opera do not come odt - Whether the money III
question lasted till Christmas may be doubted, sncea
week or two before il came she wrote in desp0nd-
inc spirit about her incessant drudgery. and her
wretched father IF should have the misfortune TO
lose him. ! shall go quietly to the workhouse, and
never write another linea far preferable destiny"
The alusiOn TO the dividend of the money III the
funds reminds that this money had long been
source OF annoyance to Dr. Milford, because he could
not lay hold of IT, and to his daughter for fear he
might somehow do 90. 4 year later-on Christmas
Eve. 1Ss}-sbe addressed her trustee the Rev. VIM.
Harness, AS follows: My Dear Friend: ] write i'll
great haste, Just to caution you. in case you should
receive any authority, OF pretended authority from
any quarter to sell out money in the funds not
to do 80 without communicating with me. have no
doubt of my fathers integrity but think him likely
TO be imposed upon" Or TO impose upon, she might
have added.
The next year the play of Charles the First"
which the Lord Chamberlain had refused to license
was represented at the Victoria Theater (which
being on the Surrey side OF the Thames was beyond
the jurisdiction of the noble censor where it made
a hit and made her some money,-probably two or
three hundred pounds. The next year she brought
out the opera of "Sadak and Kalascadc," at the
Lyceum Theater,--it IS to be presumed with some
profit to herself She through the press an Illus
trated edition OF Our Village" Of which the first
volume had passed through thirteen editions, and
published the novel of " Belford Regis" which was
successful, if we may Judge from her letters. She